City puts brakes on management contract

The Clarendon Board of Aldermen put a proposed city management contract on hold last week.

The city had been considering hiring the Panhandle Regional Planning Commission (PRPC) to provide administrative services to Clarendon. But after a closed session with city employees last Tuesday, the board voted not to make a commitment to PRPC at this time.

Instead the board will wait to see what happens with an application for a planning grant from the state.

Alderman Billy Jack Land said he was disappointed by the decision not to contract with the PRPC to provide a city administrator.

“I feel like until we get a person in charge, we’re not going to get what we want,” Land said. “It’s just like having a superintendent at the school or a president at the college. The right person can pay for themselves.”

Mayor Tex Selvidge and Alderman Smiley Johnson had drafted goals for PRPC to accomplish and presented them to the board last week. But Alderman Mac Stavenhagen said he wanted to hear from City Secretary Janice Barbee and City Superintendent Jim Roberts.

“We got input from Jim and Janice, and they were unfavorable to [the PRPC contract],” Land said.

Land said the grant from the Texas Community Development program could accomplish some of the same goals the city had in mind for a city administrator.

“We’ll just wait and see,” he said.

The grant, which the city applied for in August, would provide $40,000 for city planning and codification of city ordinances.

According to Barbee, planning under the grant would coordinate future waterworks and street projects and would help create a map of city water and sewer lines.

The grant would also pay for codification of ordinances – a process whereby ordinances are combed through to see if they are meeting the current needs of the city and make sure than none of the laws are contradictory.

“The ordinances are already indexed,” Barbee said, “but we need some upgrading.”

The City of Clarendon was incorporated in 1901 with the first city election taking place on September 24 of that year.  The first ordinance was passed on January 7, 1902, and it accepted and adopted the map of the township.

Nearly a century later, some ordinances are no longer valid, some have been amended, and some may be in conflict. Barbee said a codifying process would help clean all that up.

A decision on the grant is expected in January. If approved, the city would put up a match of $6,000.

In other city business, the aldermen agreed to notify the Texas Department of Transportation of the city’s interest in bidding on the old highway barn. Ionex Telecommunications, Inc., requested that the board review their service product. The board requested more information on this service.

The airport improvements were discussed, and a report of activities at the library was given.

Tommy Hill spoke to the board requesting the city pave Hawley Street from Fifth Street to Browning Blvd. Paving is currently on hold until warmer weather arrives next spring, and the city is following a plan for the paving. No action was taken on this request.