Morgan Wheatly

Legal alcohol in old Saints’ Roost is the goal of a group of citizens who intend to launch a petition drive calling for an election to allow the sale of all alcoholic beverages in Donley County.

Voters would decide the issue during the general election on November 5, 2013, if enough signatures can be gathered in the allotted time. The drive includes the sale of alcoholic beverages and mixed beverages.

Jack Craft is among a group of ten people publishing notice in this week’s Clarendon Enterprise of their intent to file a petition with County Clerk Fay Vargas calling for a local option election to legalize alcohol sales in Donley County.

“My whole intention is to increase the tax base of Clarendon and Donley County and to increase the sponsors we can get for the museum and the rodeo,” Craft said. “By bringing in more outside sponsors, we can give our local merchants some relief and bring more outside money into town.”

Under state guidelines, organizers wishing to call an election must publish a notice of their intent and then file an application with the county clerk with ten or more signatures of registered voters and proof of published notice. The clerk will then provide the blank petition pages to the petitioners, and the Secretary of State and the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission must be notified that petitions have been issued.

The petition must be signed by 35 percent of the number of county voters who voted in the last gubernatorial election. Vargas said 1,180 people voted in that election in 2010, which would put the threshold for the petition at 413 signatures.

Organizers are trying to meet a July 8 deadline for submitting the petition to the clerk’s office so that county commissioners can act on the petition at their regular session on August 12. Vargas said the final petition would have to sit in her office for 30 days before county commissioners can receive it and order the election no more than 71 days before the election date.

Old Clarendon was established in 1878 as a temperance colony, and early settlers’ strict prohibition of alcohol earned the town the nickname “Saints’ Roost.” But when the town moved to the railroad in 1887, there was no prohibition, and New Clarendon remained wet until county voters approved the local option to prohibit alcohol in 1902. Currently, alcohol sales are only legal in the City of Howardwick.

In 2011, a petition to hold a local option election in the City of Hedley was found to be valid with 82 signatures, but petition backers did not get it filed soon enough to be on the ballot that fall.

Currently, petitioners are also busy in Hemphill County where organizers are seeking to legalize the sale of alcohol and mixed beverages in the City of Canadian. Alcohol sales began this month in Perryton after Ochiltree County voters approved legalizing package sales in May. Voters in Armstrong County also approved package sales last month. Silverton, Childress, and Shamrock have all also been voted wet in the last few years.

A veteran educator with 43 years’ experience is taking the helm of Hedley ISD following a meeting of the Board of Trustees Monday.

Bill Wood will serve as the school’s interim superintendent following the resignation this month of embattled superintendent Bill Sanders.

Wood grew up in Claude and worked at several schools before retiring as the superintendent at Cisco about 13 years ago. Since then he spent four years as an “interim” at Claude and five years as “interim” at Silverton.

“I could be (in Hedley) for a year or longer depending on how things go,” Wood said. “My immediate goals are to get a budget set, get people hired, and get school going.”

Wood said he will be employed under a “one day contract” situation, which he said means the “one day they don’t like me or the one day I don’t like them, I’m gone.”

He also said as soon as the board knows who they want as a permanent superintendent, he will act quickly to get that person on board.

Wood said prior to taking the job he had had a frank conversation with the board about issues he had heard regarding the relationship between the board and Sanders.

“I will be working directly with the board president; and I told them if they want me to do the job, I will do the job. I will run the school.”

Wood also said he has two granddaughters attending Hedley ISD, and he wants to see the school run well.

 Clarendon will be a center for family fun next week during the 136th annual Saints’ Roost Celebration, and activities will be held July 4-6 this summer.

The bulk of this year’s activities will take place on July Fourth with the Craft Fair starting at 9 a.m. on the Courthouse Square, followed by the Old Settler’s Reunion and Kids’ Tricycle and Bicycle Parade both starting at 10 a.m.

The Shriners’ Barbecue begins at 11 a.m., and the Western Parade will begin at 2 p.m. with the Lions Club Cow Patty Bingo to follow. Barbecue tickets are available at The Clarendon Enterprise.

Also following the parade, the Clarendon High School Class of 1963 will hold a class reunion at the Donley County Senior Citizens Center, and the Clarendon Country Club will host a July Fourth Golf Scramble.

The Clarendon Outdoor Entertainment Association will hold a Junior Ranch Rodeo on July Fourth at 7:30 p.m., and the Jay Statham Band will provide music for the dance on the slab starting at 9 p.m.

The COEA’s Ranch Rodeo will be held on Friday and Saturday, July 5 and 6, at 7:30 p.m. with No Dry Country providing dance music on Friday, and Attebury Station playing on Saturday.

The annual Henson’s Turtle Race will be held on 2 p.m. on Saturday along with downtown merchants’ sales, and a Depression Luncheon will be held prior to this year’s celebration on Wednesday, July 3, at 11 a.m. downtown.