Morgan Wheatly

An early morning fire totally consumed the home of the Vernon Patton family in Hedley this weekend, and officials are not sure what caused the blaze.

Clarendon Fire Chief Jeremy Powell said the 911 call came in at 4:29 a.m. on Sunday, January 27, and he believes the call was made by a traveler on US 287 who saw the home, which is located on the south side of the highway as it enters Hedley from the west.

The Patton family was out of town at the time of the fire and did not learn of the fire until hours later. No injuries were reported.

A Donley County deputy was the first on the scene at 4:43 and reported the home to be fully involved.

The Hedley Volunteer Fire Department arrived at 4:48 and Clarendon firemen were on the scene by 4:52.

When Clarendon arrived, the house was already determined to be a total loss and had essentially burned down, Powell said.

Firemen worked to keep the fire contained. Clarendon units left the scene at 6:30, and Hedley remained on the scene throughout the day.

Powell said the State Fire Marshall’s office investigated the scene Tuesday morning and was unable to determine a cause of the blaze.

The Patton family is staying in a travel trailer nearby, he said.

Filing opened Wednesday for candidates wishing to seek a position on any of six local boards during this spring’s elections.

The City of Clarendon has three positions opening this year, the mayor and two aldermen, all of which serve for two-year terms. Those seats are currently held by Mayor Larry Hicks and Aldermen Tommy Hill and Debbie Roberts.

The City of Howardwick has five offices open this year, the mayor, two aldermen for full terms, and two aldermen for unexpired terms. The mayor’s seat has been vacant for over a year since Del Essary resigned.

An unexpired alderman’s seat is held by Mayor Pro-Tem Johnny Hubbard, who carried over last spring after his term expired last year, and the other unexpired term is vacant. The two full terms are held by Gene Rogers and Brenda Hampton. Full terms are for two years, and unexpired terms are for one year.

Hedley has three positions open on its Board of Aldermen this year. Two of the seats are currently held by David Wells and Tonya Metcalf, and the third seat is currently vacant following the November resignation of Karon Ely. Aldermen serve two-year terms.

Three positions on the Clarendon ISD Board of Trustees are up this year. Those seats are currently held by Robin Ellis, Jim Shelton, and Richard Gribble and are three-year terms.

Two full terms are up this year on the Hedley ISD Board of Trustees. The full terms of James Edward Potts and Bonnie Walsh are up and are three-year terms.

The Donley County Hospital District will select three two-year positions on its board, now held by Wayne Tubbs (Place 1), Bob Watson (Place 2), and Melinda McAnear (Place 3).

All local offices are elected at-large, but hospital board candidates must sign up for a specific place.

Sign up continues through March 1, 2013; and the elections will be held Saturday, May 11.

Pumping groundwater from Clarendon to the Greenbelt Water Authority system is inching closer to reality as dry weather continues to take its toll on the local reservoir.

Greenbelt General Manager Bobbie Kidd said this week that all five wells in north Clarendon have been drilled, and electricians are working this week to wire the controls and pumps for the project.

“We have electric service to three of the five wells,” Kidd said, “and the other two will be the last tied to the system.”

The contractor that will build the pipeline from the city well field to the Greenbelt filter plant has not yet started its work but is expected to very soon. Pipe for the project has been on the ground for about two weeks, Kidd said.

“It shouldn’t take very long,” Kidd said. “They tell me they can cover about a quarter-mile per day.”

Communication equipment and antennas for the project is also expected to be installed very soon.

Meanwhile, the persistent dry weather has reduced Greenbelt Lake to 13 percent of its capacity, and local folks have reported seeing dead fish and fish skeletons from the water receding.

Kidd says the drop in the lake has actually stalled with the little bit of moisture that the area has seen and efforts to reduce the demand on the lake. The lake was estimated to have about 7,710 acre-feet of water this week or 2.5 billion gallons.

Fishing boats are still being allowed on the lake, but Kidd said Greenbelt won’t be selling any annual permits this year – only day permits. He also said the water authority won’t be spending any more money to extend or work on boat ramps.

The ramp at Old Marina Point is currently the only safe place to launch from.

By Ashlee Estlack, Clarendon College

Clarendon College was awarded $300,000 in grant funding recently from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) to assist the college in expanding the scope and reach of its Developmental Education program.

The new grant funding will assist the college in improving the success of its developmental students by redesigning the developmental program and associated courses at the College. This includes restructuring assessment and placement, improving content and delivery using new technology and software, and transforming academic and career advising.

“We are very excited about this grant,” said Clarendon College Dean of Students and Institutional Research Tex Buckhaults. “Through the use of student advocates, a revised advising and placement process, supplemental tutorial labs, and meetings with advisors, we look forward to an increase in the overall success of our developmental students.”

“Developmental education has been greatly assisted through this program,” CC President Phil Shirley said. “It has long been felt that developmental education needs assistance from as many sources as possible in order to assure that fewer and fewer students are developmentally impaired. I am very grateful for the support that this grant provides and we will not fail to use its resources wisely.”

Established in 2012, the Developmental Education Scaling and Sustaining Success (S3) Grant is designed to inspire and enhance the efforts of institutions of higher education to significantly boost student success and college completion of underprepared students. Twelve two-year grants were awarded to institutions producing comprehensive plans to increase the number of students impacted by promising practices.

In the January 17 edition of The Enterprise, your column was about home grown products. I would like to add water to that list.

I have addressed this issue in the past, and it was ignored. Donley County has an abundance of natural spring water gushing from the ground. We have the third largest natural spring in the state. All we have to do to claim this water, according to the State Water Board, is build a reservoir before the water gets to the Salt Fork of the Red River. When the water reaches that point, it belongs to Oklahoma. Why are we giving our water away?

A dam could be constructed somewhere past the point where Skillet Creek, White Fish Creek, and Rock Creek run together before reaching the Salt Fork. It wouldn’t have to be very big, just enough to put in a pump station and water bottling plant. This would create some jobs in the county and help Hedley grow.

Just an idea that we should take advantage of before another county or city takes it. The states owns the water when it comes out of the ground and could award it to any municipality that claims it. What a shame if some city down state trucked our water away.

Brad Dalton