Archives for July 2002

By Carrie Helms, Clarendon Enterprise 

Hall County Hospital will be closing its doors at midnight August 4, 2002, after struggling with declining income for years.

The hospital, which has been in operation since 1964, declared Chapter 9 bankruptcy in October of 2001 but has been unable to regain control of its finances.  The facility was in such dire straits that board members took out personal loans totaling almost $100,000 to meet payroll expenses.

A major issue for the hospital has been reduced Medicare reimbursements.

“The hospital sees only three or four patients per month,” interim hospital CEO Ann Fagan-Cook said. “Seventy-two percent of all our patients are on Medicare.”

In March, the hospital changed to a new Medicare payment plan called critical access, but the switch happened too late.

“The process takes time,” Fagan-Cook said. “When you switch to a different plan, you have to get all new numbers, and that can sometimes take up to a month just to apply.”

The hospital district expects to see results from the plan change in a payment of up to $200,000 in November, which may be enough to re-open.

“We are still under bankruptcy, so everything has to be approved before we can re-open,” Fagan-Cook said, “but we expect to be able to re-open within a year.”

In the meantime, the rural health clinic in Memphis will remain in operation, and the hospital district is looking at the possibility of an urgent care clinic.

“An urgent care clinic is like an emergency room,” Fagan-Cook said.  “Once we get proper licensing, we should be able to open in about 90 days.”

For patients in Donley County, hospital records will still be available after the hospital closes.

“We suggest that you have your new physician request records in writing,” Fagan-Cook said. “This will save a lot of time and effort.”

By Carrie Helms, Clarendon Enterprise 

As Texans gear up for the annual Tax Free Holiday school-shopping spree, local merchants are cutting prices and rolling out the red carpet for local buyers.

Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton Rylander has announced that the annual Sales Tax Holiday is coming up August 2-4.

“Start making your shopping list for school clothes for the kids and new clothes for mom and dad,” Comptroller Rylander said. “During the Sales Tax Holiday, most clothes and shoes priced under $100 are exempt from sales taxes.”

For the fourth year, small businesses have the opportunity to give people in the community an extra incentive to shop close to home.

“The holiday is a great benefit to small businesses,” said Terry Floyd of Every Nook and Cranny. “We get a chance to do good business and give our customers a little extra.”

According to local merchants, the community has responded well in the past.

“Last year we did well,” Floyd said. “We had a lot of our loyal customers come in, and some from Memphis and Wellington stopped by on their way to Amarillo.”

Deanna Cornell of Cornell’s Country Store expects much of their business for the weekend will come not only from Donley County but also from traffic to the big city.

“At Christmas, we had a lot of people stop in on their way just to see what we had because we were new,” Cornell said.  “We expect the same thing will happen.”

Businesses are currently making plans in anticipation of the traffic..

“We already have things marked down,” Terry Askew of Saye’s said, “and weather permitting, we plan to move outside and have a sidewalk sale.”

For a good price on quality clothes, these hometown businesses prove consumers may not have to go far from home.

“We have a lot of shoes and clothes, and our spring and summer clothes are already on sale,” Floyd said. “There will be more markdowns this week; and when you take off the sales tax, it makes a pretty good deal.”

Examples of items that can be purchased tax-free August 2-4 include kids’ clothes and school uniforms, adults’ clothes, shoes, sleepwear and underclothes , as long as the items are priced under $100 each.

Items that cannot be purchased tax-free include handbags, wallets, accessories, athletic shoes, backpacks, and school supplies.

The title of the best small weekly newspaper in West Texas has gone to The Clarendon Enterprise, which won the Sweepstakes Award from the West Texas Press Association’s Better Newspaper Contest.

Winners of the WTPA contest were announced during the association’s 72nd annual convention in Ft. Davis Saturday. The Enterprise received two first place plaques, three second place certificates, and two third place certificates.

“We are all very happy with the contest results,” said Enterprise publisher Roger Estlack. “We enter these contests to gain constructive criticism from journalistic professionals in order to improve the paper. It is extremely satisfying when the judges are pleased with our efforts.”

Editorials written by Estlack won first place in Division D (weeklies with circulations of 1,800 and below.) Judges from Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls called a March 8, 2001, editorial about proposed legislation threatening legal notice requirements “timely and chilling” and said “the newspaper performed a tremendous public service by alerting readers.”

Judges were equally complimentary of an August 23, 2001, editorial on Donley County finances, saying, “The writer places the blame where it belongs, no holds barred. It’s like he’s holding a mirror up to the politicians and the public and daring them to recognize themselves. The man does his homework. Comparing his county to Texas’ other counties is hard to argue with.”

The Enterprise also received a first place plaque for its 2001 Graduation Edition.

Second place certificates brought home by the Enterprise in Division D were for Photography and General Excellence. Another second place certificate was won in Division C for Advertising.

“The WTPA has had a rule in its contest that if you win first place in a category, you have to move up to the next division in that category the following year,” Estlack said. “We won first in Advertising in Division D last year. The second place in Advertising this year was a great achievement because we were competing against papers much larger than ours in that category.”

