Archives for August 2018

An account at the Donley County State Bank has been opened for a Howardwick family after they lost their home to a fire this week.

Chris and Shelina Wilkins lost most of their possessions due to fire, heat, and smoke damage, a family friend said, and the family was displaced from the home.

Clarendon Fire Chief Jeremy Powell said an electrical short in a window air-conditioning unit caused the fire Tuesday afternoon, August 28, and a passerby noticed the fire. A neighbor began fighting the fire with a hose, and volunteer firemen from Clarendon and Howardwick responded to the call.

Powell said fire damage was contained to the living area where the air-conditioner was located but the rest of the house sustained heavy smoke and heat damage.

A Memphis man lost part of his right arm last Wednesday, August 22, after a truck collided with the tractor he was driving.

DPS Trooper Emily Ruhl said 58-year-old Jesus Garcia was driving a John Deere 4450 westbound on the shoulder of US 287 about six miles west of Clarendon and pulling a hay rake. About 4:40 p.m. an Isuzu box truck came up behind him on the shoulder and collided with the rake and tractor.

The impact caused the tractor to jackknife. Garcia was thrown from the tractor and lost his right hand and part of his arm in the accident.

A nurse passing by got to Garcia and rendered first aid, tying a tourniquet to stop his bleeding, Ruhl said.

Garcia was transported by Donley County EMS and then airlifted to Northwest Texas Hospital in Amarillo.

The driver of the truck, Tyler Brown of Bastrop, was not injured in the accident, which is still under investigation. No charges have been filed as of Tuesday afternoon, Ruhl said.

Clarendon CISD trustees continued efforts to improve school security during their regular meeting August 13.

The board approved motions to contract with Hohe Design Group for architect services on the Security Improvement Projects and passed a resolution selecting Huseman Builders, Inc., to provide construction manager-agent services for those projects.

Superintendent Mike Norrell told the Enterprise that the primary focus of the projects is to build vestibules for the main entrances to all three school campuses – elementary, junior high, and high school.

“The goal is to make those entry areas even more secure,” Norrell said. “We already have buzzer systems on those entries.”

The elementary and junior high vestibules will be developed inside the existing structures. The high school vestibule construction will involve enclosing the existing breezeway connecting the high school and the junior high.

“It will be bricked to blend in with the existing architecture,” Norrell said.

The project architect is working on the design details and budget now, and the school plans to have the project completed before the Christmas break, Norrell said.

In other school business, trustees toured the district’s facilities to see the improvements made during the summer and discuss future improvements.

Employee salaries for 2018-2019 were approved as presented, and the board voted to set the proposed tax rate at $1.17 per $100 valuation, which is the current rate. A budget hearing and tax rate adoption meeting was set for August 27.

The board accepted proposals from Property Casualty Alliance of Texas (PCAT) for Auto, Liability, and Property Insurance Coverages for 2018-2019, from Ricoh for the district copier and printer contract, and from Gandy’s Dairies for the milk for the cafeteria.

The appraisal calendar and appraisers for the 2018-2019 school year and the Code of Conduct were approved, and Norrell presented a report to the board on the A-F Accountability rating.

Bids on tax delinquent properties were accepted as presented for lots in Clarendon and Howardwick.

Contracts of employment were approved for the following individuals: Carlos Camarena, Christopher Woodcook, Brian Fritz, and Dennis McMenamy.

Clarendon College has opened its 121st fall semester with heavy enrollment in local residence halls and a new vision to carry the institution through the next three to five years.

Students returned to the home campus over the weekend, and college officials report there are almost 300 students living in dorms this week with some rooms being tripled up. Classes began Tuesday.

Speaking to faculty and staff members last Thursday during All College Day, CC President Robert Riza unveiled the college’s new strategic plan: “Clarendon College – Without Equal.”

Dr. Riza highlighted the successes of the college during his administration, most notably a 36 percent increase in unduplicated headcount over the last three years, which he said is the best in Texas. He credited that growth to the employees of the college.

“You carried this college,” he said. “What you do on a daily basis makes Clarendon College what it is.”

Riza also said distributed copies of John Maxwell’s book Attitude 101 to all fulltime employees and said to remember that “failure is an option” as CC enters a time in which there is only one day in the next 11 months that a student is not in some kind of class, whether it is through traditional long semesters, dual credit, mini-sessions, online classes, or vocational classes.

“The speed at which we work today, we are going to make mistakes,” Riza said. “We will fix it and move on.”

