Archives for May 2009

The Saints’ Roost Museum will showcase the artwork of Don Ray during its membership appreciation dinner next Friday, June 6, on the museum grounds.

Ray was born in 1937 in the Adair Hospital, which is now the home of the Museum, and he lived on a ranch near Clarendon until 1953. He later graduated from Canyon High School and received his master’s degree from West Texas State University before working for the American Quarter Horse Journal and serving as the first graphics arts director for the regional education service center in Amarillo.

Ray has worked as a professional artist since 1972 and has produced many paintings and sculptures reflecting the landscapes and the Southwestern historical subjects in Texas and New Mexico.

The Museum will also draw for a pair of custom spurs by Clarendon’s own Kevin Johnson.

Next Friday’s event will begin with an open house at the Museum at 6:30 p.m. followed by a barbecue dinner served at 7 p.m.

The dinner is free to Museum members and their families. Annual dues are $25 and may be sent to PO Box 781, Clarendon, TX 79226. Your help is needed and appreciated.

Clarendon and Hedley High School officials have announced their top graduates for the Class of 2009.

CHS valedictorian Amelia Taylor and salutatorian Niki Roberts will deliver separate addresses during commencement exercises this Friday at 8:00 p.m. in the Harned Sisters Fine Arts Center at Clarendon College.

At HHS, Skyler Conatser is the valedictorian for the senior class, and Peter Howard is the salutatorian. They will be recognized this Friday night at 7:30 in the Owl Gym.

Hedley has also released the top students in the eighth grade class, Lydia Howard is the high ranking student with a GPA of 95.925, and Austin Adams and Coltin Kingston tied for the second high ranking position with GPAs of 94.300. They will be recognized at 7 p.m. this Thursday in the Owl Gym.

Clarendon’s Amelia Taylor, daughter of John and Suzanne Taylor, has a GPA of 101.12. Amelia has received multiple academic awards during her four years at CHS.  She has received Honor C’s in PreAP English 1, Geography, Intergrated Physics and Chemistry, Business Computer Information Systems, PreAP English 2, French 1, Business Imaging and Multimedia, PreAP Algebra II, AP World History, Biology, French 2, AP English 3, Concurrent Biology, AP US History, French 3 and Concurrrent English 4.  She has been awarded Top Student in the Science, Math, Technology, and Social Studies Departments.  Amelia has been a member of the National Honor Society for two years, a member of the Clarendon High School Honor Roll all four years, spent a week as an intern at the Johnson Space Center, and was named a National Merit Scholar Commended Student.  Amelia has also been very successful in UIL Academics.  She has been a regional qualifier in Social Studies and News Writing.  Amelia was a state qualifier in Ready Writing this year.  She has been named a UIL Scholar.

Extracurricular activities have also been an important part of Amelia’s high school career.  She has been actively involved in Donley County 4-H photography and has received blue ribbons at the Tri-State Fair.  She has also been involved in the Bronco Band for four years and has qualified for state solo and ensemble and received the Semper Fidelis Award this year.  Amelia has also taken an active roll in the CHS One Act Play where she has received all star cast honors.  She has also been very successful as a Junior Historian.  She has qualified for state all four years and has qualified for the national competition in Maryland her junior year.  Amelia has also been a member of the Student Council where she has taken a leadership role in the community service and energy conservation committees.

Amelia is a member of First Baptist Youth and has helped with Vacation Bible School.  She has acted as a docent for the Saint’s Roost Museum, has decorated the nursing home at Christmas, has been a “buddy” at Special Friends Camp, and she has been a tutor in the CHS evening tutoring program.

Hedley’s Conatser has a GPA of 94.872. She is the daughter of Johnny and Diane Conatser of Memphis, granddaughter of Mr. and Mrs. J.T. Clayton of Memphis and Mrs. Dorine Conatser and the late Johnny Conatser of Hedley.

