News

Amigo’s Mexican Café is no more, but Jesus and Dora Hernandez are smiling bigger than ever in their new home at the J.D. Steakout.

After almost eight years in their old location on East US 287, the Hernandez family has moved several blocks west to the corner of West US 287 and Jefferson Street and taken over what old timers will recall was once the Country Kitchen and what more recently has gone by the name Steve’s Steakout.

For Jesus, the move was just a matter of time and persistence and reminiscent of the fact that he had to try three times to buy the house he now lives in.

“I saw how good this location was when I came to Clarendon,” Hernandez said. “I asked for it when Buddy [Ford] went out, but I didn’t try hard enough.”

He said he tried again when Steve Smith was selling the business, but the price wasn’t right. And when the restaurant became available again recently, he gave it another shot. This time he got it.

“I’m so happy and so excited, I can’t express it,” he said.

Other than a new name derived from the new owners’ first initials, there won’t be many changes right away at the Steakout. The menu will stay the same, but Hernandez does have plans to add some of his popular Mexican dishes.

“We ain’t gonna change nothing that’s here because it’s working very well,” he said. “We just want to add to it.”

For the time being, Jesus and Dora will serve Mexican dishes on special days – enchiladas on Tuesdays and taco salads on Fridays, but they plan to add fajitas or some other specialty on a different day in the near future and eventually add Mexican plates to the regular menu.

“We’re definitely going to be having my chips and salsa because people like it, and we know that,” Hernandez said.

But if you’re just dying to have an item off the old menu, Hernandez says all you have to do is ask for it.

“I’ll keep some stuff in the kitchen, and if you really want some chicken fajitas, I’ll make it from scratch.”

Hernandez sees his new restaurant as not just a new business venture or a way to make a living. For him, it’s the further culmination of a dream that started with Amigo’s. It’s something he’s wanted since he was a boy growing up in Mexico.

“I saw my mother and grandmother cooking and selling food, but they never had a chance to own a restaurant,” he said. “They just sold it at trains or wherever they could. I wish they had had the chance to come to the United States and have their dreams come true and live the American Dream like I’m doing right now.”

Hernandez says his family has always been with him as he pursued his goal.

“I always think about my family and how they pushed me and told me to work hard,” he said. “My family is very important to me. Through the years we’ve been working shoulder to shoulder all along – long hours, weekends, sometimes no vacations. We went through a lot of hard times.

“If I could give anyone just one piece of advice, it would be this: ‘Don’t be afraid of work. Hard work will pay – sooner or later it will pay.’”

Hernandez’ own hard work has indeed paid off very well, but he doesn’t intend to rest on his laurels. He says he’s going to keep working to give people good food and good service.

“I’m going to put all my heart into this, treat people like they ought to be treated, and smile all the time. I’m always smiling.”

Former Donley County Sheriff Jimmy Thompson died Monday, March 21, in Amarillo. He was 70 years old.

Services were held here Wednesday at 2 p.m. in the Church of Christ with Rev. Bryan Knowles, pastor of Community Fellowship Church, and Eddie Stegall, minister, officiating. Burial with military honors was conducted in Dozier Cemetery with arrangements by Robertson Funeral Directors, Inc.

William James “Jimmy” Thompson was born October 15, 1934, in Clarendon, where he lived most of his life. He attended Clarendon Schools and married Aleta Ellen Coleman on December 21, 1959, at Dozier. He was the former owner of the Dozier Country Store and had worked for various ranches in Donley and Hutchinson counties and in Clayton, New Mexico. He served in the US Marine Corps for four years during the Korean Conflict in the 3rd Marine Division Medical Company Support Division. He was a member of the Clarendon Church of Christ.

Thompson served as a Donley County Deputy for four years under Sheriff Truett Berhens and was elected sheriff in 1980. He held that position for 20 years.

Upon his retirement in 2001, Thompson talked openly with the Enterprise about his accomplishments in office.

“When I took office, we had only one deputy, no 24-hour services, no 24-hour dispatch.” Thompson said.

The late sheriff also listed Donley County’s modern jail as one of his proudest accomplishments.

“This jail is one of the most easily operated jails in the state. It can be run by just one person under normal circumstances.”

He was also proud of holding the line on expenses, catching a lot of “dopers” and a lot of burglars, and overseeing approximately 7,500 arrests over 20 years.

Thompson’s time in office drew him both praise and criticism, and one disgruntled resident even plotted to have him assassinated. He later said he never got too “stirred up about it” and considered it “just part of the job.”

“You can’t suit everybody,” Thompson said, “but I got elected five times.”

Thompson was preceded in death by his parents, Palmer Otto Thompson and Cordia May Sowell Thompson, and by two sisters, Anna Lee Thompson and Nanna Ree Thompson.

He is survived by his wife, Aleta Thompson of Clarendon; two sons, William Thompson and wife Lynn of Clarendon and Walt Thompson of Borger; a brother, George Thompson of Hamilton; a sister, Katherine Lane of Carson City, Nev.; two grandchildren, Todd and Emilie Thompson; and many nieces, nephews, and cousins.

The family requests that memorials be to the Hollis Boys Town or the Lubbock Children’s Home.

Interim administrator Ron Wetzel of Claude took the helm of Clarendon’s Medical Center Nursing Home on Monday.

Wetzel, who has 16 years experience in nursing homes, was hired by the Donley County Hospital District Board during a called meeting Saturday. He will serve in that position until MCNH Director of Nurses Vicky Robertson can earn her administrator’s license and move up.

Wetzel and his wife, Sharon, own and operate the Palo Duro Nursing Home in Claude, and he also does interim work on the side. He just recently finished an interim job in Amarillo, where an employee of that facility was groomed to take over as administrator.

