Morgan Wheatly

More than $162,000 was distributed last week as trustees closed out the Charles E. & Thelma A. Bairfield Memorial Foundation, bringing an end to 24 years of philanthropic activities.

The major beneficiary of the distribution was the Clarendon water recreation project which received $100,000 from the trust. The Donley County Senior Citizens and the Donley County Activity Center each received $25,000, and the Saints’ Roost Museum received the remainder of the funds, $12,562.74.

The year-end gifts were gratefully and warmly received by the recipients.

“The Water Recreation Steering/Fundraising Committee is very grateful for the $100,000 donation from the Bairfield Memorial Foundation for Clarendon’s proposed aquatic center,” Mayor Sandy Skelton said. “To date, it is the largest donation we have received.”

County Extension Agent Leonard Haynes said the $25,000 for the Donley County Activity Center was an unexpected miracle.

“It was greatly needed and appreciated and will help out to do some additional upgrades to the building,” Haynes said.

Don Stone, a longtime volunteer with the Senior Citizens Center, said the Bairfield donation of $25,000 is a great gift because the association survives on grants such as this one.

“The senior citizens of Donley County appreciate so much the generosity of the Bairfield Foundation throughout the years and now with this final grant,” Stone said. “We want to thank them sincerely.”

Saints’ Roost Museum Board President Derlene Gray was also appreciative of the donation of more than $12,500 to that organization.

“It is going to help tremendously with ongoing things at the museum,” Gray said. “The museum board just would like express its deepest appreciation to the Bairfield Foundation and what they have done for the museum and for the entire community.”

Chief trust officer Joe Lovell said the final gifts make a total of $282,456.87 that the Bairfield Foundation has distributed to local organizations and causes since 1992.

“In my mind, I’m pleased that Charlie would be happy with this,” Lovell said.

The idea for the foundation began following Bairfield’s gift to Clarendon College in 1991 which resulted in the construction of the Charles E. & Thelma A. Bairfield Activity Center on the college campus.

As Lovell recalls, in the months that followed the gift to the college, Mr. Bairfield reworked his will several times in an attempt to leave equitable gifts to his family and his wife’s family as well as to the First United Methodist Church and Texas A&M University. Lovell, who was Bairfield’s banker at the time met with the old rancher and his attorney, Bill Lowe, on numerous occasions.

“Whatever was left, he wanted used for the betterment of the community,” Lovell said, “and we came up with this idea of a trust.”

Bairfield wanted Lovell to be one of the trustees of the funds, but the other board members would change from time to time as he named the Worshipful Master of Clarendon Masonic Lodge #700 as one trustee and the pastor of the First United Methodist Church as another.

Following Bairfield’s death in 1991, the Foundation was created when his will was probated, starting with $156,503.03. Interest was high, and so Lovell says the foundation just made gifts from the earnings on the initial money, but giving away the corpus of the trust was always an option.

“Charile had said, if the right cause comes along, give it all away and close it out,” Lovell said.

The opportunity for a water recreation center in Clarendon, Lovell saw a chance to do something important.

“With the pool project and the effort to raise matching funds, we were able to do two things – make a major advancement to the $500,000 match and do a lot of good for the youth.”

The first donation form the foundation went to a church concert in 1993 in the amount of $200, but trustees opted not to give to churches going forward because of the large number of churches in Donley County.

“We then kind of got in a rut giving away scholarships,” Lovell recalls, “which was fine, but wasn’t really making an impact.”

In 1996, the trustees awarded $9,000 to help save the Clarendon depot building, which started a trend of giving to a worthy cause or organization almost every year through 2009 when earnings on the trust really started to wane.

Among the more significant gifts were $9,000 to the Clarendon Fire Department for a new water truck in 1997, $8,000 to fund an after school program in 1998, and $10,000 for bleachers in the Clarendon College Livestock & Equine Center in 2004.

