Roger Estlack

Nickless Devin (left) participating in activities at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Nickless Devin of Clarendon was one of 25 Texas high school students who spent a week at the Johnson Space Center in Houston using their math and science skills to design a human mission to Mars.

Devin was nominated by State Senator Tom Haywood to be a part of a unique educational experience called the Texas Aerospace Scholars Program.  The program is the result of a partnership between NASA – JSC and the State of Texas to encourage students to pursue engineering options in school.

After being nominated, Devin began the program with distance and web-based learning experiences that culminated in a one-week long visit to JSC in Houston.  Devin and his teammates used their imagination, coupled with math and science skills, to develop a plan for how humans will get to Mars and then learn to live and work on the planet’s surface.

Their expertise came from a series of classroom sessions, field trips, hands-on projects, and assistance from JSC employee-mentors who provided them with insight into the challenges of living and working in a hostile environment.

For more information on the TAS Program, visit the website at http://aerospacescholars.jsc.nasa.gov/

On July 8, thirteen area girl scouts with five leaders left on a trip to Washington and Canada. 

The girl scouts were Lacie Fincher of Wellington; Jessica Noland, Whitney Rodgers, Caitlin Smith, Ashley Stansbury, and Erika Thompson, all of Amarillo; and Laura Dziedzic, Meghan Gribble, Valerie Taylor, Lydia Hartman, Melissa McAnear, Kelsey McQuien, and Treva Rowland, all of Clarendon.  The girls along with Debbie Oliver, Julie Hartman, Medina Gribble,  Becky McAnear, and Linda Rowland have been planning this trip for over a year and a half. 

Their first stop was in Seattle, Washington, for two days where they explored the underground city in Pioneer Square, the Pike’s Market, and the Space Needle.  From Seattle they headed for Vancouver, stopping on the way to wander through the Minter Gardens.  Once they reached Vancouver, they visited Gastown and rode the sky train.  They also crossed the Capilano Bridge, which more of the leaders were afraid of crossing than the girls.  From Vancouver the girls went to Victoria.  The highlight of the entire trip was the Empress Tea Room in Victoria.  They experienced the true form of an afternoon English tea. 

The following day they visited the Craigdarroch Castle and went whale watching.  This was the first for all of the girls and a very exciting experience, especially when one of the whales came very close to the Zodiac they were in. 

On Friday, they rode a ferry back to the states and drove down to the Hoh Rainforest, the only rainforest in the United States.  The last day before flying back, they visited Mt. St. Helen, which exploded twenty years ago.

Together, they learned about our past, had fun, and developed a friendship that will last for many years.

Hedley duo Dustin Monroe and Roger Wade made an impressive showing at the Six-Man Coaches Association all-star game between the North and East boys at Monterey last week.  The Hedley athletes played for the North team.

Monroe led the team in scoring with 17 points for the game.  Wade scored a total of 12 points for the game, including six straight in the second half and four in the beginning of the fourth period.

The North defeated the  East, 75-64.

In the girls’ game, Hedley Lady Owl Ashley Hill put three points to the board in her team’s victory over the east in a rough and tumble all-star game on Friday against the East.

North defeated the East, 52-50.

WASHINGTON, DC – The US House of Representatives Monday afternoon passed H.J. Res. 72, legislation that will ratify the Red River Boundary Compact between Texas and Oklahoma and help put an end to a border dispute that dates back 200 years.

The bill, which was introduced by US Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Clarendon), was approved by a voice vote.  The bill establishes the boundary between the states of Texas and Oklahoma as the vegetation line on the south bank of the Red River, which leaves the riverbed itself under the jurisdiction of Oklahoma.

In addition to establishing the boundary between the two states, the measure also ensures that the property, claims, and sovereignty of federally recognized Native American tribes living in the area will not be altered by the Compact in any way.  The legislation is based on the boundary compact was approved last year by the Texas and Oklahoma legislatures and signed into law by Governors Bush and Keating.  If enacted, the Compact will take effect on August 31, 2000.

“One of Congress’ Constitutional duties is to ratify agreements like this between two or more states,” Thornberry said.  “If there’s any one thing that sets this agreement apart, it’s that it’s been so long in coming.  This boundary dispute dates back 200 years and has its roots in the Louisiana Purchase.

“So clearly, this is something that is long overdue and something that will hopefully make things easier for those who live and work in the surrounding area.”

H.J. Res. 72 must now be considered by the Senate.  A date for the vote has not yet been set.

American Electric Power (AEP)-West Texas Utilities (WTU) Clarendon office will remain open for customers to make bill payments until July 31, 2000.  After this date the front office will be closed for all customer transactions.

