Archives for August 2016

Clarendon residents may still see their taxes go up, but the city is backing away from earlier discussions of other fee increases.
Last week’s Enterprise reported that the City Council was considering a seven percent increase in sewer rates, but during a budget workshop last week, aldermen said they did not wish to raise that rate at all this year, expressing an aversion to hitting citizens with too many increases.
Sewer rates will have to rise some in fiscal year 2018 if the city is to be successful in applying for a future Community Development Block Grant, but City Administrator David Dockery confirmed Tuesday that a sewer rate increase is off the table for fiscal year 2017.
The city was also considering a nine percent rate hike for sanitation services in an attempt to close an approximate $30,000 deficit in that department. But Dockery said this week that the city has taken measures in house to close that gap. Since aldermen met last week, City Hall moved a full time sanitation employee to fill a vacancy in the public works department, and Dockery says his office continues to work to find efficiencies in sanitation.
Dockery said the city may still need to raise its sanitation rate, but he believes any increase will now be well below the nine percent originally proposed.
The city administrator has also been tasked with spending the next year evaluating the sanitation department and exploring all avenues to find savings for trash service. Clarendon hauls its own trash to the Memphis landfill, and Dockery told aldermen last week that most cities of this size picking up their own trash have their own landfills. The city is also faced with large expenses in the future as trash trucks need to be replaced.
The administrator said he will explore all options for the city including what it will take to keep the current service, the option of opening a landfill, or the possibility of contracting the city’s trash service.
The Clarendon City Council has proposed a tax rate of $0.74800 per $100 valuation, which is higher than the effective rate (the rate required to bring in the same revenue as last year) of $0.707967. Tax hearings will be held on August 11 and 25.

A new partnership between Clarendon ISD and Clarendon College will provide more opportunities for local students to earn foreign language credits while in high school.
Clarendon ISD Trustees approved a memorandum of understanding with the college to formalize the agreement Monday night during their regular meeting, according to Superintendent Mike Norrell.
“We’re very proud of this partnership,” Norrell said, noting that many schools, including Clarendon, are having trouble finding qualified Spanish instructors.
Under the agreement, CC instructor Bruno Castel will teach Spanish I and II at Clarendon High School, and Clarendon College will offer dual credit classes for high school students who take Spanish III and IV.
College and school officials say it’s not clear at this time how many – if any – students will be taking the dual credit class, which will be a conversational Spanish class and will require a certain proficiency coming out of Spanish I and II.
CC President Robert Riza said CHS has the technology available to allow the college to spread this program to other schools if it’s successful.
“We’re going to run it for a year at Clarendon High School and see how it works,” Dr. Riza said. “If it works well, then we can beam it to other schools in our service area.”
Riza said CISD will pay a small fee to the college for Castel’s service, which will allow the school to save money on a full time teaching position.
At the college, Castel will be offering CC students something they have long needed… the ability to earn foreign language credits at the community college level rather than having to take those courses at a university.

Donley County Commissioners put another nail in the coffin of the Precinct 1 & 2 constable’s office during their regular meeting Monday.
The county had officially declared the office as “dormant” in March of 2003 following controversy in which a write-in candidate was elected to that office in 2000 after it had been vacant since 1978. A legal battle over the office’s salary ensued before the constable resigned in 2001 after failing to become a certified Texas peace officer.
The county’s 2003 action was taken after Texas voters in November 2002 gave counties the authority to declare vacant or unneeded constable offices as dormant, and so for more than a decade the matter appeared to be resolved.
However, County Judge John Howard says the county has since discovered that a seven-year waiting period must elapse during which the constable’s office is vacant before the county can take action.
As a result, the commissioners court again voted unanimously this week to declare the office as dormant.
The position can be resurrected at any time by majority vote of the commissioners or through a process that begins with a petition from voters in that precinct.
In other county business, commissioners approved security measures for the district courtroom, authorized trainings for the county clerk and county tax assessor, and did not change the schedule of fees in the tax assessor’s office.
A local grant of $250 was approved for home delivered meals through the Department of Agriculture’s Texans Feeding Texans program.
There were no comments from the public during a hearing prior to commissioners adopting a resolution to clarify the borders of Reinvestment Zone #2.
Commissioners also continued work on the budget for fiscal year 2017.
Judge Howard says the county is considering a small tax increase and that all county employees except commissioners could see a small raise in the coming fiscal year.
More details of the proposed budget will be published in next week’s Enterprise.

