Archives for September 2005

By Kari Lindsey, Clarendon Enterprise

The annual Community Chicken BBQ was held in Hedley last Thursday, August 25, and helping with the event was Doyle Messer, a life long Hedley resident, was one of the first ones to start the chicken barbecue in 1960.

“It started out being a celebration for the Lions Club members only. I thought it would be nice to honor everyone in the community that helped support the Cotton Festival,” stated Doyle Messer.

Henry Moore was the one who mainly did the cooking, but Doyle was there to help. A few years later, Doyle took the head responsibility of the barbecue. The barbecue goes on rain or shine. Long ago tickets cost $1.50, and they broke even on the price. They had no sponsors back then, just a group of men wanting to do nice things for others. This year over twenty sponsors helped to make the day complete. Doyle and his crew cooked 700 chicken halves on Thursday.

Messer, now 82 years old, has been a part of every single barbecue. He recently turned over the head responsibilities to fellow Lions Club member, Lon Adams; but Doyle is still there to help. The chicken barbecue now has sponsors that help make the event possible.

By no means is this endeavor a one-day event. There are days of preparation getting ready for the barbecue. Doyle was there preparing in 1960, and he spent the entire day at Hedley School on Thursday, making sure the barbecue was a huge success.

Also helping make the barbecue a huge success this year were sponsors White Farms, Herring Bank, Donley County Gin, Greenbelt Peanut, Scooter’s, Messer Law Firm, Moffitt Hardware, Reynolds Machine, Memphis Thriftway, Ward Electric, Community Bank, Donley County State Bank, Evans Fertilizer, J&W Lumber, Koetting Automotive, Western Equipment, First Bank & Trust, Fowler Insurance, Memphis Compress, and Red River Irrigation. Hedley Lion Lon Adams stated, “We really appreciate all the support given to the Lions Club and to the community of Hedley.”

Close to 550 people attended the barbecue this year.

The chickens are turned every 15 minutes unless Mr. Messer tells them different. When you start losing at dominoes, it is time turn the chickens quickly. If you are winning, the time between might be a little longer.

Many hands go into the preparation of the chicken barbecue. Workers come from Clarendon, Hedley, Lelia Lake and surrounding areas to prepare the meal. Many students of Hedley High School also spend a great part of the day helping out.

Three Clarendon businesses were burgled last week, and the Donley County Sheriff’s Department is continuing its investigation.

Sheriff Butch Blackburn said his office was called at 6 a.m. last Wednesday, August 24, after Frank Hommel discovered his “Sam Hill” Pit BBQ restaurant had been robbed.

Blackburn said the suspects gained entry through the rear door and got away with a small amount of cash. Considerable damage was done to the restaurant’s cash register, which contained no money.

Investigators checked the neighboring Asian Café to find that someone had also gained entry through that establishment’s backdoor, but the owners could find nothing missing.

And at about 8 a.m., Blackburn said it was discovered that the burglaries had also hit the nearby Country Bloomers Flowers & Gifts and gotten away with a considerable amount of cash.

Blackburn said he believes the suspects will turn out to be locals, and he asks anyone with knowledge of these crimes to call his office at 874-3533.

Lower property valuations prompted the Clarendon Board of Aldermen to propose an increase in the city’s property tax rate during their regular meeting last Tuesday

If approved, the new rate would be one cent higher than last year at $0.49555 per $100 valuation and would generate approximately $3,800 in new revenue for the city.

Mayor Tex Selvidge told the board that keeping last year’s rate would mean the city would lose money because property values in the city had fallen by more than $250,000. The Donley Appraisal District said the drop was largely due to changes in valuations for property owned by American Electric Power and Cebridge Communciations.

Alderman Michael Tibbets expressed concern about raising the taxes too much, and Alderman Janice Knorpp said the city could not afford to go backwards when already facing a budget crunch.

Mayor Selvidge said he thought it was better for a local government to increase its tax rate a little bit every year rather than get in a situation where they had to go up a lot all at once. He told Tibbets that he may not like raising taxes, but future boards would thank him for doing it.

“I remember when I became mayor the first time [in the late 1970s], and we had to double the tax rate from 25 cents to 50 cents,” Selvidge said. “I felt like Gary Cooper in High Noon.”

The board unanimously approved proposing the higher rate. A public hearing will be held September 13 before finalizing the rate.

In other city business, aldermen approved Ordinance 357 increasing garbage rates. Effective October 1, 2005, residential garbage rates will increase $1 per account, commercial rates will increase $1 per Dumpster, and Greenbelt Water Authority’s rate will be $2,500 per month.