“We announced in February that the office would remain open until September 30, 2000; however, personnel changes have made it necessary for us to discontinue taking ‘walk-in’ payments sooner than we had originally planned,” said Jeff Thigpen, AEP-WTU area business manager.

All local phone calls to the Clarendon office will be forwarded to the Customer Service Center in Corpus Christi, which is available to accept calls 24 hours a day, seven days a week.  Representatives at the Customer Service Center provide prompt attention to requests for service connection or disconnection, account information, outage reports, or to answer other questions that customers may have.  For customer service, the toll-free number to call is 888-216-3523.

Customers currently have a number of convenient bill payment options available.  These include by mail, by automatic bank draft through the DirectAdvantage Plan, Internet electronic bill payment through www.transpoint.com, and credit or ATM card payment via the telephone for the ChoicePay Plan.

The Clarendon office will continue to be used as a base of operations for service technician employees, Mike Proffitt and Leon Ward, who work in the energy delivery area of the business.

“While we’re making changes in the way we conduct business, our commitment to provide superior customer service and reliability hasn’t changed,” Thigpen said.

Darrell Leffew and Stan Leffew look over the Terex S17-E tractor from Scotland, which will be married to a locally produced scrapper.
Enterprise Digital Photo.

After a seven-month delay, a tractor from Scotland finally arrived in Clarendon last week.

The tractor, which was initially to have been here December 1, 1999, will be hooked up to a 17-yard scraper built by Clarendon Manufacturing & Distributing.

Clarendon Operations Director Stan Leffew says testing of the S-17E prototype will begin within the next two weeks, and the unit is tentatively scheduled to be unveiled in the latter part of August.

Changes in the design of the transmission and engine of the S-17E were responsible for the tractor’s delayed arrival, Leffew said. Also, the Scotland company, Terex Equipment Limited, had another unit in production that had to be completed before the S-17E tractor.

The tractor started its trans-Atlantic voyage from South Hampton, England, on June 19 and arrived in Galveston on July 3. Clarendon’s president and general manager, Darrell Leffew, arrived here with the tractor last Thursday.

When the S-17E is in full production, it will compete head to head with similar models of earthmovers made by Cat, Leffew said.

Clarendon Manufacturing & Distributing Co. has been in business since 1971. The local firm hopes to land a contract to produce 50 of the scrapers for Terex, which is based in Motherwell, Scotland, and has offices in the United States.

Rental of hanger spaces at the Clarendon Municipal Airport was again a topic of discussion when the board of aldermen met last Tuesday, July 11.

Alderman Smiley Johnson reviewed the history of airport’s development and said nothing had been found regarding who would be responsible for the maintenance of the facility.

The city had been charging hanger owners $25 per month to keep their hangers at the airport. But in October 1998, the city raised that rate to $40 per month. Some owners stopped making payments to the city, and pilots have told the city they felt as though they were being asked to pay for the entire cost of the airport.

“The pilots who live here should pay a portion of the cost [of the airport] but not the whole amount,” Johnson said at last week’s meeting.

Mayor Tex Selvidge suggested the city return to charging $25 per month and require everyone to pay. The hanger owners who have been paying the $40 per month would receive credit. “Then when everyone is caught up, [the city] goes to a per square foot charge,” he said.

The board approved a motion by Johnson, seconded by Alderman Mac Stavenhagen, to collect the delinquent rent and charge $25 per month to the end of the current fiscal year.

The board also approved a motion by Alderman Michael Tibbets, seconded by Johnson, to have the city attorney write a letter to the delinquent hanger owners informing them of the city’s decision. The vote was 3-1, Stavenhagen opposed.

The board then debated the amount of a square foot charge. After much discussion, the board voted 3-1 to charge 20¢ per square foot per year to lease hanger space at the airport. Johnson voted against the measure.

The new charge will result in the hanger owners paying about 50 percent of the operating expense of the airport.

Johnson said he thought they should only have to pay 25 percent of the cost. And one citizen in attendance, Pat Robertson, said, “It’s never been brought up that we also pay [municipal property] taxes on the hangers and the planes.”

In other city business, Michael Tibbets was sworn in by Mayor Selvidge to fulfill the remainder of former alderman Kent Womack’s term.

The board adopted a resolution establishing an Affirmative Action plan for the Texas Community Development Program from the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs.

Alderman Mac Stavenhagen was appointed to serve in the position of the Fair Housing/Equal Opportunity Standards Officer for the city.

The revision of the water, sewer, and sanitation ordinance was discussed and changes made.

The aldermen reviewed the 2000-2001 budget for the Donley Appraisal District and voted unanimously to disapprove the budget. The board was critical of the district’s budgeted salary increases.