The Christ’s Kids Ministry building in downtown Clarendon has been successfully remodeled thanks in part to a grant from the Clarendon Economic Development Corporation.

Steve Carter, who leads the Ministry, said the improvement project was made possible by the CEDC grant of $2,000.
“We probably wouldn’t have been able to do it,” Carter said. “We certainly never could have done the new dormers. It just looks so much better now.”
The building at 416 S. Kearney was built in the 1950s, Carter said, and originally housed offices for the US Department of Agriculture. Christ’s Kids moved into the building in 2012, and the ministry purchased the location in December 2013.
CEDC President Terri Floyd presented the check to Carter Monday afternoon after the CEDC board approved the Ministry’s completion report last week.
The project was driven by the need to replace building’s flat roof. Working with contractor Jim Shadle, the Ministry was able to replace the roof with new hipped roof, and CEDC funds went towards new dormers over the Kearney Street entrances, new paint and siding, and new exterior lighting.
“It just looks so much better now,” Carter said.
Since the Façade Grant Program began in 2008, the CEDC has awarded $29,839.54 to property owners in Clarendon. The Façade Grant Program provides 50-50 matching grants, up to a maximum of $2,000 per project, which could be any of a wide variety of projects, such as a coat of paint, new signage, sidewalk improvements, or a complete rehabilitation of a storefront.
The program grants awards to eligible properties located in the city’s entire Central Business District and on the US 287 corridor. Property owners interested in Façade Grant funds must get approval from the CEDC board before beginning their projects.
For more information or to apply for a grant, stop by the Clarendon Visitor Center.

The Clarendon City Council is faced with raising taxes and sanitation rates to balance its 2017 budget and will hold tax hearings on August 11 and 28.

During its regular meeting last Thursday, July 28, aldermen voted to propose a tax rate of $0.74800 per $100 valuation, which is higher than the effective rate (the rate required to bring in the same revenue as last year) of $0.707967.

The city’s taxable values dropped this year by about $990,000, according to the Donley Appraisal District.

In addition, City Hall is looking to correct a nearly $30,000 deficit in the sanitation department by proposing to raise trash rates by about nine percent.

A sewer rate increase was also under consideration in order to bolster the city’s changes in obtainting a Community Development Block Grant, but as the Enterprise went to press, aldermen backed away from raising sewer rates during a workshop Tuesday evening.

In other business last Thursday, aldermen accepted with regret the resignation of Bill Stavenhagen from the Clarendon Economic Development Corp. board and appointed Leslie Norrell to serve the remainder of that term.

The council accepted the low bid of Kyle Hill for low-water crossing work that needs to be done on Front Street to finish out the city’s “in-kind” obligation from a 2012 TxDOT grant at a cost of $16,000.

A Memphis man lost his life in a one-vehicle accident in Donley County early Sunday morning.
Casey Ford, age 37, was pronounced dead at the scene by Justice of the Peace Denise Bertrand.

The accident occurred at about 3:50 a.m. when Ford was driving a 2001 Ford F-150 pick-up westbound on US 287 approximately two miles east of Lelia Lake.

The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) reports that Ford lost control of the vehicle, collided into a guardrail, and rolled over. Ford was not wearing his seat belt and as result was ejected from the vehicle.

A DPS spokesperson said the contributing factor to Ford losing control of the vehicle is unknown at press time and said the crash is still under investigation. Road conditions were dry, and no other vehicles were involved.