Archives for April 2005

Area residents are once again promised a full slate of free health screening as well as financial advice at the “Good Health, Much Wealth-Your Choice-Health Fair” scheduled for this Thursday, April 28, at the Bairfield Activity Center from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

The health and wealth task force continues its commitment to providing easy access to information and services in a day at one location.

Last year’s health and wealth fair  saved the public in excess of $32,000 on free health screens and financial services. Each year the services are expanded, and this year is no exception.

Administering screening such as glucose, cholesterol, prostate, hemoglobin and blood pressure will be a collaborative effort by the Donley County Hospital District, Associated Ambulance Authority, Clarendon Family Medical Clinic, the Medical Center Nursing Home, and the Northwest Texas Healthcare System. Individuals taking advantage of blood tests are encouraged to fast for 12 hours prior to the screens to ensure more accurate results.

Bone Density screening is being offered at the fair this year through Clarendon Family Medical Center and Texas Tech University Medical Center.

Stroke Prevention Plus is offering three different screenings for the following: Stroke, Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm, and Peripheral Vascular Disease. Each screening is $35.00 or all three exams for $95.

Region 16 Education Service Center’s Early Childhood Intervention will be available for children’s health screening, Advanced Hearing Technologies will be performing hearing tests; Home Sleep Diagnostics, Ltd., will have screening for sleep disorders; and Coffee Memorial Blood Center will be accepting whole blood donations.

For more information, contact the Donley County Extension office at 806-874-2141.

Billy Chadwick is the new ruler of the roost following his coronation as the 2005 Donley County Turkey King last Saturday.

Chadwick easily defeated Janie Hill and Gay Tibbets to claim the crown and succeed former king Tommy Hill as part of the annual Donley County Turkey Strut Festival.

Chadwick also led the field of candidates when his team won the mattress race down Kearney Street.

But the king fell short when it came to the costume competition. Tibbets took top honors in that category with Hill coming in second.

In other activities, Harlo Burlin won the kids’ competition for the best turkey costume, and Destination Donley County Tourism officials say they raised about $500 to help attract visitors to the local community.

Donley County citizens spoke in favor of a proposal to reduce the number of polling places available to local voters during a public hearing last Thursday.

 Faced with a costly federal mandate to install Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) machines in each polling place by January 1, 2006, county commissioners have proposed consolidating voting boxes within their four precincts to bring the total number of boxes from nine to five.

County Judge Jack Hall told the citizens that he didn’t think there was anything wrong with the way Donley County conducts its elections but that changes are being forced by the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA), which requires all counties to have one accessible voting machine in each polling place by January 1, 2006.

“I think our voting system works just fine,” Hall said, “but we’ve been told that we have to change.”

HAVA requires a system to be in place that allows voters to view and correct their ballots, alerts voters of an over vote or under vote, accepts votes from voters with a full range of disabilities.

DREs are expected to cost $5,500 each in addition to the cost for software, setup, and special apparatuses for the blind.

Commissioners have proposed consolidating Box 103 at Martin Baptist Church with Box 101 at the Bairfield Activity Center, Box 301 at the Clarendon Community Center and Box 302 at Lelia Lake with Box 303 at the Hedley Lions Hall, and Box 402 at the McClellan residence with Box 401 at Community Bank. Boxes 201 at the Courthouse and 102 at Howardwick City Hall would be left unchanged.

During the hearing, resident Linda Kay Bell asked officials what other counties have done to deal with HAVA. The answer was that some counties have already consolidated, and County Clerk Fay Vargas had heard of one county that had redrawn their precinct lines so that they intersected at the county courthouse, thus creating the need for just one polling place and one DRE.

Donley County can’t do that at this time, officials said, since precinct lines are only redrawn following each decennial US Census.

County Republican Chairman Tom Stauder said, “I think it would be sad if we had to spend all this money and only three people used it.”

Stauder also urged commissioners to consolidate to four voting places to keep the cost as low as possible.

Resident Ron Lamberth raised concerns about the unit price for PCs and printers presented at the meeting, but county officials said they are required to use only vendors who have been certified by the State of Texas.