Third place certificates were awarded to the Enterprise for Sports Writing and Columns written by Christi Ross and Cynthia Hall.

Sweepstakes is awarded based on an accumulation of points for each first, second, and third place win. Last year, the Enterprise tied with the Albany News for Sweepstakes in the WTPA contest.

Previously this year, the local newspaper placed second in the hunt for Sweepstakes at the Texas Press Association’s contest and won the top honors from the Panhandle Press Association’s contest.

In other news from the press convention, Estlack was elected to serve on the WTPA Board of Directors and will be charge of financing for next year’s Better Newspaper Contest.

Also making the trip to Ft. Davis were Allen and Helen Estlack.

Billy Aaron Curry of Clarendon was sentenced to 20 months in a state jail last Thursday, July 18, by District Judge David McCoy.

Curry, age 20, breached a condition of his probation when he violated the rules and regulations of the North Central Texas Restitution Center in Wichita Falls where he was residing as a condition of probation.

“The Restitution Center is a residential facility which helps defendants find jobs in the Wichita Falls area,” said District Attorney Stuart Messer.

“The paycheck they earn is returned to the county to pay for fines, court costs, and restitution that has been ordered by the court as a condition of probation.

“Of course, while a defendant is at the Restitution Center, he must obey all of the rules and regulations of the Center in order to stay out of prison.”

Curry was represented by Earl Griffin of Childress.

A new coat of paint is applied to the letters on the old drive-in theater in Clarendon in preparation for a re-opening later this summer.

Enterprise Digital Photo
 
Polish up the car, grab your sweetheart, and get ready for the return of an old tradition in Clarendon.

If all goes as planned, the Sandell Drive-In will again have Hollywood stars dancing across its screen later this summer after having been dark for 18 years.

John Earl Morrow is the new general manager for the drive-in and says his interest in re-opening the picture show stems from a Christian gathering he attended in Dallas several months ago.

While there, he stopped to eat at an Italian sandwich shop named Sandella’s. He made mention of the old Sandell to a man in the shop who said he would like to see a picture of the similarly named drive-in. After he returned home, Morrow did as the man asked and stopped by the drive-in on Hwy. 70 with a camera in tow.

“I’d driven by it a thousand times in all these years and never paid much attention to it,” Morrow said. “I came in the gate to take pictures and thought, ‘Man, it’d be neat if someone would open this.’”

In the days and months which followed, Morrow says a string of events and conversations repeatedly called his attention back to the drive-in. When he suggested that someone should buy the show and re-open it, the response was always the same, “Why don’t you do it?”

As Morrow began to explore the possibility of purchasing the Sandell, the clincher came when a relative sent him a card with a footprint on it that read, “Attempt something so large that failure is guaranteed unless God steps in.” The resemblance of the footprint to aerial photos of the drive-in was uncanny.

“I was definitely at the failure point, too,” Morrow said. “The bank wouldn’t loan the money, and it looked like I was going to lose all the escrow money I had put up to buy the property.”

Then an associate from out of town stepped in and put up the financing for the project.

Now, Morrow is proceeding with the work necessary to get the show going again and hopes it will give Clarendon a boost.

“This is one thing that can tie this community together,” he said. “Remember when everyone used to come up here to watch the show?”

The clean up has already begun with the name on the façade of the drive-in being repainted last week. Painters will soon put a fresh coat of pink paint – the same great color – on the aging theatre, and a new ticket booth will be installed later this week.

New projection equipment has been ordered, and a remodeling of the concession stand is underway. A new transmitter will allow move-goers to listen to the show on their car radio instead of hanging the speaker through a window.

“It’s mostly in pretty good shape,” Morrow said, giving credit to Gary Barnhill who built the Sandell in 1955 and named it for his two daughters – Sandra and Adele. “When he built it, he did it right. It wouldn’t be possible to open it today if he hadn’t.”

Morrow hopes to have the 300-car drive-in open by the end of August, but he knows it will be a challenge to make that deadline.

“There’s a lot of work to be done, and I’m not an expert at some of this stuff [like hanging drywall],” he said. “But I know this is what I’m supposed to be doing.”

A proposed Donley County Community Network (DCCN) received a green light and $250,000 in funding from the Texas Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund (TIF) last Monday.

The award, which was $54,000 more than was applied for, will pay for computer equipment, networking, Web site designs, and training to tie several local groups together and give them a bigger presence on the Internet.

Clarendon College is the principal agency under whose umbrella the grant application was submitted. CC’s Director of Information Systems and Computer Operations Will Thompson is serving as the project manager and wrote the grant application with the help of a local committee.

“You can’t point to just one benefit from this grant,” Thompson said. “It provides information about our county to citizens here and to anyone no matter where they are. It will also provide many of our citizens the opportunity to enrich their lives and obtain new job skills.”

In addition to Clarendon College, other partners in the grant are the City of Clarendon, Donley County, the Donley County Hospital District, the Clarendon Economic Development Corporation, the Clarendon Chamber of Commerce, the Burton Memorial Library, the Saints’ Roost Museum, and the Clarendon Family Medical Center. Clarendon ISD has also been involved in an advisory role.

