Archives for July 2009

The Courthouse Square was packed with familiar faces and visitors from all over eager to celebrate this year’s 132nd annual Saints’ Roost Celebration on Saturday, July 4.

The celebration started off with the annual Craft Fair on the square. The Al Morrah Shrine Club served 812 plates of barbecue this year, which is up from 750 last year. Funds from the annual barbecue are used in conjunction with the Khiva Temple of the Shrine in Amarillo to help pay for the transportation of kids to the Shriners’ burns and crippled children’s hospitals.

The Old Settlers Reunion was also held that morning. Bernese Rattan Moreland traveled the greatest distance of 500 miles from Lowell, Arkansas, to be there. The oldest woman present was Roberta Pittman at 95; and J.T. Lamberson, 96, earned the right to be called the oldest man present. The oldest pioneer present was Roy Chauveaux at 100, who lived in Donley County for a long period of time before he moved to Armstrong County several years ago. J.T and Helen Lamberson, who have been married for 76 years, were once again named the old settlers that have been married longest.

The Kids’ Parade led the full parade; and winners were Courtlyn and Ashlyn Conkin with Greyson Noble in the 0-4 Division, Kyli Tuttle in the 5-8 Division, and Keely Keebler in the 9-12 Division.

In the Western Parade, the Chamber of Commerce reports that Country Bloomers was named Best of Show, the Donley County 4-H won first place in the float division, and Roger Finch placed second with his “Tow Mater” truck. In the Riding division, the Mule Skinners won first place for the third year in a row.

In the Antique Vehicles division of the parade, Redell Johnston won first with a 1968 Mustang and Sherrol Johnston placed second with a 1966 Mustang. The VFW IH 25 Unit 6 Motorcycle Club won first place in the Miscellaneous division, and Diane’s Tax Service placed second.

Several organizations took advantage of this occasion to hold fundraisers, and the results are as follows. The winners of the Lions Club Cow Patty Bingo were Sharron Winfrey; $50, Nichole Shule; $50, and Greg Collins; $250, who gave half of his earnings back to the Lions Club. The Clarendon Firebelle’s Penny Raffle winners were Rhonda Newhouse; $50, Steve Reynolds; $50, and Beth Newman; $100. Jan Farris was the winner of the $500 worth of gas from the Chamber of Commerce.

Laban Tubbs won the John Deere riding lawn mower given by the Friends of Donley County Activity Center that supported Donley County 4-H. Russell Estlack was the winner of the custom commemorative spurs from the Clarendon Masonic Lodge. Doris Homer of Groom was the winner of the St. Mary’s Catholic Women Quilt Drawing.

The Cash for Kids drawing fundraiser raised a total of 10,000, half of which went to the grand prize winner of $5,000, which was Greenbelt Water Authority. Heather King was the winner of the $200 certificate to Edes Meats, Clarendon Veterinarian Hospital won a $200 certificate to WalMart, and Charlie Brown of Amarillo was the winner of a $200 certificate for gas. The community’s support towards this fundraiser was appreciated.

The Henson’s annual Turtle Race was held the day before the Fourth of July celebration on Friday afternoon. There were altogether 200 participants; and the winners were Easton Frausto for the 0-4 division, Samantha Smith of Hall County for the 5-8 division, and Jennifer Sweet of Round Rock for the 9-14 division.
The Turtle Art Contest winner for the 13-16 age division was Cody Wood. The 7-9 age division winner was Colt Wood.

Wilson Cattle took top honors during the Clarendon Outdoor Entertainment Association’s annual Ranch Rodeo last Friday and Saturday.

Wilson Cattle’s scores beat out 19 other local and regional teams as working cowboys put their skills to the test as part of the 132nd annual Saints’ Roost Celebration. The team was made up of Rody Wilson, Tyler Rice, Jason Thomas, Jesse Valdez, and John Wilson.

Finishing second was Bit Ranch with the team of Danny Bennet, Teal Bennet, Tate Bennet, Klay Waters, and Rex Green.

Rafter L Cattle Co. was third with the team of Lonny Brown, Seth Brown, Brad Overstreet, Shannon Vincent, and Andy Adams.