Other citizens offered alternative suggestions about the numbers and locations of polling places, including consolidating all of Precinct 1 at the Bairfield Activity Center, closing the voting boxes at Martin and Howardwick, and consolidating Precinct 3 boxes at Lelia Lake, closing those boxes in Clarendon and Hedley.

Alternatively, citizens suggested maintaining two boxes in Precinct 3 with one in Clarendon and one in either Lelia Lake or Hedley.

Box 303 in Hedley was the third busiest polling place in the county during the 2004 election, drawing 169 voters on Election Day compared to 127 voters at Box 102 at Howardwick City Hall and 245 voters at Box 201 at the Courthouse.

The only commonality between the commissioners’ proposal and the ideas put forth by citizens at the hearing was that the county should definitely consolidate boxes to save money and that Box 402 at the McClellan House in northern Donley County, which only had 19 voters in 2004, should definitely be consolidated with Box 401 at Community Bank in Clarendon.

Six citizens and five county officials attended last week’s hearing. Commissioners will discuss the issue further in a called meeting this Friday at 1:30 p.m.

Clarendon College has settled its lawsuit against Reynosa Construction of Amarillo last week, according to information presented at Thursday’s Board of Regents meeting.

CC had sued the contractor of the college’s newest residence hall last August, claiming that Reynosa performed faulty and defective work and “failed to construct the building specified in the contract in accordance with the plans, specifications, and contract documents.”

CC President Myles Shelton said, under the terms of the settlement, Reynosa’s bonding company will pay the college $368,000 of which $93,000 is retainage from construction that will come back to the college. The remaining $275,000 will go toward repairing the building.

“It should be sufficient to repair the EIFS around the new dormitory and to resolve issues with the showers and pay all the legal bills,” Shelton said.

EIFS is a multi-layered synthetic stucco-like material covering the trim and columns of Regents Hall.

Shelton said Quality Ceramic of Amarillo is already working on the defective shower stalls, and Shadle Construction of Clarendon will start this week to make drywall repairs related to the showers.

Bids for the work to repair the defective EIFS are due next week, and that work will be done this summer.

“We’re excited to get this issue behind us,” Shelton said.

In other college business, regents approved an RFP from AMA•TechTel Communications to provide Internet service to the college and its satellite campus in Pampa.

Shelton said CC’s current Internet service, which is routed through the CC Pampa Center, is at capacity and is experiencing a lot of degradation during peak times of usage.

AMA’s proposal will supply much-needed bandwidth inside and outside the classrooms and will include installation of separate wireless “pipes” to the Internet from the Clarendon and Pampa campuses. The two campuses will also be tied together via a third connection, which will provide a back-up route to the Internet in case one of the main connections is down.

The new Internet connections will be installed between the spring semester and the first summer session. A separate RFP, which is due next month, will connect resident hall rooms to the Internet.

Regents extended the college district’s depository bid with Herring Bank for two years.

The board also voted in favor of rehiring the faculty for the 2005-2006 school year. Contracts were offered to Charla Crump, Gene Denney, Pam Denney, Doak Elledge, Russell Estlack, Scarlet Estlack, Cynthia Ewing, Skip Frazier, Cory Hall, Jan Haynes, Rusty Kennedy, Vickie Liles, Jimidene Murphey, Darryl Perryman, Jonea Rima, Chad Smith, Tony Starnes, DeWayne Stephens, Leslie Stoker, Linda Thompson, Michael Tibbets, John Treichel, Laban Tubbs, Frank Vance, Larry Wiginton, and Ken Wilson.

Contracts were also offered to Ashley Faulkner, Bill Huey, Brian Kuhnert, Sharron Rust, and Gay Tibbets

The Clarendon College Ex-Students Association bestowed its new Distinguished Alumnus Award on three former students during the 67th annual Alumni Reunion last Saturday in the Bairfield Activity Center.

J. Royce Lummus, Roger Estlack, and the late R.E. Drennan were each recognized for professional and personal achievements, civic responsibility, and continuing interest in Clarendon College.