Some of the elements of the college’s new strategic plan include: Providing Student Services & Programs That Compliment Classroom Learning & Student Success; Retaining & Recruiting Qualified Faculty, Staff, & Administration; Securing & Maintaining Physical Resources – including upgrading the 20-plus-year-old MK Brown Academic Center in Pampa and upgrading or replacing 50-year-old dormitories in Clarendon; Securing & Maintaining Financial & Administrative Resources – including encouraging a culture of accountability, working with elected officials, and seeking grant opportunities where appropriate; Promoting Internal & External Communications That Promote Mission & Development of the College; Acquire Technical Resources to Promote the College Mission & Student Success; and Engage in Comprehensive Continuing District-wide Planning & Evaluation to Ensure Effectiveness & Standards of Accreditation.

Riza said Clarendon College is the only college in a community of its size but that should not be something that holds the institution back.

“We’ve got all the makings of another great run,” he said, “and I’ve got the best administrative team I’ve ever worked with.”

Following Riza’s comments, college employees received training throughout the day, including a civil response course for disasters such as active shooters presented by Department of Public Safety Sgt. Chris Ward and Trooper Kelly Hill.

The DPS training covered information that included statistical data on mass shootings and other events designed to rack up mass casualties. Ward and Hill said the perpetrators are most usually young males, 54 percent of attacks occur in businesses, 24 percent happen at schools, and 45 percent of attackers have no connection to the location of the attack.

The best way to react if a person is in one of these attacks is to Avoid, Deny, and Defend, they said. The first best response is to Avoid contact and run away from the attacker. The second response is to Deny the attacker the ability to harm you by taking cover under or behind something that will stop bullets. And the third response is to Defend yourself and others by attacking the individual with anything and everything possible. Doing nothing will likely result in certain death in these situations.

They also gave employees tips on how to deal with the mental and physical stress of being in such a situation.

The Clarendon Economic Development Corporation sealed the fate of the old Antro Hotel with two motions Monday night during a called meeting.

The 92-year-old building at the corner of First and Kearney suffered irreparable damage from July 29 windstorm that collapsed more than half of the north wall of the dilapidated structure.

This week the CEDC voted first to contract with Pierce Engineering to draft and oversee a demolition plan for the building at a cost of $2,700 and then approved a motion to accept a proposal from TNT Construction to bring the structure down for $15,900.

Additional costs to dispose of debris from the demolition will be borne by the city.

Steps are being taken to salvage some historic architectural details of the building, including some of the facing brick, cast ornamental tiles from the top and mid-section of the east and north walls, and the old sign on the front of the hotel. The CEDC, which acquired the property about four years ago, intends to repurpose those elements in a future development on the same site.

The Howardwick City Council took no action on a petition demanding the removal of Mayor Greta Byars last Tuesday, August 14, after it was presented at the end of a meeting marked by cooperation and respect.

Howardwick citizen Steve Phelps presented the petition bearing 111 signatures but also complimented Byars on how that night’s meeting had been conducted.

“This is the first meeting I’ve seen running orderly,” Phelps said. “You can act nice.”

Phelps said the city had been through “nine months of hell” since the mayor took office, marked not by confidence in her office but by malfeasance, misconduct, and abuse of power. He also implored citizens to get past hurt feelings and get back to being friends again.

“Let’s try to live our lives like tomorrow is our last day,” Phelps said. “Let’s be more Christ like.”

Phelps said the mayor and council were there to lead and that everyone needed to “quit bitching.”

Alderman Johnny Hubbard agreed with Phelps, noting that previous meetings had been “fairly bad” but that Tuesday’s meeting was much better.

“If we can do like we’ve done tonight, we can be the council the city wants,” he said.
Alderman Johnny Floyd also agreed and asked the citizens to continue to give the current council a chance to fix things and to work with the mayor.

City officials said after the meeting that the aldermen do not have power to remove the mayor but that the petition expressed citizens’ frustrations.

Mayor Byars opened Tuesday’s meeting with a Bible devotional and said she felt the city has a group of strong and influential leaders, and she outlined her vision for the city. She said she wants to base decisions on health, safety, and welfare; wants to clean up the city; and wants to see improvements for camping areas, park equipment, and walking trails.

During the night’s agenda, the board opened bids to sell a city tractor, approved buying a radio scanner for City Hall, authorized the administration to pay regular utility bills without council approval, and approved paying for investment training for the city secretary.

The council discussed mowing in the city including the possibility of privatizing the city’s mowing and Hubbard suggested possibly changing the maximum height of grass from 12 inches down to six or eight inches.

Council Rules and Procedures were adopted, and the aldermen voted to limit the mayor to two $100 purchases per month.

Jerry Mulanax was appointed as the city’s code enforcement officer, and the council banned smoking in city buildings and while working on certain city equipment. The board also voted that the city’s emergency management committee should follow the Texas Open Meetings Act.

The council also considered work needing to be done to City Hall and authorized some of that work while waiting on more bids for electrical improvements.

No action was taken on several agenda items, including discussion about a city website and a possible online chat room for aldermen only.