Archives for November 2000

By Joburta Helms

The community of Clarendon has been watching and waiting for the day this day to come.  And now it has arrived.  Saturday, November 11, 2000, will be the first day the Ministry Center will be opened to the community.

The vision of the Ministry Center grew from a need of more space to house the Clothes Closet into a place where many activities can be held to minister to our townspeople.

The First Baptist Church purchased the building in March.  Remodeling began with a grant given by the Amarillo Ministry Foundation. Many people of the community have donated building materials, furnishings and many hours of labor.

The Ministry Center hosted the community by serving the Depression Dinner on the 4th of July.  Even amidst the construction the community enjoyed friendly fellowship and feasted on beans and cornbread.   The Ministry Center also hosted a community wide Rummage Sale.

We would like to express our appreciation for the donated items. All the proceeds of these two events were used to purchase building materials for the center.

We would especially like to express our appreciation to Jim Shadle, Jason Web, and Larry Helms for the work done to texture and paint the walls.

The Ministry Center will house the Clothes Closet, an all ready established ministry of First Baptist Church.  Although the program began in First Baptist Church, the clothing truly comes from the community and is made available to members of our community as well as neighboring towns.  The clothing that is not readily used by our community is sent to another source for distribution.  Those who work in the Clothes Closet appreciate your support and donations.

You may begin bringing items to the Ministry Center on Saturdays and any evening you see someone in the center working.

As you enter the Ministry Center, you are welcomed into a meeting area furnished with couches and chairs.  This area is to be used for group meetings or Bible Studies.   We invite the community to use this facility.   The front windows will be used as a Community Bulletin Board, where announcements for community events may be posted.  

Future plans for the Ministry Center include a Food Pantry and special activities for children.  The greatest area of work is still in progress.  The back area of the building will be a large, all-purpose room.

Clarendon is blessed with many strong churches and people who want to reach out and help others.  The Ministry Center is available to be a place where these people can work together to meet the needs of our community.

The City of Clarendon took another step toward contracting with the Panhandle Regional Planning Commission for city administration services last week.

A committee composed of Mayor Tex Selvidge and Alderman Smiley Johnson will work with the (PRPC) to come up with a plan and schedule of completion for city improvements.

The formation of the committee follows a called session of the board last Monday, October 23, in which the aldermen held talks with PRPC representatives Gary Pitner, Jarrett Atkinson, and Colby Waters.

Atkinson said the commission has been offering city management services for about 1½ years. Bovina was the first city to contract with the PRPC, and they have found the service so useful they are now seeking a full time city manager, he said.

“We were initially hired in Bovina to develop personnel policies,” he said. “Now we’ve basically worked ourselves out of a job.”

Under the proposed agreement, the city would contract with the commission to have a PRPC employee serve as a part-time City Administrator for an estimated $32,539 per year. The Board of Aldermen would still set policy for the city and oversee the city administrator. The city administrator would oversee daily operations of the city including the areas of personnel and business and financial matters.

The administrator would be in Clarendon two days a week and would do a lot of work over the phone.

“Business still goes on when the [administrator] is not there,” Atkinson said.

The aldermen would also outline specific goals to be achieved by the administrator.

Colby Waters is the man most likely to serve that position. The Pampa native is currently serving Bovina and is familiar with Clarendon having gone to Greenbelt Lake many times growing up.

Waters said the city administrator position can take some of the work load off city employees and can benefit citizens also.

“This position gives the city one person to come to instead of going to all the [aldermen] individually,” Waters said.

Aldermen see several benefits to contracting with the PRPC. They say it gives the city the chance to see if an administrator is useful to Clarendon without getting involved in a hiring process or making a longterm commitment to someone. The contract is paid on a monthly basis, and the city can cancel the agreement at anytime.

“We just want to have the best for the people of Clarendon,” said Alderman Billy Jack Land.

Mayor Selvidge echoed Land’s comments and praised City Secretary Janice Barbee and City Superintendent Jim Roberts saying, “I don’t know what we would do without them.”

Aldermen Mac Stavenhagen agreed and said both Barbee and Roberts should be included in setting goals for the city administrator.

The money for an administrator is already in the current city budget.

In other city news, the board held its regular meeting on October 24. The 1999-2000 city audit was discussed, and the board voted to have Gordon Maddox conduct the audit. The aldermen also discussed the old TxDOT building and set up a time to look at the facility.

Turnout is looking good for the upcoming election as 374 people had cast early ballots through Monday, according to the Donley County Clerk’s Office.

Early voting will continue through this Friday, November 3, in the Courthouse Annex.

The General Election will be held next Tuesday, November 7, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Polling places are as follows: Box 101 – Bairfield Activity Center – Clarendon College, Box 102 – Howardwick City Hall, Box 103 – Martin Baptist Church Fellowship Hall, Box 201 – Clarendon Lions Club, Box 301 – Community Center – Rodeo Grounds, Box 302 – Paymaster Gin Office – Lelia Lake, Box 303 – Hedley Lions Club, Box 401 – Community Bank – Clarendon, Box 402 – Hess Home – Hwy. 273. Check your voter’s registration card to see which precinct box you vote in.

The clerk’s office will be posting results as they come in Tuesday night on tote boards located on the courthouse square, and the Enterprise will have complete results next week.

Sample ballots are in this week’s print edition.

A Clarendon High School student’s expulsion for bringing a gun to school ended this week, but questions still are being asked about the incident.

