Archives for October 2016

It’s time to saddle up and get ready for a fun ride as the Clarendon College Stampede welcomes more than 540 contestants to its NIRA rodeo this Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, October 13-15.

With contestants from 16 colleges and universities in the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association involved, qualifying events will be held all day with nightly performances being held at 7:30 p.m. each evening.

Tickets for evening performance are $5 in advance from Clarendon College, the Clarendon Visitor Center, or the Enterprise and will be $10 at the gate.

All activities will be held under the roof of the CC Livestock & Equine Center.

Activities will include bull riding, barrel racing, bareback riding, saddle bronc riding, and more.

Clarendon College officials are excited to be hosting the NIRA rodeo.

“Obviously we’re very proud of our opportunity to host this event with our partner schools,” CC President Robert Riza said. “It’s a chance to showcase not only our college and facility but also our community as well.  We greatly appreciate the support from our local merchants and vendors who’ve helped us offset the expense of this event.  We look forward to great weekend.”

Rodeo coach Bret Franks and nearly the entire staff at Clarendon College have been working for weeks to make sure the event comes off without a hitch.

Local and area sponsors have also lined up to support what promises to be one of the most exciting rodeos the town has seen since the Stampede last hit Clarendon in 2012.

Under Franks’ leadership, Clarendon College has reached new levels of success with the most notable being the national bronc riding championship won by Wyatt Casper last year. With the Stampede, CC looks forward putting on a successful rodeo in front of local supporters and also is hopes to boost local businesses with a large out of town crowd coming for the event.

The college is anticipating an attendance of about 1,000 to 1,200 over the three days.

For more information about the Stampede, call Ashlee Estlack at 806-874-4808.

A vision of a revitalized downtown Clarendon received its first public viewing during the First Friday Art Trail event in Lubbock last Friday, October 7.

More than a dozen renderings were on display at the Urban Tech office in the Texas Tech University Downtown Center, and TTU architecture students were on hand to discuss their ideas for storefronts on Clarendon’s Kearney Street. The exhibit was part of a larger walking art show that had several displays in different locations in downtown Lubbock.

The Clarendon plans were prepared as part of an agreement between the Clarendon Economic Development Corp. and Texas Tech’s College of Architecture that was signed about one year ago.

University personnel and students performed laser scans of buildings along Kearney and Sully streets between First and Fourth Streets. Those detailed measurements and images were then paired with historic photos of Clarendon, and students created new drawings of what a rehabilitated and revitalized Clarendon could look like. A target date of 1927 was chosen as a restoration point to work toward.

The $17,000 project will be used as the basis for the CEDC to revamp its popular Façade Grant Program guidelines to provide great incentives for property owners to rehabilitate their buildings in keeping with the plans developed by the Tech students.

The CEDC is also working with the Texas Historical Commission to possibly create a historic district designation for downtown, which would not put any restrictions on property owners but would open up the possibility of state and federal historic preservation tax credits for property owners in the district.

The Clarendon drawings will remain on display at the Urban Tech office for about one month as final revisions are made to the plans.

A local viewing will be scheduled in Clarendon after the CEDC finalizes incentives to be offered under the project.

The eighth annual Clarendon Arts Festival will be held next weekend, October 22-23, and officials with Les Beaux Arts Club are inviting everyone to participate in the Mac & Cheese Cookoff held in conjunction with the event.

The cookoff will be held from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Donley County Activity Center and will be fun for all ages. All funds go towards the production of Clarendon Arts Festival.

Members of the public will be given voting tokens to vote for their favorite Mac & Cheese. The People’s Choice Award will be given to the cook that receives the most votes. Sample Cups will be sold at the door (five for $5) for the public tasting, starting at 11:00 a.m. and concluding at 3:00 p.m.

The entry fee is $25, and the deadline to enter is October 19 at noon.  A cookoff registration entry form is available online at www.ClarendonChamber.com or check out their Facebook page at Clarendon Arts Festival.

Creative twists on a culinary classic are welcome. All cooks must prepare two quarts of prepared Mac & Cheese delivered to the Donley County Activity Center between 10:00 and 10:45 a.m. the day of the event. You must bring a copy of your recipe with you upon check-in. However, if you do not wish for your winning recipe to be published, the event organizer will honor this request. Each cook must provide warming tray and utensils to serve.

For additional information, call 806-654-2993.

The Clarendon Arts Festival opens to the public Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday the arts festival resumes at 11 a.m. and runs until 4 p.m. Those attending the Sunday can enjoy St. Mary’s famous Annual Enchilada Dinner.

Clarendon College is ahead of the game in positioning itself to meet higher education goals now being pursued by the State of Texas.

The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board’s 60x30TX plan calls for 60 percent of the state’s 25- to 34-year-old population to hold a college certificate or college degree by 2030, and CC President Robert Riza was in Lubbock recently to help find ways to reach the state’s goal.

