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Archives for October 2006

Florine Butler Stephens Bennett

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Florine Butler Stephens Bennett, 89, died Sunday, October 22, 2006, at Amarillo, Texas.

Services were held at 2:00 p.m. Thursday, October 26, 2006, in the Church of Christ in Clarendon with Eddie Stegall, Minister, and Don Stone, Church of Christ Minister, officiating.  Burial was at Memorial Park Cemetery in Amarillo.  Services were under the direction of Robertson Funeral Directors, Inc., of Clarendon.

Mrs. Bennett was born January 24, 1917, in Deeplake to J.H. and Mattie Anthony Butler.  She married Elbert Stephens on January 3, 1939, at Memphis. He preceded her in death in March 1969. She married Bill Bennett on October 13, 1970, at Amarillo.  She had been a resident of Clarendon and Donley County since 1974.  She was a homemaker and member of the Church of Christ in Clarendon. Special thanks Dr. Amit Trehan and staff at BSA Hospital.

Mrs. Bennett is preceded in death by her parents; two brothers, and one sister.

Survivors include, her husband, Bill Bennett of Clarendon; one daughter, Betty Parr and husband Lonnie of Amarillo; one son, Jimmy Bennett and wife Oleta of Amarillo; five grandchildren, Vay Ender, Keith Parr, Steve Parr and wife Misti, and Larry Bennett, all of Amarillo, Rhonda Bennett of Lubbock; three great-grandchildren, T.C. Parr, Arian Parr, and Austin Parr

Memorials can be made to the High Plains Children’s Home.

Ina Mae Hardy

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Ina Mae Hardy, 44, died Thursday, October 19, 2006, in Amarillo. Services were held at 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday, October 24, 2006, in Robertson Chapel of Memories with Rev. Jeff Riles of Amarillo, officiating.  Services were under the direction of Robertson Funeral Directors, Inc.

Cremation took place at City View Crematory in Vega.

Ms. Hardy was born February 5, 1962, in Amarillo and was a resident of Indiana before moving to Donley County 12 years ago.  She married Jimmy Boyd January 5, 2001.  She was employed at Allsups Convenience Store in Clarendon for the past several years.  She was a nondenominational church member.

Ms. Hardy was preceded in death by her mother, Iris Harbour and a brother, Billy Hardy.

Survivors include her husband, Jimmy Boyd; her step-father, Robert Harbour; children; Jerry Hardy and wife Rachel, Thomas Boyd and wife Nicole, Jimmy Boyd Jr., Tina Holmes and husband Billy, Tamara Boyd and husband Kevin; brothers, Greg Hardy and wife Kim, Phillip Harbour and wife Lisa, Tommy Harbour and husband Ron, Anna Chandler, Milly Beal, Tina Johnson, Debbie Harbour; 10 grandchildren; and several aunts, uncles, nieces, and nephews.

Shirley Ruth McKinney

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Shirley Ruth McKinney, 62, died October 22, 2006, at Amarillo Texas.

Services were held at 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday, October 25, 2006, in Robertson Chapel of Memories with Rev. Bryan Knowles, Baptist Minister, and Rev. Robert Burns, Assembly of God Minister, and Rev. Matt Stidham, Pastor of the Clarendon Assembly of God Church, officiating.  Services were under the direction of Robertson Funeral Directors, Inc., of Clarendon.

Interment was held at the Citizens Cemetery in Clarendon.

Mrs. McKinney was born January 28, 1944, in Paris, Texas, to Lee Roy and Edna Bernice Bird Johnson.  She had been a resident of Donley County most of her life.  She married Frankie Gene McKinney in November 1965 at Clarendon.  She had worked as an LVN at Medical Center Nursing Home for 10 years prior to her retirement.  She was a homemaker and a member of the Community Fellowship Church in Clarendon.

Survivors include her husband, Frankie McKinney of Clarendon; one son, Chris McKinney of Clarendon; one sister, Carol Jones of Amarillo; two brothers, Don Johnson of Canadian and Jerry Johnson of Mound Ridge, Kansas; several nieces, nephews, great nieces and nephews; and great great nieces and nephews.

Pallbearers were Byron Burrow, Gary Vinson Jr., Joseph Yankie, Jonathan Yankie, Andrew Vinson, and Michael Shadle.

