Archives for February 2003

Local citizens in and around Howardwick will soon be getting new street addresses to comply with the 9-1-1 emergency system.

Mayor Billy Woods said that homes and businesses in Howardwick, Carrol Creek Acres, and the Saints Roost division will be affected.

“We have some streets with the same names, and those will have to be changed,” Woods said.

A meeting will be held at Howardwick City Hall on February 11 at 7 p.m., and Pam Nealson of the Panhandle Regional Planning Commission will explain the changes at that time.

The Clarendon Board of Aldermen last Tuesday approved a proposal naming OJD Engineering, Inc., as the city’s designated engineer on future projects.

The agreement calls for OJD to provide planning, design, and implementation engineering services on as as-needed basis. A separate contract will be required for each project.

In other business at the city’s regular meeting, engineer Che Shadle reported on the progress of street work to be done under an NRCS grant. Shadle discussed the need for easements along Thurman Avenue in order to improve drainage on that area. The letters have been approved and should be signed by February 5.

Walt Knorpp addressed the board regarding the old TxDOT buildings and offered to donate the same to the city. The board voted to accept the donation of chain-link fence material but, at a called meeting on Monday, declined the offer of the building. Alderman Janice Knorpp abstained on both votes.

Also last Tuesday, City Superintendent Jim Roberts reported the Texas Workforce Commission has a program where they pay for people to work for the city for 30 hours per week. The TWC would cover salary and insurance costs. He also reported that the city has obtained a bus to transport prisoners here from Childress to work here once a week.

Roberts also said the property at 107 E. Front had been cleaned up and the old house had been demolished. Work was scheduled to begin last week on the property at 312 E. Sixth.

Gordon Maddox presented the audits for the City of Clarendon and the Clarendon Economic Development Corporation. Both were approved.

Jim Douglas presented a CD slide presentation of images from Clarendon and Donley County. He sells these to the Highway 70 Association so people can see what this area has to offer.

Dee Dee Autry spoke to the board regarding a donation to the Texas Prairie Rivers marketing plan. The board approved spending $217 from the Motel Bed Tax fund.

The board also met last Thursday in a called session to discuss hiring a city administrator. No action was taken during the work session.

Topics of discussion included duties an administrator would be expected to perform and qualifications the city would like to see in applicants.

After months of planning, the Donley County Community Network (DCCN) became active last week, increasing the presence of local entities on the World Wide Web.

The network’s new community Web site at www.donleytx.com brings together a diverse group of local governments and organizations to help promote Donley County to a wide audience as well as helping bring services to local citizens.

“I think [the network] will bring us all together to work for all of Donley County,” said DCCN President Dee Dee Autry. “It will allow all citizens to access the Internet for business and personal gain, and it will help businesses promote their products.”

Partners in the network are Clarendon College, 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 new Web site offers views of the local area as well as links to local governments and organizations. A community calendar will be kept up to date with local events, and the city and county are planning to post their agendas on the new site. Local citizens can also find out how to get in touch with their elected officials at the county and city levels.

Want to know what the fees are at the city recycling center or when the doctor’s office is open? The DCCN has those answers and more.

Tourism information is available as are links to The Clarendon Enterprise, local schools, Clarendon College, and local history subjects.

The network Web site also includes a “Farm 2 Farm” feature which is intended to put agricultural producers in touch with each other in order to buy or sell their commodities. To start with, Farm 2 Farm is just a local feature, but network officials hope to link it to other agriculture sites in the future.

The DCCN is being funded by a $250,000 TIF grant approved last summer. Approximately $115,000 of that money was used to purchase new computer equipment for the principal entities involved. The remainder is dedicated to providing services and funding educational classes for local citizens.

Future additions to the DCCN will be Internet portal terminals – or kiosks – at the Clarendon Outpost and Greenbelt Marina in the next six weeks. For now, the kiosks will be locked into the local Web site to promote the local area, but eventually credit card technology will be added to allow travelers a place to check their e-mail and surf the Internet for a nominal fee. Visitors can also check their e-mail for free at any of the public terminals of the local entities.

