Archives for March 2009

A local man remained in jail this week after wielding a knife around Hedley last week.

The Donley County Sheriff’s Office was alerted Friday night that Jeremy Blackwell was brandishing a knife.

After law enforcement arrived and investigated, a search uncovered Blackwell hiding in the back seat of a Chevrolet Tahoe at his grandmother’s house. He was armed with a knife and an ax handle at the time of his arrest.

Blackwell was subsequently booked into the Donley County Jail for aggravated assault with bond set at $5,000.
The accused was previously arrested on October 31, 2008, for aggravated sexual assault of child and jailed with a bond of $50,000. He had remained in jail until last Monday when his lawyer petitioned the court and got Blackwell’s bond reduced to $25,000. Whereupon he made bail and was released.

Four local governments will hold elections this May following the last day of filing for office Monday.

Two candidates have emerged to run for mayor of Clarendon. Incumbent Chris Ford filed for re-election, and Alderman Tommy Hill also is running for the city’s top spot.

On the Board of Aldermen, a four-way race for two seats has developed. Alderman Terry Noble withdrew his earlier candidacy for mayor and re-filed to run for the board. Alderman Ann Huey is also seeking re-election. Nobel and Huey are being challenged by Larry Hicks and Jeff King.

The City of Howardwick has only one candidate for mayor, Dell Essary, but drew three candidates for two positions on the Board of Aldermen. Incumbent Gene Rogers will be joined on the ballot by Norm Haygood and Louise Popplewell.

Five candidates will vie for two positions on the Hedley School Board, and none of them are incumbents. Travis Thomas, Shelby Shipp, Carole Ward, Gwynne Howard, and Lana Wright have all filed to run for the Board of Trustees.

Two positions on the Board of the Donley County Hospital District will be contested, and a third is uncontested. Billy Ray Johnston and Jennie Owens are running for the Place One position, and Tammy Owen and Bright Newhouse III are running for Place Two. Those positions are currently held by Don Thornberry and Alan Fletcher, neither of whom is running for re-election. Incumbent Melinda McAnear is the only candidate for Place Three on the hospital board.

Two other local governments did not draw enough candidates to have contested races and will likely cancel their elections this year if no write-in candidates emerge.

Clarendon ISD had two positions up on its Board of Trustees, and only Wes Hatley and incumbent Wayne Hardin filed to run.

The City of Hedley had three positions open on the Board of Aldermen, and all three incumbents – Bruce Howard, Travis Ruthardt, and Colleen Owens – filed for re-election.
All local offices are elected at-large, but hospital board candidates must sign up for a specific place. Elections will be held Saturday, May 9.

In the only locally contested race Tuesday, Donley County Democrats in Precincts 3 and 4 preferred Tony Sellars as their choice for constable.

Sellars, the incumbent, defeated challenger Ralph Graves by a margin of 188 to 90, and he faces no opposition in the fall.

Other local races were uncontested at the primary level. Democratic results are as follows: Sheriff Butch Blackburn 423, Pct. 1&2 Justice of the Peace Connie Havens 181, Pct. 1 Commissioner Ernest Johnston 77, Pct. 3 Commissioner candidate Henry Stephens 130, 100th Judicial District Attorney candidate Luke Inman 323, and congressional candidate Roger Waun 279.

On the Republican side, results were as follows: Pct. 3 Commissioner Andy Wheatly 56, Pct. 1 Commissioner candidate Mark White 113, tax assessor/collector candidate Linda Crump 378, district judge candidate Stuart Messer 349, and Congressman Mac Thornberry 412.

Stephens will face Wheatly, and Johnston will face White in this November’s general election.

Donley County Democratic voters preferred Hillary Clinton over Barack Obama for that party’s presidential candidate by a margin of 297 to 119.

Local Republicans chose presidential candidate John McCain over Mike Huckabee, 203 to 191.

A total of 732 people voted in the primaries, representing a 29.5 percent turnout for Donley County.

County convention and caucus results will be reported next week.

The City of Clarendon is considering a seal coat program to protect and improve streets following last Tuesday’s meeting of the Board of Aldermen.

Roger Fields of Oller Engineering in Lubbock addressed the board and discussed the program that his company has. He said 21 cities currently operate under one contract and said the program has been around for about 15 years.

Fields said by having so many cities together on a program the unit cost to seat coat a street drops.

City Administrator John Webb favored the program and said he wants the city to start out small this year and then grow into the program.

“We’ve got to show the citizens that we’re putting seal coat down the right way and fixing potholes the right way,” Webb said.

