Archives for December 2004

WHITE DEER – The Panhandle Groundwater Conservation District approved 178 Initial Production Permits covering 200,815 acres during 2003-04, the largest number of permits granted in recent memory, according to the District’s Annual Report released today.

“We are keenly aware of many applicants’ desire to export water out of the District,” said C.E. Williams, general manager of the Panhandle GCD. “We will balance those interests with those of landowners who don’t have such opportunities and with the need for conservation.”

An IPP authorizes the holder to produce a stated quantity of groundwater; actual production can begin only after a drilling permit is granted. The District issues well permits, monitors production, measures water levels, models aquifer depletion, and samples water quality in its role of managing groundwater for nine counties.

The District cut its property tax rate for the third time in four years, lowering it to $0.0152 per $100 of valuation from $0.0154 as a result of prudent management. The average tax bill for a $50,000 home amounts to $7.70 a year for District constituents.

The average water level of the Ogallala Aquifer dropped 0.4 foot across the District over the past year, according to the 2004 winter level measurements. Actual water level changes ranged from a decline of 18 feet to a rise of 10 feet.

The measurement program gauges static groundwater levels, helping the District to assign decline values for income tax purposes and to assess potential risks in water projects.

Areas in Carson and Gray counties showed considerable declines. Significant declines have also developed in southwest Roberts County. Donley, Wheeler, and southeast Gray counties continue to show mixed reaction to pumping and rainfall patterns.

The board of directors spent much of its time in the most ambitious updating of District rules in its history. The overhaul reflected growing competition for water, improving science and new powers granted to groundwater districts in Senate Bills 1 and 2.

In May all but one of the rules were updated. As the end of the fiscal year approached the, final one – the Depletion Rule – was nearing adoption, completing nearly two years’ of work.

A trigger mechanism contained in the Depletion Rule will alert the District when water withdrawals exceed the acceptable annual rate of decline in the aquifer. This helps ensure that the District meets its 50/50 management standard – 50 percent of the aquifer must be left in 50 years from implementation (1998). This standard is the hallmark of the District’s management procedures.

The 1890 Donley County Courthouse will be featured in a documentary airing on PBS stations in Texas sometime next year.

Texas Foundation of the Arts President Jim Bailey and a cameraman were in Clarendon last Friday to film the Romanesque Revival style structure, which was the subject of a $3.9 million restoration between 2000 and 2003.

Bailey said a colleague at Texas Tech University had recommended he visit the local building and had called it “one of the finest courthouses in West Texas.”

Bailey and Sunset Productions have already made two documentaries on Texas courthouses. The first was 30 minutes long and featured 20 courthouses, and the second ran 60 minutes and covered 30 buildings. This latest documentary will also be 30 minutes but will feature only restored courthouses that were built during the Victorian Era up through the 1920s.

“A lot of people say, ‘Why don’t you do City Hall or municipal buildings?’ But there’s just something about the courthouse,” Bailey said. “In many ways it really is the capitol of the county. In the early days, every county tried to out do its neighbor’s courthouse.”

Bailey also said that many people don’t appreciate the importance or the appearance of something that is such a part of their lives everyday.

“It’s like one county judge whose courthouse burned told me, you don’t realize what you have until it’s gone,” Bailey said.

Production on the third documentary is expected to continue through next spring.

School finance will be the most important issue facing the Texas Legislature when it convenes next month, according Sen. Robert Duncan (R-Lubbock).

Speaking to a group of more than 30 citizens in the Donley County Courthouse Tuesday afternoon, Duncan said a recent district court decision declaring the Robin Hood system of school finance to be unconstitutional hasn’t affected his feelings on the issue. He already knew it was bad.

“I think it’s broken any way, and I don’t need a judge to tell me that.”

The senator said the state is facing three basic options when it comes to generating new revenues for schools. Shift the revenue from commercial property taxes to the state level, enact a new payroll tax, or broaden the corporate franchise tax.

Duncan said the first two options would not be equitable, but broadening the franchise tax could be equitable if the state closed loopholes, which allow some companies to avoid taxation.

“You’re looking at companies like SBC and Dell Computers,” he said. “These large businesses are not paying taxes to support our schools. We need to spread the base to pick up all sectors of the economy at a lower tax rate and reduce the property tax.”

Most businesses don’t mind paying their fair share of taxes provided their competitors are paying like they are, the senator said.