The Top Hand and Top Horse award was won by J.D. Roberts of Britten/Prethro.

The Wild Mare Races were canceled after an injury occurred in the middle of the event on Friday.

The Calcutta winners were Kevin Huddleston, 1st; Bit Ranch, 2nd; Rafter L, 3rd.

Calf scramble winners from the four nights were Marshal Johnson, Caden Bennett, and Button Kennedy (Thursday); Cody Crump and Clayton Moore (Friday); and Cade Williams, Casey McCleskey, and Sage Coley (Saturday).

Junior Calf Riding was held all four nights. Winners were Jake Baca (Thursday), Jake Baca (Friday), and Dalton Benson (Saturday). Overall Calf Ride winner was Dalton Benson.

Winners of the Junior Steer Riding were Brock Baldwin (Thursday), Brock Baldwin (Friday), and Jake Baca (Saturday). Overall Steer Riding winner was Jake Baca.
Junior Donkey Riding winners were Zack O’Neal (Thursday), Dalton Benson (Friday), and Dalton Benson (Saturday). Overall Donkey Riding winner was Dalton Benson.

The Overall Junior Rodeo winners from Thursday night were Smith SJ, first; Voo Doos, second; and Out of Grass Cattle Co., third.

The Top Hand winner for the Junior Ranch Rodeo was Chance McAnear, and the Top Horse went to Hunter Kennedy.

Is it time to consider a ban on alcohol at Greenbelt Lake?

That’s a question being raised by Donley County Sheriff Butch Blackburn after a series of calls received by his office over the July Fourth weekend.

Blackburn says 90 percent of the 911 calls from Greenbelt are alcohol related, and he also says those calls are getting rougher.

“We’re getting more calls with guns or other types of weapons involved,” Blackburn said.

Carson County officials this week are investigating a case where a woman allegedly shot and killed her boyfriend Sunday. The couple was returning from Greenbelt, and alcohol was involved according to published reports. Blackburn said that case could have happened in Donley County.

“That’s how close we came,” Blackburn said. “There has not been a killing at Greenbelt that I know of; but if things don’t change, I won’t be surprised if we do have one.”
Greenbelt Water Authority General Manager Bobbie Kidd said his board kicked around the idea of a ban on alcohol several years ago but never took any kind of action on the subject, but he said it may be time to bring it back up.

“I think the ‘no alcohol’ deal is something we’ll have to look at again,” Kidd said.

Kidd said he couldn’t say the situation at the lake is getting worse, but he did agree that 90 percent of the calls from the lake were probably alcohol related and agreed that those calls can be rough.

Lake Meredith has a partial ban on alcohol, Kidd said, and only allows alcohol in certain areas and prohibits open containers after midnight.

“I don’t think we could have a partial ban,” Kidd said. “I think it would have to be a total ban.”

Kidd said he would hate to see it come to a situation where a guy couldn’t have a cold beer while he’s fishing, but also noted that Greenbelt gets a lot of inebriated visitors and that alcohol does play a role in a lot of drowning at the lake.

Thirteen people were arrested from last Thursday through Sunday, the sheriff’s office said. All of those were alcohol related, and all were at or near Greenbelt Lake.

People arrested at the lake cannot return, Kidd said, noting that Greenbelt is private property.
“We have a hard and fast rule: If you get arrested at our lake, you get banned from the lake,” Kidd said.
Among the calls this weekend from the lake, Blackburn noted these alcohol-related cases:

• At 4:18 a.m. on Saturday a fight started over someone urinating next to someone else’s tent and, during this, someone fired a .12-gauge shotgun in the air.
• At 7:13 p.m. on Friday a fight broke out over a campsite.
• At 1:50 Saturday morning a female had a diving accident near Sandy Beach.
• “One idiot” stabbed himself in the leg after he got off a boat with a knife and tried to swim to shore.
• A person nearly drowned on Friday but was rescued by someone on the shore who saw them bobbing in the water.

One side effect to a ban on alcohol might be how it would impact traffic at the lake. From Monday through Sunday, Greenbelt sold approximately 8,000 lake permits, and Kidd said over the weekend between 3,000 and 4,000 people were at the lake.