Conatser has participated in numerous activities throughout her high school career, such as Tennis, Basketball, One Act Play, Gymnastics, U.I.L Math, U.I.L Science, Cheerleader, National Honor Society, BPA, Spanish Club, Powder Puff Football,  National Youth Leadership Conference, Presidential Youth Leadership Conference, Global Youth Leadership Ambassador, Congressional Youth Leadership Conference, Advanced Classes and Dual Credit/ Concurrent College Classes.

She has been on the A Honor Roll all four years as well as the National Honor Society and was inducted into the Magna Lum Caude National Honor Society.  She was selected to attend the Congressional Youth Leadership Conference in Washington, D.C. her sophomore year.  Skyler then was selected to attend the Global Youth Leadership Ambassador Conference as a youth ambassador in Europe where she worked with the Slovakian President her junior year.  She was also asked to attend the Presidential Youth Leadership Conference where she watched the swearing in of President Barrack Obama and attended the Presidential Inaugural Ball her senior year.

Skyler was on the State qualifying team for UIL Calculator in 2006 and has been District champion in calculator for 2008 and 2009 qualifying for Regionals.  She also participated in UIL Science and was District champion in 2005.  Skyler was active in UIL One Act Play all four years and was Honorable Mention and All Star Cast in 2005.  She was also an active member of the National Gymnastics Association and was State and Regional champion in 2005.  Skyler placed second and third in District Tennis in 2008 and 2009 advancing to regionals in 2008.  She has been in Basketball all four years of high school and as a team won District and advanced to Area.  Skyler also is a member of Business Professionals of America; she competed in Human Resources Management and advanced to State this year.

Clarendon’s salutatorian is Niki Roberts, daughter of Kimberly Bredshall and niece of Tammy Owen, with a GPA of 99.41.

Niki has been the recipient of many academic awards.  She has received Honor C’s in Spanish I, Spanish II, Concurrent Pre-Calculus, AP Economics, Physics, and speech.  She has also been named the Top Academic Student in the Foreign Language Department.  Niki has been a member of the Honor Roll for four years and a member of the National Honor Society her senior  year.  She has also been successful in UIL Academics where she was a regional qualifier in Accounting and Math contests.  Niki also spent a one week internship at the Johnson Space Center.  In addition, NIki is a regional winner of the Barbara Jordan Historical Essay competition and has been named a UIL Scholar.

Niki has also been very involved in extracurricular activities.  She has been a member of the Bronco Band for four years where she has qualified for state solo and ensemble contest three out of her four years competing.  She was a member of the District Champion Lady Bronco Softball team for two years.  Niki has also participated in the local chapter of Junior Historians and has qualified for the state National History Day completion all four years. Niki has been a member of the Clarendon High School Student Council all four years and helped head the community services of the council.

Niki is a member of the youth group at First Baptist Church and has worked in the Clarendon Ministry Center.  She has also volunteered to help in Vacation Bible School and has helped with the Children’s Ministry at FBC.  Niki has also helped tutor high school students in the tutoring program held two nights per week.

Hedley’s salutatorian, Peter Howard, is the son of Bruce and Gwynne Howard of Hedley and has a GPA of 94.160.  Throughout his high school career he has participated in Business Professionals of America, National Honor Society, Varsity Basketball, Varsity Football, Tennis, One Act Play, UIL Science, and UIL Number Sense.

As well as being the President of BPA, NHS, and the Senior Class, Howard qualified for state in both BPA and UIL Science in 2009.  In 2008, Peter received the MVP Award for Hedley High School.  He was also named the 2008 Chamber of Commerce Young Man of the Year.  In 2007, Peter received Best Actor at Zone One Act Play competition.  He was also a part of winning Zone One Act Play 3 years running, receiving All-Star Cast two times.  In basketball, Peter received District Honorable Mention in 2008, and All-District Team in 2009.
Outside of school, Peter enjoys spending time with his friends, playing basketball with his siblings, playing the piano, and working at Panfork Baptist Camp during the summer.  After graduation, Peter plans to work at Panfork Baptist Camp in the summer and attend West Texas A&M in the fall and major in Engineering.  His goal is to work hard in everything he does and be a good Christian example to lead others to Christ.