Duncan also said that the current funding formulas for sending money to schools benefits rural Texas because they were crafted when West Texas had more clout in Austin. He said there will be talk in the next legislative session of changing those formulas and of consolidating schools but said the state should be very careful in those areas.

Water will be another big issue facing the Legislature, Duncan said. He thinks a priority in that area should be to provide funding to assist communities in developing water projects such as pipelines, water treatment, and sewer treatment facilities.

Duncan also said he believes rural Texas needs to be ready for potential growth.

“I think we will see the next migration in this country from urban to rural areas as people flee the cities. You can only stack so many people in Dallas,” Duncan said. “We don’t even necessarily have to offer economic development money to bring them here. If we have the resources and the infrastructure, they will come.”

Careful management of groundwater supplies and reforming the workers’ compensation system are also priorities for the Legislature.

Duncan responded to questions from local citizens. He agreed with Clarendon Economic Development Corporation President Jerry Woodard that local EDCs need to be able to provide funds for infrastructure improvements – an ability which is restricted under legislation passed last year.

Duncan also responded to comments by City Administrator Sean Pate and Alderman Michael Tibbets by saying he thinks all taxing entities should have a voice on appraisal district boards and said his office would look into the matter further.

Clarendon Elementary students traveled to Shamrock to compete in the Fall UIL Literary Meet. 

The meet, which is held each fall, provides Clarendon Elementary students the opportunity to compete with the five other elementary schools in the 1A District.  This is the fourth consecutive year that the students in Clarendon have earned first place honors.

The students compete in a wide variety of events including oral reading, creative writing, storytelling, ready writing, number sense, spelling, listening skills, dictionary skills, art smart, music memory, and maps, graphs and charts.  Students from the second through the fifth grade compete in the contests.

The team results were Clarendon Elementary, 1st, 368 points; Wellington Elementary, 2nd, 278 points; Quanah Elementary, 3rd, 211 points; Claude Elementary, 4th, 179 points; Shamrock Elementary, 5th, 157 points; Memphis Elementary, 6th, 82 points.

“It was a tremendous accomplishment for our campus to have won the  meet by 90 points,” said Mike Word, Clarendon Elementary principal.  “It really proved that the hard work our students, coaches, and parents went through really paid off,”

Students who placed during the meet will be awarded medals, ribbons, and certificates at the UI Award Assembly before Christmas break.

Those earning recognition in their events were:

Second Grade: Creative Writing – Zachary LaRoe, 1st; Addison Warren, 3rd; and Kaylee Sciacca, 4th. Storytelling – Zachery Watson, 3rd.

Third Grade: Music Memory – (team) Minnie Buckhaults, Felicia Miller, Jessica Ceniceros, McKayla King, Emberlie Holland, 3rd. Ready Writing – Minnie Buckhaults, 2nd; Zachary Cornell, 5th; Ryan Starnes, 6th. Spelling – Savannah Topper, 4th. Storytelling – Camra Smith, 2nd.

Fourth Grade: Art Smart – (team) Audrey Shelton and Lee Cook, 3rd. Music Memory – (team) Kenzie Perryman, Maritta Brady, Gabby Rodriguez, McKabry Williams, and Jency Burton, 1st. Number Sense – Jentry Shadle, 3rd. Ready Writing: Jentry Shadle, 1st; Jency Burton, 4th. Spelling – Maritta Brady, 1st; Gabby Rodriguez, 3rd; Anna Ceniceros, 4th. Art Smart – (team) Gabby Rodriguez, Jentry Shadle, and Jenci Burton, 2nd.

Fifth grade: Dictionary Skills – Jordan Lune, 2nd; Skyler Greer, 6th tie. Listening Skills – Makayla Shadle, 1st; Skyler Greer, 3rd; Collin Dickinson, 4th. Maps, Graphs, and Charts – Jordan Luna, 1st, Skyler Greer, 6th tie. Music Memory – (team) Jerah Luna, Jordan Luna, Christine Johnson, Brooklyn Bailey, and Amber Keelin, 2nd. Oral Reading – Jordan Luna, 6th. Spelling – Jordan Luna, 4th; Mikayla Shadle, 5th.

Late Night Shopping continues this Thursday with several downtown merchants participating on Kearney Street until 8 p.m.

