Roger Estlack

Rumors of a bomb threat at the Hedley Public Schools last week were just that – rumors – and nothing more, officials say.

Word of a supposed bomb threat first surfaced late Thursday, April 12, and was reported to the Donley County Sheriff’s Department that Friday. Students were out of school that Friday and the following Monday for Easter holidays.

Sheriff Butch Blackburn said an investigation by his department, Constable Mike Wallendorff, and Hedley ISD found no credible evidence of a threat. A search by a dog from Interquest Detection Canines of Abilene last Monday also found no explosives in the school.

“Our investigation concluded that [the threat] was just a rumor,” Blackburn said.

The sheriff did say, however, that a warrant has been issued for the arrest of 17-year-old Hedley resident, Santiago Rodriguez, Jr., in connection with the March 30 discovery of a one-pound package of Detagel explosive near a Hedley residence.

Blackburn said an investigation is still underway in that case, which he believes is related to an ongoing feud in Hall County.

The person who supposedly was going to blow up the school was Rodriguez, Blackburn said. But Rodriguez was reportedly not even in the county at the time of the supposed threat.

“It’s kind of hard to blow it up if you’re not here,” Blackburn said.

Rodriguez’s last known whereabouts was Breckenridge, Blackburn said. He is wanted on possession of an explosive.

Hedley ISD Principal Terry Stevens said the rumors of a bomb threat started April 12. A Hedley teacher overheard some students talking about it and reported it to Stevens. Superintendent Bryan Hill was out of town at the time, he said.

“This is one of those cases where so-and-so said that so-and-so said so,” Stevens said. “But we took every precaution anyway.”

The principal alerted authorities and informed Hill of what was going on. HISD administrators called in the search dogs to go through the school while students were on vacation on Monday, April 16. Neither the dogs nor local law enforcement found any cause for concern.

Stevens said on Tuesday, April 17, he came to work early and looked through every classroom to make sure nothing was different before students and teachers arrived.

“I think some of the teachers were mad because we didn’t tell them about it,” Stevens said. “We felt like it was more important to have a normal class day on Tuesday and tell them later. It was an administrative decision, and we stick by it.

“We felt we were as safe as we could be for our kids,” he said. “We reacted to the threat and did what we thought was necessary.”

Donley County bucked the trend in much of rural West Texas during the 2000 Census and saw an increase in population, reports show.

The US Census Bureau counted 3,828 people living here last year. That’s up 3.57 percent from the 3,696 counted in 1990.

The growth of the county was centered in the City of Howardwick, which more than doubled its population in the last ten years. The 1990 Census found 205 people in Howardwick. The 2000 Census counted 437, which is a 113.17 percent increase – the biggest percent increase of any city in the Texas Panhandle.

The large increase in Howardwick’s population means Donley County will have to redraw its precinct boundaries. The lakeside city lies entirely in Precinct 1, which now has 222 more citizens than the next biggest precinct.

Precinct 2 has 935 people, while Precincts 3 and 4 have 897 and 839 respectively.

Most of the county’s residents live in the county seat of Clarendon, but the city lost 3.38 percent of its population over the last ten years. The census found 1,974 people living in Clarendon, down from 2,043 in 1990. That’s the lowest census count since 1970 when the bureau also found 1,974 people living here.

The City of Hedley’s population dropped 8.67 percent to 379, a decrease of 36 people. That’s one less person than lived in that city in 1980.

Donley County’s racial composition is broken down as 3,372 whites, 243 Hispanics, 151 blacks, and 62 people of other races.

Most of the county’s black population, 140, lives in Clarendon. Seven live in Hedley, and one lives in Howardwick. 123 Hispanics live in Clarendon, 37 live in Hedley, and 21 live in Howardwick.

Of the seven counties surrounding Donley, only one posted a population increase, that being Armstrong with a growth of 6.28 percent.

Briscoe County lost 9.18 percent of its population, down to 1,790. Carson has 6,516 people, down 0.91 percent. Gray County lost 5.10 percent of its citizens for a count of 22,744, and Hall County was down 3.15 percent to 3,782. Wheeler County dropped more than 10 percent to 5,284. Collingsworth had the biggest percent decline in this corner of the Panhandle, dropping 10.27 percent for a total of 3,206 people.

Donley County will receive $49,000 in additional funding from the state for the restoration of the 1890 courthouse, according to Judge Jack Hall.

