Archives for June 2007

The 130th Annual Saints’ Roost Celebration will start off with a bang this year.

The first ever “Light up the Lake” community fireworks display will get things started Tuesday, July 3, at 9:30 p.m. at Greenbelt Lake.

The community is invited to bring their own fireworks to the south boat ramp parking lot and get free admission into the lake for the event.  An area will be marked off for setting off fireworks.  Get there early to get a good spot.

The arts and crafts fair will kick off the events on the square on Wednesday, July 4, at 10 a.m. with the Old Settlers’ Reunion starting at 10:30 a.m.  The Shriners’ barbecue will start at 11 a.m. with proceeds from the meal going to fund area children’s transportation to Shriners’ Hospitals.

The kid’s parade will be at 1:30 p.m. starting at the Post Office with the parade starting at 2 p.m. at City Park.

COEA will hold an Open Ranch Bronc Ride on Wednesday night, July 4, with a Jr. Ranch Rodeo for cowboys and cowgirls ages 16 and under on Thursday night, July 5.

COEA will hold its annual ranch rodeo Friday and Saturday, July 6 and 7.  There will be music on the slab July 4-6 from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m., and Twister Cain will be performing on July 7 from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. at the rodeo grounds.

Boy Scout Troop 433 will provide concessions for all four nights of rodeo activities.

Other activities will be a blood drive at Stanley Chevrolet-Clarendon on Friday, June 29; the Baptist Church’s Depression Lunch on Friday, July 6, at 11 a.m. downtown; and the annual Henson’s Turtle Race has been moved to Saturday, July 7, at 3 p.m., which will draw a typically large crowd on its own. 

New activities this year include a Turtle Art Contest sponsored by Henson’s and a Street Fair and Sidewalk Sale organized by the Downtown Merchants Association. Entries for the turtle art contest will be taken from June 29 until 10 a.m. on July 7.  Winners will be announced on Saturday, July 7.  The Street Fair will be held downtown all day Friday, July 6, and all day Saturday, July 7.  Drawings for door prizes will be held each day at noon and at 4 p.m.  You must be present to win.

This year’s Relay for Life has been rescheduled for August 17 due to a lack of participation.

Organizers hope that by delaying the event they will be able to garner more support.

“Right now we only have eight teams and five sponsors,” Relay for Life Chairman Hillary McAnear said.  “In the past we’ve had 12-15 teams and 15-20 sponsors.”

In recent years the event has raised between $10,000 and $20,000; and McAnear said that at this point the event will be lucky to make $5,000 this year.

“We’re hoping that by having it later in the year we can hit $10,000.”

The money raised by the teams and sponsors goes to the American Cancer Society to fund cancer research.

Luminaries are also on sale and can be purchased in honor or in memory of someone.

“They are $5 each, and the money raised from those goes to the Donley County American Cancer Society Unit to help local people who are fighting cancer,” McAnear said.

“Anybody and everybody who wants to help is appreciated by the survivors and those going through (cancer) now.”

For more information or to participate, contact McAnear at 874-3571, ext. 161, or 874-5152 or 930-9234.

The fate of free dumping for citizens of Clarendon hangs in the balance as city leaders consider how best to deal with a sanitation department that is losing money.

Joe Shadle, who heads the department, told the Board of Aldermen during their regular meeting last Tuesday that he favors ending the practice of allowing citizens to dump trash for free at the city’s recycling center once a month with their paid water bill.

“We don’t give anything else away,” Shadle said. “Why do we do this?”

Shadle said the price of fuel is making it more costly to haul trash to the Memphis landfill. He also said that the citywide clean up generates about three extra rolloff boxes of trash that must be hauled to the landfill.

Alderman Tommy Hill said he favored keeping the free dump policy and the citywide cleanup as a way to keep the city clean, but Alderman Janice Knorpp said she didn’t think the city could afford it.

Rates for dumping by businesses and for dumping by citizens after the free dump have remained unchanged since 2001, and Hill said he thinks the city should raise the rates but keep the free dumping policy. Alderman Chris Ford agreed.

“I know we have to raise rates, but I hate to take the free dump away,” Ford said.

Discussion also touched on a continuing problem of people from outside the city coming to town and dumping in city Dumpsters, which aldermen agreed is unfair to the city residents who pay for those Dumpsters

Mayor Mark White suggested eliminating the free dump policy for the summer to see what effect that has on the finances of the sanitation department. The board will consider amending the appropriate ordinances to do this at next Tuesday’s city meeting.

