News

A local man perished in an early morning house fire east of Clarendon last Thursday, December 12.

Mac Charles Dunham, age 42, was pronounced dead at the scene, according to Donley County Sheriff Butch Blackburn. An autopsy later confirmed smoke inhalation was the cause of death, the sheriff said.

The Clarendon Volunteer Fire Department was dispatched about 4:23 a.m. to a report of a structure fire on north FM 1260 with a person possibly inside. When firefighters arrived about 12 minutes later, they found a motor home fully involved and already burned up, Fire Chief Jeremy Powell said.

“You couldn’t even tell what it was really,” Powell said of the damage caused to the motor home.

Firemen extinguished the blaze and discovered Dunham’s remains.

Blackburn said Dunham had been living in the motor home with Cynthia Ann Shults, 60. The sheriff reported that the couple was woken by smoke. Shults was able to escape through a window, but Dunham was overcome by smoke before he could escape, the sheriff said.

The State Fire Marshall’s office investigated the scene and determined that an improperly set up propane heater was the cause of the fire, Blackburn and Powell said.

The Clarendon College Board of Regents this week rescinded a November 21 vote to end the contract of Dr. Robert Riza as president and voted to put him on administrative leave instead.

During a called meeting Monday, December 9, the board without discussion approved a motion reversing their action on November 21, which would have ended the president’s contract by December 31. That was followed by a new motion from Regent Carey Wann to place Riza on administrative leave effective immediately “due to some things that have been brought to light recently.” That motion was also approved with no discussion.

Last week, the regents met in another called session and met behind closed doors for more than an hour with the college’s attorney for an agenda item labeled as “Report from attorney concerning personnel.” Earlier in the week, Board Chairman Tommy Waldrop had told the Enterprise the board would receive a report from the attorney concerning Riza’s contract. In which case, that agenda item should have been more specific, according to court rulings under the Texas Open Meetings Act.

Don R. Richards, a Lubbock attorney serving as an Advisory Director of the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas, told the Enterprise the wording of last Thursday’s agenda item should have specified that regents were going to talk about the president.

“The simple use of ‘personnel’ in the [November 27] agenda clearly appears to me to violate the ‘Cox Enterprises’ court opinion requiring such specificity with a high-level employee such as college president/superintendent, etc.,” Richards said.

Waldrop said at last week’s meeting that the board was going into closed session to discuss legal liability matters facing the college and did not mention personnel as indicated on the agenda.

In other board action last week, regents approved giving full time employees a $500 stipend.

“We’re in a state of flux and turmoil, and if they don’t get their annual stipend, they may worry,” Waldrop said.

On Monday, the regents also revisited the position of interim president. At a called meeting on November 27, the regents had named Vice President Tex Buckhaults as the “part time interim president.” This week the regents named Buckhaults as the “full time interim president” with compensation of $17,000 and rights to a vehicle leased by the college.

The board also approved updated bank resolutions Monday in a 6-0-2 vote with Jerry Woodard and Ruth Robinson abstaining.

A computer malfunction activated a regional Emergency Management Warning System last Saturday night, confusing citizens and resulting in Donley County’s 911 system being overwhelmed.

Sheriff Butch Blackburn said the trouble began at about 6:45 p.m. when the PARIS alert system operated by the Panhandle Regional Planning Commission (PRPC) was triggered to activate all of the programmed alert templates. Donley County Judge John Howard said the error was later determined to have been caused by a software update that had been installed six hours earlier.

During the malfunction, residents in Donley County began receiving multiple phone calls and messages from the office of emergency management but with no details of the supposed emergency.

The malfunction also impacted the Clarendon College alert system, activating templated messages for various emergency situations, and alerts were activated in Ochiltree, Swisher, Gray, and Hansford counties as well, according to Howard.

Blackburn said confused citizens then began calling 911 and the direct line to the sheriff’s office. Three people were answering calls, but the volume still overloaded the 911 system, which began diverting calls to dispatchers in neighboring counties.

PRPC shut down the system, which was repaired and brought back online this week, officials said.

“This had nothing to do with anything that was done here, but I apologize to the citizens for the concern and confusion this caused,” Blackburn said.

Blackburn said residents should be aware in the future that actual emergency alerts will contain details of the emergency as well as any instructions for how residents should respond to that emergency.

The sheriff also said that in an actual emergency his office will work with The Clarendon Enterprise to get information out to citizens quickly through the web and social media.
Also in case of an actual emergency, Blackburn urges people to not call 911 or the sheriff’s office direct line unless they are in actual distress to avoid overloading the system and emergency personnel.

The Childress District of the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) announced a temporary closure of the SH 203 intersection in Hedley in conjunction with the rehabilitation project currently underway on the northbound lanes of US 287 in Hedley.

The exit is expected to be closed on December 16 and will be closed for around three weeks, weather permitting.

“During the closure drivers can access Hedley via North Bailey Street and McDougal Street,” stated Childress Area Engineer Matt Herbstritt. Both roads can also be used by drivers in Hedley needing access to US 287.

The $8 million highway rehab project is making significant improvements to US 287 through the city limits of Hedley and is expected to be complete by the end of March 2020.

Jarod Bellar was named Wednesday night, December 4, as the lone finalist in the search for a new superintendent for Clarendon CISD.

School trustees made that unanimous decision in a called meeting following the third and final interview in a second round of meetings with top applicants this week, according to Interim Superintendent Mike Jackson.

Bellar is currently the superintendent of Baird ISD east of Abilene, Jackson said. He began his career as a teacher and coach in Clarendon in 1994. He later became a principal at Springlake-Earth before taking a principal’s position at Baird. He’s been the superintendent there since 2011.

“I think his prior experience here was a factor in his selection,” Jackson said. “When you have someone who knows the community, it says a lot.”

Jackson said Baird will start work here in January and will spend some time with him before that to learn more about the school.

Clarendon ISD must wait 21 days before formally hiring Bellar.