The board also approved Ordinance 358, which increases the deposit for water service from $50 to $125. That new rate also takes effect October 1, and Alderman Tommy Hill opposed the increase.

Aldermen also awarded the bid for the city’s workers’ compensation, general liability, and other property insurance coverages to the Texas Municipal League Risk Pool.

Bob McCombs was on the agenda to discuss a complaint regarding dust from the street paving project, but he said his complaint had already been taken care of, and he thanked Alderman Mark White and City Superintendent Jim Roberts.

The aldermen approved Ordinance 359 as presented by City Attorney James Shelton, establishing a Municipal Court Building Security Fund as provided by state law. A fee of three dollars will be assessed on any defendant convicted of a misdemeanor in municipal court.

The aldermen approved Sharon Knox and Gail Shelton as members of the executive council of the Burton Library’s advisory board. Freddie Jo Moreman will replace Jim Douglas as a lay representative.

The board considered and rejected an increase in the telephone access line rate.

Aldermen discussed taking the power of hiring, firing, and setting salaries away from the city administrator and returning that power permanently to the board.

Alderman Tibbets said he wanted to insure those powers remain with the board in the future, and Alderman Hill agreed, saying he thought five heads were better than one.

Alderman Bobbie Kidd disagreed, saying he wouldn’t take the job if those powers weren’t included, and he sided with Aldermen White and Knorpp in defeating two motions by Tibbets to reserve all or part of those powers to the board.

Fifty years ago, the late Gary Barnhill invited all of Donley County to enjoy “an evening of pleasure” for the formal opening of the Sandell Drive-In, and now John Morrow has reissued that same invitation as the theatre celebrates its golden anniversary this weekend.

It was Labor Day weekend in 1955 when Barnhill opened the Sandell, which he had named for his daughters, Sandra and Adele. The Donley County Leader reported that Barnhill had installed “the latest drive-in theatre equipment in order to offer the best in movie entertainment.”

The drive-in actually opened a week earlier, but the Sandell’s grand opening was held on September 11, 1955, with Shane, starring Alan Ladd and Jean Arthur, “in color,” as its feature presentation.

“I wish I had something appropriate to pay tribute to Gary,” Morrow said. “He did a whale of a job building the theatre. I’ve looked at a lot of other old drive-ins, and the only one that can compare to ours is in Midway, and I later learned that it was built patterned on the Sandell. There are 85 tons of steel in its structure.”

The Sandell Drive-In Theatre was operated by Barnhill for 29 years, generating many fond memories before it was closed in 1984.

It then sat unused for 18 years, until Morrow reopened it in 2002 after a chance conversation in a Dallas restaurant named Sandella’s and a string of events and conversations made it clear to him that he should be the one to open the theatre.

The façade got a fresh coat of pink paint, and a new ticket booth was installed. Morrow also installed new projection equipment, remodeled the concession stand, and re-opened the drive-in on Labor Day weekend that year.

“This is our third anniversary too,” Morrow said, “and I hope the people have enjoyed it as much as I have. I see the kids come out. Their faces just light up, and that makes me smile.”

As Barnhill did in 1955, Morrow also invites visitors to the snack bar. Golden anniversary specials this weekend include 50-cent hot dogs, 50-cent soft drinks, and 50-cent popcorn.

Morrow said Barnhill gave him lots of advice as he worked to bring the drive-in back. “Don’t put French fries in the concession stand; the grease is too much trouble. Stick with chips,” the old manager told him. And also, “Don’t charge by the carload.”

Since the re-opening in 2002, the Sandell has welcomed new and former customers with a nostalgic atmosphere that harkens back to the simpler times when Elvis was the hottest thing in music and everybody liked Ike. Except now a transmitter allows move-goers to listen to the show on their car radio instead of hanging the speaker through a window.

“It’s been pretty fun just to do it two nights a week,” Morrow said. “I can’t imagine what it was like for Gary to do it every night.”

Morrow hopes everyone will come out to the drive-in this weekend and join the anniversary celebration, and he’s got just the right movie to set the mood.

Acclaimed as the most successful Western of the 1950s and nominated for six Academy Awards, Shane will return to the Sandell’s big screen this Friday and Saturday in a double feature with Warner Brothers’ modern motion picture, The Dukes of Hazzard, starring Johnny Knoxville and Jessica Simpson.

Gates open at 8 p.m. this Friday and Saturday, Shane rolls at 9 p.m. Tickets for the show are $5 for adults and $4 for children under 12 and seniors over 65.