Archives for May 2005

The American Legion and VFW have announced the times for the Memorial Day Services that will be held in Donley County

The American Legion will hold a service on Saturday, May 28, at 10:00 a.m. at Rowe Cemetery. The Clarendon Girl Scouts will raise the flag at Citizens Cemetery on Monday, May 30, at 10:00 a.m. Following at 11:00 a.m., the American Legion and Donley County VFW will hold a service at the Donley County War Memorial, located at the courthouse square.

Everyone is invited to attend.  Those attending are asked to bring their own chairs.

The main road into Howardwick will get a lot smoother this summer when at least half a mile of Rick Husband Boulevard is repaved.

Greenbelt Municipal & Industrial Water Authority will pay for and oversee the improvements.

“The road is on property owned by Greenbelt,” said water authority manager Bobbie Kidd. “It’s a city street, but Greenbelt owns a 100-foot right of way from the highway to Clarendon Point.”

Kidd said the water authority will tear out the old pavement and reshape the road using its own labor and equipment. A contractor will then lay down two courses of seal coat to make a new 30-foot roadway into the lakeside city.

The work will begin sometime in June and should be finished before July Fourth.

Kidd said how far the new paving goes will depend on the price the contractor sets, but he said the Greenbelt Board of Directors wants to see the road repaved from SH 70 to the main turnoffs to the Clarendon Country Club at Lowe Drive and Porter Drive.

Howardwick Mayor Nancy Davis said the city plans to pick up where Greenbelt’s new paving ends and use labor from the Department of Criminal Justice to patch more of Rick Husband Boulevard.

The Donley County Hospital District is looking for ways to cut costs as it begins work on its 2005-2006 budget and faces financial shortfall in this fiscal year.

But district officials say that the situation is not as bleak as it may first appear; and interim administrator Ron Wetzel and administrator-in-training Vicky Robertson agree that with board oversight and sound management, the overall financial status of the hospital district should improve.

“We can do it, but everybody is going to have to tighten their belts,” Robertson told a budget committee last Friday.

Medical Center Nursing Home will shed one fulltime LVN position and may cut some employee benefits, and the Associated Ambulance Authority may also cut some benefits. The hospital district operates both entities.

Three of four proposals for the nursing home call for cutting employee benefits but increase wages for all MCNH employees. One proposal calls for salary increases of three percent across the board; another calls for a $1-per-hour increase for LVNs, a 75 cents-per-hour increase for CNAs, three percent for all other employees; and a third calls for a $1-per-hour increase for LVNs, a 50 cents-per-hour increase for CNAs, three percent for all other employees, and decreases of $1,200 in the salaries for the assistant administrator and director of nurses.

That last option will put MCNH on a competitive level with other area nursing homes.

Robertson said no other nursing home positions could be cut and that eliminating the one LVN position would not affect the quality of care. Ambulance director Anita Aaron said her budget proposals would focus on cutting benefits.

“We’re being as frugal as we possibly can already; we’ve cut our budget the last three years,” Aaron told the Enterprise. “We’re going to do all that we can, and we’re all going to be okay.”

Hospital board members on the budget committee said the district has been operating at a loss for several years and has depleted its cash reserves, but they remained optimistic that the district could resolve its problems.

“I am convinced it is just a matter of working through this, and there is no reason to be negative,” said in-coming board member Bright Newhouse, who attended the committee meeting to get caught up on the situation.

Robertson this week said the district has approximately $98,000 in its cash management account, which doesn’t include the operating accounts of the nursing home and the ambulance service. Of that, some $93,000 is dedicated to a bond payment this September, which leaves the district with about $5,000.

The district’s ambulance service is reported to be operating in the black for this fiscal year, which ends June 30, 2005. MCNH, on the other hand, is facing a budget shortfall that Robertson said could be $80,000.

At press time, a staff meeting was scheduled for May 24 in which board members were expected to outline for MCNH employees the financial condition of the home and discuss solutions.

A called meeting of the board will be held next Tuesday to adopt one of the budget proposals to deal with the shortfall.

