Archives for September 2015

The Donley County Sheriff’s Office and the Texas DPS tonight are actively looking for two Hispanic males north of US 287 near County Road 8 west of Clarendon.

Suspects fled in their vehicle from an attempted stop by the DPS. The pair abandoned their vehicle at the end of County Road 8 north of US 287 and were last seen on foot north of the Martin Baptist Church in pasture land.

TDJC search dogs and a Department of Public Safety helicopter are now involved in the search.

All area residents are advised to secure their homes and vehicles and be on alert. If you have any information about the whereabouts of these men, call the sheriff’s office immediately at 874-3533.

Clarendon College is reporting the third largest enrollment in its history this week, following the 12th class day of the fall 2015 semester.

CC President Robert Riza said total enrollment is currently at 1,350, which is an increase of about 12.6 percent over last fall’s number.

“This the result of the hard work of a lot of people,” Dr. Riza said. “With this increase, what I’m looking for is two years from now to see what our graduation rates and student success numbers look like.”

The biggest increase for CC came in a nearly 54 percent increase in dual credit enrollment in area high schools from 352 students to 541.

Those dual credit figures include 97 students from Carson County, 53 of which are in Panhandle High School, who are all being covered by scholarship. The college many years ago inherited a farm in that county from the McConnell Estate, and this year the Riza administration moved to use the lease payments from that property to cover all Carson County high school students’ dual credit expenses.

Dual credit numbers are also way up in Gray County, where the Pampa Foundation chose to use a large donation to pay for college classes for high school students on the free and reduced lunch program.

Miami High School also has 52 dual credit students taking classes from CC, more than twice the number of last year. Riza said that school has launched a four-year plan to graduate as many students as possible from Clarendon College three weeks before they graduate from high school.

Miami is one area school pushing students to start dual credit classes as freshmen. Riza said taking dual credit classes in high school leads directly to success in college for many students.

“Our figures show that 37 percent of dual credit students will earn a four-year degree within four years or less of graduating high school,” the president said.

Enrollment numbers were down slightly on the home campus in Clarendon at 328 compared to 352 last year. Riza said that reflects less than full occupancy in the dormitories due to some turn overs among coaches. He expects CC to be back at full occupancy next fall and possibly see increases in the spring semester.

Pampa enrollment fell by ten from 276 to 266 with the college feeling the impact of economic woes in Gray County where more than 300 jobs have been lost in the last month and a half, Riza said.

The CC center in Childress saw its numbers grow from 54 last year to 73 this year. The Amarillo cosmetology center was down from 65 last fall to 43 this fall, but 19 Amarillo ISD students are now taking cosmetology by dual credit.

Riza also said Clarendon College is working to offer more courses through an Adult Education Literacy grant aimed at getting people ESL training, GED credentials, and some workforce training. Those classes are first being offered in Pampa for welding, certified nurse’s aide, and phlebotomy.

“This serves a segment of our population that we have to help become productive,” Riza said.

 

The District Court gave a Donley County woman a 20-year sentence this week after she led law enforcement on a high-speed chase through three counties August 31.

Sonye Shields appeared before Judge Stuart Messer Tuesday morning, September 15, in a contested adjudication hearing with District Attorney Luke Inman representing the state. Six witnesses testified for the state, and two witnesses testified for the defendant.

Shields was sentenced to 20 years in the institutional division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice for violating the probation she started June 1 for a second degree charge of Possession of a Controlled Substance.

That offense was committed on February 20, 2015. Shields was 53 at the time of her arrest.

Shields has since been in trouble with the law and had two outstanding warrants on August 31 when Donley County Deputy Vincent Morasco saw her at Allsup’s convenience store in Clarendon with her husband and a U-Haul pickup hooked to a utility trailer loaded with furniture, according to Sheriff Butch Blackburn.

