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Listen to your heart
It can happen to anyone anywhere at anytime.
Everyone is vulnerable: the young, the old, the weak, and the strong.
It can strike during the day or at night.
Or in Ronna (Edwards) Newman’s case, while running track.
“I was fourteen in 1999, and it was the first day of eighth grade track practice,” Ronna said. “I don’t remember that day at all, but from what they told me, I didn’t feel good. We were supposed to run three laps, and the beginning of the third lap I collapsed and went into cardiac arrest.”
February is American Heart Month. Heart disease is the number one cause of death in women and 90 percent of women have one or more risk factors for developing the disease.
In fact, if not for fast reactions from two coaches, Ronna probably would not be here today.
“The coaches performed CPR until the ambulance got there,” Ronna said. “They had to use the external defibrillator two times, and the third time they finally got a heartbeat. They took me to Claude and then airlifted me to Amarillo where I was in the hospital for a couple of weeks.”
Ronna was diagnosed with a rare heart condition, called Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Dysplasia, which is known to be among the top causes of sudden cardiac death among young athletes.
“My heart rate would get over 200 beats a minute,” Ronna said. “I didn’t know it though because I was born that way, and it was just normal for me. There had been no other heart problems in my family, just high blood pressure.”
Ronna left the hospital with an internal defibrillator and an altered lifestyle.
“I can’t do anything that will get my heart rate up, so of course I couldn’t run anymore,” Ronna said. “That’s when I started playing golf. I haven’t had any problems with my heart since then.”
Ronna is not the only woman in Clarendon who has experienced a heart attack. For Melinda McAnear, president of the Donley County Hospital District, she was watering her flowers when it happened.
“I was 56 on June 23, 2006, and I had a pain in my chest,” Melinda said. “It was nothing real bad, so I blew it off for a little bit. In ten minutes it had not gone away, but it had not gotten worse. It was like nothing I had ever experienced.”
After calling her husband, Ronnie, Melinda decided to call the ambulance. She now regards this as one of the best decisions she ever made.
“The EMTs told me that I was having a heart attack, and I didn’t believe them at first,” Melinda said. “I always thought that having a heart attack would be excruciating pain, but it wasn’t. I had none of the classic symptoms of a heart attack, like radiating pain in my left arm or shortness of breath. It was just ‘uncomfortableness’ in my chest.”
Melinda remained conscious throughout the ambulance ride to BSA , where she was diagnosed with Coronary Artery Disease. She received a heart stint.
“I had never had heart problems before that, but there are cases of heart disease on both sides of my family,” she said. “Fortunately there was no heart or muscle damage. I had 90 percent blockage; and if I would’ve waited any longer, I probably would have died from a massive heart attack.”
From her heart attack, Melinda said she learned a valuable lesson.
“When you have a gut feeling that something is wrong, you need to listen to your body because it’s trying to tell you something,” Melinda said. “I listened and paid attention, and I’m sure glad I did.”
In recognition of Heart Month, Melinda wears a red dress pin, which is the symbol for women fighting heart disease.
“My cardiologist gave it to me the year after my heart attack, and I’ve worn it ever since in February,” Melinda said.
Ronna and Melinda stress the importance of heart check-ups, because neither one ever expected to have a heart attack.
“It’s a good thing to get checked up, because it can happen to anyone,” Ronna said. “You never know when it may happen.”
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City threatens to cut off Chamber funds
The City of Clarendon last week threatened to pull $20,000 in funding from the Chamber of Commerce unless the organization changes the way it does business within 90 days.
The Board of Aldermen had expressed concerns to Chamber Executive Director Judy Burlin in the past about how the Chamber accounts for money it receives from the city’s Motel Bed Tax, and those issues came to a head last Tuesday at the board’s regular meeting.
“We have been trying to tell [Judy] for months that she has to improve the record keeping,” Mayor Larry Hicks told the Enterprise. “Tax money has to be tracked penny for penny, and she has not kept track of it.”
The city gives the Chamber $5,000 per quarter from the Motel Bed Tax fund, and state laws dictate what types of expenditures the money can be used for.
City officials say the Chamber does not report specifically how the money is spent and also say that the Chamber has not kept the tax money in a strictly separate account but has been transferring some of that money to its general fund.
“We don’t feel like we’re getting the bang for our buck, but we don’t know for sure because we don’t know for certain where the money is going,” Hicks said.
