Archives for November 2008

Holiday shopping at home is easy and affordable again as all three local banks have teamed up to provide zero-percent interest “Christmas Cash” loans for the 14th year.

As in the past, anyone can make application for a loan up to $3,000 interest free with Pilgrim Bank, the Donley County State Bank, or Herring Bank.

Twenty-three local businesses are participating in the Christmas Cash program this year.

The annual program has proven popular with many consumers and is seen as way to encourage folks to shop at home.

Once a Christmas Cash loan has been approved, the borrower will be issued Christmas Cash Dollars, which may be spent like US currency toward new purchases at all of the participating businesses.

Participating Christmas Cash merchants this year are: Clarendon Auto Sales, Clarendon Outpost, Clarendon Veterinary Hospital, Cornell’s Country Store, Country Bloomers Flowers & Gifts, Floyd’s Automotive Supply, Henson’s, J&W Lumber Supply, McKinney Motor Co., Mike’s Pharmacy, Saye’s, Stavenhagen Video, Lowe’s Family Center, Every Nook & Cranny, The Clarendon Enterprise, Clarendon Steakhouse, Sonic Drive-In, Lowe’s Ace Hardware, Bronco Burger, Nuttin’ Fancy Café, The Hitchin’ Post, Brandie’s Mane Place, and White’s Feed & Seed.

The Christmas Cash program began in 1995 through the cooperation of the Clarendon Chamber of Commerce, the Clarendon Merchants Association, and local banks.

If your business would like to participate, call Bill Stavenhagen at 874-5081.

By Terry Askew, Events Committee

The Clarendon Events Committee is busy finalizing plans for the upcoming holiday season.

The committee consists of people from many organizations including the Merchants Association, the Chamber of Commerce, Girl Scouts, AgriLife Extension Service, the Ministerial Alliance, Friends of the Library, Downtown Ministry Center, the City of Clarendon, and other interested individuals.

Plans are well underway for the annual lighting of the Courthouse. A chairperson has been selected to oversee the decorations, which will be different this year.

 Donations are always welcome to assist with the expense of the new decorations, which will be put up Saturday, November 22, at 8 a.m. anyone who wants to help is welcome.

The Courthouse lighting will be at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, November 26, and the program is being provided by the Ministerial Alliance. The local churches are being asked to provide actors for a brief but poignant living Nativity.

The first night of Late Night Shopping will be Thursday, December 4. Refreshments will be provided at the Girl Scout Office from 6 to 7 p.m. Arrangements are still being worked out for entertainment that evening. Merchants will encourage customers to sign up all day for the wheel of fortune. The wheel will be different this year with bells being rung at random times to call people together to spin. A name will be pulled out; and if the person is present, they can spin.

The wheel returns the next week on December 11 along with a Chili Challenge Cookoff for adults and kids. Mrs. Boone’s fourth and fifth grade kids will entertain with Christmas music, and Santa and Mrs. Claus will be at the city library for photos. Refreshments will be in the Downtown Ministry Center.

Santa, the wheel, more live entertainment, and more refreshments will be back on December 18 to wrap up Late Night Shopping. The showcase of that evening will be a Gingerbread House Competition. Make your plans now and get creative. Details will follow.

Fred Clifford and the Clifford Grocery Partnership were the recipients this week of the latest cash award from the Clarendon Economic Development Corporation’s Façade Grant Program.

The CEDC Board at its regular meeting last Monday approved Clifford’s improvements to this historic Stocking Building at 116 S. Kearney.

The project consisted of replacing broken windowpanes and giving the storefront a fresh coat of paint.

The project received $1,142.61 from the CEDC, which is half of the amount of the improvements. Chris and Terri Ford of Finders Keepers did the work.

Clifford said he had been planning on doing some work on the building but then went with a bigger project.

“I was just going to fix the windows,” Clifford said. “That’s all I was going to do, but then I found out about the grant.”

Clifford appreciates the CEDC’s efforts to improve Kearney Street.

“I think it’s great. You’ve had good luck getting some things done.”

Preserving the history of the Stocking Building was important to Clifford, who says he purchased the building several years ago after having his eye on it for many years.

“I wanted it even when I was in the grocery business next door,” he said, “and I got out of that in 1979.”

Clifford said his building is probably one of the oldest operational buildings in the Panhandle, having its origins at Old Clarendon with the area’s pioneer doctor, J.D. Stocking. When the town moved to New Clarendon in 1887, the building followed the townspeople.

“The rocks and bricks and everything were carried here from the location in Old Clarendon,” Clifford said.

