News

A Lubbock man lost his life last Monday, March 11, in a single car accident south of Clarendon on Hwy. 70.

Department of Public Safety Trooper Lynn Mays said 27-year-old Gabriel Garcia was southbound when his 2004 Lincoln Navigator went onto the right shoulder. He jerked left, spinning his vehicle so that it faced north, and the vehicle then rolled off the east side of the road before coming to rest on its wheels.

The time of the wreck is estimated to be about 9 p.m. in very foggy conditions. Rain fell at the accident scene later, and the wreckage was not discovered until about 7 a.m. the next morning by a passing motorist.

Garcia was not wearing a seatbelt and was dead on the scene, and Mays says alcohol is suspected as being involved in the accident.

Three Clarendon High School students “died” following a mock accident sponsored by the student council Monday afternoon.

The Shattered Dreams program illustrated the dangers of drinking and driving by staging a crash and the resulting efforts of first responders in front of the high school and junior high student bodies.

“The situation was four girls had been drinking at a party and were driving, and they ran into car with three sober boys,” student council sponsor Tammi Lewis said.

The program included assistance from the Associated Ambulance Authority, the Donley County Sheriff’s Office, the Clarendon Volunteer Fire Department, the Department of Public Safety, and North West Texas Hospital’s LifeStar helicopter, which landed near the scene.

A vehicle used in the crash was actually the wreckage from a real alcohol-related accident in which a life was lost.

One of the girls, portrayed by Kyla Dunahm, was pronounced dead at the scene by Justice of the Peace Pat White and loaded into a hearse from Robertson Funeral Home. Two other students, played by Noab Elam and Caton Grahn, died in route to the hospital.

The remaining four students were injured. The driver of the girls’ car, portrayed by student council president Brandalyn Ellis, was administered a sobriety test on scene, arrested, fingerprinted, jailed, and sentenced to a total of 60 years in prison and a $30,000 fine by Judge John Howard.

Lewis said the program, funded in part by the Bryce Kennedy Foundation, continued on Tuesday with memorial services and a video shot by students, which recorded the entire program from the accident, the notification of parents, and the sentencing.

Another video showed the impact such an accident had on a real family, and a CHS alumnus, who had lost her fiancé in such an accident, also addressed the students.

“You could have heard a pin drop when she finished,” Lewis said. “We mainly just wanted to get kids to make better choices. I tell them there is always someone you can get to take you home. Even your parents… you may get in trouble, but they would rather drive you home than see this happen.”

Howardwick residents have been dealing with multiple water issues over the last several days, including loss of pressure and loss of service, as Red River Water Authority works to address leaks in the system.

City Secretary Sandra Childress said Tuesday that Red River Regional Manager Jason Caldwell has been great to work with and that the authority has been working late hours to correct issues facing the city.

“This is something that is everybody’s fault,” Childress said. “It’s the city’s fault, it’s Red River’s fault, and it’s the people’s fault who tied into the system illegally. But now we’re all working to fix it, and everybody is just going to have to be patient.”

Childress said issues started about two weeks ago when a fire truck got stuck in what was first thought to be an underground spring while fighting a fire. But she said it was soon discovered that “spring” was actually a massive leak that had been suspected but not located for at least two years.

“We’ve been losing 40,000 gallons a day down Carroll Creek,” Childress said.

Workers got a temporary fix on that line, and then other leaks began to appear in the system, including at places where people have been stealing water service by tying into the water system without a meter.

Childress reiterated that Red River’s management has been working very well with the city, and she also praised the authority’s communication with the city.

Childress said the good news is that the city should not have to ration water in the future if it can keep an extra 40,000 gallons in the system each day. But she also said that repairs will take time.

“The big fixes are short term problems, but repairing all the issues are very long term,” she said.

One lucky shopper will get $500 in Clarendon Cash Thursday, March 14, when the Chamber of Commerce holds its first Totally Locally drawing during its Business After Hours at the Saints’ Roost Museum.

The Business After Hours social encourages Chamber members and other interested folks to network and learn more about what’s happening in the local business community. The event will be held from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., and door prizes will be drawn for those in attendance.

Refreshments will be served, and the event is planned to be come-and-go to accommodate Chamber members’ busy schedules.

At 6:30 p.m., the first Totally Locally winner will be drawn for 2019. That person does not have to be present to win.

The “Totally Locally” initiative encourages shopping at locally owned and operated businesses by giving away $500 in Clarendon Cash once per quarter.

