March 21, 1999 -- Diversification, regionalization keys to survival: Haskell wants a jail; Aspermont wants a drag racing track; and everybody wants more diverse industries for a West Texas economy that is too dependent on traditional staples of agriculture, oil and gas.
March 21, 1999 -- Setbacks can’t keep good towns down: COLEMAN — If Coleman County can find a way to bottle and sell its most abundant resource, its economic woes will be history.
March 21, 1999 -- Antique district flourishes, helps give community identity: John McClaran writes on the calendar the dollar amount he sells each day, as a quick record of how business at The Old Shoppe in Baird is doing.
March 21, 1999 -- Wildlife another answer to building economies: Wildlife may help tame the turbulent Big Country economy.
March 21, 1999 -- Area towns can diversify by courting value-adding businesses: Oil and gas and agriculture can no longer be the only industries the Big Country relies on.
March 22, 1999 -- School officials see consolidation as last recourse: KNOX COUNTY — Consolidation might as well be a four-letter word when Big Country schools consider how to remain afloat in a floundering economy.
March 22, 1999 -- Oil, education woes go hand in hand: Oil and gas have been the life blood of the Big Country. Blood that keeps pumping despite the blows the oil and gas industry have suffered.
March 22, 1999 -- Shrinking tax base hurting counties and schools: Low prices might look attractive at the gas pump to most, but to school and county officials who are contemplating their 1999 budgets, 90-cent gas looks as pretty as the face of a turkey buzzard.
March 22, 1999 -- Bandera employee has seen the good, bad in oil industry: When things are bad in the oil business, sometimes it’s better to stay put than to stray from the industry. It will eventually get better. At least that’s what Randy Scott thinks, and he’s been in the oil business for 20 years.
March 23, 1999 -- Prisons adding millions to area economy: For residents of Mitchell and Scurry counties, the biggest key to economic survival this decade has been a lock-up. More than any other rural areas in the Big Country, Colorado City and Snyder have profited handsomely from crime — and not of their own doing.
March 23, 1999 -- Haskell area trying to secure regional county jail: HASKELL — Creativity and the pioneering spirit are what officials hope will help this area thrive well into the next millennium.