Archives for October 2001

The president of a new Christian college in Amarillo says his institution seems to have a “spiritual connection” to Clarendon’s heritage of education.

Dr. Kyle Huckins, president of the Christian Institute of the West (CIW), says when his college opens next fall it will be the first Christian college to operate in the 26-county Texas Panhandle since Clarendon College became a secular school in 1927.

CC was established in 1898 as a Methodist institution and was upgraded to a senior-level institution in 1926. One year later, politics within the Methodist conference led CC to become a municipal junior college.

Huckins says he finds it interesting that CIW will open 75 years after Clarendon College’s church affiliation ended. He also says the first ACT test scores sent to CIW have come from Clarendon.

“That’s intriguing since we haven’t really been recruiting yet,” Huckins said. “There just seems to be something spiritual going on here.”

CIW will be contacting students in the Donley County area in the coming months, Huckins said.

The Christian Institute of the West, promoted as the Panhandle’s first “modern era” Christian college, is an independent, interdenominational school with 23 different church backgrounds represented on a 30-member leadership team.

According to a press release, the Bible’s tenets will be upheld in all institute instruction. CIW was formed two years ago to provide Christian higher education in professional and liberal arts.

Huckins says he doesn’t plan for his college to compete with the modern Clarendon College and says he looks forward to working together with all area junior colleges. He said CIW will allow students to transfer 18 to 36 junior college hours, including vocational and training classes, toward their degrees.

Early voting for this year’s general election starts Monday in the Donley County Clerk’s office and continues through November 2, 2001.

Voters across the state will decide 19 proposed amendments to the Texas Constitution. Residents of Senate District 30, which includes Donley County, will also fill the vacant seat of the late Sen. Tom Haywood.

Four Republicans, one Democrat, and one Independent are running to finish Haywood’s term. They are Rick Bunch (I), Craig Estes (R), Doug Jeffrey (R), Harry Reynolds (R), Greg L. Underwood (D), and Kirk Wilson (R).

The clerk’s office is open weekdays from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

The general election will be Tuesday, November 6.

Leon Church, County Agent

Susan Combs, Commissioner of the Texas Department of Agriculture, has asked the County Extension Agents across Texas to get a message out to all agricultural producers to be vigilant in these troubled times.

We in agriculture have always known that a safe, reliable food supply has been an important part of national defense. In light of the tragic events in New York and Washington, D.C., and with federal officials voicing concern about the potential for other domestic attacks, an assault on our food supply through either biological weapons or the introduction of a foreign animal or crop disease or pest would be a highly destructive force that could be used against agriculture and America.

While we have been vigilant in the past, now is the time for everyone in agriculture to be even more so. That’s why Combs has formed a Texas Border Food Security Coalition of producer groups and associations to work with their members and to encourage farmers, ranchers, and agribusinesses to be on the lookout for any unusual activity including strangers on their farms, ranches, and agribusinesses. This is particularly true in the Texas counties along the border with Mexico.

In addition, Combs has asked members of our agricultural community to follow these added security measures. Maintain a list of all emergency contacts and numbers and post these throughout you operation; review internal security, safety procedures, and provide training to employees; report to local authorities all suspicious activities, vehicles, or persons; report to local authorities all threats on personnel and facilities; report to local authorities all thefts, inventory shortages, or missing products that could pose a public health or safety risk; report to local authorities all burglaries, sabotage to facilities or equipment, and all vandalism or activities that may pose a safety or security risk; report any missing blank documentation or identification cards such as shipping forms; and if you notice unusual occurrence of animal diseases, contact a veterinarian and the Texas Animal Health Commission at 1-800-550-8242.

These are common sense type measures, but ones we need to keep in mind.

An independent auditor said Monday that records in the county treasurer’s offices are accurate and are in keeping with accepted accounting principles.

Gordon D. Maddox of Memphis conducted a special audit of Treasurer Becky Jackson at the instruction of the commissioners’ court after allegations of misconduct surfaced regarding her salary. Jackson requested the audit herself.

In Monday’s regular session of the court, Maddox said Jackson had contacted him three weeks ago regarding payments for travel expenses and salary, saying her office was under investigation by the Sheriff’s Department and the Texas Rangers.

Maddox said he was also called by County Tax Assessor/Collector Wilma Lindley, who also asked about the same subject and said she was concerned about possible “improprieties” in the treasurer’s office. Maddox said Lindley told him she had reported her concerns to the sheriff’s department.