In other city business, the board selected Aldermen Knorpp to be Clarendon’s new mayor pro-tem.

Jeremy Powell addressed the board on behalf of the Clarendon Outdoor Entertainment Association and requested Motel Bed Tax funds to advertise the Saints’ Roost Celebration. The board approved $3,000 for this request.

Fire Chief Delbert Robertson spoke to the board about the need for a new rescue truck. He said a grant application to the Texas Forest Service was denied. The fire department wants to purchase a new cab and chassis and transfer the existing rescue truck bed and equipment. The new truck will cost more than $37,000. Robertson said he thought the department could pay about half the cost.

Mayor Mark White said the board would consider the request at budget time and urged the department to request the county to pay one-fourth of the cost of the truck.

City Secretary Linda Smith discussed declining revenue from the Municipal Court due to a drop in the number of tickets being written in the city. The mayor agreed to discuss this with the sheriff’s department.

City Superintendent Jim Roberts said the pipe is in for the waterworks project on the west side of town.

Roberts also said water samples had been taken for testing from locations in the south and east side of town to determine the cause of discolored water in those areas.

Clarendon College and community colleges across Texas were surprised Friday when Gov. Rick Perry vetoed $153.9 million in appropriations for employee and retiree health insurance in fiscal year 2008-2009.

The cut means the loss of more than $461,000 for Clarendon College and will likely mean higher costs and fewer services for students of the local college.

CC President Myles Shelton said community colleges had no forewarning about the cut and could not understand why the governor had taken this action.

“I don’t know why he’s mad at community colleges or why he’s singled them out,” Shelton said.

State Representative Warren Chisum (R-Pampa) chairs the House Appropriations Committee and was also surprised by the governor’s veto.

“I’m disappointed by it,” Chisum told the Enterprise. “That cost us a lot of money, and it was devastating for community colleges across the state.”

In a statement about the veto on his Web site, Gov. Perry said “…community colleges falsified their appropriation requests,” – a comment that Chisum takes exception to.

“That’s pretty bold for him to say that,” Chisum said. “The community colleges were very up front about their request. He just made this claim, and we’re left to deal with it.”

Chisum said the worst part about the veto is that it deals with health coverage, which he called “the toughest thing for any of us to deal with,” and he said the governor gave no indication he was going to veto the appropriation, or the Legislature would have put the money in the formula.

Shelton said the state has a cost-based formula for funding community colleges according to each discipline. In 1999, the Legislature funded community colleges based on 73 percent of the formula, but today it funds just over 50 percent of the formula.

“Funding at 73 percent of the formula would mean an additional million dollars for Clarendon College,” Shelton said. “The legislature discussed this issue and held hearings, and they funded an appropriation for group health insurance for our employees and retirees.

“(Perry’s) assertion that community colleges falsified our appropriation request is ludicrous,” Shelton said. “Not only did he veto the appropriation, he indicted every one of us; and that’s wrong.”

Perry further claimed that the state’s colleges could “fund most of fiscal year 2009 with fiscal year 2008 savings and the rest with increases provided for instruction and operations.”

Shelton noted that Clarendon College was one of 14 community colleges that received no new money under the recently approved state budget.

“What increase? We didn’t get any increase,” Shelton said of Perry’s remarks. “That’s a false statement applied to Clarendon College.”

A statement by the Texas Association of Community Colleges (TACC) called Perry’s notion that community colleges can absorb this cut a “folly” and notes that community colleges have still not recovered from drastic cuts made in 2002-2003 and that the current state budget “barely returns community colleges to fiscal year 1997 levels.”

“We are stunned that the governor would remove half of the state support for the health insurance for our faculty and administrators,” said TACC Board Chair John Pickelman. “With this veto of essential funding, the governor has fractured the historic relationship between local communities and the state.”

All community colleges in Texas were affected by Perry’s action, Shelton said. Frank Phillips in Borger will lose $585,000; South Plains College in Levelland was cut $3.3 million; Amarillo College will lose $3.75 million; and the most money was lost by Dallas County Community College, which was cut $15.7 million.

Shelton said CC’s loss was particularly harsh for area students and for the economic development aspect that CC plays in the local economy.

“We’re the only college in the eight counties that we serve,” he said, “and when you take away money like this, it hurts access and students.”

Shelton, who is stepping down from his position June 28, said he doesn’t know exactly how Clarendon College will deal with the loss of the appropriation, but he urged the faculty and administration to remain true to the mission of the college and reiterated that CC has a moral and legal obligation to provide health coverage for its employees and retirees.