The fourth annual “Trash To Treasures” garage sale event is slated for Saturday, June 6; and the deadline to sign up is this Friday at 5 p.m.

“We’re hoping this year’s event will be as successful as those in the past,” said Enterprise publisher and sponsor Roger Estlack. “It makes sense to have these garage sales on the same day to draw a bigger crowd. This year Memphis is having its citywide garage sale on the same day, so there should be plenty of shoppers on the highway.”

Residents who wish to participate in this year’s “Trash To Treasures” are asked to come by the Enterprise before 5 p.m. on Friday, May 29, to sign up for the promotion.

For just $20, each household will get 50-word advertisement in the Big-E Classifieds and the exclusive “Trash To Treasures” garage sale kit, which includes tips for holding a successful sale, price stickers, and two yard signs.

In addition, the Enterprise will print a city map the week of the event indicating the location of each sale and will promote the citywide garage sale with area advertising.

“Trash To Treasures” is intended to not only help residents earn more money at their sales but also bring people from out of town to spend the day visiting our neighborhoods and patronizing local merchants and restaurants.

To sign up, come by the Enterprise at 105 S. Kearney.

Clarendon was abuzz Monday when more than 100 weather-watchers descended upon the community.

Dozens of specialized vehicles sporting radar and other equipment lined up at the roadside park at US 287 and SH 70 during the day, before they caravanned down the highway late in the afternoon.

Paul Markowski with the National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL) told the Enterprise that the diverse group was collecting data on thunderstorms and said they were headed to Estelline where they were hoping to see a big storm. He said the group chases storms in the plains between Canada and Mexico.

The group was part of the Verification of the Origins of Rotation in Tornadoes Experiment 2 (VORTEX2), which is the most ambitious field experiment in history to explore tornadoes.

According to the NSSL’s website, scientists and students from sixteen different universities, and various other academic organizations in the United States are expected to take part in the experiment. VORTEX2 will also involve forecasters from the NOAA National Weather Service (NWS) forecast offices, the NOAA Storm Prediction Center, Environment Canada, the Australia Bureau of Meteorology, and Finland.

The project is being conducted between May 10 and June 13 and employs more than 50 scientists and 40 research vehicles, including 10 mobile radars, a press release said.

“Data collected from V2 will help researchers understand how tornadoes form and how the large-scale environment of thunderstorms is related to tornado formation,” according to Louis Wicker, research meteorologist with NOAA’s National Severe Storms Laboratory and V2 co-principal investigator.

Scientists are sampling the environment of supercell thunderstorms – violent thunderstorms capable of producing damaging winds, large hail, and tornadoes – that form over more than 900 miles of the central Great Plains. Areas of focus include southern South Dakota, western Iowa, eastern Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, the Texas Panhandle, and western Oklahoma. The V2 Operations Center will be at the National Weather Center in Norman, Okla.

Preliminary results from V2 are scheduled for presentation at Penn State University during fall 2009. At that time, organizers will begin planning details of the second phase of V2 scheduled for May 1 – June 15, 2010.

The VORTEX2 teams seek to understand how, when, and why tornadoes form. Answers to these questions should help increase warning times for those in the path of these deadly storms.

A Childress man was placed on deferred adjudication this week after accepting a plea agreement for charges related to a kidnapping last summer.

John Edward Arbuckle pled guilty to the felony offense of aggravated kidnapping before District Judge Stewart Messer in Clarendon on Monday. He could face 99 years or life in the state penitentiary if he violates the conditions of his ten-year probation.

Pursuant to the plea agreement with District Attorney Luke Inman, Arbuckle is required to pay a $10,000 fine to Donley County, along with $640 in court costs, among other conditions of probation.

Arbuckle was indicted by a Donley County Grand Jury on November 10, 2008, for the offense of aggravated kidnapping that took place on July 28, 2008.