Donley County Sheriff Butch Blackburn confirmed Monday that an investigation of the treasurer’s office is ongoing but declined to comment until its completion.

According to the audit, Jackson’s 2000-01 salary was $19,095.62, payable in 1/24th increments twice a month. Jackson also had a budget of $900 for travel and meetings, which was divided into a $600 auto allowance and a $300 reimbursable travel allowance. The auto allowance was paid in $25 increments each pay period for “non-accountable travel.”

The audit states: “The computer system posts both the salary and the auto allowance to ‘Salary,’ thereby overstating the actual paid salary by $600, which is the non-accountable travel. Therefore, during November 2000, rather than reclassifying the $50 per month travel from ‘Salary’ to ‘Travel’ on a monthly basis, the Treasurer made a total entry of $600 from ‘Salary’ to ‘Travel’ for the total year. This was made for logistic purposes and simplification.”

Maddox said the auto allowance was added to Jackson’s salary by the computer because that $600 is subject to income and payroll taxation.

Following the auditor’s report, Jackson said she felt she was due a public apology from whoever made the false accusations.

Commissioners accepted Maddox’s report and directed copies to be sent to the sheriff’s department and Texas Ranger Gary Henderson.

In other county business, the court nominated Donnie Hall and Buster Shields to the Appraisal District Board and heard from Calvin Cleaver of Ashtola regarding flooding on his property. The court also re-appointed Jacquetta Owens as the election judge of Box 301 at the Clarendon Community Center.

Donley County Commissioners accepted the resignation of Precinct 1&2 Constable Jimmy Swinney during their Monday meeting, but they now face a new decision about the position – fill it or leave it vacant.

County Attorney Pro-tem Kaye Messer addressed the issue and said commissioners are under no legal obligation to fill the vacancy, although not doing so would open the possibility that Swinney would remain constable.

A “hold over” clause in state law provides that an otherwise qualified person continues to stay in office until their successor takes over, Messer said. But she advised the commissioners’ court the chance of Swinney holding on to his office would be slim since he is, by law, not qualified to hold the office.

Statue requires constables to become licensed peace officers within 270 days of taking office. If they don’t become certified, they forfeit their office. Swinney turned in his letter of resignation last week after he failed the state exam to become certified within the allotted time.

Messer told the court that if Swinney tried to perform the duties of constable now, he would be impersonating a peace officer.

“I don’t think his attorney is going to advise him to break the law,” Messer said.

Commissioners also are looking ahead and must try to anticipate the will of Texas voters in 2002. A proposed state constitutional amendment on the general election ballot next year, if approved, would allow counties to declare a constable’s position dormant if it has been vacant for seven years or more.

Messer told the court the language in the amendment provides for a constable being unqualified for office. Since the Precinct 1&2 Constable was a vacant position from 1969 until this year and since Swinney did not become qualified, Donley County would have “much more” than the required seven years, she said.

But if commissioners now fill the vacancy, it would have to be with a certified officer, and that would restart the clock, she said.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Clarendon) voted Friday for a new farm bill designed to strengthen the safety net for American agriculture producers while continuing to give them flexibility to plant what they want to plant.

“This relief has clearly been needed,” Thornberry said. “But we need to get to a point where it doesn’t take an emergency to keep a farmer afloat.”

The measure, HR 2646, The Farm Security Act of 2001, passed the House by a vote of 291 to 120. Among its provisions are:

Commodity Programs – Maintains maximum planning flexibility while providing counter-cyclical protection to help farmers weather adverse market conditions. Retains fixed-decoupled payments, as well as the marketing loan program. Provides producers with the option to update base acreage.

Conservation – Devotes over $16 billion over 10 years to conservation programs. Reauthorizes the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) through 2011 with a 39.5 million-acre enrollment cap. Reauthorizes the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) through 2011 at $1.2 billion annual program level, with livestock producers receiving 50% of annual funding.

Rural Development – Provides $50 million in funding for the Value Added Grants Program to provide grants for start-up farmer-owned value added processing facilities.

“I think it’s important to remember that this bill alone is not all that we need to do. We also need to level the playing field in trade and foreign markets. We’ve also got to continue to push for lower taxes and less regulations, which all too often stand in the way of a producer getting ahead.”

The bill must now be voted on in the Senate.

Richard F. Finch, a 1952 graduate of Clarendon High School, was recently inducted into the New Mexico Museum of Space History for his contributions to the US Space program during the years from 1961 through 1997.