Honorary Bearers were Ron Burleson and Doug Burleson.

Memorials can be made to American Diabetes Assn. or Juvenile Diabetes Assn.

Ethel “Evelyn” Mauck

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Ethel “Evelyn” Mauck, 82, died Wednesday, October 18, 2006, in Amarillo. Services were held at 2:00 p.m. on Friday, October 20, 2006, in First Assembly of God in Memphis with Rev. Mike Davis, Pastor, and Rev. Daniel Downey, Pastor of the First Baptist Church in Memphis, officiating. Burial was at North Fairview Cemetery in Memphis.  Services were under the direction of Robertson Funeral Directors, Inc.

Mrs. Mauck was born July 9, 1924, in Plaska to Louis H. Greeson and Minnie Ethel Thomason Greeson.  She married Robert Mauck on July 17, 1940, in Hall County.  She was a member of the First Assembly of God in Memphis.

Mrs. Mauck is preceded in death by her parents; her husband; 2 brothers; 1 sister, and one son-in-law. 

Survivors include 2 daughters, Barbara Moore and husband Sonny of Amarillo, and Sandra Newbrough of Memphis; 4 grandchildren, Dion Moore, Stacy Moore, David Newbrough and wife Sherry, Melissa Shelton, and husband Jeff; 7 great-grandchildren; Kegan Moore, Colby Newbrough, Kaylee Newbrough, Clint Newbrough, Rodie Shelton, Eli Shelton, and Kamren Shelton.

Memorials can be made to the Fairview Cemetery Association, First Assembly of God in Memphis, or a favorite charity.

Sara E Rhea

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Sara E Rhea, 81, died October 18,2006. Services were held at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday at Trinity United Methodist Church with Rev. Scott Richards officiating. Services were under the direction of Schooler Funeral Home.  The family received visitors at the funeral home Friday evening.

Mrs. Rhea was born in Clarendon to Charles and Janie Lowry.  She graduated from Clarendon High School and attended the University of Colorado at Boulder.  She was a longtime member of Trinity United Methodist Church and an active member in the women’s group, UMW.

Survivors include her two daughters; Kathy Bullard of Spring, TX, and Melissa Tague of Amarillo, TX; her son, Don Michael Rhea and his wife Peggy of Amarillo, TX; her brother, Sam Lowry of Clarendon, TX; seven grandchildren, Brent, Melanie, Krista, Amanda, Kyle, Aaron, and Elizabeth; and four great grandchildren, Ashleigh, MyKayla, Autumn, and Sara Grace.

Memorials can be made to “Olivia’s Angels” c/o BSA Hospice P.O. Box 950 Amarillo, Texas 79176 or Trinity UMC 3402 South Jackson, Amarillo, TX 79109

Patricia Ruth Land Scroggins

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Patricia Ruth Land Scroggins, 70, died Sunday, October 22, 2006, at Memphis. Services and interment were held at 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday, October 24, 2006, in Rowe Cemetery in Hedley with Rev. Lance Wood, Pastor of the First Baptist Church in Clarendon, and Patrick Robertson, officiating. Services were under the direction of Robertson Funeral Directors, Inc., of Clarendon.

Mrs. Scroggins was born in Hedley, Donley County, Texas to Jack and Mary Magdaline “Maggie” McCalister Land.  She had been a resident of Donley County for more than 40 years.  She married Billy Ray Scroggins in 1955 at Las Vegas, Nevada.  He preceded her in death in 1991.  She had worked as a bookkeeper, landscaper, and most recently as a nurses’ aide at Medical Center Nursing Home in Clarendon prior to her retirement.  She was a member of the First Baptist Church in Clarendon.

Survivors include one daughter, Lynda Mattingly and husband James of Tulsa, Oklahoma; one son, Sam Martin of Amarillo; and a grandson, Billy Jack Mattingly of Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Memorials may be made to the Rowe Cemetery Association.

Extension researcher studies local creek

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VERNON – Elevated levels of bacteria in streams can affect water quality, the health of the aquatic ecosystem, and activities such as fishing, swimming and wading, a Texas Agricultural Experiment Station researcher said.

