Morgan Wheatly

Clarendon residents may still see their taxes go up, but the city is backing away from earlier discussions of other fee increases.
Last week’s Enterprise reported that the City Council was considering a seven percent increase in sewer rates, but during a budget workshop last week, aldermen said they did not wish to raise that rate at all this year, expressing an aversion to hitting citizens with too many increases.
Sewer rates will have to rise some in fiscal year 2018 if the city is to be successful in applying for a future Community Development Block Grant, but City Administrator David Dockery confirmed Tuesday that a sewer rate increase is off the table for fiscal year 2017.
The city was also considering a nine percent rate hike for sanitation services in an attempt to close an approximate $30,000 deficit in that department. But Dockery said this week that the city has taken measures in house to close that gap. Since aldermen met last week, City Hall moved a full time sanitation employee to fill a vacancy in the public works department, and Dockery says his office continues to work to find efficiencies in sanitation.
Dockery said the city may still need to raise its sanitation rate, but he believes any increase will now be well below the nine percent originally proposed.
The city administrator has also been tasked with spending the next year evaluating the sanitation department and exploring all avenues to find savings for trash service. Clarendon hauls its own trash to the Memphis landfill, and Dockery told aldermen last week that most cities of this size picking up their own trash have their own landfills. The city is also faced with large expenses in the future as trash trucks need to be replaced.
The administrator said he will explore all options for the city including what it will take to keep the current service, the option of opening a landfill, or the possibility of contracting the city’s trash service.
The Clarendon City Council has proposed a tax rate of $0.74800 per $100 valuation, which is higher than the effective rate (the rate required to bring in the same revenue as last year) of $0.707967. Tax hearings will be held on August 11 and 25.

A new partnership between Clarendon ISD and Clarendon College will provide more opportunities for local students to earn foreign language credits while in high school.
Clarendon ISD Trustees approved a memorandum of understanding with the college to formalize the agreement Monday night during their regular meeting, according to Superintendent Mike Norrell.
“We’re very proud of this partnership,” Norrell said, noting that many schools, including Clarendon, are having trouble finding qualified Spanish instructors.
Under the agreement, CC instructor Bruno Castel will teach Spanish I and II at Clarendon High School, and Clarendon College will offer dual credit classes for high school students who take Spanish III and IV.
College and school officials say it’s not clear at this time how many – if any – students will be taking the dual credit class, which will be a conversational Spanish class and will require a certain proficiency coming out of Spanish I and II.
CC President Robert Riza said CHS has the technology available to allow the college to spread this program to other schools if it’s successful.
“We’re going to run it for a year at Clarendon High School and see how it works,” Dr. Riza said. “If it works well, then we can beam it to other schools in our service area.”
Riza said CISD will pay a small fee to the college for Castel’s service, which will allow the school to save money on a full time teaching position.
At the college, Castel will be offering CC students something they have long needed… the ability to earn foreign language credits at the community college level rather than having to take those courses at a university.

Donley County Commissioners put another nail in the coffin of the Precinct 1 & 2 constable’s office during their regular meeting Monday.
The county had officially declared the office as “dormant” in March of 2003 following controversy in which a write-in candidate was elected to that office in 2000 after it had been vacant since 1978. A legal battle over the office’s salary ensued before the constable resigned in 2001 after failing to become a certified Texas peace officer.
The county’s 2003 action was taken after Texas voters in November 2002 gave counties the authority to declare vacant or unneeded constable offices as dormant, and so for more than a decade the matter appeared to be resolved.
However, County Judge John Howard says the county has since discovered that a seven-year waiting period must elapse during which the constable’s office is vacant before the county can take action.
As a result, the commissioners court again voted unanimously this week to declare the office as dormant.
The position can be resurrected at any time by majority vote of the commissioners or through a process that begins with a petition from voters in that precinct.
In other county business, commissioners approved security measures for the district courtroom, authorized trainings for the county clerk and county tax assessor, and did not change the schedule of fees in the tax assessor’s office.
A local grant of $250 was approved for home delivered meals through the Department of Agriculture’s Texans Feeding Texans program.
There were no comments from the public during a hearing prior to commissioners adopting a resolution to clarify the borders of Reinvestment Zone #2.
Commissioners also continued work on the budget for fiscal year 2017.
Judge Howard says the county is considering a small tax increase and that all county employees except commissioners could see a small raise in the coming fiscal year.
More details of the proposed budget will be published in next week’s Enterprise.