Kidd said an impact on traffic wouldn’t bother him.
“I wouldn’t really care,” he said. “You’d lose some people and probably gain some other people.”

The sheriff said he believes fifty percent of the people coming to the lake are just here to party and that many of them have criminal histories and no respect for rules or laws.

“It’s just sad that [the water authority] has done so much work out there and we have so many family people go and can’t have a good time because of the thugs that show up,” the sheriff said.

 Military veterans who are totally disabled or cannot work because of service-related injuries will pay no property taxes on their homes under a new tax exemption approved by the Legislature.

Donley Appraisal District Cheif Appraiser Paula Lowrie says disabled veterans with a rating of 100 percent and have a qualified homestead in Donley County should contact the appraisal district for a form to apply for this new exemption.

“Texas has done the right thing by providing property tax relief for our military men and women who have served their country and paid a heavy price,” Texas Comptroller Susan Combs said.

House Bill 3613 provides an exemption of the total appraised value of the homesteads of Texas veterans who have received a 100 percent disability rating or are considered unemployable by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The new law is effective for the 2009 tax year, and swift action is necessary to update local property tax rolls and ensure eligible veterans receive the new tax break.

Eligible disabled veterans must apply for the tax exemption through their county appraisal district.
An application form for veterans and appraisal districts to use can be found on the Comptroller’s Web site at http://www.window.state.tx.us/taxinfo/taxforms/vetexempt.pdf.
Veterans may also need to contact their mortgage lenders to adjust their escrow payments.

A park known to many as the “Grand Canyon of Texas” and beloved by generations who have visited its landmark features celebrates 75 years as a popular Panhandle travel destination near Amarillo, with special events and activities scheduled for the weekend of July 4-5.

To celebrate the 75th anniversary, the park is offering free admission to all visitors, waiving the customary $5 per-person adult admission fee (children ages 12 and younger are always free). The park will also host a number of activities such as nature hikes and wildlife viewing tours along some of the park’s numerous nature trails.

Highlighting the weekend’s festivities will be a special edition of the musical drama “Texas” on the evening of July 4 – including extra fireworks and music to honor the Fourth of July tradition – and a concert by Boz Scaggs and his band the evening of July 5. Both events are scheduled for the park’s Pioneer Amphitheater. A portion of the proceeds from the concert will benefit the Partners in Palo Duro Canyon Foundation and the Texas Panhandle Heritage Foundation.

“Palo Duro Canyon has been important to everyone who has lived here, going back some 12,000 years,” said park superintendent Randy Ferris. “From prehistoric man to the Comanche and Kiowa peoples, who considered it a sacred place, to ranchers who brought livestock here because of the water. In the 1930s, the Civilian

Conservation Corp came here to restore access to this place and help build the economy. Everywhere you look, Lighthouse Rock is an icon to this region; people even name local businesses in honor of it. Now, Palo Duro Canyon State Park gives us a place to escape from our busy lives. You can still drive into the canyon, and imagine you are the first person ever to discover it.”

Today, Palo Duro Canyon State Park covers 30,000 acres and ranks as the second-largest canyon in the nation. It includes numerous RV and primitive campsites, cabins, horseback riding and other popular features. The park is also a significant economic engine for the entire Panhandle region, each year generating more than $9.7 million impact on sales, $5 million on personal income, more than 100 jobs and $19,500 in sales tax for Randall County alone.

Amarillo’s legendary restaurant, The Big Texan, will also be on hand serving dinner each night of the anniversary weekend, available just prior to the play “Texas” on Saturday evening, and then before the concert again on Sunday evening.

Tickets to the play run from $9.95 to $29.95 with the steak dinner available for an additional $16.95 each for adults and $12.70 each for children; tickets to the Boz Scaggs concert cost $50 to $100 each depending upon the seat, but do include the steak dinner for each ticket holder.

For more information, contact Palo Duro Canyon State Park at (806) 488-2227, or visit the Web site at www.tpwd.state.tx.us/parks. It is recommended that tickets to the show “Texas” or to the Boz Scaggs concert be purchased in advance, as seating is limited. For ticket information for either event, visit www.texas-show.com or call (806) 655-2181.