Sign-up stations and details are available in the following businesses: A Fine Feathered Nest, Clarendon Outpost, Cornell’s Country Store, Country Bloomers, Every Nook & Cranny, Floyd’s Automotive, Henson’s, J&W Lumber, Mike’s Pharmacy, Saye’s Tack Store, and Turquoise & Rust.

The Totally Locally program will promote all things local about Clarendon and Donley County.
“Totally Locally encourages you to step through the door of that shop you go past every day,” the Chamber says. “Most of all though it’s about people who care about what they do, what they grow, what they make, and ultimately the people they sell it to. It’s about buying, playing, working, and living Totally Locally.”

To learn more, call the Visitor Center at 874-2421.

The Donley County Comm-issioners Court enacted a burn ban during their regular meeting Monday, March 11.

County Judge John Howard said Clarendon Fire Marshall Jeremy Powell had requested the ban due to persistently dry conditions. Even with rain coming in this week, high winds and warm weather will quickly make conditions ripe for grass and wild fires.

Under the commissioners’ order no outdoor burning is allowed on a day of a forecasted Fire Weather Watch or a Red Flag Warning issued from the National Weather Service in Amarillo.
Anyone engaging in outdoor burning must contact the Donley County Sheriff’s office prior to ignition and give the dispatcher a burn location, a contact phone number, and approximate burn time. The persons engaging in outdoor burning needs to be present on the site of the burn until the burn is completed.

Anyone engaging in any form of outdoor burning is asked to burn with extreme caution at all times.

Forecasters can issue the watch or warning for all or selected portions within a fire weather zone. The Red Flag event is verified when the weather and fuel conditions listed below are met simultaneously for any three hours or more during the period.

The following weather and fuel conditions must be forecast to occur or already occurring before issuing a Fire Weather Watch and/or Red Flag Warning: Minimum relative humidities equal to or less than 15 percent; 20 foot winds of 20 mph or higher and/or gusts to 35 mph or higher; and an NFDRS adjective fire danger rating of “high” or higher.

For information, log onto www.srh.noaa.gov/ama/. The burn ban will stay in effect for the next 90 days.

In other county business Monday, the commissioners court approved attendance at trainings for JP Clerk Zan Bullock, Judge Pat White, and Tax Assessor Linda Crump; approved purchasing a Duress System in the Hedley JP office for $9,551; and approved purchasing the property behind the Hedley JP office for $5,000.

The court also authorized signatures for the Veterans’ Memorial bank account. The county recently was assigned responsibility for the Donley County War Memorial by the committee that has overseen it since its construction. The funds associated with that committee now belong to the county in a designated account, and the memorial itself is now covered on the county’s insurance.

An interlocal agreement with the City of Howardwick was approved related to the disposition of foreclosed properties in that municipality.

The court also approved a request from the Girl Scouts to remove the cedar tree that group usually decorates for Christmas and replace it with a more appropriate looking tree, specifically an Afghan Pine.

By Shannon Najmabadi, Texas Tribune;
Additional Reporting By Roger Estlack, Clarendon Enterprise

The community colleges that educate about half the state’s higher education students are warning of possible tuition hikes if the Texas Legislature enacts its sweeping property tax proposal.

The high-priority legislation would slow the growth of property tax revenue, which makes up an average 40 percent of community colleges’ funding, according to an association that represents them. The share for state appropriations for the schools, meanwhile, has plummeted from 66 percent in the 1980s to near 23 percent today.

Clarendon College President Robert Riza testified on the issue before the House Ways & Means Committee last Wednesday, February 27.

“Community colleges have three streams of revenue,” Dr. Riza said this week. “We have state appropriations, which makes up about 40 percent of our budget and we have no control over, property taxes, and tuition and fees.”

Riza said a 2.5 percent cap on raising property taxes for Clarendon means the college could only raise $14,500 without going to the voters.

“Tuition and fees is the other stream,” Riza said. “I’m not a fan of balancing the budget on the backs of students; but when the two other streams are out of your control, there is only one thing you can do.”

Touted by Republican leaders as a needed check on spiraling property tax bills, the proposal would require taxing units to receive voter approval before raising property tax revenue 2.5 percent more than the previous year. It would apply to municipalities and special districts for hospitals and community colleges — and, depending on yet-to-be-filed legislation, to school districts, which levy the bulk of property taxes statewide. New developments don’t count toward the 2.5-percent cap.