Dr. John Sij, Experiment Station agronomist in Vernon, and his team are working on what might possibly be a showcase study for Texas. He and his team are measuring water quality of a rangeland watershed, part of which falls in Donley County.

“This may be one of the first efforts on small streams such as this to get scientific involvement from Step 1, the impairment, through the entire process of identifying the sources of non-point pollution and looking for solutions through a watershed management plan,” Sij said.

Working on the project with Sij are Phyllis Dyer, research technician; Mark Belew, research associate; and Cody Pope, research technician. 

As a part of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality’s Clean Rivers Program, limited testing was conducted on Buck Creek in the southeast corner of the Texas Panhandle. Tests showed bacterial levels (E. coli) in the water there were sometimes elevated, indicating a potential water quality problem, Sij said.

Landowners and the Soil and Water Conservation District were concerned that possible government regulations could impact agriculture without knowing the source and scope of the contamination, Sij said. The Texas Soil and Water Conservation Board and Texas Water Resources Institute were contacted. The two entities requested the Experiment Station at Vernon conduct a three-year study to determine the degree of impairment and possible solutions, he said.

Any pollution of the water would be regulated under the Clean Water Act, enforced by the Environmental Protection Agency.  The first steps were to define the problem, Sij said. The creek is spring-fed from a rural watershed, which includes crops and grazing lands.

Buck Creek is part of the Red River Basin. Located in the subwatershed of the Lower Prairie Dog Fork of the Red River, it is an unclassified freshwater stream, he said. The watershed is 289 miles square.

No identifiable point sources of pollution have been determined, he said, so any contamination would come from the watershed itself or non-point sources.

According to EPA guidelines, a single sample of E. coli should not exceed 394 colonies per 100 milliliter and a geometric mean of not more than 126 colonies per 100 milliliters, he said. Anything greater than 25 percent requires the stream to be listed as impaired.

In the Buck Creek samples collected prior to the Experiment Station’s involvement, the allowable level of E. coli was exceeded in three different samples and the fecal coliform samples exceeded allowable rates in eight different samples, Sij said.

“People swimming or wading in the creek might have been at risk,” he said.

“Our objective is to determine the load of the pollutant that a body of water can receive and still maintain its beneficial uses,” Sij said.

The load must be allocated among all potential sources of pollution within the watershed, and measures to reduce pollutant loads will need to be developed as necessary, he said.

Agriculture should not be considered the only source of pollution, Sij said. Wildlife could be a significant contributor of contamination. 

“We know cattle can be a problem, but we have turkey, hogs, deer, beaver, raccoons, birds and other animals using this stream as their water source,” he said.

The study established 13 monitoring sites along the creek in Donley, Collingsworth, and Childress counties. In 2004, the E. coli numbers were high, exceeding water quality standards in many samples.

During the drought of 2005-2006 in the watershed, stream flow was greatly reduced, as were bacteria numbers, Sij said. Numerous sites were dry for months at a time.

Spring flow has been limited by vegetation and an increase in the irrigation along the creek, he said. That, coupled with several years of drought, have lessened the flow of the stream.

Some sites, however, have maintained water year-round, and others are gaining water due to recent rains, Sij said. These will continue to be monitored for several more years.

Phase 1, the bacterial monitoring phase, is essentially complete, and Phase II is concentrating on bacterial-source tracking, he said. The Phase II study will identify the animal sources contributing to the contamination, as well as their relative contribution to the total bacterial load.

The ultimate goal is to educate stakeholders and develop a Watershed Protection Plan so water quality will be able to support a healthy aquatic ecosystem and recreational activities, Sij said.

County jobless rate drops to 3.7 percent

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AUSTIN – Donley County’s unemployment rate fell to its lowest point in 12 months in September with a smaller workforce and fewer people looking for work, according to information released this week by the Texas Workforce Commission.

Seasonally non-adjusted data from TWC showed 1,723 people employed out of a workforce of 1,790. August’s data had 1,720 employed out of a workforce of 1,806.

The actual number of people looking for work fell from 86 in August to 67 in September, bringing the local unemployment rate to 3.7 percent – its lowest point since last October’s rate of 3.4 percent.

Statewide seasonally adjusted nonagricultural employment in Texas increased by 15,200 jobs in September and 226,200 jobs over the last 12 months, representing a 2.3 percent growth rate for the year.