Richard made his first significant contribution to space exploration in 1964 when he designed and patented a pressurization test set for General Electric Company and the Gemini Astronauts program at Vandenberg AFB in California and Cap Canaveral in Florida.  The patented test set is still in use today for space flight radio guidance.

Richard also has a patent for crash-protection air bags for both private and commercial aircraft.  Richard also worked at White Sands Proving Grounds in New Mexico during the mid and late 1960s testing chaff dispensing sounding rockets, and he traveled to Hawaii, Johnson Island, and Kwajalein Island to do further testing. 

He also worked for New Mexico State University Physical Science Lab as data collection engineer for aircraft seat ejection tests, B-52 carpet bombing tests, and moon landing tests during the late 1960s.

Richard also made a significant mark in the aviation industry during the 1970s and 1980s when he worked as a consultant and design engineer for several aircraft companies including Ted Smith Aerostar, Piper Aircraft, Fairchild Aircraft, SAAB-Scania Aircraft, Pan Am, Lockheed Space Operations, and Traco Aviation.  As an engineer consultant, he traveled all over the USA and to New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, China, Hawaii, Switzerland, France, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, and to Mexico.  Richard was the certified manager for the SAAB 340 commuter airliner in Sweden in 1982-1983.  In 1997, he was asked to write the metal welding repair section for the FAA Repair Manual that is used by aircraft mechanics worldwide.  The Federal Aviation Administration gave Richard a commendation plaque for that work.

The most interesting and important consulting work done by Mr. Finch was during 1984-1999 at Kennedy Space Center in Florida where he was doing operations analysis for NASA through Pan Am on the space shuttle.  Richard was the engineer in charge of return to flight improvements for emergency egress (escape) after the space shuttle Challenger explosion.  In this position, Richard was responsible for meeting with the astronauts on a daily and weekly basis to get their inputs on safety improvements for returning the space shuttle program to flight status.  The results of his engineering efforts were tested in a full dress rehearsal practice run on May 2, 1988, with over twenty astronauts participating.  As a result of his work on the return to flight project, NASA recommended Richard for the NASA Excellence Award, and ten of the space shuttle astronauts signed a thank you plaque and presented it to Richard.  The plaque is now on display at the New Mexico Museum of Space History in Alamogordo, NM.

Richard has also been a writer and a publisher of automotive, welding, and aircraft books for over 26 years and is currently the number one selling author for HP Books Automotive Division of Penguin-Putnam Books of New York City and is on the best sellers list for Motorbooks International, Osceola, WI, the largest automotive and aircraft book company in the world.  Richard’s book, Welder’s Handbook, has sold nearly one million copies and is available in Home Depot Stores and through all internet booksellers such as Amazon.com.  Richard continues to write, publish, and do aviation consulting work worldwide.

Richard attended Clarendon College for two semesters, Abilene Christian College for three semesters, New Mexico State University for one semester, California Polytechnic University for ten years, Allan Hancock College for three years, and the now-defunct University of Beverly Hills for two years.  Richard has AA, AS, BS, and MS degrees and a California College Level Teaching Credential.  He also holds five commercial pilot’s licenses including flight instructor, multi-engine, and instrument pilot’s ratings.

Richard and his wife, Gayle, now live in the sleepy little village of Tularosa, New Mexico.  Richard is the oldest son of former Clarendon residents Richard H. Finch and Travis Finch, who are now deceased.  Richard’s middle brother, Roger Finch, and his wife Carol Finch, now operate the Finch Farm between Clarendon and Lelia Lake.  Roger is employed by Maverick Ranch – a Denver based meat company.  Richard’s only sister, Beth Finch Johnson, is an English teacher in Columbia, South Carolina, and his younger brother, Philip Finch, is a college professor and a respiratory therapist in Medford, Oregon.

Clarendon’s home owned and home operated restaurants will be donating ten percent of their total intake on October 11, 2001, to the Window of Hope organization.

Window of Hope was founded to support the families of the restaurant workers of Windows to the World restaurant, which was located in the World Trade Center when it collapsed on September 11, 2001.  There were 76 to 79 employees that worked in the restaurant.

Clarendon restaurants participating are Alexander’s Diner, Amigo’s Mexican Restaurant, Brent’s Cookin’, Downtown Diner, JAMZ, Outpost Deli, and “Sam Hill” Pit BBQ.