Archives for April 2001

After months of speculation and anticipation, the first annual Donley County Spring Turkey Strut Festival will be held this weekend, April 21-22.

The fun for all ages starts on Saturday with a craft show in the Lions Club from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., and the competition will be fierce at the turkey cookoff at the corner of Fourth and Kearney streets. The turkey cookoff starts at noon, and the first 200 people to arrive will get to be the judges of the best turkey dish. 

The Texas Parks and Wildlife will hold a demonstration on the courthouse lawn at 1:00 p.m. while bluegrass fiddlers will stroll down Kearney Street playing their strutting music.

Visitors and citizens can also view the wild turkeys and other wildlife during tours throughout the day of Taylor Lakes, the James P. Rodgers Bird Sanctuary, and Greenbelt Lake.

The main event, the crowning of Clarendon’s first Turkey King, will be held at 7:00 p.m. on Kearney Street.  Local officials have been campaigning for nine weeks to see who will be the king. 

After his highness has been crowned, a Turkey Mattress Race will begin at 7:30 p.m. According to chamber directory Judy Burlin, the line up for the race is the County Commissioners vs. the City Aldermen and the Fire Department vs. the Ambulance Authority. She said it’s also possible that some teams from Clarendon College may enter.

Race contestants will have to carry a double mattress with a turkey on it from Henson’s hardware store to the Post Office, a distance of one block.

KEFH-FM will host a street dance on Kearney Street beginning at 8 o’clock.

The Donley County Tourism Council will hold a drawing Saturday evening for the winner’s choice of a wildlife painting by James Ivey Edwards, a set of binoculars, or a stay at the Ace No. 8 West Texas Bed & Breakfast in Lelia Lake. Tickets for the drawing are $5 each or three for $10 and can be purchased from members of the tourism council or at the library. The infamous pink and green wooden turkeys will be auctioned off, and local artists may bring their wildlife pieces to be auctioned also.

Breakfast will be served at the VFW Hall on Sunday. Other activities include the nine-hole Golf Scramble at the Clarendon Country Club and the Clay Turkey Shoot at the Bar H Dude Ranch.  Both events begin at 1:00 p.m. 

The craft show will continue on Sunday, 1:00 to 4:00 p.m., as will the wildlife viewing tours throughout the day. Times for the tours will be announced.

For more information, call Dee Dee Autry at 806/874-3889.

Thanks to bad roads and potholes, community activism recently gripped the City of Howardwick and brought volunteer workers out in droves.

The little town on the north side of Greenbelt Lake, made up largely of retirees, has been plagued by deteriorating roads and limited resources with which to fix them. The main road entering Howardwick from State Hwy. 70 was paved three decades ago and was in bad enough shape before the ice storms hit this past winter.

City Alderman Nancy Davis said the road got so rough that it prompted the Associated Ambulance Authority and the Clarendon Independent School District to write letters to the city warning of the hazardous conditions and the toll that was being taken on ambulances and school buses.

So the city ordered three loads of coal mix and some RAP (Recycled Asphalt Pavement) and set about filling in some of the potholes with the help of a small band of volunteers on April 3. No one realized how quickly the project would grow.

Since the city doesn’t have any “Men at Work” signs, Davis began flagging cars down, warning the drivers to watch for the workers.

“People would stop and ask us what was going on,” Davis recalls. “When I told them what we were doing, they would say, ‘I’m going home to change clothes and I’ll be back to help.’”

And they did come back. Over the course of the next several days, 23 men joined the volunteer road crew. More than 90 percent of the men were retirees in ages ranging from 65 to 84. Private trucks and trailers were also donated to the cause.

The others in the community did their part also. If they couldn’t work, they donated money to the cause, bought soft drinks, or prepared food for the workers. Dorothy Arnold became the food chairman for the project and accepted help from 39 ladies before she finally had to start turning them away.

“It just ballooned,” Davis said.

Arrangements were made for several more loads of asphalt, and when the trucks arrived, Davis said, the men were thrilled.

“All these old men started clapping and cheering if you can believe that.”

