Archives for August 2009

How much to pay the Donley County Sheriff’s Department for law enforcement services will be the center of discussion next Tuesday when Clarendon Aldermen meet in called session for a budget workshop.
The proposed city budget for 2010 calls for the contract with the county to be cut by more than 52 percent – from $130,000 down to $61,500, but Sheriff Butch Blackburn is asking for a $10,000 increase to $140,000.

Blackburn addressed the issue during last Tuesday’s regular meeting of the Board of Aldermen and said doing with less would hurt his department, and he aimed criticism at City Administrator John Webb.

“I think Mr. Webb thinks I’m supposed to do this for free,” Blackburn said. “If we don’t have this contract, we can’t have 24-hour coverage. I will have to fire deputies.”

Absent the contract, Blackburn said his office would answer calls in the city, but he presented an attorney general’s opinion reinforcing the notion that the level of coverage is entirely the sheriff’s discretion.

Blackburn also said that he, the city administrator, County Judge Jack Hall, and Mayor Chris Ford all met on July 8 to discuss the contract, and there the $140,000 rate was proposed by him. He said he did not learn until the last week of July about the proposed cut and said the county has already filed its proposed budget in the clerk’s office.

The sheriff said he did not want to argue with the city and also proposed keeping the contract at $130,000 and instituting a plan that would increase the contract annually based on the percentage of raise given to city employees.

Alderman Will Thompson was the most vocal supporter of the sheriff’s department during the meeting.
“The primary thing a government should provide is protection for its citizens,” Thompson said. “If it doesn’t do that, it should not exist.”

Mayor Ford praised Blackburn for doing a good job and also praised Webb for bringing options to the table, namely the options of enhanced animal control and code enforcement in exchange for a reduction in the sheriff’s contract.

Webb discussed the closeness of the budget and said the proposed budget is only nine percent over the current budget.

“We have a tight budget,” Webb said, noting that the city has a lot of needs. “We have deplorable streets, deplorable water, deplorable sewer, and no drainage.”

Alderman Larry Hicks made a motion to set $140,000 as the budgeted amount for the sheriff, but City Secretary Linda Smith said such a motion was out of order based on the wording of the agenda.

Alderman Kyle Davis said he thought the board needed more time to consider the issue, and Hicks withdrew his motion.

The board directed Webb to prepare alternate budgets keeping the sheriff’s contract at $130,000 and increasing it to $140,000.

Those alternate plans will be discussed in a budget workshop in a called meeting on August 25 at 7 p.m.
In other city business, the board discussed the proposed tax rate for the coming year. Officials expressed confusion about the effective tax rate presented by the Donley Appraisal District. A motion was approved to set the ad valorem rate at $0.6271 per $100 valuation, but officials at City Hall this week said that motion may be rescinded when the board meets next time.

A Solid Waste Implementation Grant given through Panhandle Regional Planning Commission and Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has provided the City of Clarendon with new equipment that will help the city win the title of top recycling community in the Panhandle once again.

According to City Administrator John Webb, the supervisor over the Recycling and Sanitation Department, Joe Neal Shadle, was able to procure from PRPC a Scarab compost turner for $16,000 and a power washer for $300.

“This equipment was received with grant money, so it basically came with no cost to the city,” Webb said. “We really appreciate PRPC and TCEQ, and I’m very thankful that Joe Shadle went an extra yard for the people in Clarendon by seeking out that grant.”

The power washer will clean out the city’s garbage trucks and maintain sanitation.

“We’re trying to get maximum performance from our trash trucks because they’re so old, and that’s a compliment to the guys who keep them going.” Webb remarked.

Leaves, grass, yard waste and shredded paper are just a few of the components run through the new compost turner to generate better compost. Shadle claims that the compost created works better for his garden than actual fertilizer.

Anyone interested in trying out the homemade compost is urged to come by the recycling center.

“We’re just trying to keep yard waste out of the landfill so it’s a lot less costly to the citizens and the city,” Shadle said. “This way we use grass how nature intended to.”
Shadle also hopes to have yard waste dumpsters next year.

“Joe Shadle and all of the employees at the recycling center are doing a good job and striving to make Clarendon the best recycling city in the Panhandle for the second year in a row,” Webb said.

The Clarendon Independent School District will experience many changes this upcoming school year as the A/B block schedule switches to a traditional eight period day.

This means that students will have the same classes everyday instead of every other day, and there will be a six week grading period instead of nine.

“Having a shorter grading period will allow students who fall behind to catch up easier,” Clarendon High School Principal Larry Jeffers said.

According to Jeffers, the schedule change was a direct result of the failure rate and the TAKS scores.
“We feel that daily contact instead of every other day contact with teachers will help improve students’ grades,” Jeffers said.