Dr. Stocking practiced medicine in the building for many years, and his family continued Stocking’s Drug Store into the early 1970s.

Since that time, the Stocking Building has housed a variety of businesses and is now home to Clarendon’s municipal court and Judge Jimmy Johnson.

Clifford says he wants to make one further improvement to the building. During the recent project, the awning collapsed and had to be removed. Flashing was put up afterward, but Clifford says he wants to replace that with something that looks better. He just hasn’t decided what yet.

The CEDC has again budgeted $10,000 for this fiscal year’s Façade Grant Program, which provides fifty-fifty matching grants up to a maximum of $2,000 per project for properties on a three-block stretch of Kearney Street between First and Fourth Streets.

Projects eligible for consideration could be anything from a coat of paint to new signage to a complete rehabilitation of a storefront. Those interested in the grants are asked to apply prior to beginning a project.

To date the CEDC has awarded more than $5,000 in façade grants. A sixth application is pending.

The CEDC Board will next meet to consider grant applications on Monday, December 1, at 5:15 p.m. in City Hall.

AUSTIN – Clarendon’s sales tax revenues look better this month after Texas Comptroller Susan Combs delivered allocations to local governments Friday.

After October’s rebate plummeted nearly 16 percent from 2007’s allocation, the city’s November allocation was less than one percent down from the same period last year.

Clarendon received $32,455.58 this month, which was 0.85 percent down from $32,733.88 in November 2007.

The city is now running 0.95 percent ahead on year-to-date collections at $278,008.59.

Howardwick had another big month, bringing in $1,492.87 and posting a 30.04 percent increase over the same time last year. That city is now 14.57 percent ahead on the year-to-date at $13,651.19.

Hedley, however, continued to feel a little pinch with a November allocation of $954.73, which is off 8.05 percent from last November and has the city running 2.45 percent behind on the year-to-date.

Statewide, Texas collected $1.73 billion in sales tax revenue in October, up 5.2 percent compared to October 2007.

“Sales tax collections grew in the first two months of fiscal 2009, however, at slower rates than generally seen over the past three years,” Combs said.

“Collections have continued to increase overall, but remittances from the key retail trade sector have begun to decline slightly as consumers grow increasingly cautious and confidence erodes.”

Combs sent Texas cities $373.8 million in sales tax allocations, up 4 percent compared to November 2007.  So far this calendar year, city sales tax allocations are up 5.2 percent compared to the same time period last year. 

October state sales tax collections and November sales tax allocations to local governments represent September sales reported to the Comptroller in October by monthly tax filers and July, August and September sales reported to the Comptroller in October by quarterly tax filers.

The Comptroller’s next local sales tax allocation will be made on Friday, December 12.

A Donley Grand Jury returned indictments last Monday, November 10, against two men in a kidnapping case that shocked Clarendon this summer.

James Michael Brinkley, age 37, of Lelia Lake was indicted on charges of Aggravated Kidnapping and Sexual Assault, according to information from District Attorney Luke Inman’s office.

Brinkley allegedly assaulted a 32-year-old female on July 28, the same day he in participated in the kidnapping of a McLean man.

Thirty-eight-year-old John E. Arbukle of Childress was also indicted on charges of Aggravated Kidnapping, according to papers filed in the Donley County Clerk’s office.

The indictments stem from arrests made this summer when a 52-year-old McLean man was reportedly kidnapped in Amarillo by two or possibly three subjects. The victim was reportedly bound and put in a white van which was later being driven through Clarendon, followed by the victim’s red Lincoln Navigator, which was driven by one of the suspects.

The vehicles then pulled off at Lowe’s Family Center in Clarendon about noon that day. There the McLean man managed to free himself, injure one suspect, and escape into the supermarket. He reported another person, the 32-year-old female, was being held against her will. She was found later that day and reported being held at a residence near Lelia Lake by Brinkley. She was subsequently arrested on drug charges and later released on bond.

Arbukle, who was also a suspect in the case, was later stopped by a Donley County Deputy for a traffic violation and arrested on outstanding warrants.

The Donley County Sheriff’s Department said Tuesday that Brinkley remains in the local jail and said that Arbukle is now in state custody.

Navy Capt. John C. Howard, MD, will be the keynote speaker next Tuesday when the Adamson-Lane American Legion Post holds its annual Veterans Day ceremony at the Rowe Cemetery near Hedley.

The ceremony will be held at 10 a.m. at the north gate of the cemetery, and the post will place flags on the graves of 210 veterans buried there.

Howard, who is a member of the local Legion post, was mobilized with the US Marines last year to Al Asad, Iraq, and returned to Clarendon and his medical practice in May of this year.