Arbuckle was one of three people arrested in July 2008 in connection with the kidnapping of a McLean man in Amarillo. The man was bound and put in a van and was later being driven through Clarendon when the suspects stopped at Lowe’s Family Center. There the victim managed to get loose, make his way into the store, and seek help.

Authorities soon located the suspects’ vehicle at a residence on County Road 19 near Lelia Lake. James Michael Brinkley was placed under arrest there. Arbukle was stopped by a Donley County Deputy for a traffic violation the next day and arrested on outstanding warrants.

Brinkley pled guilty on April 16, 2009, to the first degree felony charge of aggravated kidnapping.  Brinkley was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in the Institutional Division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

In other district court news, Gonzalo Lopez Cruz pled guilty in Wellington last Monday and was placed on probation for a period of five years for the state jail felony offense of driving while intoxicated with a child passenger.  Cruz was convicted and sentenced to two years in state jail, but the sentence was probated for a period of five years.

Workers at Stanley Automotive Enterprises in Clarendon found themselves unexpectedly out of work last Thursday when the General Motors dealership suddenly closed its doors.

Former employees said corporate officials with the Dallas-based firm called a staff meeting for 9 a.m. and told them as of that moment they were shut down.

Stanley’s Chief Operating Officer Becky Endebrock told the Enterprise that morning that the decision was made due to “tough economic conditions” and indicated the decision was Stanley’s and not that of General Motors.

“It was a tough decision and not easy to make because it would affect a lot of lives,” Endebrock said, noting that former Stanley employees “can apply for jobs at any other dealership.”

Endebrock also said she was unaware of any plans to close any of Stanley’s other dealerships, but the Enterprise learned Monday that the company had closed its Ford dealership in Childress but was expected to re-open that location as a used car dealer.

In Clarendon, reaction has been strong to the closing of the dealership that for decades was known as Chamberlain Motor Company and had long been one of the city’s biggest private employers. Most people disagreed with a statement by Mayor Chris Ford in a television interview in which he lamented the loss of jobs and tax revenue but said the closure would not hurt the community much.

The mayor later told the Enterprise he was trying to be optimistic in the face of the bad news.

“We’re resilient, and we’ve still got pioneer spirit,” Ford said. “I hate that we’ve lost those jobs, but we’ll bounce back.”

County takes tax hit

Donley County Tax Assessor/Collector Linda Crump criticized the mayor’s televised comment.

“I think it’s going to hurt us a lot more than the mayor seems to think,” Crump said. “Consider all the vehicles they did the title on, and the county got taxes from. For every new car sold out of county, Donley County got the first year’s registration on usually.”

Crump said in 2008, Stanley’s sold vehicles to 202 buyers outside of Donley County and registered them locally, generating $10,306.46.

“That’s one [county] commissioner’s salary,” Crump said, noting that she could not easily determine how many registrations were made on new cars sold to residents of Donley County since those are spread across hundreds of individual files.

The county also received $8,476.71 from sales taxes on car sales in 2008, most of which came from Stanley’s, Crump said.

Stanley also paid more than $31,343 in property and vehicle inventory taxes in 2008, according Paula Lowrie, Chief Appraiser of the Donley Appraisal District.

The dealership paid $17,465 in property taxes on real estate and personal property valued at $687,366, Lowrie said. It also paid $13,878 in vehicle inventory taxes on an inventory valued at $509,360.

Lowrie said the property taxes would continue to be collected but noted that the value of the property will begin to decline if it sits vacant very long.

Beyond the tax rolls, the loss to the community is immeasurable, and the Clarendon Chamber of Commerce is trying to figure out how to deal with it.

Community impact

“It just makes me sick,” said Chamber Executive Director Judy Burlin. “After all these years, the dealership was like an icon for Clarendon. We had not been noticeably impacted by the recession until this.”

Burlin said the loss of jobs was terrible but that the loss also extended to income at other businesses when people from out of town would eat here, buy gas here, and shop here while looking for a new vehicle. Employees also spent some of their Christmas bonuses here.