It is a common belief of many teachers that in the A/B schedule, many students tend to procrastinate school work and never get it completed. An eight period day will help students learn better work ethics and time management.

If high school students continue to put off school assignments, then they will have to attend a mandatory detention/tutorial called Thursday Night Live, which is a new ZAP (Zeros Aren’t Permitted) policy that will be in effect this year. Students will not be able to participate in any extracurricular activities until they have all their assignments completed.

Computer teachnology teacher Susan Taylor is only one of the teachers at Clarendon High who is expecting the new ZAP policy to show some results.

“I’m hoping that Thursday Night Live will work out because some students get to a point where lunch detention doesn’t bother them anymore, but maybe if they have to come in after school on Thursday, it would actually make them want to get their work done. I’m anxious to see how it turns out,” said Taylor. “I think that it’s sad that as high school students there has to be an outside motivation instead of an intrinsic one.”

Extracurricular absences will also be affected by the schedule change. Instead of allowing students to miss ten A days and ten B days for a total of twenty absences, they will only be permitted ten this year.

Some students aren’t too excited about the schedule change, such as High School Student Council President Brandi Mays.

“I think that this year is going to be hectic and a really big adjustment for us because we’ve been so use to A days and B days for several years,” Mays said.

Even teachers are going to have a hard time switching back to eight period days.
“For my teaching, the schedule change is going to be hard because in my classes, by the time students log in and log off, 30 to 40 minutes isn’t long enough to get any work done,” Taylor said.

To the relief of many high school students, open campus lunch will still be allowed, except reduced to 44 minutes instead of a full hour.

“The only bad thing about the schedule change is that we’ll have to carry so many books around, and the shortened lunch will definitely make a lot of students upset,” said Mays.

A Wellington man who led lawmen on a high speed chase into Clarendon last month was sentenced to three years probation for the state jail felony offense of evading arrest when the district court met in Childress on Monday.

Carl Franklin Bedwell III was arrested July 18 after Donley County dispatchers received multiple 911 calls with reports of someone driving erratically – going on the left and right shoulders, eastbound on US 287 west of Clarendon – at speeds in excess of 100 mph.

A state trooper stopped Bedwell west of Clarendon, but he re-started his vehicle and fled the scene despite warnings and three gunshots fired by a Donley County deputy. Bedwell then crossed the west city limits at approximately 85 mph, and the trooper and two deputies boxed in his vehicle as he neared the intersection of Allen Street and US 287.

District Attorney Luke Inman’s office said Bedwell pleaded guilty to a complaint and information filed by the state and was convicted. Pursuant to the plea agreement, Bedwell is required to pay a $1,000 fine to

Donley County and $390 in court costs. If Bedwell violates probation, he could face up to two years in the State Jail Division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

Also on Monday, the court sentenced Bobby Allen Prentice to 60 days in the Childress County Jail after he pleaded guilty to the Class A misdemeanor of theft and placed Armando Hinojosa Jr. on probation for a period of two years for the Class A misdemeanor offense of theft.

Prentice was arrested in Childress County on May 22, 2009 for the offense of theft. Hinojosa was arrested for burglary of a building in Collingsworth County on August 3, 2009. Hinojosa’s co-defendant, Sawyer Adams, plead out to the same offense in County Court and was required to pay a fine of $4,000 and spend 10 days in county jail.

Clarendon College conferred an honorary degree on State Rep. Warren Chisum (R-Pampa) during a reception for the long-serving legislator last Thursday.
More than 100 people were in attendance when CC President Bill Auvenshine surprised Chisum with an honorary Associate of Arts in Humanties.

“It has been said that to have friends you must be a friend,” Auvenshine said, “and Warren Chisum has a lot of friends because he has been a friend of Clarendon College and the entire Texas Panhandle.”

Chisum, a native of Pampa, has represented Donley and Gray counties and the rest of District 88 in the Texas House of Representatives since 1989. He said he was very happy about his new degree.

“I’ll have to call my office and let them know I’m a college graduate now,” he said.

Chisum jokingly asked if he owed any tuition, and Auvenshine said he was sure the representative was “all paid up.”

Following the conferral of the degree, spoke briefly about the work of the 81st Legislature, which concluded earlier this year. He addressed increases in funding for education and said some increases in the budget this year are one time expenditures using federal stimulus money.

“We were very careful not to start new programs that wouldn’t be funded in the future,” Chisum said.
He also defended Gov. Rick Perry’s action to refuse certain unemployment benefit funds from the federal government, saying that accepting that money would have meant Texas businesses would have to fund a system that would cover part-time employees and thus have to pay higher taxes.

“We’re creating jobs in this state right now,” he said. “Our unemployment rate is lower than the nation’s, and we feel like we’re on the right track.”
Thursday’s reception was co-hosted by the college and the Donley County Republican Party.