Clarendon College will offer new vocational classes downtown this fall after the Board of Regents accepted a lease agreement for facilities on First Street at its June 18 meeting.

The one-year one-dollar lease is between the college and the Donley County Industrial Foundation represented by Walt Knorpp for the buildings formerly owned by Clarendon Manufacturing & Distributing Company. CC President Bill Auvenshine said under the agreement the buildings will be donated to the college when the lease expires.

Auvenshine said CC plans to begin offering welding, wind energy, and HVAC classes at the new location.
“This will also give us a place to house our buses,” Auvenshine said. “Right now we have to park them on the Bairfield Activity Center parking lot and even do maintenance on them in the parking lot in all kinds of weather.”

The hands-on classes and bus facilities will be in two quonset buildings while the Clarendon Manufacturing office will be renovated for indoor classroom space.
Knorpp said making the facilities available to the college was a good option for all involved.

“I thought it would benefit Clarendon College and the community as a whole,” Knorpp said.

In other college business, the board approved hiring Page & Associates of Amarillo as the construction manager at-risk for the construction of two new vocational buildings at the CC Pampa Center.

Regents considered two requests by the Les Beaux Arts Club regarding an arts festival to be held on the campus this fall. The first request was to permit wine to be served during the festival, but regents denied that request since students would be on campus at the time, Auvenshine said. The club also wanted sponsorship funds for the festival in addition to the $500 already pledged by the college, but the board also denied that request.

The fee structure for CC was changed to eliminate the three-hour minimum requirement for taking classes. Students can now take a single one-hour class for about $100. Previously a one-hour class would have be subject to minimum fees of about $300, the president said.
The board also set July 30 as the date for an all-day budget and policy retreat at the Clarendon Country Club. A public hearing on the budget will be held on August 20.

The plans are set, the streets downtown are swept, and Clarendon stands ready to welcome visitors to the 132nd annual Saints’ Roost Celebration this Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, July 2-4.

In recent days a few minor changes have been made to the printed schedule, but nothing that will take away from the enjoyment of the festivities.

The action starts Thursday, July 2, with the Downtown Merchants’ Western Days Sale, which will run all day long. There will also be a Trade Show in the Community Building starting at 6:00 p.m. (not 5 p.m. as previously reported), which will take place all three days.

The Depression Lunch downtown which was originally announced for Friday will be held on Thursday, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The fun continues that night starting at 7:30 p.m. with a 16 and under Junior Rodeo, which will be held at the COEA arena, followed by an outdoor dance on the COEA slab.

Each night of the rodeo there will be a calf scramble, an open calf ride, and junior donkey and steer riding available to all young cowboys and cowgirls. Boy Scout

Troop 433 will provide concessions for all three nights of the rodeo.

The all day long Downtown Merchants’ Western Days Sale will continue to kick things off July 3rd, and Henson’s famous annual Turtle Race will begin at 3:00 p.m. at Third and Kearney.

Later on that night, another rodeo will take place at 7:30 p.m. at the COEA with an outdoor dance immediately following.

The busiest day of the celebration will be July 4, starting at 8:00 a.m. with Open Barrel Racing. Lineup and registration for the Kids’ Bike Parade will be at 9:30 a.m. across from Henson’s. The Kids’ Bicycle Parade will start rolling at 10:00 a.m. Also starting at 9:00 a.m. (an hour earlier than previously reported) will be the 4-H Arts & Craft Fair on the Courthouse Square. For booth space, contact the Donley County Extension Office.
The Old Settler’s reunion will start at 10:30 a.m. with live entertainment. The Al Morrah Shrine Club’s annual BBQ Lunch will start serving at 11:00 a.m. and will continue until the food runs out.

Registration and lineup for the annual Western Parade will be at 1:00 p.m. at the baseball field, and the parade will take off at 2:00 p.m. The Lions Club Cow Patty Bingo will follow the parade.

The annual COEA Ranch rodeo will open at 7:30 p.m. followed by a live band dance featuring Ed Montana. The St. Mary’s Catholic Women Quilt Drawing will be at 9:00 p.m.