Morgan Wheatly

Clarendon will be bustling with people this weekend when the annual Clarendon College Invitational Judging Contest is held Saturday.

The contest doubles the town’s population and regularly attracts more than 2,000 high school FFA students and 4-H students from around Texas and nearby states and as of Monday afternoon more than 1,399 students had pre-registered. This number doesn’t include the hundreds of parents and coaches who accompany the students to the contest.

According to the 2010 US Census, Clarendon has a population of 1,974.

Past contests have had huge impacts on the local economy. Restaurants are typically packed for the event to the point of actually having to turn people away, and this year will hopefully be equally successful.

In fact, the annual judging contest is the single biggest event to attract visitors from out of county for one day. By comparison, the July 4th Saints’ Roost Celebration barbecue annually attracts about 1,000 people and the Col. Charles Goodnight Chuckwagon Cookoff records between 1,000 and 1,500 visitors each September. Each of those events, however, has hundreds of local residents in attendance. The greatest number of people at the judging contest will come from outside of Donley County.

The Donley County Commissioners’ Court listened to a proposal for putting a historical monument featuring the Ten Commandments on the Courthouse Square during their regular session Monday morning, but commissioners took no action on the matter.

Commissioners Andy Wheatly and Donnie Hall were absent from Monday’s meeting, and County Judge Jack Hall said the proposal is in the early stages and that the court did not want to make a decision on the subject without having all its members present.

Don Hillis and Guy Ellis presented the plans at the meeting, but Hillis told the Enterprise Tuesday that his group doesn’t want to discuss details of the monument until all the commissioners have a chance to see their proposal.

“We don’t want to overstep our boundaries,” Hillis said. “We want to let them take their time.”

Hillis did say he believes the monument would only enhance the Courthouse Square.

County officials did point out Monday that they have previously turned down one citizen’s request to put a different kind of memorial on the square, and the clerk’s office this week is going through minutes to review the details of that previous request.

Before any monument could be erected, the commissioners’ court will first have to agree to the proposal, and then under state law, and by virtue of the Courthouse being designated as a State Archaeological Landmark, the plan will have to be reviewed by the Texas Historical Commission.

THC architect Lyman Labry says there are several specific questions the commission would want to have addressed when it makes a review.

Labry also said the THC review would not focus on the content of the monument but rather how it impacts the grounds and the courthouse and how it relates to the history of the county.

County commissioners are expected to take up the matter at their next regular meeting.

The Texas AgriLife Extension Service will host an Elder Care Conference in Clarendon on March 24, according to Andrea Stelting, AgriLife Extension family and consumer sciences agent for Donley County.

The program will start with registration at 8:45 a.m. and conclude at noon, Stelting said. It will be held in the Donley County Activity Center, located a mile north of Clarendon on State Highway 70.

Advance registration by March 22 is requested and can be made by calling 806-874-2141, she said. There will be a $10 registration fee, payable at the door.

Audette Rackley, head of special programs at the University of Texas-Dallas Center for Brain Health, will be the guest speaker. In her current role, she provides brain-health physicals that evaluate cognitive function and seek methods to strengthen cognitive abilities. 

She also assesses adults with progressive and static brain disorders and provides individualized feedback focusing on optimizing abilities, Stelting said.

The program also will include the Amarillo Area Agency on Aging, which will share information on their services and offering support to family caretakers.

Molly Foreman, AgriLife Extension family and consumer sciences agent for Hall and Briscoe counties, will share information on exercise, nutrition and how to alleviate stress.

Representatives from Accolade Homecare will share information and offer personal health assessments to participants.

The program is hosted by the AgriLife Extension offices in Armstrong, Briscoe, Collingsworth, Donley, Hall and Wheeler counties. Contact any of those offices for more information or contact Stelting at 806-874-2141 or alstelting@ag.tamu.edu.

Clarendon City Administrator Lambert Little says he has received several phone calls about the leaking fire hydrant at Third and Gorst Streets near the First Christian Church and that plans are in place to replace that hydrant in the next 30 days.

Little said the project will be both difficult and expensive.

“Because of its location, we will be required to excavate two places in the brick street as well as in the right-of-way,” Little said. “I know that Clarendon citizens are justly proud of their brick streets. I’m sick at heart that displacement of bricks will be necessary. Every effort will be made to restore the street to original condition.”

The hydrant in question is on a waterline with no valves, and Little said the city can either turn off the water service to the downtown area or have a contractor install two “Hydrostop” temporary valves, which stop the flow of water. With water flow temporarily stopped, the city would then install a hydrant/valve/pipe assembly.

Little said the HydroStop valves will cost about $5,000 and a replacement hydrant is more than $2,000.

“Hopefully we will accomplish this project in as little as two days,” he said. “I will apologize in advance for disruption of the water system as well as disruption of downtown traffic.”