Chisum was also honored Monday by the Texas Association of Community Health Centers (TACHC) with that organization’s Legislator of the Year Award.
During an Amarillo event celebrating National Health Center Week, Rep. Chisum’s leadership and commitment in the passage of physician loan repayment legislation were highlighted and applauded. The legislation takes a major step toward addressing a critical physician shortage across the state, including the Panhandle and High Plains. More than half of Texas counties currently need additional primary care physicians.

Chisum, along with State Rep. Garnet Coleman of Houston, received the Patient Advocacy Award by the Texas Academy of Family Physicians in Arlington on July 25.

District court delivers sentences in four cases
The district court heard pleas on four charges resulting in four deferred adjudications last Wednesday in the Donley County Courthouse.

A total of $12,000 in fines was assessed as a result of the pleas that took place on July 29. In addition to the fines, the defendants were required to pay a total of $2,060 in court costs and $22,000 in restitution.
Emzy Dewayne Harris was placed on probation for a period of eight years for the second degree felony offense of indecency with a child. Harris pleaded guilty and was placed on deferred adjudication for indecency with a child.

Harris was arrested in Donley County on July 23, 2009, for the offense that took place June 1, 2009. Harris pled guilty to a complaint and information filed by the state. Pursuant to the plea agreement, Harris is required to pay a $4,000 fine to Donley County and $640 in court costs, among other conditions of probation. If Harris violates probation, he could face up to 20 years in the Institutional Division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
Luis Alberto Garcia was placed on probation for a period of eight years for the second degree felony offense of indecency with a child. Garcia pled guilty and was placed on deferred adjudication for indecency with a child.

Garcia was arrested in Donley County on July 23, 2009, for the offense that took place October 19, 2008. Garcia pleaded guilty to a complaint and information filed by the state. Pursuant to the plea agreement, Garcia is required to pay a $4,000 fine to Donley County and $640 in court costs, among other conditions of probation. If Garcia violates probation, he could face up to 20 years in the Institutional Division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

Timothy Wayde Wilson pled guilty to two offenses, receiving deferred adjudication on both second degree felony offenses for burglary of a habitation.
Wilson was arrested for burglary of a habitation on June 8, 2009, for the offenses that took place May 27, 2009, and June 3, 2009. Wilson was indicted for both offenses by a Donley County Grand Jury on June 22, 2009.
Pursuant to the plea agreement, Wilson is required to pay a $4,000 fine to Donley County, pay $22,000 in restitution and $780 in court costs. If Wilson violates probation, he could face up to 20 years in the Institutional Division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
Luke Inman, the 100th Judicial District Attorney, was the prosecutor for the State of Texas on all cases and the Honorable Judge Stuart Messer presiding.

The court met also in Panhandle on July 28 and heard nine pleas which resulted in three convictions and six deferred adjudications. Two cases had ties to Donley County, which received $1,000 in fines assessed to defendants.

Out of the three convictions, two defendants were sent to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Out of the six cases receiving deferred adjudication, two defendants paid up-front fines totaling $12,500 which was received by Carson County on Tuesday.

David Leon Weatherton pleaded guilty to a third degree felony offense of driving while intoxicated and is required to wear a SCRAM device for a one-year period.
Weatherton was arrested in Donley County on May 6, 2009 for the offense that took place June 22, 2008. Weatherton was indicted by a Donley County Grand Jury on March 2, 2009. Pursuant to the plea agreement, Weatherton pleaded guilty, but sentencing was postponed for one year.

Weatherton could face up to ten years in the Institutional Division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice if he violates the SCRAM program.
Alphonso Juarez Pena pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 15 months in the State Jail Institutional Division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice for the state jail felony offense of unauthorized use of a motor vehicle.

Pena was arrested in Donley County on March 7, 2009 for the state jail felony offense of unauthorized use of a motor vehicle. Pena pleaded guilty to a complaint and information filed by the state was convicted.
Pursuant to the plea agreement, Pena is required to pay a $1,000 fine to Donley County and court costs of $415.

People interested in starting their own businesses are invited to attend a special seminar next month sponsored by the Clarendon Economic Development Corporation and the Small Business Development Center of West Texas A&M University.

“Introduction to Business Ownership” (IBO) will give budding entrepreneurs the best possible chance of success.

Attendees will learn the best way to develop their business concept, determine a market strategy, organize their business operations, and determine their legal structure. All this will keep you on the high road to success.

The workshop will be held Thursday, August 13, from 6 – 8 p.m. at the Clarendon College Barfield Activity Center.
This IBO is free of charge, but advance registration is required and can be done online at www.wtsbdc.com/seminars or by phone at 806-372-5151.
For more information, visit www.wtsbdc.com