New Chamber President Charlie Smith addressed last Tuesday’s city meeting and told the aldermen that the Chamber’s records were “a mess.” He also said Burlin was taking a leave of absence and that she had asked him to take over her duties.
Burlin told the Enterprise Monday that she was taking a leave until May 1 and said she knew the city wanted more financial information from the Chamber.
“I’ve been working with [City Secretary] Machiel Covey for about a month to get a more detailed report,” Burlin said. She also said the Chamber has a lot of young people on its board and that she expects the Chamber to have a good year.
Hicks said the city was pleased that Smith was taking over and that the board felt he would do a good job.
“It’s not that we don’t want a Chamber of Commerce. We do, but we want it to be operated correctly,” the mayor said.
Smith for his part says he thinks he can turn the Chamber around and keep its funding from the city.
“I think I can do enough in 90 days to warrant keeping it funded,” Smith told the Enterprise, noting that he hopes to grow the Chamber’s membership and do a better job of making the organization work for its members.
“We’ve got 63 members now, and I hope to have 100 members soon,” he said. “I want to show people they will benefit from being a member. We will make it worth your while to join. My primary goal is to get people here, because Clarendon is a great community and has a lot to offer.”
Smith says he will try to keep regular office hours downtown from 1 to 5 p.m. He welcomes ideas to improve the Chamber and asks people to leave a message if he’s not in the office.
In other city business, aldermen reviewed guidelines for other expenditures the city makes from the Motel Bed Tax; appointed Mayor Hicks as the city’s representative to the Chamber Tourism Committee; called an election for May 14 to elect a mayor and two aldermen; and began looking at designs for an official city logo.
Election sign-up is underway
Filing is underway and continues through March 14 for six local governments holding elections this spring.
The cities of Clarendon, Hedley, and Howardwick will all hold elections for local offices as well as the Clarendon and Hedley school districts and the Donley County Hospital District.
Clarendon will elect a mayor and two aldermen. Those positions are currently held by Mayor Larry Hicks and Aldermen Janice Knorpp and Ann Huey.
Howardwick also has the terms of its mayor and two aldermen up this year. They are currently occupied by Mayor Del Essary and Aldermen Gene Rogers and Norm Hagood.
Three positions on the Hedley Board of Aldermen are up this year.
Clarendon ISD has two trustees’ positions up this year, and those seats are currently held by Weldon Sears and Lance Thornberry.
Three positions on the Hedley ISD board are up. The terms of James Lee Potts, Tonja Ruthardt, and Karen Watt are expiring.
The Donley County Hospital Board has three directors’ terms up this year, and those positions are now held by Wayne Tubbs (Place 1), Bubba Newhouse (Place 2), and Melinda McAnear (Place 3).
Positions on city boards of aldermen and the hospital board are two-year terms, and school board terms are for three years. All positions are elected at-large, but hospital board candidates must sign up for a specific place.
The deadline to file for local offices is March 14, 2011. Election day will be Saturday, May 14, 2011.
Clarendon sales tax revenue growing for second month
The City of Clarendon posted a strong gain on its sales tax revenue last week when Texas Comptroller Susan Combs announced the state’s February distribution.
Clarendon received $40,093.48, which is up 22.48 percent from $32,733.43 last February. That brings the city’s year-to-date tally to $64,489.20, an increase of 20.88 percent.
Howardwick also was up this month with a distribution of $1,024.69, up 60.93 percent from the same time last year and bringing that city to $2,308.57 for the year so far, which is up 52.81 percent.
Hedley fell 29.13 percent to $638.33. That city’s year-to-date tally stands at $1,220.57, which is down 2.18 percent from $1,247.87 at this time in 2010.
Comptroller Combs announced the state’s sales tax revenue in January was $1.83 billion, an increase of 10.4 percent compared to January 2010.
“Sales tax revenues have now improved for the last ten months, reflecting increased activity in almost all major economic sectors,” Combs said.
“The strongest growth was from sectors fueled by business spending, such as oil and gas activity. Tax collections from retail trade were also up.”
January state sales tax collections and February’s local sales tax allocations represent sales made in December, and also include earlier sales by businesses that report sales tax to the Comptroller on a quarterly or annual basis.
The Comptroller sent $440.3 million in sales tax to Texas cities, up 5.4 percent compared to February 2010 payments.
For details of February sales tax payments to individual cities, counties, transit systems and special purpose districts, locate the Monthly Sales Tax Allocation Comparison Summary
Reports on the Comptroller’s Web site at www.window.state.tx.us/taxinfo/allocsum/compsum.html.
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