Archives for June 2020

Early voting begins Monday, June 29, for runoff elections for Texas Democratic and Republican party primaries.

Locally, the biggest focus is on the Republican race to be the candidate for the 13th Congressional District. Josh Winegarner received the most votes in the March primary but failed to get more than 50 percent of the vote to avoid the runoff. He will face Ronny Jackson to determine who will carry the Republican mantle in the November election.

Also of local interest on the Republican ballot, is the race of the Justice of the 7th Court of Appeals. Incumbent Larry Doss narrowly defeated challenger Steven Denny during the March primary. However, the race was left off ballots in Collingsworth and Cochran counties, so a court ordered the race be put in front of the voters again during the runoff election.

Early voting by personal appearance will be conducted at the Donley County Courthouse Annex through July 10. The annex will be closed on July 3 for the holiday weekend. The primary runoff elections will be held July 14, 2020.

The Clarendon College Board of Regents met in regular session Thursday, June 18, at the Bairfield Activity Center.

The board approved motions to accept Specialty Insurance Solutions for the college’s athletic insurance and Attigo for student loan default prevention services. Technology security policies were also adopted as presented.

Regents met for more than an hour behind closed doors to discuss the president’s contract. The board previously named Tex Buckhaults as the lone finalist for the position of president on May 21, which started a 21-day waiting period before he could formally be named president. Following the closed session, the college’s attorney will look over the proposed contract. The regents will meet again Monday, June 29, on that topic, Buckhaults said this week.

Regents Susie Shields, Darlene Spier, and Ruth Robinson were appointed to a special committee to look at repairs and other things for the president’s house at 518 S. Cottage. That committee posted an agenda and met Monday.

The board accepted the resignation of Dale Askew as the Ranch & Feedlot Operations Director, acknowledged the retirement of math Associate Professor Linda Rowland, and approved the renewal of Aracell Carreon-Jimenez as a cosmetology instructor.

The board also approved the reassignment of Leah James as the Supervised Independent Living Coordinator. James will oversee the college’s effort to serve students in the state’s foster care system. Foster children qualify for state assistance for college if they agree to stay in the system through age 21, Buckhaults said. Under this situation, the college essentially serves as the student’s foster parent, living in the dorms year round and taking classes. Buckhaults said there are currently 15 to 20 students in the CC service area who could qualify for this program.

In his president’s report, Buckhaults said the SACS-COC committee will be on campus Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. The Southern Association of Colleges & Schools – Commission on Colleges, which is the college’s accrediting body, determined last summer that CC had “failed to demonstrate compliance” with a core requirement and three standards set by the agency.

At that time, the agency said the standards in question expect the college to: “(1) have a governing board that is not controlled by a minority of board members or by organizations or institutions separate from it; (2) have a governing board to ensure a clear and appropriate distinction between the policy-making function of the board and the responsibility of the administration and faculty to administer and implement policy; and (3) the institution’s governing board defines and addresses potential conflict of interest for its members.”

Buckhaults said the committee will interview all the members of the board of regents individually, except for Regent Carey Wann who was not a member of the board during the initial SACS-COC investigation last year.

Buckhaults also reported on the athletic honors and team GPAs. Among all of CC’s teams, 30 athletes were named to the first honor team for their respective sports and 32 were named to the second team.

Pressure canning season is upon us and Donley County Extension will be hosting a clinic to have your canner gauge checked. Bring your pressure canner by the Donley County Activity Center on Wednesday, July 1st from 12 to 2:30 and they can check it our for you as well as offer canning tips for this years harvest.

Five new patients were tested for COVID-19 since last Tuesday by the Clarendon Family Medical Center, but as of the morning of June 16, there had been no new positive cases.

The clinic still has two tests pending, but the number of negative test results has risen to 93, while the positive cases still remains at 27. Twenty-five of the 27 local cases have been reported as being recovered. That leaves two cases presumably still active.

State officials this week were reporting 28 positives for Donley County, but that number is believed to be erroneous, according to the county judge’s office. No new case has been reported to county officials since June 3.