Morgan Wheatly

Education, health care, guns, and same-sex marriage were the topics of discussion when Donley County’s state legislators held a town hall meeting at the Clarendon College Bairfield Activity Center Tuesday morning, September 8.

Approximately sixty-five people attended the meeting with State Sen. Kel Seliger (R-Amarillo) and State Rep. Ken King (R-Canadian) as the men gave a recap of what happened during the 85th Texas Legislature.

Among the crowd was a large group of Clarendon High School seniors, who were encouraged by Sen. Seliger to register to vote and then to actually participate in the election process.

“We have the government we deserve,” Seliger said, “and that’s based on who you vote for or don’t vote for or whether you vote at all.”

Seliger said much of the Legislature’s time is always focused on education and how policy affects kids in Texas. About $1.3 billion was added to the public education budget, the senator said. One of the highlights of the session was passage of a bill that sets up school committees to review cases where students pass their courses but are being held back from graduating solely because of trouble with the STAAR test.

Rep. King also discussed progress on efforts to move Texas schools closer to offering fully funded, daylong Pre-Kindergarten classes.

“It’s just like training horses,” King said. “If I’m going to train a horse, I start when he’s two. You get more bang for your buck when you start young.”

House Bill 2610 also affected local schools by changing how the state measures the number of days schools are in session. King said the state had a goal of 187 days measured in hours, but the bill broke that measurement into minutes to give schools more flexibility in their calendars.

Seliger said health care expenses continue to rise for the state with relief in sight, and King reported the successful passage of his HB 2813 which requires a CA 125 blood test to be covered by insurance. The test is an early detector of ovarian cancer, which claimed the life of King’s mother about two years ago.

King said it was unusual for good Republicans to work together to pass a health care mandate and have it signed into law by a Republican governor, but that early detection could save lives and save money as well.

“In my Mom’s case, her treatment over two years cost about $2 million,” King said. “They say at MD Anderson, if she had had a CA 125 test, they would have caught it early, possibly cured her or at least put it in remission, and all for about $100,000.”

Seliger and King also touched on the Legislature’s passage of open carry and campus carry laws, which the representative described as “mostly hype.” Seliger said the biggest outcome of the open carry law would be a new measure of “manliness.” King said calls from some segments for unlicensed “constitutional carry” were “off the deep end.”

“Frankly, Kel and I work with some Legislators who shouldn’t have a gun,” King joked.

Seliger took part of the meeting to quiz high school students on the issues of the day, start with same-sex marriage, which the State Constitution prohibits but the US Supreme Court this year has ruled in favor of, making it legal. The students said they felt that should be a state’s rights issue.

Students also said they did not support efforts to legalize the medical use of marijuana in Texas.

Seliger and King also addressed audience concerns about the local DPS troopers being sent to patrol the southern border and the need for better services for autistic children in public schools.

The Clarendon ISD Board of Trustees adopted a $5.48 million budget for the upcoming fiscal year during a meeting Friday, August 28.

The budget consists of $5.24 million for the school’s general fund and $238,085 for the district’s food services.

Superintendent Mike Norrell said the fiscal year 2016 budget is based on an average daily attendance of 440 students, which is up from last year’s estimation of 429 students.

The balanced budget is about $100,000 higher than last year’s and does include a one step raise for teachers and a 2.25 percent raise for at-will employees.

Norrell said the school district is not planning any major renovations this year but that the budget does include some money that could be utilized for small summer projects next year.

CISD is maintaining its tax rate at the state limit of $1.17 per $100 valuation as approved by voters two years ago.

The new budget does not include any major facility upgrades other than modernizing the school’s wireless network.

To support the fiscal year 2016 budget, local taxes are expected to generate about $1.4 million, and the remaining funds will come from state appropriations and other sources.

Clarendon ISD’s fiscal year begins October 1.

 

A federal judge in Midland last Tuesday removed protections for the Lesser Prairie Chicken, a rare bird that played a role in a transmission line being rerouted around Donley County five years ago.

The ruling strips the bird of its “threatened” listing by the US Fish & Wildlife Service under the federal Endangered Species Act.

In his written decision, US District Judge Robert A. Junell found that the agency’s “analysis was neither ‘rigorous’ nor valid as FWS failed to consider important questions and material information necessary to make a proper … evaluation.”

The lesser prairie chicken has been the subject of much debate over the past two decades and was one element in the loss of millions of dollars in economic development in Donley County in 2010.

Cross Texas Transmission had proposed a 15-mile transmission line through the county with a construction value estimated at $22.5 million, but landowners and other interested parties protested the plan citing concerns about the habitat of the Lesser Prairie Chicken, the effects on wetlands and other ecologically sensitive features, possible damage to ancient fossil beds, and the visual impact of the lines. The Texas Public Utilities Commission then approved an alternate route for the transmission line that took it around Donley County.

Following the species being listed as “threatened” last year by the US Fish & Wildlife Service, the Permian Basin Petroleum Association and four counties in New Mexico sued the government over the bird’s status.

The Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association (TSCRA) on Thursday applauded Junell’s decision to overturn the listing of the lesser prairie chicken as a threatened species.

“Judge Junell’s decision to vacate the threatened listing of the lesser prairie chicken is a major victory for ranchers and landowners across the country,” said TSCRA President Pete Bonds. “It is apparent that the US Fish and Wildlife Service failed to consider the many state conservation efforts before listing the prairie chicken as threatened.”

Conservationists were alarmed by the court’s ruling last week, and the Center for Biological Diversity’s Noah Greenwald said the lesser prairie chicken was first identified as needing protection in 1995 but that the petroleum had done nothing to protect it until regulations were proposed.

“This decision turns the Endangered Species Act on its head by concluding the Fish and Wildlife Service should have given the benefit of the doubt to the oil and gas industry, rather than a species that has seen its habitat and populations vanish,” Greenwald said.

But agriculture and petroleum interests praised the ruling and said they would continue to fight overreaching federal regulations.

“The administration should realize by now that ranchers are the best stewards of our nation’s land, and they have proven their ability to successfully implement their own conservation practices,” Bonds said.