Also attending the meeting were representatives from Texas Tech University, West Texas A&M University, Amarillo College, Frank Phillips College, South Plains College, Midland College, and Odessa College. They were joined by Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board Commissioner of Higher Education Raymund A. Paredes and Assistant Commissioner Rex C. Peebles.

“It was a good meeting,” Dr. Riza said, “and much of what we talked about will make it into Clarendon College’s next strategic plan. In fact, a lot of what we’re doing already aligns with these goals.”

The 60x30TX Plan, which is now in its second year, is broken into four distinct goals with the first being the overarching goal of having 60 percent the aforementioned age group holding a degree or certificate by 2030.

The second goal is for at least 550,000 students in 203 to complete a certificate, associate’s, bachelor’s, or master’s from a higher education institution in Texas.

The third goal focuses on making sure all graduates from Texas colleges and universities have marketable skills, and the fourth goal is for undergraduate student loan debt to not exceed 60 percent of first-year wages for graduates Texas public institutions.

The state’s 15-year plan is crafted to position Texans to benefit from the modern economy in which statistics show that workers with a high school diploma or less have seen virtually no growth in jobs. According to the Higher Education Coordinating Board, out of the 11.6 million jobs created in the post-recession economy, 11.5 million went to workers with at least some college education. Workers with an associate’s degree saw job growth of 3.1 million, but workers with a high school diploma or less grew by only 80,000 jobs.

CC is giving its students a head start toward advanced degrees through its collaborations with area school districts and programs that feed directly into four-year programs in health care professions and technical occupations, which are two areas that are seeing the second highest job growth in the nation.

Clarendon also has worked hard to get out in front of these trends, doubling dual credit enrollment in the CC service area since 2014, reducing the hours needed to complete a degree, and restructuring developmental education, Riza said.

Clarendon Aldermen will be considering a $10 increase to the base water rate when they hold their next regular meeting October 13 at 7 p.m. in City Hall.

The increase is being called for to help fund a $3.9 million project to improve the city’s water distribution system.

The city received a grant of $1.387 million from USDA Rural Development for the project, and the remainder of the financing will come from a $2.522 million 40-year loan from USDA.

City leaders say the fairest and surest way to make those note payments – which will start next July – is to add $10 per month to every commercial and residential water account.

“By increasing the water minimum charge, we can insure that water revenue covers the expense of these water improvements,” City Administrator David Dockery said.

The minimum residential water charge is now $22.40 for the first 2,000 gallons, Dockery said. That minimum will go up to $32.40.

The main focus of the project will be to address discolored water found in some parts of town that is caused by miles of cast iron distribution pipes and poor flow through the system.

The city is also out of compliance with state regulations for elevated storage due to problems with the standpipe (or water tower) on the east side of town. Clarendon could face state fines in the near future if those issues are not addressed.

The city additionally will replace all water meters with auto read meters. City officials say the aging meters currently in use are inaccurate by as much as 20 percent, and automated meters would significantly reduce the man-hours needed each month to read more than 700 meters.

More than 50 people attended the Town Hall meeting on March 29 at the Bairfield Activity Center, where Dockery, along with then mayor Larry Hicks and city engineer Clayton Scales, fielded questions from the public following an explanatory overview of the project.

The project is scheduled to be bid in February 2017.

The Town Hall meeting in March answered many questions and resulted in general support for the project.

Dockery said citizens will be given another opportunity to speak or ask questions at next week’s meeting as well.

Hedley will be the place to be this weekend with the 65th annual Cotton Festival taking place Friday and Saturday, October 6 and 8.

The Hedley Lioness Club will get things going Friday with a Chili & Stew Supper at 5 p.m. The club will also be selling chances on a quilt.

The Lioness Club will be open for a quilt show Saturday. All vendors are welcome on Saturday at no cost. All food vendors are welcome except barbecue. The Lions Club will host a catered BBQ dinner at noon.

The Hedley Senior Citizens will sell hamburgers from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. The Senior Citizens will also raffle a .22 Henry Golden Boy plus a case and ammunition.

The American Legion will raffle off a metal swing and a metal rocking chair for $5 each and the one ticket will be used for both drawings.  They will also be the Color Guard for the parade.  The Rowe Cemetery will have a bake sale.

Hedley Cheerleaders will do a small Ferris wheel and possibly a Jail, and HHS Yearbook staff is selling chances on a large metal Hedley Owls Emblem cutout.

Hedley’s One Act Play will host Bingo on Friday from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. in the Senior Citizens Building.  See their ad on page six of this week’s Enterprise for more information on the great prizes they have lined up. A total of $5,000 in prizes will be given away during the Bingo, including a two-night stay in Ruidoso, a ski package to Red River, and more.

The Parade will be at 2:00 p.m. Those wishing to be in the parade should be at the school at 1 p.m.  After the parade the School Reunion is at the school at 3:00 p.m.  The class of 1966 is hosting.

All raffle winners will be announced at the Lions Hall at 6:00 p.m.