The work continued through April 11 with half a dozen workers being brought in from the Clements correctional facility in Amarillo. The retirees came back day after day with some putting in more than 35 hours overall. Davis said they had to stop some of the men from working for fear they would get too hot or injure themselves.

The retirees soon became known as TOMs, an acronym which stood for Tired Old Men.

Dorothy Arnold said the women put in 62 hours serving meals at the community center, not counting the time they spent at home.

“It was wonderful,” Davis said. “People who used to just say ‘hello’ to each other at the post office are now the best of friends.”

“There was no bickering at all,” Arnold said. “There were just jokes all the time.”

Even the community’s stray dogs got in to the act, following the men around. One dog, nicknamed Duke, was very committed, riding in the back of trailers and joining the men for meals at the community center.

Davis estimates eight to ten miles of road were repaired.

“It’s still rough,” she said, “but it’s better than it was.”

Perhaps more important than the road, the community is closer than it was before and has benefited from a spirit of cooperation. In fact, at press time, the community was planning to form a Garden Club dedicated to beautifying Howardwick.

“You can’t describe the feeling that’s out here right now,” Davis said. “I’m so proud of this community.”

A local man was arrested Friday in connection with an April 7 burglary at Clarendon ISD.

Donley County Sheriff Butch Blackburn said 17-year-old Daniel Curry entered the school’s vocational agriculture building through a window and stole a television set and two VCRs.

The crime was reported on Sunday, April 8, by local ag teacher Ronnie Edwards, and an investigation led to Curry.

Chief Deputy Randy Bond arrested Curry, who later signed a confession, Blackburn said.

The TV and one VCR were recovered. Curry was still in the Donley County Jail at press time.

The CISD Elementary Library was also burglarized on April 7 with some gel pens being stolen, but Blackburn said the authorities haven’t been able to connect Curry to that crime.

Leon Church, Donley County Agent

There has been a lot of talk lately in the news about the threat or risk to humans from the arsenic levels allowed in drinking water.  

The current standard allowed  for arsenic is 0.05 parts per million (ppm).  This level has caused some people to demand that our government  set into action ways to reduce this allowable standard level.  What is the real risk? Is this risk large enough to warrant the cost necessary to reduce these levels?

Make no mistake about it, arsenic is toxic, as are many of the pesticides we use.  We need to understand that risk is every where, from the time we wake up and start our day until we return home. Even then we are at risk of severe storms and other natural occurring events.   No matter what we do, we are at risk. 

It is said that “it is morally wrong to perpetuate ignorance and through ignorance fear.”  Yet many groups fuel people’s fear in order to gain their desired outcome. Alar was a perfect example of using fear,  the arsenic issue is another example of fear based on ignorance.

An important concept to remember is “the dose determines the poison.” We hear a lot of comments in the news about chemical residues in water and food. What do they mean and do we really understand the quantities we are talking about?

Chemical residues are expressed in parts per million (ppm), parts per billion (ppb) and now we have developed tests to measure parts per trillion (ppt).  Let’s put these figures into perspective.  What do they mean?

One part per million (ppm) is = one ounce of salt in 62,500 lbs. of sugar; = one square inch in the infield of a baseball diamond; = one inch in 16 miles; = one second in 11 days.           

One part per billion (ppb) is = one aspirin in 100,000 gallons of water (a swimming pool 25 ft x 100 ft x 4 ft); = one square foot in 36 square miles; = one inch in 16,000 miles; = one second in 32 years.

One part per trillion (ppt) is = one inch in 16,000,000 miles; = one pinch of salt in 10,000 tons of potato chips.

The standard allowable limit for arsenic in drinking water is 0.05 parts per million.  What is the risk?  Is the dose large enough to make a difference?  Science says no, and especially at the costs associated with reducing these levels further.

These same fears are associated with pesticide use. Understand that these chemicals are toxic and should be treated with respect. 

Let’s not let ignorance and fear rob us of tools we need to produce food and fiber needed for the future of the human population.  Nor should we allow people to use fear to advance an unnecessary agenda.

Rumors of a bomb threat at the Hedley Public Schools last week were just that – rumors – and nothing more, officials say.

