Morgan Wheatly

School and college facilities in Clarendon are completing about $680,000 worth of summer improvements as students prepare to return for classes next week.

Clarendon College is wrapping up the most ambitious agenda with most work centered in residence halls that are about 40 years old. Upgrades to Vaughan, Phelan, and Knorpp halls are running about $400,000 and are expected to be completed by next week.

All three dorms received new doors on each room at a cost of about $30,000, and the college also renovated 22 bathrooms in Knorpp Hall with new showers at a cost of $89,000.

Sixty rooms in Vaughan and Phelan halls received new cabinets, dressers, and bookshelves for $150,000, and one-third of mattresses on the campus have been replaced for $10,000.

In addition, Vaughan Hall has been re-plumbed and had new plumbing fixtures added at a cost of $65,000; and new bathroom petitions and sinks have been installed in Phelan and Vaughan and curtains have been added to communal showers in those dorms also.

The college has also spent $30,000 painting in the dorms, and elsewhere around campus CC has purchased a new refrigerator/freezer in the cafeteria and restriped parking lots and updated paint on curbs and cross walks.

CC President Phil Shirley said students living on-campus are in for a treat when they arrive next week.

“I am so excited,” Shirley said. “We’ve done a lot of work, and both Vaughan and Phelan especially look wonderful.”

At Clarendon ISD, public school officials are finishing up $280,000 worth of improvements that included $75,000 to completely re-plumb and modernize 45-year-old bathrooms in the junior high and elementary buildings. The work included all new, self-flushing toilets, handicapped accessibility, new partitions, and new sinks. A three-inch mud-bed securing the old floor tile was busted out and replaced, and galvanized pipes were replaced with copper.

“Most of our older waterlines have been replaced now,” said Superintendent Monty Hysinger. “We still have some galvanized going to water fountains, but we’ll replace those on our own.”

The school spent $40,000 to repaint the Bronco and Colt gymnasiums and the Functional Living Center as well as handrails around the campus.

The biggest project was a $165,000 replacement of aging heating and cooling systems for the high school, band hall, and agriculture buildings. The project only cost the school $65,000 thanks to a $100,000 SECO energy grant administered through the state.

“These units were 23 years old, and the new ones will be much more efficient,” Hysinger said.

For next year the school will be looking at the district’s latest addition, the E-Wing on the west end of the elementary building that is now 15 years old and showing signs of settling cracks.

“The projects this year were all things we felt like we needed to do,” Hysinger said. “You’re never through repairing, but our board has been proactive and taken baby steps to stay after things so we keep them looking good.”

State officials notified Donley County Judge Jack Hall last week that they have approved a site location for the proposed Ten Commandments marker on the Courthouse Square.

The Texas Historical Commission approved locating the marker east of the Courthouse Annex in the second tree line from the street, placing it on the opposite side of the sidewalk from a 1976 Liberty Tree out of the main view of the 1890 Courthouse.

Backers of the marker had asked for it to be placed in front of the east face of the Courthouse in the same tree line, but the state preferred the Annex location that was proposed by Commissioner Donnie Hall and agreed to as an alternate site by the project’s supporters.

According to documents on file in the judge’s office, the Ten Commandments marker project will cost an estimated $20,000 and will be purchased locally from Wallace Monument Co., which is co-owned by Donley County Commissioner Mark White. The monument will be made of polished Georgia grey granite and will measure four feet, eight inches tall at the back, and three feet, four inches tall at the front and will be about 55 inches wide and just over 54 inches deep.

The Ten Commandments will be inscribed on a carved open Bible measuring 28 inches by 28 inches on the sloped top of the marker. Three sides of the monument will bear inscriptions that will be taken from a list of 16 historic quotations or phrases, and the fourth side will include a synopsis of the history of Clarendon.

Under the THC’s historic structure permit, supporters of the marker have until September 30, 2013, to complete the project.

The Mulkey Theatre project took another important step forward Monday when the Clarendon Economic Development Corporation selected a contractor-at-risk for Phase One of the rehabilitation of the downtown landmark.

Pioneer General Contractors of Amarillo will conduct the bid process and lead the construction team that will implement the renovation of the 1946 theatre’s façade.

Project architect Mason Rogers said Pioneer will place bid notices in the Amarillo Globe-News and The Clarendon Enterprise in about two weeks to begin the process of selecting sub-contractors for the job, and the CEDC Board is encouraging all local contractors to watch for that notice and bid on work they may be interested in.