Hospital district tax revenue pays for bonded indebtedness for the nursing home and the ambulance barn, provides funds for indigent health care, subsidizes the ambulance service, and makes up for any deficits in the nursing home budget.

AUSTIN – Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn said last Friday that state sales tax revenue totaled $1.34 billion in April and said local governments will receive $455.7 million in May sales tax allocations, up 8.4 percent compared to May 2004.

Locally, the City of Clarendon collected a sales tax rebate of $27,978.73, a total 15.71 percent higher than the same period one year ago. Clarendon is now 4.07 percent ahead for sales tax rebates for the year to date.

Hedley and Howardwick both remain behind for the year and were both down again this month. Hedley’s rebate fell 3.56 percent to $522.16; and Howardwick dropped 1.66 percent to $803.04.

Statewide, Comptroller Strayhorn sent May sales tax allocations of $312.4 million to Texas cities, up 8.6 percent compared to May 2004. Calendar year-to-date, city sales tax allocations are up 7.3 percent compared to the same period last year.

May’s sales tax allocations to local governments represent March sales that were reported to the Comptroller in April by monthly tax filers, and January, February and March sales reported to the Comptroller in April by quarterly tax filers.

The City of Clarendon began advertising for bids this week for the 2005 proposed paving project.

Sealed bids will be opened and read aloud at City Hall on June 2 for 27,800 linear feet of two-course penetration paving and concrete curbs and gutters.

City engineer Michael Adams said the numbers correlate into an estimated 60 blocks of paving and roadways 30 feet wide inside the curbs. Depending on how hungry potential contractors are and on how quickly a winning bidder mobilizes, Adams said construction could begin three weeks after the bid is let.

Adams updated city aldermen on the paving project when the board held its regular meeting last Tuesday. Among the items discussed was the roadway at the intersection of Kearney St. and Wood Ave., which Adams said is not in the city’s right of way.

Board members agreed that the city should try to obtain easements for that intersection from the property owner but also said they would prefer to see that section of street eliminated from the program if it was going to cause any problems.

“The city does not want this to delay the program,” Mayor Tex Selvidge said.

Alderman Tommy Hill talked about the proposed roadway on Seventh Street and suggested it be shifted north because of some property owners’ concerns. But Aldermen Janice Knorpp and Bobbie Kidd disagreed.

“We can’t change things every time someone complains,” Kidd said. “If we do, we’ll be here for four years and still not get any paving.”

“Like hell,” the mayor responded. “We are going to get paving.”

In other city business, oathes of office were administered to Mayor Selvidge, Aldermen Kidd, Alderman Michael Tibbets, and Municipal Judge Jimmy Johnson. The judge reported that his office had collected about $48,000 in the last 12 months and returned some $12,000 to local businesses for collecting bad checks.

The board reappointed Alderman Mark White to serve as the city’s mayor pro-tem.

City Administrator Sean Pate reported that the federal Help America Vote Act does apply to municipalities and said the city would be required to have an electronic voting device for the next election. The mayor said the city would see about leasing one from the county or possibly contract with the county to conduct the city’s election.

The Donley County Sheriff’s Office is awaiting the results of an autopsy on an inmate who died in its custody as the Enterprise goes to press this week.

Chief Deputy Randy Bond said Joseph Linden Williams was arrested Sunday night at Clarendon’s Best Western hotel after he hung blankets out the window and tore up the room he was staying in. The Denver, Colo., man was acting erratically before being charged with disorderly conduct and booked into the Donley County Jail.

Bond said Williams, age 43, remained hyperactive all night. At 8:45 Monday morning, staff noticed he was unresponsive and called for medical assistance. EMS personnel with the Associated Ambulance Authority responded but were unable to revive the inmate.

Justice of the Peace Jimmy Johnson pronounced Williams dead at 9:17 a.m. and ordered an autopsy to be conducted at the Texas Tech University Medical Center in Lubbock on Tuesday morning.

Sheriff Butch Blackburn was in Lubbock for the autopsy, but final results of that procedure won’t be known for four to six weeks.

Bond said a Texas Ranger had investigated Williams’ death Monday and found no signs of foul play. Pending the autopsy results, officials say Williams appears to have died by natural causes.