Four weeks ago, 17-year-old G.J. Martindale left his shotgun in his vehicle when he became sick after going dove hunting. The gun was sniffed out by drug dogs during a random search of the high school parking lot on October 3.

The school expelled the boy to an Alternative Education Program and reported the matter to the Donley County Sheriff’s Department.

The expulsion was upheld by the CISD Board of Trustees on October 13.

CISD Superintendent Monty Hysinger said some people are still wondering why the school called local law enforcement, but the school really had no choice.

“We just did what the law requires,” Hysinger said last week.

Federal law, Texas law through the state education code, and CISD policy all require law enforcement to be notified in this type of situation.

“We have to report any felony. Do people want us to determine which felonies to report? We want it to be a fair system.”

The only discretion the local administrators had was in the disciplinary action at the school.

Under the federal Gun-Free Schools Act of 1994, the school is required to expel for a period of one year any student who is determined to have brought a firearm to school. The law does allow the superintendent to modify the length of expulsion from one year based on local circumstances.

The local student was expelled for four weeks – roughly eight percent of the one year maximum.

In a similar situation reported by the Associated Press, a student in Crescent, Oklahoma, was suspended for one full year when he left a .22 rifle in his pickup after going target shooting.

Recent articles in the Amarillo Daily News and the Dallas Morning News have said Donley County has been divided over the Martindale situation, but Hysinger doesn’t see it that way.

“I don’t think it’s divided the county,” he said. “It ought to bring us together because the people see we’re trying to protect the kids.”

The superintendent said a lot of people have thanked the school for the way the situation was handled.

The future of Martindale’s case will be decided November 13, said County Attorney Stewart Messer. That’s when a local Grand Jury will meet to determine if the boy should face criminal charges.

If the jury “no bills” the case, that will be the end of it, he said.

Clarendon Family Medical Center announced this week the addition of a new physician assistant to its staff.

Kim McMillan, PA-C, began work at the center last Thursday.

McMillan grew up in Crete, Nebraska, and obtained her Bachelor of Science in Psychology from the University of Nebraska – Lincoln in 1998. She attended physician assistant school at the Des Moines University Osteopathic Medical Center and graduated in June of this year.

McMillan and her husband Curt currently live in Amarillo but are looking at the possibility of moving to Clarendon.

Mr. McMillan is an engineer for Gilbert Construction.

“I’m very grateful and excited to have Kim here,” said Dr. John Howard.

Dr. Howard said he has been very gratified by the support of the community and encouraged by the growth of the local clinic since his arrival in January of 1999.

The clinic has been operating as an independent clinic – free from the Baptist/St. Anthony’s system – since January of this year, and the doctor is predicting a bright future for local medical services.

“I envision working with the hospital district to broaden the scope of services offered here,” he said.

He foresees the possibility of having visiting professionals providing optometrist and dental services as well as implementing telemedicine to provide 24-hour health care.

A new clinic for the community is another possibility that is still on the drawing board, Howard said.

TXU Electric & Gas and American Electric Power (AEP) jointly announce announced Tuesday a new 130-megawatt wind power project.

The contract establishes TXU Electric & Gas as one of the nation’s leaders in wind power purchasing with contracts to buy 361.5 megawatts from various wind power projects. In announcing this agreement, AEP distinguishes itself as a premier national developer of wind power projects with plans to continue adding to its portfolio.

AEP is the parent company of AEP-West Texas Utilities, which provides electricity to Clarendon and Hedley. TXU is a local provider of natural gas services.

TXU Electric & Gas will buy power produced by the 130-megawatt Trent Mesa Project in West Texas for at least ten years. AEP will develop, own, operate, and maintain the project.  AEP will also be involved in the project’s construction.  Financial terms of the contract were not disclosed.

AEP plans to begin construction of the 87 wind turbines in November on a West Texas site just south of Interstate 20 about 24 miles west of Abilene. AEP expects more than 515 million-kilowatt hours of electricity will be generated annually at the site, enough to supply about 30,000 homes for TXU Electric & Gas customers. TXU Electric & Gas customers should begin receiving energy from the project after its completion in August 2001.

The Trent Mesa Project is the fourth major wind power agreement reached by TXU Electric & Gas.  Including this agreement, TXU Electric & Gas has contracted to purchase more than 1.3 billion-kilowatt hours of renewable energy annually from several wind farms in West Texas. TXU Electric & Gas projects it will have enough wind capacity from these agreements to fuel approximately 75,000 homes.

“TXU Electric & Gas is a national leader in supporting wind power,” said Steve Philley, who directed this project while vice president of TXU Electric Energy Supply and is now chief executive of TXU Australia. 

“Under the Texas deregulation law, this places TXU Electric & Gas at almost twice the amount of renewable energy initially required under the new State of Texas legislative mandates.  The Trent Mesa Project is another indication of the clean air commitment of TXU Electric & Gas.

“We began our commitment to wind power in the early 1990s, sending out requests for proposals to develop wind farms.  In just a few months’ time, we have announced three major agreements that firmly establish wind power as a viable energy option, and we are pleased to add this agreement to our energy portfolio,” Philley said.

“We believe that wind power has become more commercially viable in today’s market. We see exciting opportunities in North America as natural gas prices continue to remain volatile. We are very pleased to work with TXU Electric & Gas on this project,” said Dwayne L. Hart, AEP Energy Services Vice President of Business Development and Strategy. “This project adds an exciting new opportunity to AEP’s generation development segment.”

AEP has established a special website for the Trent Mesa Project. The address of the site is http://www.trentmesa.com.