Archives for December 2006

CHILDRESS – The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) held a pre-construction meeting on Wednesday, November 29, at the Donley County Maintenance Office near Clarendon to discuss a project to install new safety end treatments (culverts) on US 287 from Hedley to the Armstrong County line. 

The contractor for this $1.1 million project is J. Lee Milligan of Amarillo, TX.  The length of this project is 27.3 miles long with 168 working days scheduled with weather permitting.

The contractor will install safety end treatments along the route –replacing the upright concrete headwalls with sloping headwalls and covering the openings with steel pipe runners that allow water to run freely, but enable a vehicle to cross the opening without plunging into the mouth of the culvert.

“Drivers who run off the road and live to tell the story may owe their lives to safety features like this”, said Tracy Cain, Wellington Area Engineer. “Safety is our primary concern, and this feature will be much safer in run off the road accidents.”

The project superintendent for J. Lee Milligan is Lester Shaver, and Darl Eigenmann is the chief inspector for TxDOT.

There will be no lane closures during the duration of this project. 

“The contractor will need to cone off the shoulders in a few places.  Otherwise this project will not affect the traveling public,” Cain said.

For more information, call Barbara Seal at (940) 937-7145.

The Clarendon Board of Aldermen took the first step in implementing a tax freeze on elderly and disabled citizens during their regular meeting November 28.

Aldermen discussed and approved the first reading of Ordinance 365, which calls for a limitation on real property ad valorem taxes on the residential homesteads of persons ages 65 and over and of disabled persons. The tax limitation would become effective January 1, 2007, and the ordinance empowers the city government to take all the necessary actions to implement the freeze.

Ordinance 365 also states that the freeze is adopted under the current state laws and any future changes in those laws would not be in effect in the city until they are adopted by future ordinance.

A final reading and a vote on passage of the ordinance will take place during the board’s next regular meeting on December 14.

In other city business, aldermen unanimously voted to reappoint Mark White, Janice Knorpp, and Roger Estlack to the board of directors of the Clarendon Economic Development Corporation and also tapped Bill Stavenhagen to be a new member of that board. Stavenhagen takes the place of Will Thompson, who chose not to be reappointed.

Aldermen considered flood insurance for city wells and the city library, and the board asked for the price of such insurance to be broken down so that the county could be asked to pay one-half of the cost for the library. The city and county generally split the operating costs for the library.

Jeannie Molder updated the board on grant applications she is working on to improve City Park and possibly to build a community storm shelter.

Molder said the storm shelter application would have to be delayed until next year because of the complexity of applying for the federal grant and because there was not enough time to consult with an engineer on the building’s specifications.

She also said a final determination on whether the park grant is successful or not will not be made until next August.

By Roger Estlack, Clarendon Enterprise

An early morning blaze destroyed a garage and cost a Clarendon family two vehicles and countless tools December 1.

Dispatchers received the report of the fire at 4:35 a.m. at Fourth and Parks, and the tenants of the property learned their garage was on fire when the call went out over the scanner.

“The tones on the scanner woke me up,” said Somer Ballard, who had been sleeping until that point.

Ballard said she understood that a passerby on US 287 saw the fire from the highway and made the call to 911.

Twelve firemen with the Clarendon Volunteer Fire Department responded, according to First Assistant Chief Jeremy Powell. The department brought the blaze under control after an hour and 15 minutes in weather estimated at 17ºF.

Ballard’s husband, Tony, is a volunteer fireman and did the best he could to help save the garage, she said.

Powell said Monday that the official cause of the fire is still under investigation, but Ballard said that a wood burning stove in the garage is thought to have been where it started.

The Ballards lost two vehicles in the fire, one of which was very valuable.

“We lost our ’99 GMC Sierra pickup that was all decked out to go to (car) shows,” she said. “It had everything – the wheels, the stereo, you name it.”

The couple was waiting on an insurance adjustor to look at the pickup to see what they might get for it, but the other vehicle in the garage was not insured.

“That was his old Volkswagon Tinker Toy, and I am not sorry to see it go,” she said.

Ballard said she is not sure if any of her husband’s tools will be salvageable, but she did say the couple did not have renter’s insurance for the contents of the garage.