The Texas Historical Commission (THC) met April 19 to consider supplemental funding for counties whose courthouses had received money last year in Round I of the grants under the Texas Historic Courthouse Preservation Project. Every Round I approved county that had asked for supplemental funding received it, Hall said.

Donley County had asked for $73,160 in additional funds to restore a fireplace in the district courtroom and a masonry gable on the south façade, which were unknown at the time the Master Plan was prepared in 1999.

As with the Round I grant, the supplemental funding requires a 15 percent match by the county.

For more information about the Donley County Courthouse Restoration Project, click here.

Hedley High School returned from the 1A Regional UIL Academics Meet in Levelland with added experience and a desire to send more students to the state meet next year.

The Calculator Applications team was led by Samuel Howard’s eighth place finish. The team finished third to Nazareth and Wink and also consisted of Treva Rowland and Lauren Hill. 

Dustin Knowles was Hedley’s representative in Number Sense, and he placed twelfth overall. 

Lana Wallendorff placed sixth in the Mathematics contest to earn points at the meet, and she was second place overall in the science contest and will represent Hedley at the UIL State Academics Meet in Austin May 4-5. This will be her fourth straight year to travel to the state meet, becoming the first Hedley student to accomplish this feat.

The rest of the Hedley squad gained valuable experience (four of the eight Hedley contestants were freshmen) and are already making plans to prepare for next year’s academic season.

Bruce Howard, Hedley academics coordinator shares, “We have built an expectation in our kids to go to Austin every year. They prepare knowing they have a chance to compete for a state title at year’s end and a chance of getting good scholarships from their efforts.”

Lana Wallendorff, the squad’s only senior, will apply for the Welch Chemistry Scholarship as soon as the state meet results are completed. Past Welch Scholarship winners from Hedley include James Potts, Lowell Ellerbrook, and Rachel Howard.

It was the greatest upset since Truman defeated Dewey when the votes for the 2001 Turkey King election were tallied last Friday, and a dark horse candidate came out of nowhere – literally – to claim the throne.

Newspaper editor Roger Estlack was thrust into power by a covert write-in campaign, which violated every rule of ethics and normal election processes. The campaign was so secretive that even Estlack himself had no idea what was going on.

Even more startling was the identity of the mastermind behind the write-in campaign – none other than front-runner Vic Jeter, who apparently was not joking when he said he didn’t want to be the king.

In the course of about seven days, Jeter raised more than $205 on the editor’s behalf by lying to people’s faces and claiming he was collecting money to elect chamber secretary Judy Burlin. (Burlin reportedly thought he was raising money for his friend and mentor, banker Jerry Woodard.) Jeter’s efforts were reportedly bolstered by local and out of town readers of The Clarendon Enterprise who had their pulley bones tickled by the weekly Turkey King reports and sent money in to elect Estlack.

All told, Estlack beat Jeter by a margin of $53.96. The banker reportedly put $30 of his own scratch in Estlack’s jar to insure his loss.

“I am stunned,” the editor said. “No one was more surprised than I was. But then that’s the greatness of America – one minute you’re pecking around in the dirt eating grasshoppers for groceries, the next you’re ruling the roost.”

Estlack said Jeter was a sneaky, dirty, little bird.

“Jeter had his secretary – the underhanded Debbie Hamilton – call me Friday before last to shake me down for five bucks to elect Judy [Burlin]. But she must have known it was for me. I refused to pay it because I don’t believe in write-in candidacies. I just had no idea how conniving those two really were.”

As a media representative and mild mannered reporter, Estlack was present at Linda and Buster Gray’s home Friday afternoon as Linda, along with Carolyn Blackerby and Judy Burlin, counted the votes, waiting until the last to open the mysterious write-in envelope. Before Estlack could recover from his shock, Jeter telephoned mere moments after the totals were read to offer his concession.

“Do we have a winner yet?” Jeter asked, laughing hysterically.

“You @*#%,” Estlack responded before regaining the composure befitting the King of Turkeys.

Jeter gave his word – for what it’s worth – not to contest the election and promised he would not call back to retract his concession.

By Saturday the king had settled comfortably into his duties, and peace and harmony marked his reign during the coronation before that evening’s street dance.

Following the crowning, the Turkey King called forth his royal subject, Vic Jeter, bade him kneel down, and commanded him to kiss his royal ring. Jeter graciously submitted to his monarch and was rewarded with a stack of turkey sandwiches (which had been sitting out in the hot sun all afternoon).

