News

Welcome thunderstorms last week brought unwelcome wildfires with them and caused 16 volunteer firemen to log a combined 576 hours over three days.

First Assistant Chief Jeremy Powell with the Clarendon Volunteer Fire Department said storms that moved into Donley County about 9:15 p.m. last Wednesday, August 24, contained heavy cloud-to-ground lightning, and firemen began receiving multiple calls at 10:30 that evening.

The first fire was on the Milton Mann property on south SH 70 and burned less than five acres before being brought under control.

Other fire calls that evening ended up being in Armstrong County, Powell said. The Clarendon Fire Department noticed several “glows” to the southwest of Clarendon and investigated only to find muddy roads with more than an inch of rain between them and the fires. The fires seemed to be put out later by rain.

But by 1:10 a.m. on Thursday, the fire department began receiving calls about
multiple fires on the JA Ranch that were beginning to grow. The department responded with three units and a tanker to extreme southwest Donley County on CR CC to a grass fire reported to be 20 acres and growing.

At 5:00 a.m., the department requested for help from the county commissioners and their motor graders. By daylight, three county motor graders were on scene helping to contain the fire. Named “Lone Tree #1,” the fire was contained by 10 a.m.

At 10:30, Clarendon VFD units noticed smoke to the SW of their location and notified Silverton of a new fire in Briscoe County. Clarendon sent two units into Briscoe County to assist on this fire (named Lone Tree #2) as it would take Silverton over an hour to respond due to the remote location of this fire. Silverton arrived on the scene, and Clarendon returned to fire number one.

“By around noon, multiple fires begin showing up in Armstrong County, and Claude requested for help from Clarendon, but we were unable to pull off and leave the fires that we had,” Powell said.

Thursday afternoon at 4:30 p.m. the Clarendon VFD still had units on scene of fire number one and noticed smoke to the northeast of their location. At the same time, fire number one broke back out and spotted across a creek bed.

“We kept some units on fire number one and sent the rest along with the county blades to fire number three which ended up being on the Sandy Camp Ranch,” Powell said.

Donley County sent three more motor graders and Clarendon and Memphis TxDOT responded with four dozers and two motor graders. Clarendon EMS was called due to some firemen suffering from heat exhaustion, and the Clarendon Firebelles responded with food and drinks for all involved.

That evening at 7:30 p.m., units from Silverton, Turkey, and Memphis, which had been working fire number two, pulled off that fire and came to take command of fire number one so Clarendon could use all its resources on fire number three. Memphis also moved units to fire three, which was brought under control at 11:30 p.m., allowing units to return to their bases.

The next afternoon, Friday, August 26, Lone Tree #1 broke out of the containment lines at about 4 p.m., and Clarendon again responded with six units, requesting assistance from the county and TxDOT.

Donley County Commissioner Andy Wheatly responded with his helicopter and, joined by
Commissioner Dan Sawyer, helped to coordinate efforts from the air. The Clarendon EMS and Firebelles also responded to help with firefighter rehab. This fire was
brought under control and units returned to their bases six hours later.

“Our firemen did a great job,” Powell said. “I had five firemen with me when we left at 1:30 a.m. on Thursday – Chancy Cruse, Junior Newman, Joel Horn, Ryan Hill, and Eloy Camacho – and they were still going hard late Thursday night with little or no sleep, and they did not go in until early Friday morning. It got very hot down there; and, combined with no sleep and the temperatures, we had some guys that went above and beyond the call.

“We all greatly appreciated the Firebelles and Clarendon EMS as they worked hard to help us keep going safely. We would also like to thank Machiel Covey who rounded up a hot meal for all of us Friday. We would also like to thank Randall and Julie Gates who made us a meal on Thursday.”

A $1 million bond remains in place for accused child murderer Robert Babcock following a district court hearing in Clarendon last Thursday, August 18.

Babcock is charged with Capital Murder in the January 5 death of his son, four-year-old Chance Mark Jones. During last week’s court appearance it was revealed that his attorneys plan to pursue an insanity defense, and they are seeking additional psychological and neurological evaluations of their client.