Morasco identified himself and informed Shields that he needed to confirm the warrant for her. She then got into the passenger side of the pick-up and locked the door. The deputy confronted her and tried to get her to exit the vehicle, but Shields slid over to the driver’s side and sped off. As she took off, the deputy shot the right front tire of the vehicle, the sheriff said.

Shields drove through some side streets before getting onto US 287 and then going north on State Hwy. 70 at speeds in excess of 100 mph. The sheriff said her speed and erratic driving was causing the trailer’s load to be lost as she drove.

With the deputy still in pursuit, she headed west on Interstate 40 where she lost a desk off the trailer, causing the deputy to have to stop for safety reasons. As the deputy cleared the roadway, Sheriff Blackburn picked up the chase and caught up with Shields at mile marker 114 at the edge of Groom.

Shields pulled over and was arrested on charges of Evading and booked into the Carson County Jail. She was transferred to the Donley County Jail the next day and arraigned by Justice of the Peace Denise Bertrand.

Blackburn said Shields was wanted on a warrant for burglary out of Amarillo and on a local warrant for theft. She was also already out on bond on a motion to adjudicate her probation, the sheriff said.

The district attorney’s office said Tuesday afternoon that this week’s sentencing only related to Shields’ violation of probation and that other charges are still pending against her.

 

Clarendon’s sales tax revenue is still struggling according to August allocations released last week by Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar.

The city received $31,208.37 for the month, down 4.73 percent from the same period one year ago.

The sales tax figures represent monthly sales made in July.

That brings Clarendon’s calendar year-to-date figure to $292,541.06, which is a drop of 0.41 percent from the same point in 2014, which was $293,767.79.

Howardwick’s numbers were also down by 7.03 percent at $1,117.66, bringing that city’s revenue down 2.49 percent for the year-to-date at $9,821.31.

The City of Hedley’s revenue was down 49.07 percent at $256.65. For the year-to-date, Hedley is down 21.75 percent at $4,396.70.

Statewide, Hegar said that state sales tax revenue in August was $2.6 billion, down 0.4 percent compared to August 2014.

“The slight decline in sales tax revenue was due to reduced receipts from oil and gas-related sectors, offset by growth from other sectors,” Hegar said. “Higher collections from retail trade, restaurants and services indicated continued growth in consumer spending, while receipts from construction also grew.”

Along with his monthly sales tax allocation announcement, Hegar released totals for overall state revenues, as well as some of the state’s most significant revenue sources. All Funds revenue for the year finished at $109.5 billion, 0.2 percent less than the $109.7 billion projected in the Biennial Revenue Estimate (BRE).

General Revenue-related revenue was $52.6 billion, 0.1 percent ahead of the BRE projection of $52.58 billion. Sales tax revenue for the year was 0.6 percent below estimate, at $28.9 billion. The BRE forecast was $29.07 billion.

Oil production and regulation tax revenue came in 4.2 percent above the BRE forecast, while natural gas tax revenue was 20.6 percent below estimate.

“State revenues for fiscal 2015 came in very close to the amounts we projected in January before the legislative session,” Hegar said. “As we predicted, the Texas economy has seen moderate growth despite weakness in the energy sector. The accuracy of our fiscal 2015 estimate provides a firm foundation as we begin to prepare the Certification Revenue Estimate.”

 

The Donley County Sheriff’s Office participated in a manhunt in Armstrong County Sunday afternoon and evening after a man fled from state troopers in Conway.

At approximately 12:05 p.m., DPS Troopers stopped a silver Cadillac for a traffic violation on IH-40, in Conway. During the traffic stop, a scuffle broke out and three troopers were injured.

One person was arrested and taken to the Carson County Jail, but the driver of the Cadillac was able to get into the vehicle and flee the scene.

The vehicle was later located in Armstrong County, and several agencies participated in the search for the driver, later identified as Victor Apodaca, 25, of Clovis New Mexico.

The search was called off Sunday night, and Apodaca was later involved in a standoff with authorities and eventually taken into custody in Amarillo Monday.