The King then introduced the Royal Family – his mother, the Queen Mum; his father, the Tom of Toms; his brother, the Crown Prince of Poultry; and the crown prince’s consort, Lady Red Feather.

His Highness is still seeking out all the parties responsible for his election so he can give them what they have coming to them, but he realizes that most of the turkeys in Donley County are good, decent people.

“I can’t make any big promises to the people,” he said. “I’m eternally grateful for their trust in me in bestowing this great honor. I will do my best to wear the crown with pride – or at least let it sit proudly on a shelf – and uphold the honor and dignity of the throne.”

Estlack’s win wasn’t the only surprise of the election. Local insurance salesman Walt Knorpp, who was stuck hopelessly in sixth place last Monday with only $13.01, was catapulted into third place when election judges opened his jar to find a pregnant vote – a one-dollar bill wrapped around a one-hundred-dollar bill.

That gave Knorpp a total of $114.01, and relegated Clarendon’s mayor, the popular Tex Selvidge, to only double-digit status. Selvidge had been Jeter’s closest competitor right up until the end, but he ended the competition with only $79.30.

The county seems to have mostly accepted its new king. Still some old, molting birds are not happy. They note a total of $661.40 was cast in the election and say that Estlack only garnered 31.1279 percent of the vote.

“He doesn’t have a mandate to govern,” said one protestor. “Jeter was right. This election wasn’t about the people’s will; it was all about money. Jeter knows what it’s really like for us turkeys. He’s one of us, and he should be the king today.”

To which the king responds, “Well, that’s just too bad. I’m in charge now, and County Attorney Kaye Messer assures me there is no way to overturn my election. We’re moving forward and not looking back.”

It’s all coming down to the wire as the blood and giblets battle to be Donley County’s first Turkey King enters its ninth and final week.

At press time, local banker Vic Jeter was still leading in the Enterprise / Gobbler Poll with $62.75. His nearest competitor, Clarendon Mayor Tex Selvidge, was trailing behind by a margin of $22.06.

Car dealer Trey Chamberlain, water man Bobbie Kidd, and County Judge Jack Hall rounded out the top five positions, but they, along with the seven other minor candidates, are not expected to have a turkey’s chance at Thanksgiving of breaking out of the flock.

The final votes will be tallied this Friday at 5 p.m. at an undisclosed location. No candidates will be allowed inside while the money is counted. The winner will be crowned Saturday night at 7 p.m. on Kearney Street.

A few feathers were ruffled in the last week as Chamber Secretary Judy Burlin took a money jar for Vic Jeter and reportedly tried to solicit votes for the banker outside of the official polling place.

Jeter claimed this clear act of attempted ballot stuffing on his behalf should lead to his disqualification from the race. Clearer heads prevailed, however, and officials realized that Jeter had nothing to do with Burlin’s actions. His candidacy was thus preserved, and his hopes of being king were not dashed.

In a diversionary tactic, Jeter tried to mount a write-in candidacy last Friday to have Burlin elected king.

Election judge Linda Gray says things have settled down a lot since the high jinks and shenanigans of recent weeks. But she is suspicious.

“I think they must be planning something because it has been too quiet,” she said.

Political analysts disagreed and said the public was simply worn out by an election process that had gone on too long.

“People just want this thing to be over with,” one analyst said. “They all know Jeter is the top turkey. The election is a foregone conclusion.”

But in a race where anything could and has happened, Jeter’s victory may not be certain. Librarian Carolyn Blackerby said one man from Vanderbilt, Texas, called her and said he would pay whatever amount was necessary to elect Selvidge. Unfortunately for him, money must be put in the jar before it’s counted.

“This is an election, dadgumit. Not a telethon,” one analyst said.

Meanwhile, The Clarendon Enterprise threw its considerable political weight behind the candidacy of Vic Jeter with a strong editorial endorsement.

“We like Mayor Selvidge a lot,” said publisher Roger Estlack, “but let’s face it. Jeter is the front runner in this race, and we want to back a winner.

“Poll after poll shows Jeter is the choice of the people. Selvidge will never be king.”

In other turkey news, tourism council member Dee Dee Autry was seen on an Amarillo morning news show this week showing off the corpse of Thomas Prescott Featherbottom in a sick attempt to appeal to people’s morbid fascination with death and draw them to the Turkey Festival.