The Phase One project is expected to cost about $123,000 and will include replacing stucco on the façade with a new EFIS material that is flexible and infused with the paint color, replacing badly damage stucco work on the underside of the marquee, fabrication and installation of new aluminum doors to match existing doors, and a new electrical service capable of supporting the entire building will be installed.

Damaged tiles will be repaired or replaced, and the corrugated accent on the center of the façade will be refinished. The project also calls for neon or LED lighting to be restored on the underside of the marquee and for new neon or LED tubing to be added in the porthole windows and along the top of the building.

Also on Monday, the CEDC also authorized soliciting bids for a contractor to do more work on the Mulkey barbershop, which is being converted for use as a city visitor center and economic development office. A bid notice is found on this week’s classifieds page, and the CEDC will meet in called session next Monday, August 27, at 5:15 p.m. to consider those bids.

When completed, the new visitor center will house both the office of CEDC Executive Director Chandra Eggemeyer and the Chamber of Commerce, providing a “one stop shop” for travelers and those who may be interested in locating their businesses or families in Clarendon.

The Clarendon Board of Aldermen voted 3-2 to authorize issuing $700,000 in tax revenue notes for water and sewer improvements during a called meeting Monday night.

The funds will be used to replace utility lines under several blocks of city streets that are scheduled to be repaved following a May bond election in which voters authorized borrowing a separate $700,000. The total project is now expected to cost about $1.4 million.

The streets were to have been paved this summer, but aldermen expressed concerns about the utility lines, causing City Administrator Lambert Little to come up with a plan to replace the lines. Little presented the project and the idea of using tax notes (a form of bonds that does not require voter approval) to pay for the extra work last Tuesday during the regular city meeting, but board members objected to issuing that much debt with citizen input.

As a result, the city held a town hall meeting Monday night at the Burton Memorial Library, which was attended by 17 citizens.

Little told the town hall that adding the water and sewer lines to the project would basically double the total cost of the job and would mean that the city would lose the window of opportunity for paving this season.

The administrator said the city could make the payments for both the bonds and the tax notes with its current 26-cent debt component of its ad valorem tax rate, and then there would be two years of balloon payments.

Payments the first five years would be about $140,000 each, and that would be followed by balloon payments totaling $420,000 in both 2018 and 2019.

Little said he anticipated paying down the notes early using sales of the city’s groundwater to Greenbelt Water Authority so that the balloon payments would not be an issue. And, he said, in the worst case scenario the city would refinance the debt in the last two years to stretch the payments out.

Citizens asked a range of questions about the project and the financing. Former alderman David Pitts said paving the streets without doing the utility work would be like building a house with no foundation but he expressed dismay that the utility lines were not included in the original scope of work presented to voters.

Billie Shaffer encouraged aldermen to “do it right the first time” so that the city will hopefully “save money in the long run.”

Blake Osburn and others asked several questions about what will be done regarding paving the roads, especially with regards to selection of contractors, who will do the base work, and who will check the base density.

Following the town hall meeting, aldermen met in a called session and voted unanimously to dedicate 100 percent of the revenue from groundwater sales to Greenbelt to the repayment of the tax note debt, and then voted 3-2 to issue the debt. (Aldermen Will Thompson, Terry Noble, and Abby Patten in favor, and Aldermen Tommy Hill and Jesus Hernandez opposed.)

In other city business, the board met in regular session August 14 where they discussed the budget for the coming fiscal year and approved a request from Mullins Music Ministry for $2,700 from the Hotel Occupancy Fund for a Thanksgiving Jamboree. Mullins told the board that he had an estimated 150 people at his last jamboree earlier this year which the city had provided $2,100 for and he said he knew for sure that three people had stayed in the local hotel.

Making Clarendon a lighthouse for the Lord is the mission of one local man as he erects white crosses and signs with inspired messages for all to see.

 Jim Griffin says all his efforts are to be a witness for Jesus Christ and to plant seeds that people need in order to find their way to the Lord because the time is short.

“It’s not for anyone’s glory but God’s,” Griffin said, “and seeds are all the Holy Spirit needs to work with.”

Over the past several months, Griffin’s calling has led him to erect between 40 and 50 ten-foot tall crosses and a dozen or more signs that measure four feet by eight feet.

Permission is given by every property owner where the signs or crosses are located, Griffin said. The crosses are constructed of 4-inch thick-wall PVC and are concreted three feet in the ground, and the signs bear messages such as “Repent: Call unto Jesus. The end is near!” and “Receive Jesus. He died for your sins. Behold! The final day approaches.”

Griffin says it’s all designed to make people think and get them into a relationship with Jesus, and he says the wording for the signs comes to him after studying the Bible, hearing messages at church, and listening to inspirational CDs and sources.