Lummus graduated from CC in 1940, moved to Corpus Christi, and joined Southwestern Bell Telephone Company, where he worked as an engineer. During his career he was responsible for developing computer methods for equipment and trunking requirements. He retired in 1986 after 46 years with Southwestern Bell.

Throughout the years, Lummus, who now lives in San Antonio, has remained a strong supporter of Clarendon College and regularly attends the association’s annual reunion. He has also provided assistance and advice in keeping the ex-students’ database updated.

Roger Estlack graduated in 1991 and purchased what is now known as The Clarendon Enterprise in 1995. During the last nine years, he has led the newspaper to be recognized numerous times by regional and state press associations and has received one award from the National Newspaper Association.

Maintaining a family heritage of supporting Clarendon College, Estlack has worked to promote the college and served on various committees for CC. He has attended the annual reunions regularly since the 1970s, has served the ex-students board since 1991, and served as its president for several years.

R.E. Drennan attended Clarendon College in the 1920s and taught in the Jericho school before earning his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Oklahoma. He returned to Donley County where he taught in the Lelia Lake and Clarendon school systems and ultimately became the principal of Clarendon High School and dean of Clarendon College, which at that time were on the same campus.

Drennan became one of CC’s most admired administrators and was known for his love of music. He retired after some 30 years in education but continued to serve his community in the role of county judge and as a member of the CC Board of Regents. He passed away in 1985. His award was accepted Saturday by his daughter, Mrs. Ethelyn Grady.

Also during this year’s reunion, the Clarendon College Multicultural Club presented a memorial brick for the Alumni Courtyard to the family of the late Gwendolyn King Austin, who was one of the first black students to attend Clarendon College in the 1960s. Her award was accepted by her daughter, Robin Austin.

Other activities this weekend were the recognition of and presentation of Golden Diplomas to members of the Class of 1955; special remarks delivered by Class of 1955 members Johnny Brumley, Shirley Bulman, and Jack Moreman; recognition of current outstanding CC students; and remarks on the current thoughts about higher education by CC President Myles Shelton.

An estimated 200 alumni, students, parents, and faculty attended this year’s alumni banquet.

Ex-Student officers elected for the coming year during the Saturday morning business meeting include President Jewel Houston, Vice President Annis Stavenhagen, Secretary Hazel Guy, and directors Charla Crump, Neva Spier, and Mary Neil Risley. Also serving on the board are directors Ethelyn Grady and Frankie Henson and immediate past president Roger Estlack.

“Who will be the next Turkey King?” is the question on the minds of local residents as Clarendon prepares to host the annual Donley County Turkey Strut this Saturday.

Billy Chadwick has closed the gap and now leads the race to be the 2005 Donley County Turkey King. The official tally at press time had Chadwick ahead of Janie Hill by $123.02 to $122.59.

The field of other leading candidates has narrowed to Gay Tibbets in third place with $44.95 and Larinda Brown in fourth place with $15.45.

Polls at Lowe’s Family Center, JD Steakout, and The Clarendon Outpost will close at 3 p.m. on Saturday, and the new Turkey King will be crowned at 5:30 p.m.

Activities will begin at 3:00 p.m. when the contestants meet for the costume contest. The audience will need to gather on the side of 287 as they “strut the runway” between Kearney and Sully from the Donley County State Bank to KEFH. 

At 3:30 p.m. the pet contest will begin. All pets must be dressed in their best turkey strut outfit for judging. From 4-5 p.m., activities will be in the parking lot downtown, including a turkey egg obstacle golf course, Hula Hoop contest, and Turkey Toss. The big turkey mattress race begins at 5:00.

Destination Donley County Tourism is sponsoring the Turkey Strut, and proceeds go to promote Donley County.

The Clarendon Board of Aldermen were presented a map of the proposed streets for the 2005 street paving program when they met in regular session April 12.

City engineers Che Shadle and Michael Adams spoke to the board concerning the street paving project and presented them with a map showing the 66 streets that may be included in the street paving which could begin in early June.

The city will be going out for bids around the first of May; and, depending on how the bids come in, the number of streets being paved may change.