The dealership’s slogan also promoted Clarendon, she said.

“That ‘Downhill all the way’ has been the slogan for not just Chamberlain’s and Stanley’s; it has been the slogan for the whole town,” Burlin said. “When you tell people you’re from Clarendon, they recite the slogan. It’s very recognizable.”

Burlin said the Chamber will meet Thursday night to discuss how to react to the closure and also where to get vehicles for the July Fourth parade that were previously provided by the dealership.

Tessie Robinson was one of the employees who lost their jobs last Thursday also said the impact to the community will be greater than just the taxes and the payroll that Stanley’s paid.

“We spent $3,000 to $4,000 per month with Bivens Oil for gas,” Robinson said. “We bought parts from Floyd’s and Kidd’s. All our salesmen ate in local restaurants six days a week. We were members of the Chamber and the Lions Club. We ran ads in the newspaper and on radio.”

Robinson said Stanley’s not only provided cars for Clarendon’s July Fourth parade but also for the Clarendon rodeo; homecoming activities in Clarendon, Hedley, Memphis, and even Shamrock; and the Hedley Cotton Festival.

“People just have no idea how big this is,” said Robinson, who started with Chamberlain’s in 1996. “I saw the mayor on TV, and it is going to hurt.”

For her part, Robinson said she has filed for unemployment. She said the employees at Stanley’s had been told last month that the business would be giving up its GMC, Buick, Cadillac, Buick, and Pontiac franchises and become strictly a Chevrolet dealer. Then Thursday they were told to “get your stuff and get out.”

The local dealership was established by Fred E. Chamberlain, Jr., in 1956. The Chamberlain family sold the business in 2002, and it came under the Stanley name in 2006.

Hedley School Superintendent Bryan Hill is looking for a new job following a called meeting of the Hedley CISD Board of Trustees last Thursday.

After meeting in closed session for over an hour, the board voted to “accept the voluntary employment agreement and release between Bryan Hill and Hedley CISD effective June 30, 2009,” according to unofficial minutes obtained by the Enterprise.

“Basically, they renewed my contract, I resigned, and they paid me one year’s salary,” Hill told the paper.

Board members had no comment on the story, but Trustee James E. Potts released a joint press statement Monday which said in part, “An agreement has been reached which allows Mr. Hill the ability to pursue other interests and permits the board to pursue hiring another superintendent.” The statement goes on to say that Hill and the board believe the agreement is “in their respective best interests and the best interests of the district.”

Hill said he will serve out his current contract, which expires at the end of June, but he said the time had come for him to go and that he has started applying for other jobs.

“I hope they fare well,” he said of the board. “If they hire someone, I’ll help them out.”

On the advice of counsel, board members would not discuss Thursday’s motion or its meaning, but Hill said he felt people ought to know what happened. He said his current salary is $71,600.

A call to the school’s attorney, Ann Manning, was not immediately returned Tuesday.

Hill has worked for the Hedley school for 27 years with the past 11 years as superintendent.

In March, the school board voted to “propose non-renewal” of Hill’s contract. The superintendent requested a hearing on that issue, which was scheduled to be held at the board’s regular meeting Saturday. Thursday’s action negated the need for a hearing.

Saturday’s regular school board meeting included mostly ususal business items, although Trustees did take up purchasing an ice machine for the third time in as many meetings and discussed it for over half an hour before finally voting to table it again.

School cafeteria supervisor Sherry Stone said she had been going to get ice from Sonic in Clarendon everyday for the school; but after Saturday’s motion, she said the person making the motion, Trustee Bonnie Walsh, could go get the ice.

“I’m through haulin’ ice,” Stone said and walked out of the meeting.

Trustee Tonja Ruthardt agreed to have extra bags of ice delivered to her Uncle Bob’s convenience store for the school until arrangements could be made for a new ice machine.

In other school business, Trustees accepted the resignations of Coach Terry Collins, effective the end of May, and of teacher Linda Naylor, effective the end of September.