Lovell also said a donation of $21,750 to install the sprinkler system on the courthouse square in 2003 was also very significant because it so greatly improved the appearance of the courthouse property. The foundation had previously given $2,000 in 1999 to the courthouse restoration itself.

Charles and Thelma Bairfield were longtime Donley County residents who made their living in ranching here. Mr. Bairfield was born in Donley County in 1902 and was active in Masonic bodies here, including the Lodge, the Shrine Club, and the Eastern Star. Mrs. Bairfield was a native of Collingsworth County and moved here following their marriage in 1928. She was active as a member of the Pathfinders Club, the 1926 Book Club, the Women’s Society of Christian Service, and the Order of the Eastern Star. Both Charlie and Thelma were members of the First United Methodist Church.

Mrs. Bairfield died November 14, 1990, in Clarendon, and Mr. Bairfield died on March 23, 1991, in Amarillo.

“I think Charlie would be thrilled with what we’ve accomplished,” Lovell said, noting that many worthy causes have come across his desk in the last two decades. “You can’t do everything. You just have to use your best judgement.”

A complete list grant awards from the Bairfield Foundation is as follows:

Methodist Church-Warnke Christian Concert, Baylor University $200
Scholarship for Greg Collins, Austin College $4,000
Scholarship for Charlie Smith $2,000
University of Texas -Scholarship for Jennifer Simpson $3,500
Clarendon College-Scholarship for Amanda Ward $2,500
Clarendon College -Scholarship for Todd Lindley $2,000
Donley County Museum Board -To Move Depot $9,000
Wayland Baptist-Scholarship for Amanda Ward $2,500
Clarendon Fire Department – for water truck $9,000
Something More to fund “After School Program” $8,000
Clarendon Little League -Ball Park Renovation $2,000
Girl Scouts $1,500
City of Clarendon -Park Renovation $2,000
Donley County -Court House Preservation $2,000
Hedley Community Choir -For robes $3,000
Fellowship of Christian Athletes $3,000
Donley County Memorial VFW Post 7782 $1,500
American Legion Post 287 $500
Clarendon College – Flags & Poles $3,406
Courthouse Preservation Fund-lawn sprinkler system $21,750
Clarendon College -Bleachers for Ag & Equine Center $10,000
Clarendon Outdoor Entertainment Assoc. (air cond.) $2,000
Clarendon Lions Club (heat & air) $3,800
Donley County Stock Show Board (building fund) $2,000
PEAK Scholarship Program (Clar. & Hedley Sr.) $2,000
Donley County Senior Citizens (computer -operating) $5,000
Saints Roost Museum Board (for security system) $1,738.13
Hedley Senior Citizens (Building Fund) $5,000
Clarendon College (Jerry Gage RFO Scholarship) $4,000
Lions Club – Play Ground Equip. for City Park $1,000
Clarendon Water Recreation Project $100,000
Donley County Senior Citizens $25,000
Donley County Activity Center $25,000
Donley. County. Saint’s Roost Museum Board $12,562.74

Total Awarded $282,456.87

Year-end giving has put fundraising efforts for Clarendon’s water recreation project over the halfway point in meeting a $500,000 anonymous challenge.

A $100,000 donation from the Charles E. & Thelma A. Bairfield Memorial Foundation last week was the largest gift to the project to date, according to Mayor Sandy Skelton.

“The Steering/Fundraising Committee is very grateful for the $100,000 donation from the Bairfield Memorial Foundation for Clarendon’s proposed aquatic center,” Skelton said. “Our total raised has now reached $253,000 which is 51 percent of our goal of raising $500,000 in order to match our benefactor’s grant.”

Skelton said committee members are now beginning to approach other foundations throughout the Panhandle as well as encouraging Clarendon and Donley County residents to donate/pledge as soon as possible.

For more information about the project, call City Administrator David Dockery at 874-3438. Donations may also be mailed to the Donley County Community Fund, PO Box 906, Clarendon, TX 79226 and please note “water project” in the memo.