“The cooperation between these different groups has been really good,” Thompson said.

Each entity will have computers available for members of the public to access the Internet. For tourists, Internet portals – or computer kiosks – will be located at selected sites so travelers can get news updates and check their e-mail as well as learn about Clarendon and Donley County.

The network group also plans to have information about local governments posted on the Internet as well as information about things to do or see in Donley County, local heritage, economic and relocation facts, and health care availability.

The college will benefit by receiving new computer equipment as well as by enlarging the capacity and speed of its Internet connection.

The DCCN will focus on tying together the grant partners first and then expand to help local businesses and agricultural producers launch e-commerce websites, Thompson said.

“This should help farmers and ranchers find new outlets for their products and help businesses expand their customer bases.”

The project will also increase the availability of broadband, high-speed Internet service to rural Donley County residents. The DCCN is partnering with AMA Online from Amarillo, a company which already provides high-speed wireless Internet to Clarendon and most residents within a 10-mile radius of the town. The network project will assist AMA with expanding that coverage. In return, AMA has offered to contribute financially to the project and to donate the expertise and services of its employees in providing Web designs and wireless networking.

The network should be able to expand the scope of the project with the extra money it received. The application was for $196,000 with each entity agreeing to put up a ten percent match for their portion of the grant. Because some community network applications were not approved, the TIF Board was able to increase the other awardees to the maximum of $250,000.

“I wasn’t expecting to get more money than we asked for,” Thompson said. “Fortunately, the increase in funding does not mean our local match will be going up.”

Thompson intends to have the network group up and running in the next several months and says the whole project should be completed by May.

“I realize it’s going to be a lot of work,” he said. “But I think it will be good for the community and good for Clarendon College.”

Other area communities receiving approval from the TIF Board were White Deer, Childress, Collingsworth County, Gray County, and Hall County. Each received $250,000.

The Clarendon Board of Aldermen enacted a new livestock ordinance during their regular meeting July 9 at City Hall.

Ordinance 342 takes the place of Ordinance 340 and was the result of much debate among citizens and between the aldermen themselves. Much of last Tuesday’s meeting was a verbal sparing match between Aldermen Michael Tibbets and Janice Knorpp.

Tibbets was a vocal supporter of people keeping livestock in the city limits, saying he didn’t want to take away the use of people’s existing facilities and that he was concerned about the impact a strict livestock law would have on existing and future programs at Clarendon College.

“I don’t want to do anything that might hurt the college,” Tibbets said. “It’s a huge part of our local economy.”

But Knorpp countered that something had to be done to prevent people from moving horses and show calves into their backyards and said the number of livestock must be limited in town.

“We live in a city,” Knorpp said. “We don’t live on a farm or a ranch.”

The new ordinance removes the per head permitting fee required by the old ordinance and reduces the space limitations on pens from 1,000 square feet per head to 400 square feet, which citizens in attendance said should cover most existing stalls.

No more than 10 head of livestock can be kept on a regular city block, and residents must obtain a license to keep livestock on their property. The license will cost $20 per year.

If the livestock are to be kept within 150 feet of a house or business, the resident must get written permission from those neighbors before a permit will be granted.

A license is not required for livestock kept more than 300 feet from a residence or place of business, and the new law does not apply to veterinary clinics or livestock in the city for temporary events such as parades, rodeos, stock shows, or other school or civic activities.

Ordinance 342 was approved 4-1, with Aldermen Knorpp, Tibbets, Mark White, and Tommy Hill voting in favor. Alderman Bob Watson voted against the measure.

Although little activity can be seen on the outside, the restoration of the 1890 Donley County Courthouse is making great gains on the interior of the building.

The courthouse is running on its new electrical supply, and the air conditioning should be operational by August 1, according to Phoenix 1 project manager Stephen Dodge, who spoke to Volz & Associates architects and officials with the Texas Historical Commission (THC) during a construction conference last Tuesday.

Dodge said his company wants to see the final selections made for paint colors made this week and noted that the THC has been slow to approve new light fixtures for the building. Fixtures and finishes must be similar to styles popular in 1913 – the date the county chose to restore back to.

Openings for lighting and ventilation in the ceiling of the district courtroom are ready for THC approval. The first and second floor plastering is finished, and trim work is proceeding.

The roof cannot be completed until the brick and stonework is finished since restored chimneys have to be built and part of the roof ties into the stonework.

The crumbling brick found behind the cornices on the west and south is currently being addressed, and Phoenix President Dale Sellers reported on his efforts to find qualified masons to make those repairs at a reasonable cost.

Phoenix officials said they believed enough materials could be salvaged from behind the cornice and other areas to use original brick on the main façade of the building. New brick would be used on the other sides of the courthouse.

In other courthouse news, the fundraising effort continues. To date, a total of $140,024 has been given to the project. If you would like to help with the restoration, you may send your donation to the Donley County Courthouse Preservation Fund, PO Box 825, Clarendon, TX 79226.