“It’s all right from God’s word,” Griffin said.

One of his latest signs invokes the 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States to convey its message. “911 Tragedy. Worse things coming! Find Jesus!”

“If you look at Syria and what’s going on in the Middle East and you study the books of Daniel and Revelation and others, you see it,” Griffin said. “Within two years we’re going to have a major catastrophe and be in a war. We are on the verge of the rapture at the doorstep.”

Griffin says he is just trying to follow Christ’s great commission to his disciples to spread the gospel, and he says many churches spend money to send missionaries oversees but don’t reach out to those here at home who need Jesus.

“I don’t want to see anyone go to hell; I want to see us all go to heaven,” said the 68-year-old who has battled cancer and other maladies.

His work hasn’t been without its critics, but he says he doesn’t let that bother him.

“I have had some persecution, but Jesus and his disciples were persecuted,” he said. “I’ve heard one comment that the crosses look like the work of a cult. Whoever believes that doesn’t know what a cult is. A cult doesn’t follow Jesus.”

But Griffin says he also has people who believe in what he’s doing, volunteers who help him install the crosses and signs, and others who have made positive comments.

“A lot of people tell me how blessed they are to have seen it,” he said. “You won’t see any other town that has done what Clarendon has for Christ.”

The mission has not been cheap. Each cross cost $70 to $100 for the material, and each sign costs between $250 and $525. Griffin says he’s paid for 60 to 75 percent of all that cost himself but says he has had some donations.

“I won’t take anybody’s money unless they have a willing heart,” he said. “If they offer money because they feel they have to or they’re ashamed, I won’t take their money.”

For crosses that have been requested outside of Clarendon – in Hedley, Howardwick, Dumas, and one in Colorado – he asks those folks to pay for the materials. But he says if someone can’t afford it, he will still make one for them.

Griffin’s work is also partly a response to the words of President Barack Obama.

“Obama said we’re not a Christian nation anymore,” Griffin said. “Well, I want the world to know that we are a Christian community. A few crosses would have been fine, but a lot of crosses makes an impact.”

Griffin says it is not his intention to demean anyone who believes differently than he does and he says everyone is welcome in Clarendon, but he says he wants to spread the message that he feels is vitally important.

“There is only one way to heaven… through the cross of Calvary,” Griffin said. “Do not be deceived.”

Clarendon ISD students exceeded the new testing targets required by the federal government, but local school trustees are still calling for the Texas Legislature to revamp the accountability system.

Only 44 percent of school campuses and 28 percent of districts in Texas met the standard, but Clarendon and Hedley both did. Scores were based on student performance on the TAKS exam, which has now been replaced by the STAAR test.

“Our kids and teachers worked extra hard and meeting the standard makes us feel good,” CISD Superintendent Monty Hysinger said. “But the stats ratchet up every year.”

Under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, school districts are required to meet certain Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) targets. For this year the AYP calls for an 87 percent pass rate for Reading/English language arts, and an 83 percent pass rate for math. All three CISD campuses exceeded those goals. Clarendon High School students were 95 percent in reading and 89 percent in math, Clarendon Junior High students were 94 percent in reading and 86 percent in math, and Clarendon Elementary students were 93 percent in reading and 84 percent in math.

“We’re relieved but still cautious,” Hysinger said. “If you don’t meet the AYP, there is a lot of extra work to be done and extra committees that have to be formed.”

The AYP standards increase every year until they reach a mandated 100 percent pass rate in 2014, and that is an unrealistic goal, Hysinger said.

“Basically, there is an overemphasis on testing and it has become very punitive,” Hysinger said, who noted that the Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA) is now trying to get 80 percent of school districts to sign on to a resolution asking the State Legislature to reexamine the accountability system.

CJH Principal John Taylor agrees that the testing system has gone overboard.

“There is too much testing,” Taylor said. “We can prepare students, but, ultimately it is still a paper and pencil test on one day and you don’t know what else that student has going on in life.”

In addition to the pressure on students and school personnel, CISD officials say the testing system takes up too much time and adds too much cost to schools. A school year has 180 days, and CISD has 40 days of testing schedule across its three campuses.

“We had to bring in ten teachers for two weeks in the summer to do remediation, and we had to hire substitutes during the year to administer the tests,” Hysinger said. “That costs us a lot of money, but imagine what it must be statewide.”

Hedley students did very well on the AYP targets. HISD is looked at by the state as one campus, and students there scored 96 percent on reading and 89 percent on math. Principal David O’Dell said that there is similar sentiment about the accountability system at his school but as of yet Hedley school trustees have not adopted the TASA resolution.