Ben Estlack

The Donley County AgriLife Extension hosted fifth grade students from six area schools last Tuesday, October 31, for their 20th Ag Literacy Day.

A total of 138 students from Clarendon, Hedley, Memphis, Claude, Silverton, and Valley attended the event with 29 high school students helping from Clarendon, Memphis, and Silverton.

County Agent Leonard Haynes said the students learned about agriculture from ten separate stations covering the following topics: beef cattle, small grain production, small animal livestock, rainfall effects / soil conservation, groundwater conservation, peanut production, cotton production, tractor PTO safety, stream bed formation, and Texas outdoor and game laws.

“Our overall goal is to educate kids as we have more kids away from farms who think everything originates at the grocery store,” Haynes said. “We show them that from the time they woke up today, agriculture touches their lives from clothes to deodorant to brushing their teeth. So many things come from ag byproducts.”

Demonstrations at the stations included how a cotton gin works, the effects of soil erosion, how flowing water affects topography, how small grains are milled for food, where different cuts of meat come from, and more.

Haynes said the program started as a shared activity between the Donley and Hall county extension services, but now invites schools from other areas to participate.

In addition to the ten stations students rotated through, all students were presented with a powerline and farm safety demonstration from Greenbelt Electric Cooperative, and the Southwest Mobile Dairy also presented a live milking demonstration to highlight where milk and milk byproducts come from.

A new downtown restaurant will hold its grand opening next week after several months of construction and remodeling.

REFZ Sports Bar & Grill, located at US 287 and Kearney Street, will open its doors to the public on Wednesday, November 1, and owner Ricardo Santillan is just as ready as the community is.

“It’s been hard and definitely a lot of work,” Santillan said, “but it’s also been very exciting watching the process of taking a building where there was nothing and what it has turned into.”

For eight months, Santillan has overseen a complete overhaul of the former Clarendon Steakhouse building, remodeling the front end, ripping out and installing a new kitchen, remodeling bathrooms, and more. With the final pieces going into place this week, Santillan is planning an invitation-only “soft opening” only in the next few days to make sure everything is ready for Wednesday.

REFZ has hired 24 people and plans to be open seven days a week. Its hours will be Monday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.; and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Happy hour will be everyday from 3:00 to 6:00 p.m., and weekday $8 lunch specials will be from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

In addition to a full and varied menu, REFZ will have a full bar, including mixed drinks; 16 big screen TVs showing all kinds of sports; and seating for 136 people.

Santillan currently has five of his new hires from Clarendon working at his first REFZ location in Guymon, Okla., which has been in business for six years.

“We want everyone to come enjoy themselves here as place of entertainment,” Santillan said. “Come with your family and hang out and have a good time.”

The process of bringing a restaurant to downtown has been a long one. The Clarendon Economic Development Corporation first purchased the building in 2015 after it was heavily damaged by an automobile and has made significant investments in the building since that time to make it attractive as a potential restaurant. Discussions with Santillan began in November 2022 with an agreement reached in February 2023 and construction starting the following month.

“It’s been great working with the CEDC,” Santillan said. “Those guys helped me all along the way. They have been gracious and supportive of me, and I’ve been thankful for that. I could not have done this project without the CEDC, and it’s one of the main reasons I decided to do it.”

CEDC President Brandon Frausto is also very happy to see the REFZ project come to fruition.

“We are excited to have REFZ be a part of our community,” Frausto said. “This has been a goal of the CEDC for quite some time. I hope this helps build momentum as we move toward our vision for the future of Clarendon.”

Santillan is also looking to the future.

“It’s going to work,” Santillan said. “It’s taken a lot of time, energy, and investment by all of us (Santillan’s business and the CEDC), but we’re doing it for the town as well. We both saw a need for the town, and now we hope everyone comes and enjoys it.”