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The Clarendon College Invitational Judging Contest will attract a huge crowd and likely double the population of the town on Saturday as the biggest of three events that day.

As of Tuesday, more than 2,460 contestants were registered for the judging contest. The number of registrations doesn’t include the hundreds of parents and coaches who accompany the students to the contest. According to the 2020 US Census, Clarendon has a population of less than 2,000 people.

Past contests have had huge impacts on the local economy. Restaurants are typically packed for the event, and this year will hopefully be equally successful.

Also, the Clarendon Volunteer Fire Department and Donley County EMS will hold their annual pancake breakfast and hamburger lunch at the Fire Hall again Saturday morning beginning at 7 a.m. with lunch starting at 11 a.m.

Also at 11 a.m. Saturday, the Pony Parents will hold their annual Community Egg Hunt on the Courthouse lawn. Hundreds of kids will be gathering up thousands of eggs at that event.

Donley County has announced dates for town halls in Hedley and Howardwick to discuss the proposed sales tax-funded county assistance districts in those cities.

County Judge John Howard reports that the Howardwick meeting will be held Tuesday, April 16, at 5 p.m., and the Hedley meeting will be on Thursday, April 18, at 5 p.m. The meetings will be held in the City Hall of each respective community.

Sheriff Butch Blackburn and Judge Howard will both be present to answer questions regarding the May 4 election to create three County Assistance Districts: District 1 – City of Howardwick, District 2 – City of Hedley, and District 3 – all of unincorporated Donley County outside of Howardwick, Hedley and Clarendon.

The districts, if created by election, will authorize a sales tax of 1.0 percent in Howardwick and Hedley and 2.0 percent in unincorporated Donley County.

Howard says the sales tax created will be used for support of law enforcement and allow the county to keep property taxes lower.

All residents are invited to attend either of these meetings.

“It is our hope that all voters will be informed on the issue when casting their ballots,” Howard said.

Donley County Commissioners approved new law enforcement agreement with the City of Clarendon during their regular meeting Monday, March 11.

Under the terms of the proposal, the city would pay the county $170,000 for law enforcement services beginning in fiscal year 2025, which starts in October. The five-year contract would go up two percent each year.

County Judge John Howard said the proposal was brought to the county by the city and drafted by the city’s attorney but also said the city council will not vote on the agreement until its regular meeting this Thursday, March 14.

In another matter regarding county law enforcement, commissioners approved an amendment to the current county budget and approved a supplemental budget related to a state grant to bolster the sheriff’s department. The $250,000 grant would provide about $127,000 for raises in the department – bringing deputies salaries up to $50,000 per year and dispatcher/jailer salaries up to $45,000 per year – with the remainder of the grant funds going to help purchase new patrol vehicles.

The commissioners’ court also approved trainings for Judge Pat White and Tax Assessor Kristy Christopher, authorized Judges White and Sarah Hatley to sign an interlocal agreement with the Texas DPS to deal with Failure to Appear cases; and voted to get prices to upgrade the lighting in the Courthouse Annex.

A rental lease on county-owned property at 301 W. Third was discussed. The tenant is finding a new place, and then the county will proceed to consider plans for that property.

The court approved purchasing two filter feeders for the Courthouse heating and cooling system.

Chriss Clifford elaborated on design ideas to give a facelift to county-owned buildings in the 300 block of Sully facing the Courthouse, and commissioners also discussed changing the color of the Annex building. Those improvements were all tabled until May, Howard said.

Clarendon’s sales tax revenues rose on January sales when Texas Comptroller Glen Hegar distributed monthly allocations to local governments last week.

The city saw its March sales tax revenue increase 13.47 percent from $33,018.04 one year ago to $37,467.05 this month. The city’s calendar year-to-date total is now up 3.48 percent at $127,694.33 compared to $123,270.08 at this point in 2023.

Sales tax revenues in Hedley were up 23.28 percent at $888.40 compared to $720.58 last March. Hedley’s year-to-date figure is now up 1.77 percent with collections of $3,441.56, up from $3,381.55 a year ago.

Howardwick’s sales tax revenue fell 19.20 percent, dropping from $1,890.87 last March to $1,527.64 this year. Howardwick is now down 21.26 percent on the year. Howardwick’s declining revenue can be attributed in large part to that city opting not to renew its street maintenance sales tax, which lowered its overall local sales tax rate from 1.25 percent to 1.0 percent effective October 1, 2023.

Statewide, Hegar delivered $980.9 million in local sales tax allocations for March, 2.2 percent less than in March 2023.

March sales tax allocations are based on sales made in January by businesses that report tax monthly.

One Donley County precinct will be getting a new commissioner, and another commissioner’s seat is headed to a runoff election following last week’s party primary elections.

Precinct 1 Commissioner Mark White lost his reelection bid to challenger Del Essary in the Republican Primary, 104-76. Essary, a current Howardwick alderman and former mayor of that city, faces no opposition in the November general election and will take office next January.

In Precinct 3, Commissioner Neil Koetting came in second in a three-person race for the Republican nomination. Greg Wootten received 86 votes, Koetting had 68, and Sis Bond had 45.

Since no candidate received more than 50 percent of the vote, the top two candidates – Wootten and Koetting – will face each other in a runoff election May 28.

In the race for the GOP nomination for the State House District 88 seat, incumbent Rep. Ken King of Canadian vended off a challenge by Karen Post of Plainview, winning 498-130 in Donley County and also by a wide margin throughout the district.
King had been targeted to be “primaried” by some state Republicans who have labeled him as a RINO for not following some of the governor’s priorities.

Donley County Republicans followed suit with GOP voters across the state in backing former president Donald Trump. Locally, Trump received 599 votes; Nikki Haley received 66; Ryan Brinkley, Chris Christie, and Asa Hutchinson received two each; and Ron Desantis got six.

Local Republicans also voted in favor of all 13 non-binding resolutions on the Republican ballot.

On the Republican ballot with no opposition but of local interest were US Rep. Ronny Jackson, District Judge Dale Rabe, Jr., District Attorney Luke Inman, County Attorney Landon Lambert, Sheriff Butch Blackburn, and County Tax Assessor/Collector Kristy Christopher.

Bill Word was also unopposed for the county GOP chairman’s position.

In the local Democratic Primary, President Joe Biden received 25 votes and Dean Phillips and Armando “Mando” Perez-Serrato each had two.