CC judging contest doubles city’s size

The population of Clarendon nearly doubled last Saturday when 1,872 contestants representing 129 FFA and 4H chapters were in town for the Clarendon College Invitational Judging Contest.

According to the 2000 US Census, Clarendon has a population of 1,974.

Local merchants feel that the students along with their coaches, families, and friends provided a boost to the community’s economy over the weekend.

“It’s a big business day for us,” said Paul Bivens, co-owner of the Clarendon Outpost. “The restrooms were busy all day long.”

Tanya Smith, manager of the Outpost Deli, said that they stayed busy until about 4 p.m. Saturday.

“It was a good weekend for us,” Smith said. “There’s no way this was not a boost for the economy. That many kids spending money in town is wonderful.”

Clarendon Steakhouse also stayed busy with the contestants, along with their coaches, families, and friends in town, according to cook Zan Adams.

“We were busy from 12:30 to 3:30 non-stop,” Adams said. “There was no place to sit, so we had to turn people away. We knew people would be in town, but we had no idea it would be that busy. We had two to three times more business last Saturday than any normal Saturday.”

The Western Skies Motel and the new Best Western American Inn also received a lot of customers.

“It was really good for business,” Jimmy Sindha, co-owner of both establishments said. “We were booked full for this weekend over a month ago at Western Skies.”

Sindha said people started calling about a month ago wanting to reserve rooms, but at the time he did not know if it would be open for business in time for the contest and could not take reservations.

“People ended up staying out of town because they did not want to take the risk of not getting a room,” Sindha said. “However, we did get about 30 people staying here Friday night from the contest.”

Johnny Treichel, CC agriculture instructor, said that he feels the contest went really well.

“We haven’t heard any complaints so far,” he said.