Proponents say the package could give meaningful relief to taxpayers. They say it would make the property tax system more intelligible and transparent, and wouldn’t curtail districts’ ability to raise property tax revenue — just require them to receive voter approval first.

Critics say it could hinder municipal officials’ ability to provide public services or lower cities’ bond ratings. But as currently drafted, it could have a more demonstrable impact on the state’s 50 community college districts, which together charge one of the lowest average tuition rates in the country.

Between 2013 and 2017, 47 of the 50 college districts — 94 percent — saw their property tax revenue grow more than 2.5 percent in at least one year. According to data from the Texas Association of Community Colleges, which has taken a neutral position on the bill, 31 of those schools would have exceeded the trigger point in at least three of the five years, and 30 of them surpassed 2.5-percent revenue growth in 2017 alone.

The shifting burden of funding community colleges, from the state to local taxpayers, may explain the growth. Another factor: The number of Texans enrolled in community colleges has roughly doubled since 1990, and the sector is playing a key role in the state’s workforce development and educational attainment goals.

“We’re all doing everything we can around student success and meeting the needs of our community,” said Hellyer, who heads an institution that charged in-district students $750 a semester in tuition and fees last year. “We’ve really taken the position of wanting to sit down” with legislators and talk, she said. “We appreciate what they’re trying to accomplish; we understand their concern, and we are really looking forward to working with them to find a solution that works.”

Under current law, voters can petition to roll back tax rates if revenue growth surpasses 8 percent, a threshold set in the 1980s when inflation was high.

State Sen. Paul Bettencourt, a Houston Republican and champion of the latest reforms, said community colleges are generally “well thought of” and could get voters’ approval to bust past the 2.5 percent trigger proposed in this year’s bills.

If college officials “had a good pitch, I think people would support them,” he said.

“You’re in a constant campaign mode”
The president of Brazosport College, Millicent Valek, has taken an issue to voters only once in her 23 years on the job.

Unlike four-year universities, community colleges don’t receive state money to build and maintain campus buildings. So Valek and her board — fiscal conservatives, she said — asked taxpayers in 2007 to approve a $70 million bond initiative to expand Brazosport’s campus facilities.

They won. But Valek remembers thinking, “I wouldn’t want to have to do this routinely.”

“You’re in a constant campaign mode,” Valek said of the run-up to the referendum. “I completely abandoned everything else to do it for a portion, a quarter of the year. I was thinking if you do that regularly, one, you would have to hire additional staff just to manage the process, and it would be so easy to lose your focus.”

Valek said she raised money from donors for the effort, including those who typically help pay for student scholarships. She also said she wants to work with legislators to find a solution on property tax reform “that serves everyone.”

Dustin Meador, a director at the Texas Association of Community Colleges, said for small taxing units — Clarendon College’s, for example — “you’re talking about going to the voters any time you have to hire a new provost.”

“We’re confident we’d win on the merits, but it’s a bit burdensome,” he said.

Bettencourt said the reform legislation, which he authored, would move elections to the same time, lessening the costs and difficulty of reaching voters. The argument was echoed in hearings about the legislation, which has passed out of a Senate committee.

At one February meeting, state Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa, a McAllen Democrat, expressed trepidation that the bill would tie the hands of jurisdictions — like schools and community colleges, “a big engine that drives our economy,” he said. His colleagues on the committee, all Republicans, said the legislation would shift a share of education funding back onto the state and that the 2.5 percent threshold was an overdue correction to lower inflation rates.

They did not discuss at length the impact on community colleges. But when similar legislation was pushed in 2017 with a higher trigger point of 6 percent, the lower chamber’s Ways and Means Committee carved out an exemption for the institutions.

The Texas Association of Community Colleges hopes a similar solution can be reached this session, with the former chair of the Ways and Means Committee, state Rep. Dennis Bonnen, R-Angleton, now speaker of the Texas House.

“State funding is out of our control,” said Jacob Fraire, head of the association. The Legislature has earmarked more money for community colleges this session. But were the property tax proposal to pass, Fraire said, the sector sees few options beyond increasing tuition or cutting services — which might put popular items like “dual credit” courses or campus safety initiatives on the chopping block.

Tuition, he said, is the “only one of the three revenue sources where we have some control.”

If an election trigger is tied to property tax revenue growth, “we must conclude that tuition and fees might be an avenue that our colleges may have to draw upon — not willingly — but may have to,” he said.

This article has been edited to add local content. Read the original Tribune article here.