Hedley Owl Kyler Booth gains yards as the Groom defense tries to take him down. The Hedley Owls lost to Groom 51-0 at half last week on the road. Payton Inman was awarded player of the game by Sixmania for Hedley. Enterprise Photo
Clarendon College’s Bulldog Basketball players surprised Clarendon Kindergarten students last Friday with book readings and letting them try on some college jerseys. CC Courtesy Photo
Hedley High School will crown its Homecoming Queen and King this Friday at 7 p.m. when HHS hosts Vernon Northside. Members of the court are Taylee Ehlert, Javier Valles, Adrianna Villareal, Sebastian Garcia, Madison Moore, Payton Inman, Malorie Collins, and Kyler Booth. Hedley Junior High will play at 5 p.m., and the varsity Owls will take the field at 7:30. HISD Photo / Mandi Gay
Donley County Judge John Howard addressed the county’s plans for recently acquired property near the Courthouse Square as the featured program at the Clarendon Lions Club Tuesday.
The county acquired a quarter of a block at the southwest corner of Third and Jefferson across the street west of the county jail about a year ago. Recent demolition of the houses on that property caused a stir on social media which resulted in misinformation being generated.
To set the record straight, he said, the county is not and will not be building a new jail. Howard said the current jail, the original part of which was built in 1981, meets the county’s needs and is “a fortress.” There is no way, Howard said, the county could afford to build a new jail and meet the modern state standards that would be required to do so.
The judge did say, however, that the county is considering construction of a new facility that would house the Donley County Sheriff’s Office and serve as an Emergency Operations Center.
“About ten years ago, I asked the commissioners, “Where are we? What do we have? And where are we going?” Howard said. “We wanted to look to the future and think about what our needs are for years to come.”
Since that time, the county has built a new justice of the peace office in Hedley, a new county barn in Hedley, added on to the county barn in Clarendon, and renovated the Courthouse Annex. Repairs also have been made and proposed facelifts have been discussed for county-owned buildings on the east side of Sully Street north of City Hall.
All of these improvements were made without borrowing money, and the county tax rate is lower than it was ten years ago, Howard said.
Howard said the jail doesn’t have much space for the sheriff’s office, and he noted that dispatchers also serve as jailers, doing two jobs at once. Giving more space to the jailer/dispatchers would require taking in office space used by the sheriff and deputies.
The judge said one that would be good for the county to have is an Emergency Operations Center.
“You don’t have to have it but it would be nice,” he said. “Any event that results in prolonged destruction – like a tornado – or a loss of power or a toxic spill on US 287 or the railroad is going to require more response than what Donley County can provide on its own, and where do you house that?”
Howard said an Emergency Operations Center could be co-located with a new sheriff’s office and could include redundancies in power and communications to remain active during disasters and have workstations available for other emergency officials who would respond from outside the county.
Howard said everything is just the planning and discussion stages right now, but when the county saw an opportunity to purchase property near the jail it moved to buy that in the marketplace. Only one of the homes was occupied, and that renter was given a year’s notice that the county was not going to be in the rental business and that the HUD agreement for that residence would not be renewed.
The properties were purchased for $139,000, and the county paid Grant Construction $24,690 to demolish the houses.
Howard said Commissioner Dan Sawyer is planning to donate gravel to create a parking area, and a carport was left standing for the county’s use.
The Blocker Apartments to the south of the property was not acquired by the county.
The county has no immediate plan to build an Emergency Operations Center, and Howard said Sheriff Butch Blackburn doesn’t have much interest in a new office. Howard federal grant funds could possibly be acquired to help build such a facility. To pursue that option requires working with US Rep. Ronny Jackson’s office and would require the county to get an architect involved and get cost estimates.
Blackburn said he’s not against the idea if there’s grant money to pay for it; but if there’s no grant money, he’s not in favor of asking Donley County taxpayers to pay for it.
If everything were to move forward with a grant application, Howard said federal appropriations wouldn’t happen until fiscal year 2026 or 2027 at the earliest.
State Rep. Ken King will be the lone voice representing truly rural Texas when the next Legislative session starts he told a crowd of citizens and students last Tuesday at Clarendon College’s Bairfield Activity Center.
King said his House District 88 is the last remaining rural district in Texas as it has no single community of more than 100,000 people. The district snakes across Panhandle and down into the South Plains from Hemphill County in the northeast to Andrews County in the southwest.
“My job is to remind everyone that rural Texas Matters,” King said. “Elon Musk can build all the cars he wants in Austin, but without fuel, food, and fiber provided by rural Texas, he can’t exist.”
High on King’s list of things coming up in the next session is education funding.
“There’s nothing more dangerous than an uneducated population,” King said, noting that 75 percent of the state budget goes to public education.
King said the last session of the Legislature saw a “horrible fight” over the voucher plan supported by Governor Greg Abbott.
“Abbott polls 90 percent favorable on border security, and that’s why people keep voting for him,” King said.
When rural Republicans defeated the governor’s school voucher plan, King said Pennsylvania billionaire Jeff Yass, who is invested in TikTok and the private school industry, gave the governor a billion dollars to campaign against those fellow Republicans in the primaries.
“I’m one of the few that survived,” King said. “A lot of the rural Republicans who were good for places like Clarendon College aren’t coming back in the next session.”
King said there will be a voucher system approved in the next session because he will be the only Republican against it. He hopes that after that is in place, the state will start helping public education again.