Featherbottom is the wooden turkey who was violently lynched by anti-poultry forces two weeks ago.

A wake for the dead bird will be held this Thursday, April 19, in the Burton Memorial Library from 4 to 7 p.m. Refreshments will be served.

If he doesn’t start smelling too bad, Librarian Blackerby says Featherbottom may lie in state on Friday as well in order to allow more people to express their condolences.

The election for Donley County’s King Turkey continues, and money jars for all 12 candidates are at Duckwall’s. The winner will be the turkey with the most money at the end of the contest.

This is it, citizens. Vote now or forever hold your peace!

Clarendon College has unveiled a campaign to raise nearly $3.9 million over the next three years to meet the present and future needs of the Panhandle’s oldest institution of higher learning.

The New Horizons Capital Campaign was well received during a luncheon held last Thursday for 65 local community leaders, faculty, alumni, and supporters of CC.

The campaign identifies four major goals for the college: a new library and learning resources center, a new livestock and equine center, additional funding for scholarships, and money for instructional equipment and emerging technologies.

The current CC Library, housed in approximately 4,000 square feet, is no longer adequate to serve the school’s students. A new facility will cost the college approximately $2 million and would provide 15,000 to 18,000 square feet for library and learning resource purposes. This facility would be of great benefit to people in the college’s service area and would enable the college to increase the number of holdings in the library and to better prepare students for university work and lifelong learning.

A livestock and equine center is needed because Clarendon College currently has no facilities at all for these programs or for the livestock competitions that are held here throughout the year. Some of these events draw upwards of 2,000 people to Clarendon. In addition to attracting visitors to various competitions, supporters say the center would allow the college to expand and enhance its agricultural programs. The center would encompass 66,000 square feet and would cost an estimated $1 million.

The campaign hopes to raise a $500,000 endowment to bolster the college’s scholarship program. Another $390,000 is set as the goal for technology and equipment improvements to benefit both students and faculty.

CC President Myles Shelton says the New Horizons campaign has been well received by the public.

“We’ve got a lot of folks who believe in Clarendon College and who see the needs which exist,” he said. “They want to see those needs met in a way that will service this area for a long time to come.”

Shelton said it will ultimately be volunteers in the campaign who meet friend to friend to raise the money.

The campaign, which began last August, is broken into two phases. The first phase involved the Board of Regents, the CC Foundation Board, and the faculty and staff.

Shelton said the faculty/staff goal of $20,000 has been exceeded. That group has raised $32,000 and is still working, he said.

The boards are about halfway to their goal of raising $500,000.

The next phase of the campaign – the public phase – was launched at the luncheon. It will focus first on alumni and people in Donley County, then proceed to the college’s seven-county service area and beyond. The final part of the public phase will be conducted through foundations and corporations.

“Foundations like to see that the people closest to the college are behind the campaign before they give their support,” Shelton said.

Founded in 1898 by the Methodist Church, Clarendon College has been a public institution since 1927. The College District receives financing from state sources, but funds for facilities and instructional equipment must be generated locally or through private support. Supporters say up to date facilities and current technology is even more important as students enter the work force and prepare to meet the challenges of the 21st century.

For more information about the New Horizons Campaign, contact the Clarendon College Office of Development at 1-800-687-9737. Or you can write to PO Box 968, Clarendon, TX 79226.

God lit up the life of Donley County’s sheriff last week… literally.

Lightening struck the patrol truck of Sheriff Butch Blackburn the evening of last Friday, April 6, while he was storm chasing on the JA Ranch Road near the old Kent place.

Blackburn realized the pickup had been hit when the engine died, and he coasted to the side of the road. He said the bolt shook the truck but did not shock him.

“The instrument panel started doing all kinds of crazy stuff, and the headlights were burning very brightly and wouldn’t turn off,” he said.

The lightening apparently struck the antennae, vaporizing most of it and turning the remainder from black to purple. The aerial was located on the left front fender. The electricity went to ground by blowing out the right rear tire. The radio and other electrical instruments were fried.

Blackburn said he had been near another lightning strike several years ago. A bolt hit an electrical transformer about 80 feet from him, and he said that was plenty close.

The county pickup Blackburn was driving was brand new. He just signed the papers on it last month.

The storm Blackburn was chasing Friday brought 0.40 of rain to Clarendon, and high winds associated with the storm did a lot of damage throughout the Panhandle region.