Shelton also said he thinks if the college spreads the loss over two fiscal years, it will lessen the impact on programs and students.

While colleges across the state try to cope with the implications of Perry’s veto, other avenues may be pursued in Austin, where Chisum said the state has plenty of money to fund all the appropriations in the budget.

“We’re looking at options in my budget office,” Chisum said.

AUSTIN – Sales tax receipts in Clarendon fell less than one percent in May, but revenue for the year remains above last year’s figures, according to information released Friday by Texas Comptroller Susan Combs.

City Hall received an allocation of $22,087.45 for the month, which was down 0.89 percent. Revenue for the year to date remained strong with a total of $144,774.24 collected, up 1.91 percent from the same period in 2006.

Howardwick’s sales tax revenue continued to climb, up 23.24 percent this month for an allocation of $1,140.61. That city’s year-to-date figure is now 13.45 percent ahead at $6,000.42.

Sales tax revenue in Hedley for May was down 42.77 percent to $362.19, and the year-to-date figure stands at $4,825.68, down 21.63 percent.

The state collected $1.7 billion in sales tax revenue in May.

“Growth in sales tax revenue remains healthy,” Combs said.  “Sales tax collections reflect the current healthy state of the Texas economy—notably the oil and gas, manufacturing, and retail trade sectors.”

Combs sent June sales tax allocations of $283.6 million to Texas cities, up five percent compared to June 2006.  So far this calendar year, city sales tax allocations are up seven percent compared to the same time period last year. 

State sales tax collections in May and local sales tax allocations in June represent sales that occurred in April and were reported to the Comptroller in May.

Bargain shoppers will be in for a treat during the second annual “Trash to Treasures” citywide garage sale to be held in Clarendon and nearby communities this Saturday, June 16.

Thirty-five individual garage sales are scheduled to be held. A complete description of each sale is printed in this week’s Big E Classifieds, and a map of the sales is on the last page of this week’s Enterprise.

The Clarendon Enterprise and A Fine Feathered Nest, Inc., have teamed up to sponsor “Trash To Treasures,” which was the idea of Ashlee Estlack and Chriss Clifford.

The sale was intended to just be in the City of Clarendon, but demand last year led the Enterprise and A Fine Feathered Nest to agree to expand the event to other locations in Donley County. This year’s event includes sales in Howardwick and Lelia Lake.

“We hope to attract several people from out of town to shop at the sales and to patronize our local businesses,” Estlack said. “We’re also happy to see some non-profit organizations taking advantage of the opportunity that ‘Trash to Treasures’ presents.”
“Trash to Treasures” is being promoted in several area newspapers and with airtime on KEFH and KLSR radio.

Clifford sees widespread participation in “Trash To Treasures” as a way to encourage people to think about something before they toss it out. In fact, her company has its own line of products that are “Too Good To Be Threw.”

“I’m interested in the whole ecology of the idea and encouraging recycling of old items,” Clifford said.

Dr. W. Myles Shelton is stepping down as president of Clarendon College to take a position in Galveston.

The CC Board of Regents accepted Shelton’s resignation during a called meeting last Thursday. His last day on the job will be June 28.

“It’s a lot of mixed emotions,” Shelton said of his resignation Monday. “Clarendon College has been very good for us personally.”

The board last week praised Shelton for the accomplishments CC has achieved under his leadership, most significantly the successful completion of the school’s accreditation process last year.

Shelton lists the construction and opening of the college’s new Vera Dial Dickey Library and the M.K. Brown Academic Center in Pampa among CC’s top achievements since he took the helm in 1999.

The president also said he is proud of the college successfully completing the goals outlined in the “New Horizons” master plan from 1999 to 2003 and in the “Opening Doors; Changing Lives” plan scheduled to be completed this year.

“The ‘New Horizons’ plan had 44 individual goals, and all of them were met,” Shelton said. “I expect we’ll see the same results when the ‘Opening Doors’ plan ends this year. All of these little accomplishments add to up to really great things when taken as a whole.”

Shelton said he will miss the community and the people of Clarendon, but he looks forward to the new challenges he will face as president of Galveston College.

“They have had declining enrollment, and then there are issues lingering because of allegations of misrepresenting enrollment numbers, which impacts their state funding,” Shelton said. “I think overall the institution is strong.”

Clarendon College’s next step will be to hire an interim president. Shelton says he hopes the board will make that decision this month.

The interim president will then guide the college in its selection of a new president. That process is expected to take between nine and 12 months.