Also next Tuesday, the VFW Post #7782 will hold their annual Veterans Day Ceremony on November 11, 2008, at 11 a.m. at the Donley County War Memorial on the Courthouse Square. All veterans have been asked to wear their uniforms. The public is invited to attend to honor our veterans.

The Clarendon CISD students will honor our local veterans with a presentation on November 10, 2008, at noon in the Bronco Gym.

A luncheon for all veterans will follow. RSVP by Friday, November 7, to the Elementary Office at 874-3855.

The Clarendon Board of Aldermen enacted two new ordinances pertaining to vehicles in the residential zones of the city.

Ordinance No. 382 restricts certain vehicles in zones R1 and R2 by banning travel trailers, boats, trailers, and recreational vehicles parked on public streets.

City Administrator John Webb said the ordinance allows such vehicles to be parked for no more than 96 hours and also allows for loading and unloading such vehicles.

Ordinance No. 383 prohibits the running of the engine of a parked motor vehicle in zones R1 and R2. Webb said the ordinance pertains to vehicles rated two tons or more, and permits those vehicles to idle for no more than 15 minutes.

Both ordinances became effective with their final passage last Tuesday.

Aldermen also approved Ordinance No. 381, which sets new rates for the Citizens Convenience Center. A pickup or car load of trash costs $6, a two-wheel trailer load is $12, stock trailers are $25, large trailers are $35, appliances with compressors are $15, tree limb dumping (for-profit services) is $20, dump truck loads are $50, and mattresses are $20.

In other business, the board approved creating a reinvestment zone and granting a tax abatement to Community Care Center of Clarendon for 100 percent at ten years.

The abatement for the nursing home was previously recommended to the city by the Clarendon Economic Development Corporation when the CEDC Board met on October 6.

Bob Watson spoke to the board on behalf of the nursing home and encouraged passage of the abatement.

“I think this will benefit all the citizens of Donley County by providing us a way to work with the nursing home and keep it running,” Watson said.

The board approved the Chamber of Commerce budget, which receives a portion of the city’s Motel Bed Taxes.

The board also approved having Franklin Legal Publishing codify the city’s ordinances. Former interim city administrator Phyllis Jeffers encouraged the re-codification, and new City Administrator John Webb said the move would be seen as a sign of improvement.

Aldermen approved a contract for services with the Donley Appraisal District. It was noted that since the tax statements had gone out late, the city is nearly a month behind on cash flow.

Webb discussed his plans to improve city services and also discussed changes in the daily business at City Hall. He said he wants to bring people together because “we can do so much more when we are together.”

 Clarendon Mayor Mark White successfully defeated Democratic incumbent Ernest Johnston for the position of Donley County Commissioner in Precinct 1 during Tuesday’s General Election.

White, who ran on the Republican ticket,  received 229 votes to Johnston’s 168 when the ballots were counted.

Another incumbent commissioner, Precinct 3’s Republican Andy Wheatly, managed to hold on to his office and defeated Democratic challenger Henry Stephens, 204 to 172.

In local uncontested races, Sheriff Butch Blackburn (D) was re-elected with 69.9 percent of the county vote, County Attorney Landon Lambert (R) retained his position with 19.1 percent of the vote on a write-in campaign, and Linda Crump (R) won the Tax Assessor/Collector’s office with 83.7 percent of the vote.

Pct. 1&2 Justice of the Peace Connie Havens kept her job with 478 votes in those two precincts.

District Judge Stuart Messer received 1,386 votes, and District Attorney Luke Inman received 955 votes in their uncontested races to keep their jobs.

A total of 1,704 people cast ballots in Donley County out of 2,554 registered voters, a turnout of 66.7 percent. That’s down from 1,792 ballots cast in the 2004 General Election, which saw a 68 percent turnout.

Donley Voters preferred Sen. John McCain (R) for president to Sen. Barack Obama (D) by a margin of 1,370 to 291. The Libertarian candidate, former US Rep. Bob Barr, received 25 votes.

Local voters liked US Rep. Mac Thornberry (R) over his Democratic challenger Roger Waun, 1,413 to 264; and they preferred US Sen. John Cornyn (R) to Democrat Rick Noriega 1,329 to 270.

State Sen. Robert L. Duncan (R) garnered 1,293 votes compared to his Libertarian challenger, Smitty Smith, who received 167.

County Clerk Fay Vargas said six provisional ballots were cast and will be counted in the coming days if approved by County Tax Assessor/Collector Wilma Lindley.

An additional 11 ballots were sent out by mail and have five days from Tuesday to come in to be counted.