Fields said his company would come in and train city workers on the proper way to patch streets, and it would be the city’s responsibility to prepare the streets for seal coating.

Mayor Chris Ford said the city needs to be mindful of the need to replace water lines before fixing the streets.

Alderman Will Thompson said he also favored the seal coat plan but that he would not support any plan that exceeded $10,000 this year, and the board agreed with that.

Fields said he believes that some of the federal stimulus money would be made available for street improvements, but board members had their doubts.

Fields and Webb were scheduled to meet following the city meeting to discuss which streets might be good candidates for seal coating.

In other business, aldermen discussed changing regular city meetings from the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month to one monthly meeting.

Mayor Ford said Webb was doing a good job and that two meetings a month were becoming unnecessary.

Changing the meeting dates will be discussed at a future meeting.

The board also discussed painting the interior of City Hall. It was decided that to save money, the board will do the painting themselves rather than hire someone.

In other comments, Alderman Terry Noble raised several issues. He questioned the city’s water deposit policy and said he wants the board to consider a policy that would allow a resident with excellent credit to be able to have water services with no deposit. Mayor Ford and Alderman Ann Huey said they would like more details at the next meeting.

Noble also questioned about when bricks would be replaced over a recent water repair on Kearney Street. Webb said as soon as the ground settles the bricks will be put back.

Alderman Noble also brought up the warranty on the city’s existing computers and said the vendor for those computers had questioned why the city was buying new computers when the current ones are still under a five-year warranty. They offered to upgrade the computers for a fee of $100 each. This will be looked into further before new computers are purchased.

The deadline to file for local offices is fast approaching, and several positions are still available for citizens interested in serving their community.

The 16 open positions had drawn only nine candidates as of Tuesday morning.

Sign up continues through next Monday, March 9.

Among the new candidates this week is Wes Hatley looking for a seat on the Clarendon ISD Board of Trustees. Incumbent Wayne Hardin had previously signed up to run. There are two positions available on this board.

Travis Thomas and Shelby Shipp have filed to run for the two positions available on the board of the Hedley school district.

At the City of Clarendon, Larry Hicks has filed to run for one of two positions on the Board of Aldermen, and Alderman Terry Noble has filed to run for mayor rather than filing for re-election to the board as was previously reported.

The City of Howardwick has one candidate so far with Alderman Gene Rogers filing for re-election. The mayor’s office and another board position are still available.

Hedley Alderman Colleen Owens has filed for reelection, and two other board positions have not drawn candidates yet.

No candidates have filed at the Donley County Hospital District, but the three board members whose terms are expiring have made their plans known. Melinda McAnear has said she intends to run for her Place 3 position again, but Don Thornberry (Place 1) and Alan Fletcher (Place 2) have announced that they will not be seeking re-election.
All local offices are elected at-large, but hospital board candidates must sign up for a specific place. Elections will be held Saturday, May 9.

Three Donley County cases resulted in sentences in district court last month.

Naomi Tolbert pled true to all the State’s allegations in its Motion to Adjudicate.  Tolbert was convicted and sentenced to fourteen months in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice – State Jail Division for the offense of forgery.

Tolbert originally pled guilty to the offense of forgery on August 8, 2007, and received five years deferred adjudication in Donley County.

Willie Ballard pleaded guilty and was placed on deferred adjudication for a period of three years for the state jail felony offense of forgery.

Ballard was indicted by a Donley County Grand Jury on November 12, 2007.

Pursuant to the plea agreement, Ballard was required to pay a fine of $1,000 to Donley County as a condition of probation. If Ballard violates his probation, he could face up to two years in the Institutional Texas Department of Criminal Justice – State Jail Division.

Mark Carroll Davis pleaded guilty and was placed on deferred adjudication for a period of six years for the first degree offense of possession of controlled substance with intent to deliver.

Davis was arrested in Donley County on November 1, 2004.  Davis was indicted by a Donley County Grand Jury on March 7, 2005.

Pursuant to the plea agreement, Davis is required to pay a $6,000 fine to Donley County, and is required to pay $140 in restitution.  If Davis violates his probation, he could face up to 99 years or life in the Institutional Division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

Davis was placed on probation for a period of five years for the third degree felony offense of unlawful possession of a firearm/felon.  Davis was convicted and sentenced to five years in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, but the sentence was probated for a period of five years.

Davis also agreed to the forfeiture of two guns, a set of scales, and $2,485 cash.
District Attorney Luke Inman was the prosecutor on all cases.  The Honorable Judge Dan Mike Bird was the presiding Judge by assignment.