Word of a supposed bomb threat first surfaced late Thursday, April 12, and was reported to the Donley County Sheriff’s Department that Friday. Students were out of school that Friday and the following Monday for Easter holidays.

Sheriff Butch Blackburn said an investigation by his department, Constable Mike Wallendorff, and Hedley ISD found no credible evidence of a threat. A search by a dog from Interquest Detection Canines of Abilene last Monday also found no explosives in the school.

“Our investigation concluded that [the threat] was just a rumor,” Blackburn said.

The sheriff did say, however, that a warrant has been issued for the arrest of 17-year-old Hedley resident, Santiago Rodriguez, Jr., in connection with the March 30 discovery of a one-pound package of Detagel explosive near a Hedley residence.

Blackburn said an investigation is still underway in that case, which he believes is related to an ongoing feud in Hall County.

The person who supposedly was going to blow up the school was Rodriguez, Blackburn said. But Rodriguez was reportedly not even in the county at the time of the supposed threat.

“It’s kind of hard to blow it up if you’re not here,” Blackburn said.

Rodriguez’s last known whereabouts was Breckenridge, Blackburn said. He is wanted on possession of an explosive.

Hedley ISD Principal Terry Stevens said the rumors of a bomb threat started April 12. A Hedley teacher overheard some students talking about it and reported it to Stevens. Superintendent Bryan Hill was out of town at the time, he said.

“This is one of those cases where so-and-so said that so-and-so said so,” Stevens said. “But we took every precaution anyway.”

The principal alerted authorities and informed Hill of what was going on. HISD administrators called in the search dogs to go through the school while students were on vacation on Monday, April 16. Neither the dogs nor local law enforcement found any cause for concern.

Stevens said on Tuesday, April 17, he came to work early and looked through every classroom to make sure nothing was different before students and teachers arrived.

“I think some of the teachers were mad because we didn’t tell them about it,” Stevens said. “We felt like it was more important to have a normal class day on Tuesday and tell them later. It was an administrative decision, and we stick by it.

“We felt we were as safe as we could be for our kids,” he said. “We reacted to the threat and did what we thought was necessary.”

Donley County bucked the trend in much of rural West Texas during the 2000 Census and saw an increase in population, reports show.

The US Census Bureau counted 3,828 people living here last year. That’s up 3.57 percent from the 3,696 counted in 1990.

The growth of the county was centered in the City of Howardwick, which more than doubled its population in the last ten years. The 1990 Census found 205 people in Howardwick. The 2000 Census counted 437, which is a 113.17 percent increase – the biggest percent increase of any city in the Texas Panhandle.

The large increase in Howardwick’s population means Donley County will have to redraw its precinct boundaries. The lakeside city lies entirely in Precinct 1, which now has 222 more citizens than the next biggest precinct.

Precinct 2 has 935 people, while Precincts 3 and 4 have 897 and 839 respectively.

Most of the county’s residents live in the county seat of Clarendon, but the city lost 3.38 percent of its population over the last ten years. The census found 1,974 people living in Clarendon, down from 2,043 in 1990. That’s the lowest census count since 1970 when the bureau also found 1,974 people living here.

The City of Hedley’s population dropped 8.67 percent to 379, a decrease of 36 people. That’s one less person than lived in that city in 1980.

Donley County’s racial composition is broken down as 3,372 whites, 243 Hispanics, 151 blacks, and 62 people of other races.

Most of the county’s black population, 140, lives in Clarendon. Seven live in Hedley, and one lives in Howardwick. 123 Hispanics live in Clarendon, 37 live in Hedley, and 21 live in Howardwick.

Of the seven counties surrounding Donley, only one posted a population increase, that being Armstrong with a growth of 6.28 percent.

Briscoe County lost 9.18 percent of its population, down to 1,790. Carson has 6,516 people, down 0.91 percent. Gray County lost 5.10 percent of its citizens for a count of 22,744, and Hall County was down 3.15 percent to 3,782. Wheeler County dropped more than 10 percent to 5,284. Collingsworth had the biggest percent decline in this corner of the Panhandle, dropping 10.27 percent for a total of 3,206 people.