Archives for September 2012

The Clarendon College Board of Regents adopted a $9.2 million budget for fiscal year 2013 during a called meeting last Thursday, August 30.

The new budget is an increase over last year’s approved budget of $8.9 million. CC Dean of Administrative Services Annette Ferguson said the college adjusted some of its fees to make the budget work and said it deals with a loss of about $200,000 in state appropriations.

Board members said forward thinking helped make this year’s budget easier to prepare.

“We started in better shape this year because we were planning a year ago,” Regent Jerry Woodard said.

The college district will levy the same tax rate as in fiscal year 2012, but due to higher property values, that rate will generate about $13,000 more in revenue, Ferguson said.

Property taxes in Donley County provides about $400,000 in revenue for the college.

The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and the Donley County Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) invite the public and any agencies with an interest in conservation issues to participate in a Local Work Group (LWG) meeting to be held at the Courson RFO Building on the Clarendon College Campus, in Clarendon.  This meeting will be on Tuesday, September 11th, 2012 at 4:00 pm.

The purpose of this public meeting is to receive input from farmers, ranchers, local agencies, organizations, businesses, and other individuals who have an interest in natural resource concerns and needs in Donley County.

Input received will allow the LWG to make recommendations on resource concerns to be addressed for eligible practices and ranking for county based funding.  Recommendations provided by the LWG meeting will be reviewed by the State Technical Advisory Committee (STAC) to help implement the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), and other conservation programs offered by NRCS.

The 2008 Farm Bill stipulates that conservation programs must continue to be locally led.  Through stake holder meetings, the public is given an opportunity to help local conservation leaders set program priorities.  Funding for these programs may be made available to eligible producers through the application process.

For more information, call the USDA-NRCS office in Clarendon at (806)874-3561, ext. 3.  NRCS office locations and program information can be found on the Texas NRCS Web site at www.tx.nrcs.usda.gov.