The Chamber of Commerce is supporting Late Night Shopping this year by giving away $100 in Christmas Cash each Thursday between now and Christmas. Shoppers can register from 5 p.m. to 7:45 p.m. at any participating Christmas Cash merchant, and the drawing will be held at 8 p.m. at the Chamber office.

That jolly old elf – St. Nicholas – will be on the loose downtown this Thursday. Kids are encouraged to come tell him all their wishes, and parents are reminded to bring their cameras to get those memorable photos.

Panhandle Transit is offering free transportation to and from the downtown area on December 2, 9, 16, and 23 from 5:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. to allow local residents to take advantage of the late shopping. 

Interested shoppers need to call Panhandle Transit at 874-2573 during regular office hours to make their bus reservations.

Late Night Shopping will continue December 16 and December 23; and beginning next week, several merchants will be sponsoring a wagon to give free rides to kids of all ages.

Support your local merchants this holiday season, and watch for their Christmas specials and holiday hours in the pages of the Enterprise.

The City of Clarendon is seeking input from the community and moving forward in the process of planning improvements at City Park following a public hearing last Wednesday evening at the Clarendon High School Auditorium.

Much of the discussion during the hearing centered on making improvements to the existing baseball fields in order to have better facilities for the community and for the high school teams.

“I know the school has an interest in the park for our teams, and as a parent I’m interested in seeing something done at the park,” said Clarendon ISD Superintendent Monty Hysinger.

An ad hoc committee of city, school, and economic development officials met twice prior to last week’s meeting to discuss proposed ideas for improvements.

“We’ve talked about a recreation complex with new ball fields, a walking trail, and a splash pad,” said City Administrator Sean Pate. “There would be something for everybody.”

Colby Waters of the Panhandle Regional Planning Commission (PRPC) gave an overview of two types of grants offered by the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department for which the city could apply.

A “Large Program Grant” provides up to $500,000 to renovate outdoor public recreation areas. The grant requires the city to have a master park plan and calls for a 50 percent match. Application deadlines are January 31 and July 31 of each year with awards made in August and January.

A “Small Communities Grant” provides up to $50,000 for ball fields, picnic facilities, playgrounds, and other items to communities with populations fewer than 20,000. This grant also requires a 50 percent match but does not require a master plan. Application must be made by January 31.

Funds and labor from the city and school as well as in-kind donations of labor and materials can be used for the match of the grant.

“Park grants are done on a competitive basis, and how successful you are depends on how everyone else in the state does,” Waters said. “You have started down the right path by getting several entities to work together.”

Waters said the 20 people who showed up at the hearing was a good indication of community support and said the PRPC can help the city with master planning and grant applications.

Hysinger said the condition of McClelland Field and of Hart-Moore Field are of immediate concern to the school.

“We can play softball on the Little League (Hart-Moore) field,” Hysinger said, “but we’d really like to see a true softball field, and I know a lot of parents are interested in helping. The dugouts (of McClelland Field) are also a big concern.”

Little League representative Stan Shelton asked if the volunteer hours put in by parents could be counted as in-kind match for the grants. Waters said that the Little League would need to keep detailed records about the volunteer work and that those efforts would benefit the grant application the most if they could be shown to be following some master plan for the area.

“If you can say (to the state), ‘We’ve done items one, two, and three, but we need your help with items four and five,’ that will be good,” Waters said.

Any improvements would have to be designed by an engineer, and all new equipment would have to meet the standards of the Americans with Disabilities Act, Waters said.

One course of action mentioned at the hearing was for the city to try to meet the January 31 deadline for a Small Communities Grant to fund improvements on one or more ball fields and then develop a master plan and apply for a Large Project Grant in July to fund other park improvements.

Other ideas put forth at the meeting were to create a plan that includes kids who aren’t just interested in sports and kids who live north of US 287 so they wouldn’t have to cross the highway in the summer.

The idea of building a skate park was revived again, and it was also suggested that Clarendon consider building an activity/recreation center similar to the one in Wellington.

CISD Athletic Director Gary Jack noted that the planned improvements could take many years to become reality, but he encouraged officials to move forward.

“It is definitely worth shooting for,” Jack said. “I’ve seen it happen before.”

City officials are asking citizens to fill out a survey found on page five of this week’s Enterprise to get their input on the proposed improvements.

The surveys are due back at City Hall by 5 p.m. on Friday, December 17, 2004.