“It’s a work in progress, but we’ve now staked our claim on the Internet,” said DCCN Project Manager Will Thompson. “The biggest accomplishments are yet to come with training and educating our citizens.”

Putting information before the public is a main focus of the DCCN, but providing new local opportunities is also a goal of the network.

“We hope to expand our employment opportunities by bringing broadband Internet service not just in Clarendon but the rural areas also,” Thompson said, who works for Clarendon College and wrote the grant for the DCCN.

That goal was largely met last week when AMA•TechTel Communications announced that its high-speed wireless Internet service is now available to people living within 13 miles of Hedley and Howardwick. The new transmitters being used by AMA were purchased by the DCCN and are owned by the network.

AMA has also played a critical role in the development of the network by providing cash, training, and professional services to the DCCN.

Local citizens can also show their community pride with a new “@donleytx.com” e-mail address for a small fee, which hasn’t been set. Addresses already chosen includes the Saints’ Roost Museum at museum@donleytx.com and the Tourism Council at turkeystrut@donleytx.com.

“It identifies you with the community, and it may be easier to get the e-mail address you’ve always wanted,” Thompson said.

To get one of the new addresses, contact Thompson at Clarendon College at 874-3571 or Autry at the Clarendon EDC office at 874-9787.

Clarendon College will immediately reduce its workforce expenditures by $77,469 in order to cope with the loss of an estimated $193,000 in state funding.

The CC Board of Regents held a called meeting Tuesday and approved budget cuts totaling more than $115,000. Regents also directed CC President Myles Shelton to determine which personnel will be let go in order to make up the balance of the reduction. Shelton must present his recommendations to the board next Thursday.

Shelton said the notice of an immediate reduction in state funding was received in a letter from the offices of the governor, lieutenant governor, and house speaker about two weeks ago. A plan demonstrating a seven percent reduction must be filed with the state by February 6.

“What makes this so difficult is that it comes so late in the fiscal year,” Shelton said. “A large portion of the budget has already been spent, and we have other commitments through May.”

CC officials will immediately initiate a hiring freeze except for essential positions, cut non-essential institutional travel, and enact other cost-saving measures.

The budget cut does not affect CC’s plans for capital improvements which are funded by other revenue sources, but it does cover all operational and personal expenses dependent upon the state appropriation, the state health insurance allotment, and the developmental education allowance, Shelton said.

State officials are dealing with a revenue crisis, expecting a $1.8 billion shortfall in this current fiscal year and an estimated $8.1 billion drop in revenues over the next two years. As a result, all state funded colleges and universities are dealing with the forced immediate budget cuts.

“All we know at this point is that the appropriations bill which has been filed in Austin for the next biennium is a zero-based budget,” Shelton said. “We’re going to have to be able to defend every dollar we ask for.”

Shelton said the situation does not mean the college is out of money, saying it is only the operational monies from the state that is hurt.

When the multiplier effect is considered, the shortage of state funds will have an estimated $1.35 million on the local economy in the college’s seven-county service area.

“The majority of our students and staff are here [in Clarendon] so obviously the greater impact will be here,” Shelton said. “We’re getting into the core functions of the college, but we’ve tried to cut where it will not affect instructional facilities or services to students.”

The administration met with faculty and staff last Friday, and any personnel whose jobs are in danger will be communicated within the next week.

“They understood the problem and that it was something that happened in Austin and that it’s not the fault of anybody here,” Shelton said of the faculty at last week’s meeting. “They are willing to make things work in order to provide services on this campus and to the community.”

Shelton also said the college is not considering local taxes as a solution to the funding shortfall.

“We’re not looking at a tax increase to solve this,” he said. “I think we’ve got to look inside to solve the problem that the state has created for us.”

For the future, Shelton said the college will have to look at raising tuition by $10 to $15 per hour. Such an increase would still keep CC’s cost to students much lower than most other colleges.