Babcock’s mother, Gayle Edes, took the stand during the bond reduction hearing and testified that neither she nor her son have the resources to put up the $100,000 cash necessary to secure his bond. District Attorney Luke Inman questioned Edes about her relationship with Jones.

Inman also presented to the court the details of the original complaint against Babcock and brought up other cases in Texas where bonds were not reduced.

Judge Stuart Messer maintained the $1 million bond, citing the seriousness of the offense and the defendant’s intent to pursue an insanity defense.

“I find the $1 million bond is appropriate to assure a court appearance and for the safety of the community,” Messer said.

The court also considered a separate $100,000 bond for Babcock on an unindicted domestic violence charge, and Messer reduced that to a personal recognizance bond.

Also during last week’s court appearance, Judge Messer set two more pre-trial dates – one on October 4 and another on November 29 – and schedule Babcock’s trial to begin January 17, 2012.

The water level at Greenbelt Lake continues to decline this week, prompting the City of Clarendon to move into Stage Four of its drought contingency plan. The City of Hedley remains at Stage Three.

Greenbelt Water Authority reported a lake depth of 47.20 feet Tuesday, which is down from 47.48 feet last week.

Members of the Greenbelt Board of Directors discussed the falling lake level during their regular meeting last Thursday, August 18, but took no action pending the results of a long term engineering analysis of the reservoir. That report, which is expected in October, will look at the future of the lake and is also supposed to identify alternative sources of water to meet long-term needs.

Greenbelt General Manager Bobbie Kidd told the board that the authority’s member cities – Clarendon, Childress, Crowell, Quanah, and Hedley – had all showing cutbacks in water usage, and he recommended not enacting further restrictions or implementing a system of water allotments at this time.

“I think we need to give our engineers a chance to report,” Kidd told the board, “and I think people will do more to conserve if they can make their own choices how to do it.”

Greenbelt hit Stage Four of its own drought plan on August 2 when the reservoir’s depth fell to 48.0 feet. The plan continues to call on Greenbelt customers to try to reduce water usage by 30 percent.

Kidd said he believes most people have given up on watering outside and thinks that summer coming to an end will help on water usage. He also said the Georgia Pacific plant near Quanah – one of Greenbelt’s biggest industrial customers – is exploring ways to cut its water usage.

Clarendon City Administrator Lambert Little attended the Greenbelt board meeting and said he was pleased with the cooperation his citizens were showing in Stage Three as he announced his intention to declare Stage Four.

Hedley City Secretary Jason Conatser says his community was remaining on Stage Three until he could have a meeting with the mayor this week.

Clarendon’s Stage 4 Rules

Clarendon’s mandatory restrictions for Stage Four are as follows:
1. Residential customers with odd-numbered street addresses water on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Residential customers with even-numbered street addresses water on Thursdays and Sundays. Commercial customers water on Tuesdays and Fridays. Irrigation of landscaped areas shall be limited to designated watering days between the hours of 6:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. and between 8 p.m. and 12:00 midnight and shall be by means of hand-held hoses, hand-held buckets, drip irrigation, or permanently installed automatic sprinkler system only. The use of hose-end sprinklers is prohibited at all times.
2. Use of water to wash any motor vehicle, motorbike, boat, trailer, airplane or other vehicle not occurring on the premises of a commercial car wash and commercial service stations and not in the immediate interest of public health, safety, and welfare is prohibited. Further, such vehicle washing at commercial car washes and commercial service stations shall occur only between the hours of 6:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. and between 6:00 p.m. and 10 p.m.
3. Avoid filling swimming pools except during the above watering hours.
4. Avoid operating ornamental fountains unless necessary to support aquatic life or if equipped with a recirculation system.
5. Do not water-wash driveways, sidewalks, and other hard-surfaced areas. Do not wash down buildings or structures except for immediate fire protection.
6. Repair all leaks as soon as possible, and report any leaks or unauthorized usage to City Hall. Night and weekend emergency leaks should be reported to the Donley County Sheriff’s Office at 806.874.3533.

Persons found guilty of violating Clarendon’s Stage 3 rules can face a maximum fine of $500.