A new Building Standards Commission will take on the duty of dealing with code violators following last week’s meeting of the Clarendon City Council.

Recent action by the council saw the repeal of most city electric, plumbing, and other codes as well as requirements for permits for those activities. The city replaced those codes with a new Substandard Building Ordinance to deal with nuisance or dilapidated properties.

“The ordinance requires this new commissioner,” said City Administrator David Dockery. “It has to have three aldermen, and all Open Meetings rules will apply anytime they meet.”

The council appointed the following aldermen to the commission: Nathan Floyd, John Lockhart, and Doug Kidd. Serving with those members will be three ex officio commission members, including Code Compliance Officer Jim Braddock, Fire Chief Jeremy Powell, and Public Works Director John Molder.

Dockery says the new commission will review complaints under the new ordinance instead of the entire city council having to hear those complaints. The council will remain a part of the process as a point of final appeal, the administrator said.

The Building Standards Commission will not have regular meetings but will instead be convened when one of the ex-officio members brings a complaint forward or when a citizen has filed a complaint at City Hall that is then confirmed by one of the ex-officio members.

Aldermen also approved a new water and sewer tap fees. Those rates are detailed in a public notice in this week’s Enterprise.

The district court heard three pleas when it met in Clarendon on Tuesday, December 20, 2016.

District Attorney Luke Inman prosecuted the cases for the State of Texas, with the Honorable Judge Stuart Messer presiding.

Bridget Lynn Mitchell, 40 from Avondale, Ariz., pled true to allegations listed in the State’s Motion to Adjudicate and was sentenced to five years in the Institutional Division of TDCJ for the first degree felony offense of possession of a controlled substance.

On August 19, 2014, Mitchell originally pleaded to the charges from the July 16, 2014, offense in Carson County.  The State filed the motion to adjudicate on April 27, 2015, alleging seven violations of community supervision.

Mitchell is also required to pay $336 in court costs to Carson County, $13,154.41 restitution, and a $10,000 fine.

Yardli Beddingfield, 19 from Amarillo, pleaded true to allegations listed in the State’s Motion to Adjudicate and was sentenced to 10 months in the State Jail Division of TDCJ for the state jail felony offense of forgery.

On June 6, 2016, Beddingfield originally pleaded to the charges from the October 24, 2015, offense in Carson County.  The State filed the motion to adjudicate on November 3, 2016, alleging six violations of community supervision.

Beddingfield will pay $276 in court costs to Carson County, $300 restitution, and a $500 fine.

Dontavis Lamar McIntyre was convicted for the state jail felony offense of theft of a firearm and sentenced to ten months in the State Jail Division of TDCJ.

McIntyre, 26 from Oklahoma City, Okla., was arrested in Carson County for the offense that took place on August 5, 2016 by DPS Trooper Josh Allen. McIntyre pleaded to an information filed by the State on December 19, 2016.

McIntyre must pay $310 in court costs.

CHILDRESS – Safety: Mission Zero is just one of the mottos at the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), and certainly one of the most important.

At TxDOT, mission zero means; zero injuries, zero incidents and zero fatalities.

Approximately 200 employees in the 13-county Childress District were recently honored for their outstanding driving record and no injury record at the annual TxDOT Safety Awards Banquet.

“Safety has always our top priority,” said Marty Smith, Childress District Engineer. “Our goal every year is to work 365 days without a single injury or incident. When an employee does that, we think it deserves notice, so we have a safety awards event to say congratulations and thank you.”

Texas Department of Transportation Childress District Donley County Maintenance section employees receiving an award in years combined for safe operator and no injury in 2016 include: Bob Spillers, one year; Brian Miller, 22 years; Derek Shields, eight years; Eloy Camacho, four years; Fu Benavidez, 45 years; Nathan Judd, two years; Randy Crump, 20 years; Roy Bertrand, one year; and Clay Christopher, 22 years.