The Christ’s Kids Ministry building in downtown Clarendon has been successfully remodeled thanks in part to a grant from the Clarendon Economic Development Corporation.

Steve Carter, who leads the Ministry, said the improvement project was made possible by the CEDC grant of $2,000.
“We probably wouldn’t have been able to do it,” Carter said. “We certainly never could have done the new dormers. It just looks so much better now.”
The building at 416 S. Kearney was built in the 1950s, Carter said, and originally housed offices for the US Department of Agriculture. Christ’s Kids moved into the building in 2012, and the ministry purchased the location in December 2013.
CEDC President Terri Floyd presented the check to Carter Monday afternoon after the CEDC board approved the Ministry’s completion report last week.
The project was driven by the need to replace building’s flat roof. Working with contractor Jim Shadle, the Ministry was able to replace the roof with new hipped roof, and CEDC funds went towards new dormers over the Kearney Street entrances, new paint and siding, and new exterior lighting.
“It just looks so much better now,” Carter said.
Since the Façade Grant Program began in 2008, the CEDC has awarded $29,839.54 to property owners in Clarendon. The Façade Grant Program provides 50-50 matching grants, up to a maximum of $2,000 per project, which could be any of a wide variety of projects, such as a coat of paint, new signage, sidewalk improvements, or a complete rehabilitation of a storefront.
The program grants awards to eligible properties located in the city’s entire Central Business District and on the US 287 corridor. Property owners interested in Façade Grant funds must get approval from the CEDC board before beginning their projects.
For more information or to apply for a grant, stop by the Clarendon Visitor Center.

Property values in Donley County have risen in general, bringing good news to most taxing entities that are busy working on new budgets for fiscal year 2017.
Paula Lowrie, Chief Appraiser of the Donley Appraisal District, said Monday that most entities and all county-wide entities have seen moderate increases in values this year, thanks to values of property owned by utilities.
Public notices will begin appearing in the Enterprise next week as local entities begin the process of establishing tax rates for the new year.
The City of Clarendon is the only entity to see its total appraisals go down this year. The city has total property taxable values of $59,326,427 this year, reflecting a loss of more than $990,000.
Lowrie said each property in Clarendon was reappraised this year, and some went categories went up but others went down.
“The main differences were a decrease in value for single-family homes of $730,713 and in commercial buildings of $636,207,” Lowrie said.
Donley County’s values for ad valorem taxes are up nearly $10.3 million at $238,570,958. The county’s total taxable value is higher than other countywide entities because it is able to tax certain rolling railroad stock that other local governments cannot, Lowrie said.
The Clarendon College District and the Panhandle Groundwater Conservation District has countywide taxable values of $224,502,215, an increase of more than $8 million. The college also benefits from maintenance taxes in Childress and Gray counties. Values in Childress are expected to remain about even, officials say, but values in Gray County have taken a significant hit with the decline of the petroleum industry.
The Donley County Hospital District’s values this year have increased about $7.8 million for a total tax base of $208,786.880. The hospital district, which provides emergency medical services and indigent care, has lower taxable values than other countywide entities because it does not tax personal property, such as cars, trucks, and boats.
The Clarendon Consolidated Independent School District has taxable values of nearly $131,698,299 on properties within its boundaries in Donley County. That’s up more than $4.5 million from last year’s value of $127,131,281. But it’s still significantly below the figure from two years ago, which was $147,805,132. The big loss came when Texas voters approved an increase in the homestead exemption from $15,000 to $25,000 in 2015.
The Hedley school district has seen its tax base in Donley County increase just under $3.8 million with total values of $49,747,759.
Taxable values for the City of Howardwick are up $828,698 at $15,157,768; and the City of Hedley has seen its values increase $219,708 for a total tax base of $6,722,445.
Once an entity has its taxable value, it can generally figure its tax levy by dividing the number by $100 and multiplying the result by a tax rate ($1.17 in the case of Clarendon ISD, for example).
However, those numbers get complicated for Clarendon and Hedley schools, the cities of Clarendon and Hedley, Donley County, and the Clarendon College District where people over the age of 65 and those who are disabled have their taxes frozen at differing levels, requiring additional calculations.