“I just want to forewarn you all these streets we have marked may not get done,” Shadle said. “But the more streets we show the lower the price will be; then we can back down the number if we need to.”

“We’re going to do as much as we can,” Alderman Janice Knorpp said.

In other city business, Sheriff Butch Blackburn addressed the board concerning the emergency siren systems, and they discussed on what intervals to blow the siren so it would not be complicated.

“We’ve got our new siren up, and I want to make sure we’re all on the same page,” Blackburn said.

The board decided that for threatening weather the sirens will be blown for one minute every ten minutes; and if a tornado is spotted on the ground, the sirens will be blown continuously.

The board also considered taking action concerning city propane inspections but decided to table discussion.

Graduates of Clarendon College will reunite during the 67th Annual Ex-Students Reunion on Saturday, April 16.

This year’s theme, The 50s, is in honor of the 1955 graduating class. As a special honor, 1955 graduates will receive a Clarendon College Golden Diploma. The graduating classes of 1970, 1975, 1980, and 1985 will also be recognized.

The reunion begins with registration and brunch at 10 a.m., in the Bairfield Activity Center. A brief alumni association business meeting will follow at 11:15 a.m.

Between 12:30 p.m. and 2:30 p.m., guests will tour campus facilities such as the Livestock and Equine Center, Baseball and Softball fields, Vera Dial Dickey Library, Regents Hall, and Southwest Hall. Visits to the town of Clarendon include the newly renovated courthouse, the “Jewel of the Plains,” and a visit to the Saints’ Roost Museum.

A silent auction will be available in the Vera Dial Dickey Library from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m., and 6 p.m. until 6:45 p.m. The Alumni banquet begins at 6 p.m. in the Bairfield Activity Center.

All Clarendon College ex-students, faculty, and friends are invited to attend. Cost for brunch is by donation only. Tickets to the banquet are $10. Guests are encouraged to RSVP for the banquet by noon, Friday, April 15, by calling 806-874-4813.

Also this weekend, CC will honor 44 outstanding students of the 2004-2005 academic year during the 67th Annual Ex-Students Association banquet Saturday, April 16, 2005.

The following students will be honored: Biology – Max Simon of Pampa; Lindsey Schofield of Dallas; Callie Crouch of Pampa; and Tammie Blue of Canadian; Business – Katie Buenger of Bellville; COSC (Computers) –Jared Fletcher of Elk City, Okla; Music & Fine Arts – Gary Utsey of Clarendon and Scarlett Sperry of Quitaque; Government – Jerilyn Brooks of Pampa and Amanda Ferguson of Clarendon; Speech –Sandi Anderson of McLean and Natasha Robinson of Wheeler; English – Whitney Warrior of Bunch, Okla.; Jeri Ragsdale of Childress; and Chelsea Harada of Amarillo; History – Tennessee Brown of Brock and Audra Smith of Silverton; Horse Judging – MikaJo Polomski of Silver City, New Mexico, and Matthew Cruse of Happy; Equine Science – Mary Stuary Womack of Eustace and Leeya Davis of Glen Rose; Theatre – Scarlett Sperry of Quitaque and Christi Jones of Childress; Accounting –Ryan Flavell of Sydney, Australia; Troy McDonald of Pierson, Fla.; and Amanda Ferguson of Clarendon; Organic Chemistry – Kevin Green of Clarendon; Math – Kasandra Gurtner of Cimarron, Kan. and Paula Harry of Victoria, Australia; Meats – Justin Myers of Aspermont and Brandon Borgdtedt of Waller; Livestock – Cassi Matejovsky of Tucson, Ariz., and Tonya Lane of League City; Men’s Basketball – Julio Mike Sanchez of San Antonio; Ed Miles of Dallas; Rick Hamilton of Houston; and Stanley Titsworth of Muskogee, Okla.; Women’s Basketball – Lauren Hill of Hedley and Meghan Hyde of Mabank; Volleyball – Aleia Paden of Dallas; Softball –Michelle Martin of Flower Mound; and Rodeo – Troy McDonald of Pierson, Fla., and Brad Koepke of Lakeview.