In other business, the board of regents last week approved the hiring of Steve Williams as an English instructor at the CC Pampa Center and voted to extend the contract of acting dean of students Tex Buckhaults by 12 months.

The board also accepted the resignation of Enrollment Services Counselor Kelly Vonner, who is leaving to teach math at Memphis.

A six-day search for an Amarillo boy who drowned at Greenbelt Lake ended Monday night after his body was discovered by Game Wardens.

Four-year-old Ethan Veale had been missing since he fell off an inflatable water mattress last Wednesday night. Donley County Sheriff Butch Blackburn said preliminary results of an autopsy performed Tuesday in Lubbock confirmed drowning as the cause of Veale’s death.

The accident has local officials reminding everyone of the importance of having lifejackets for children when going to the lake.

“No one has ever drowned in Greenbelt Lake who was wearing a true life preserver,” Blackburn said.

Greenbelt Water Authority requires lifejackets for people on watercrafts, and general manager Bobbie Kidd said there was no way that Veale’s air mattress qualified as a watercraft or as a life preserver. He also urges people to put lifejackets on children when playing near the water and asks people to observe high wind advisories.

Blackburn said Veale’s family had been at Jet Ski Beach between Lakeside Marina and the dam for about 30 or 45 minutes when the boy’s twin brother and seven-year-old sister alerted their mother, Aja Bree Foster, that Veale was on the mattress in the water.

According to statements given to Blackburn’s office, Foster saw the boy floating off and attempted to get him back to shore. She also alerted her boyfriend, Christopher Paul Kindred, who tried to swim to the boy but returned to shore when he could not swim far enough to reach the child.

Blackburn said Kindred went to the marina to try to find someone with a boat and then drove to Sandy Beach to try to find help. At some point, he activated the OnStar system in his car, which put him in touch with the dispatcher in the sheriff’s office at 7:26 p.m.

The sheriff said the National Weather Service reported the wind speed at Greenbelt at that time was 28 mph. It is not clear exactly when Veale fell off the blow-up mattress, but his family thought he was about 120 yards from shore although they were unsure exactly where.

The Clarendon Volunteer Fire Department’s Dive Team was on the scene by 7:40 p.m. and began diving in the area around the Morning Glory, a concrete structure near the dam. They dove until 1:00 a.m. when they ran out of air. Game wardens ran boats with sonar over the area, and other personnel drove and walked the dam.

“We’ve been spoiled,” Blackburn said Monday. “We’ve been able to find anyone within an hour in the last several years, but we’ve always had better reference points.”

Kidd agreed with that statement.

“Our local dive team has retrieved four bodies in less than an hour,” he said. “They have been really successful.”

Involved in the initial search with the sheriff’s office and fire department were Greenbelt Lake personnel, the Associated Ambulance Authority, the Howardwick Volunteer Fire Department, the Department of Public Safety, and the Texas Parks & Wildlife Game Wardens.

The DPS brought in a search helicopter the next morning, and the Lake Meredith Underwater Rescue Team also joined the search Thursday. On Friday, Clarendon divers were joined by a DPS dive team from Austin, and divers from the Amarillo Police Department were on the scene over the weekend.

“None of these people could have worked as long or as hard without the support of the Clarendon Firebelles,” Blackburn noted.

Throughout the search, divers were hindered by poor visibility and thick moss that in a few areas was reported to be 20 feet deep, Blackburn said.

“Those state divers were coming up, and you could have filled a bushel basket with the moss that was covering them,” the sheriff said.

Greenbelt officials twice stopped pumping water from the lake – once Wednesday night for the divers’ safety and again Friday so divers could check the area around the intake pipe.

Emergency officials met Sunday night and made the decision to drag the lake, an action which hasn’t been necessary in over 25 years, Blackburn said. Dragging commenced Monday morning and continued through most of the day with the hope that if the drag did not find Veale’s body, it would at least disturb the moss or whatever might be holding him beneath the water’s surface.

At 7:40 p.m. Monday, Game Wardens Gary Hunt and Robert Greenwalt discovered Veale near the dam about 200 feet north of the Morning Glory, Blackburn said.

Justice of the Peace Connie Havens pronounced the boy dead at 8:20 p.m. and ordered the autopsy.

“I’m just glad this is finally over,” Blackburn said.

No charges had been filed in Veale’s death at press time. Blackburn said Monday the case would be turned over to the district attorney when the investigation is complete.

Veale is the 16th person to drown at Greenbelt since it opened in 1968.