“We’ve got to quit all the negative and start building up teachers again,” King said. “Texas has done a lot to ruin that profession.”
King also warned of the dangers of social media.
“Please, turn off the Hate Book,” he said. “That thing is just destroying us and spreading misinformation.”
Other upcoming priorities will be further enhancement of border security. He said crossings are dropping, but he also noted that “you don’t have border problems three months before a presidential election.”
“There’s lots of politics going on right now,” he said.
Water will continue to be a big issue in Texas, King said, but his biggest focus outside of public education will be improving the state’s response to wildfires.
“This is an area where policy needs to win over politics because people’s lives and property are at stake,” King said.
King said there will be opportunities for Panhandle representatives to work with hurricane area representatives to improve emergency management measures. He also hopes to get state-owned wildfire-fighting aircraft purchased with at least some of them station in the Panhandle. Currently, the state contracts those services from out of state providers or from the federal government. The process to activate those out of state resources takes days, and there’s not a clear chain of command that takes care of that process.
As always, King encouraged people to vote and said a people who don’t vote get the government they deserve. He also said if Donald Trump wins, it is likely that some state officials – like Gov. Abbott or Attorney General Ken Paxton – may go to Washington to serve in his administration.
State Rep. Ken King (center) stands with Donley County Attorney Landon Lambert (left) and County Judge John Howard during last Tuesday’s forum at the Bairfield Activity Center. Enterprise Photo
The public has a few more days to complete a survey for the Texas Department of Transportation to provide feedback on the feasibility of upgrading US 287 to interstate highway standards. The original deadline was September 16, but it has now been extended to September 27.
Members of the public are also encouraged to leave comments about specific locations along the corridor on an interactive map. Both the survey and the interactive map will be available through Sept. 27 on https://www.txdot.gov/projects/projects-studies/statewide/us287-corridor-interstate-feasibility-study.html.
Biologists will soon begin conducting white-tailed deer spotlight surveys on rural roads in northern Donley County.
A western route will follow County Road 9 to County Road I, and the eastern survey route will be from County Road 20 to County Road O to County Road 23 to County Road P to County Road 24.
These routes stay on public roads and are run after dark and always in a state truck. Local law enforcement and game wardens are always notified for the safety of the surveyors and the surrounding public. Data gathered from these surveys allows the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department to set bag limits and season dates for white-tailed deer as well as monitor trends in the population.
All surveys should be completed by the end of October.
Randal “Randy” Lynn Crump, 56, of Clarendon, TX passed away on Sunday, September 1, 2024 in Texola, OK.
Randal “Randy” Lynn Crump
Funeral services are scheduled for 2:30 PM Monday, September 9, 2024, at the Clarendon College Matlock Arena with Joe Neal Shadle, Josey Shadle, Ike Hanes, and Brad Shadle officiating. Burial will follow in Citizens Cemetery in Clarendon.
Arrangements are by Robertson Funeral Directors of Clarendon.
Randal “Randy” Lynn Crump was born on April 12, 1968 to Janie Ivey Gibson and Morris Crump in Memphis, Tx. He graduated from Clarendon High School and went on to attend Clarendon College.
He married the love of his life, Buckie, on June 1, 2014 in Clarendon. They recently celebrated their 10 year anniversary. Randy and Buckie dated in high school, but were reconnected by fate many years later.
Randy worked in Hereford, Tx for Johnny Trotter as the cowboy boss before he moved to Clarendon to start his career at TXDOT. Randy retired from TXDOT in November of 2023 and began working at Bird Electric as a heavy equipment operator and was recently promoted to a safety professional.
Team roping was Randy’s life. He would rope with anyone, anywhere, any time and any age. He was a winner and has many buckles and saddles to show for it, but would give them away in a heartbeat. He enjoyed ranch rodeos, fishing and watching any kind of sport he could get on TV.
In addition to all of his rodeo activities, he loved spending time with his family, especially his grandkids. He was a protector, loving, the best hug giver, a man with the biggest heart, and he loved to tell jokes and stories.
Those left to cherish his memories and honor him are his wife, Buckie Crump; his 6 pack of children, Carissa Crump; Dustin Crump and wife, Jordan; Jacee Crump; Cody Crump and Charlie; Nash Baker and wife, Larissa; Cameron Baker and fiance, Ryder; his mother, Janie Ivey Gibson; his father, Morris Crump and wife, Linda; his brother, Ray Crump and wife, Mike; and his sister, Laura Bailey and husband, Jason.
He greatly cherished his soon to be, 8 grandchildren. Kitana, Vanessa, Wyatt, Kennedy, Eidynn, Tobias, Mercy, and new baby Crump.
He will be greatly missed and remembered by his numerous nephews and nieces, Mike Crump and wife, Julie; Chris Crump and fiance, Rebecca; Avery Bailey, and Ethan Bailey; cousins, friends and his large rodeo family.
The family request memorials be sent to the Dalton O’Gorman Scholarship Fund.
Payton Inman runs the ball for the Owls. The Hedley Owls had their season opener last week, 46-40, to PCHEA. The Owls will face Groom this week on the road. Courtesy Photo / Mandi Gay
Landree Martinez enjoys a slice of watermelon with her adopted Lady Bronco, Mary Jo Dushay, last Thursday evening at Bronco Stadium. The Adopt-A-Bronco program pairs young students with high school athletes and encourages the older kids to serve as mentors. Enterprise Photo / Ashlee Estlack
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