The nation as a whole has seen job growth of 1.3 percent during the same period. Texas employers have added jobs for 24 consecutive months and 37 of the last 38 months. A total of 676,700 jobs have been added since July 2003. The September seasonally adjusted unemployment rate dropped three-tenths of a point to 4.8 percent.

The Midland Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) experienced the lowest unemployment rate in the state at 3.3 percent (not seasonally adjusted). The Amarillo MSA was second at 3.6 percent, followed by College Station-Bryan MSA at 3.7 percent.

In September, hiring activities remained strong in Manufacturing. Employment in this industry experienced its second over-the-month job increase since July, adding 3,400 jobs. This increase brings the total employment in the Manufacturing industry to its highest level in over three years. The annual growth rate rose from 0.6 percent in August to 0.9 percent in September, representing the addition of 8,400 jobs since September 2005.

“For the first time in Texas history, nonagricultural employment reached the 10 million mark over the last two months,” said TWC Commissioner Representing Employers Ron Lehman. “With a record of 10,020,400 jobs, expansion continues to be broad-based across many industries and geographic areas.”

“A declining unemployment rate and continued job growth are both positive signs for Texas workers,” said TWC Commissioner Representing Labor Ronny Congleton.

Initial claims for unemployment compensation in September 2006 were 47,016, down 30.1 percent from September 2005.

Medical Center passes rare federal inspection

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The Medical Center Nursing Home passed a rare federal inspection last week with only two minor deficiencies.

MCNH Administrator Vicky Robertson said five percent of nursing homes are randomly selected each year to be reviewed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and this is the first year anyone can remember the local home having such an inspection.

“We were told to expect as many as 10 deficiencies,” Robertson said. “They didn’t leave a stone unturned.”

But after searching from October 16 to October 19, the federal team found only two items of concern – one for some reports that weren’t up to date and another for medication times.

“They looked at the quality of life, quality of food, and quality of staff and said it was very obvious that our staff cares about our residents,” Robertson said.

Inspectors told Robertson that the community and the hospital board should be very proud of the nursing home.

“They were pretty impressed,” she said. “They said it’s highly unusual to find a facility in a rural area as good as ours.”

The high marks from the federal level come just one month after MCNH received its annual state inspection.

“The state health team found zero deficiencies, and the life safety team found 13 deficiencies,” Robertson said but noted that those deficiencies were not serious.

“One of the state deficiencies was that our plants were too big and that the branches of plants stuck into the ‘egress path,’” Robertson said. “So we had to rearrange all of our plants, but everything major was fine.”

Another infraction the state team found was that the door to the mop closet was not closed when the inspector happened to walk by, she said.

Willa Poovey Cook

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Willa Poovey Cook, 88, died Tuesday, October 10, 2006, in Amarillo.

Services were held at 2:00 p.m. on Thursday, October 12, 2006, in Robertson Chapel of Memories in Clarendon with Rev. Don Travis, Retired Methodist minister, officiating. Burial was in Citizens cemetery. Services were under the direction of Robertson Funeral Directors, Inc., of Clarendon.

Mrs. Cook was born May 24, 1918, in Ashtola, Donley County, Texas, to William Andrew Jackson Poovey and Johnnie Mae Cleveland Blackburn Poovey. She was a resident of Gruver before moving to Claude in 1979 and had been an Amarillo resident for the past seven years. She married Willard Cook on December 17, 1938, at McLean. She worked for Phillips Petroleum Co. during World War II and was in the school cafeteria in the Meade, KS, school before her retirement. She was a homemaker and a member of the First United Methodist Church in Claude.

Mrs. Cook was preceded in death by her parents, her husband on July 6, 1995, and by six sisters and one brother.

Survivors include one son, Dean Cook and wife Sara Beth of Amarillo; two grandchildren, Jason Cook and wife Charmaine of McKinney, Jennifer Glover and husband Scott of Austin; and two great grandchildren, Hunter Cook and Adrienne Glover.

Pallbearers were Jim Lovell, Joe Lovell, David Butler, Jesse Lovell, Tony Cook, and Jeff Lovell.

Memorials can be made to Citizens Cemetery Assn., P.O. Box 669, Clarendon, TX 79226-0669.

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