Archives for November 2011

The Clarendon College Theatre Department announces the opening of “And Then I Wrote,” a comedy written by Jack Sharkey and Mel Buttorff, produced by special arrangement with Samuel French, Inc.

Performances are scheduled for Thursday, November 17, Friday, November 18, and Saturday, November 19 , with curtain at 7 p.m.  All performances will be in the Harned Sister Fine Arts Center Auditorium.

The cast includes Tanner Britten, Heather Coleman, Lacie Johnston, Sheri Haynes, Amber Kuntzelman, DeeAnndra Nelson, Steven Vassey, Morgan Wheatly, Leon Williams, Brandon Wright, and Dakota Young.

General admission is $5 for adults and $3 for students.  Admission is free to anyone with a Clarendon College ID.

Synopsis: In this riotous showbiz comedy a producer, his secretary and associates try to rewrite an epic drama by a neophyte playwright into a broad farce.  A vicious gossip columnist tries to blackmail the producer into marriage while a scatterbrained old character erroneously creates the impression that the leading lady has dies.  The author, also an apprentice mortician, is appalled by theh histrionics that accompany the opening of a  Broadway show.  As the columnist draws mistaken conclusions that this show is really a cover for a bizarre murder cult, the rest of the group foster the impression and substitute a lady undertaker in the role of the much alive leading lady.  Mistaken identities, romance, and sill situations combine to keep the audience laughing through three acts of hilarity.

Two public Veterans Day services have been planned for this Friday to honor the men and women who have served America in the armed forces – one near Hedley and another at Clarendon College.

The Adamson-Lane Post 287 of the American Legion in Hedley will hold its annual service at the Rowe Cemetery at 10 a.m., and 18th District Commander Harold Lehnick.

Lehnick graduated from Groom High School in 1944 and was inducted in the US Army the following spring and served at Ft. McPherson in Georgia and Ft. Bragg in North Carolina.

The Rowe program will also include honoring Prisoners of War and those still Missing In Action.

The Clarendon College program will be held Friday at 7 p.m. in the Harned Sisters Fine Arts Auditorium. The guest speaker for the evening will be Dick Bode, and the service will include a Roll Call as well as a recognition of those serving in the military and their families.

Centers providing meals to the senior citizens of Donley County this month are struggling to follow new regulations impacting what food they serve and how it is prepared.

“We have to comply; that’s all we can do,” said Mary Shields, Director of the Donley County Senior Citizens Center in Clarendon. “We’re going to do this as best we can as long as we can.”

In the past, Shields, with the assistance of a nutritionist, prepared the menus for the 145 plates she serves each week either at the center or through Meals on Wheels. But now a nutritionist from the state is providing a fall/winter menu and a spring/summer menu consisting of 20 meals each, and Shields is not allowed to vary from what has been planned for each meal.

“I can substitute an entire meal for another, but I’m not allowed to change items specifically in each menu,” Sheilds said.

The menus are provided by the Area Agency on Aging, which Shields said is funded by the state and federal funds. The agency funds the senior citizens centers in Clarendon and Hedley, which serve meals to the elderly free of charge but ask for a suggested donation.

The new guidelines are federal standards and are meant to be more nutritious, cutting out fried foods and canned foods. Pies and cakes for desserts are also out, Shields said.

Seniors in Clarendon have met the new menus with an open mind, Shields said, and so far most have been complimentary of the meals. But Shields worries about costs associated with the changes.

“The main thing is that everything has to be homemade and we can’t use canned vegetables anymore. Everything has to be baked in the oven, and veggies have to be either fresh or frozen.”

Shields says she worries about space constraints, the need for additional equipment, and that it will cost her more to purchase everything fresh. She figures she needs about $5,000 right away for additional ovens and a stand-up mixer.

Shields says she’s trying to keep a positive attitude and is busy working on grants to help purchase equipment. And she’s also preparing to take suggestions to meeting of other senior centers with the Agency in December.

Joseph and Mary Giesler , who have eaten at the Donley County Senior Citizens Center for 18 years, say the new food has been good so far, but they don’t like the way the government has imposed new guidelines on the center.

“We haven’t been on it very long, but ain’t nobody gonna do better than Mary (Sheilds),” Joseph said of the new menu.

Mary Giesler said the ban on cakes and pies is “not fair” and also said, “It’s not good when the government sticks its nose in.”

The couple did agree that value of the meal was still excellent, and they plan to continue eating at the center five days a week and making the suggested donations.

“There’s no way you can prepare a meal like this for $4,” Joseph said.

A Clarendon High School student is out on bond this week facing drug-related charges after a canine unit alerted on his vehicle during a random search last week.

Donley County Sheriff Butch Blackburn said Mason Lowrie, age 17, was charged with a felony possession of a controlled substance and with misdemeanor offenses of possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Blackburn said his office was contacted by the school last Thursday, November 3, after a drug dog alerted on Lowrie’s vehicle in the school parking lot and after it had been searched by the company providing the canine service.

Lowrie was arraigned Friday and released on bonds totaling $6,500, the sheriff said.

CHS Principal Larry Jeffers would not comment on this case specifically, but he did say the school has contracted with Interquest for about 10 years.

Jeffers said the company makes about nine unscheduled visits to the school each year and can detect illicit drugs as well as prescription drugs, alcohol, and gunpowder residue.  He said when a dog alerts on a vehicle, the school is notified and then the owner is located to get permission to search the vehicle. If a search turns up something ordinary – such as aspirin or a medication prescribed for that student, then there is no problem.

If a search turns up possession of drugs, Jeffers said policy is for the student to be automatically placed in the Disciplinary Alternative Education Program (AEP). A felony case can result in automatic expulsion to AEP, Jeffers said.

CHS has only had about three AEP placements in the last ten years as a result of a canine search, the principal said. Law enforcement is called in if a student is found to possess drugs on the school grounds.