Robertson’s licensing procedure is expected to take between nine and 18 months, and Wetzel will serve as an at-will employee of the district during that time. He says his first impression of MCNH is that it is a beautiful facility, and he doesn’t expect to make any changes right away other than looking at ways to cut costs.

“I’m going to be looking at the budget line by line,” he said.

Wetzel also says that MCNH will be filing for Medicare certification to perform rehabilitation services.

“Currently, if you live in Clarendon and need rehab, you have to go to Claude or Amarillo,” he said. “We have people on staff who are familiar with that, and it could mean a new source of revenue.”

Wetzel said those needing rehab would likely be in the nursing home for two weeks to three months and that there should be no cost to the facility other than a licensing fee and performing another annual survey like the one already done for Medicaid certification.

In other hospital district news, the board changed the district’s organizational structure during its regular meeting last Tuesday. The action makes the administrator answerable to the board for the affairs of MCNH and makes the Director of Operations answerable directly to the board for all matters pertaining to the Associated Ambulance Authority.

The board also voted to raise billing rates for the ambulance service after Ambulance Director Anita Aaron said the local service was charging below most other services in the Panhandle.

Basic Life Support ambulance truck rate is now $450 up from $350, Advanced Life Support truck rate is now $550 up from $450, and the mileage rate increased from $8.25 per mile to $9.

CANYON – The Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum (PPHM) will open two exhibitions of the work of the late Clarendon artist H.D. Bugbee on March 26, 2005

“Those who Came Before Us: The Indian Murals of H.D. Bugbee,” which Bugbee painted in the early 1950s, and “Capturing Texas Legends: H.D. Bugbee’s Panhandle Frontier,” show the influence of Charles M. Russell and Frederic Remington on Bugbee’s work. 

“Those Who Came Before Us” will include Bugbee’s original thirteen murals for the Museum’s then-Indian Hall, plus four Indian dance murals he added to the cycle later, and sketches and studies (some made in the 1920s) for the murals. 

“Capturing Texas Legends” will comprise paintings with clear connections to Russell and Remington’s work, such as Bugbee’s copy of Remington’s now-destroyed Ceremony of the Scalps and Bugbee’s interpretation of Russell’s famous, Waiting for a Chinook.

Much like Russell and Remington depicted the American West in the 1890s and early 1900s, Bugbee portrayed historic and then-contemporary Southern Plains life, including cowboys, American Indians, and flora and fauna of the region.

At the suggestion of his cousin, cattleman T.S. Bugbee, Harold Dow Bugbee came to the Texas Panhandle from Lexington, Massachusetts, in 1914 with his parents.  He studied at Texas A&M College in 1917 and the Cumming School of Art in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1920.

Each fall, until the late 1930s, the artist traveled to Taos to paint with fellow artists “Buck” Dunton, Frank Hoffman, Leon Gaspard, and Ralph Meyers, often packing into the mountains to paint with either Meyers or Dunton.

By the mid-1920s, galleries in Denver, Chicago, Kansas City, and New York handled Bugbee’s work.  With the Depression and decreasing picture sales, in 1933 Bugbee turned to magazine and book illustrations in pen and ink.  He also continued to make easel paintings.

Under President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New deal, Bugbee painted the first of five murals for the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum’s Pioneer Hall in 1934. 

He later painted additional murals for the Old Tascosa Room in the Herring Hotel and for the Amarillo Army Air Field which now hang at the Smithsonian’s American Art Museum).

In 1951, Bugbee became the museum’s first Curator of Art.  Two years later he began the Indian Hall mural cycle, which was then installed above the exhibit cases holding examples of ethnographic material from the Society’s collection.  The Museum also published a monograph on the Indian Hall cycle, Those Who Came Before Us, with a foreword by J. Evetts Haley and a description of each mural written by Bugbee.

Both exhibitions will run through March 2006, with “Those Who Came Before Us” in the Hazlewood Lecture Hall and “Capturing Texas Legends” in the Bugbee Gallery.  Reproductions of Bugbee’s work will be available in the Museum Store.

A knowledgeable staff and a hometown atmosphere will continue to be the hallmarks of J&W Lumber as the business faces new competition in Clarendon.

Proprietor Earl Hartman is keeping a positive attitude and says that a new hardware store coming to town might make his own establishment better.

“We’re still optimistic,” Hartman said, noting that he hasn’t experienced a significant drop in business yet. “It will force us to look at the way we do things and maybe do them differently.”

Already J&W has expanded its hours and is now open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday, a move that customers seem to find agreeable.

“It’s catching on, and the customers like the new hours,” Hartman said. “They can worry about their Saturday projects and still have time to go to their kids’ ball games and stuff.”

J&W also is providing a new computerized color matching system that allows customers to get custom paints that match almost anything. It’s a system that Hartman says he hopes more people will utilize as the weather gets warmer and thoughts turn to painting and home improvement.

Hartman plans to make a few improvements himself, starting with the removal of a few lumber bins near the business’ east entrance on East US 287 in order to give more visibility for cars getting on or off the highway. After that, he says he’ll turn his attention to the exterior siding of his own building and find a way to dress it up.

But, in addition to cosmetic changes and extended hours, J&W Lumber’s service is what will keep it set apart from its competitors.

“We will do whatever it takes within our abilities to help a customer get their project done,” Hartman said. “Whether that’s selling them one screw or cutting their plywood for them or coming in after hours, we will do what’s needed.”

Stavenhagen Video has returned to Kearney Street, and owner Bill Stavenhagen has stocked his shelves with a wider variety of goods and office supplies in an effort to attract more shoppers downtown.

“This wasn’t a move that I wanted to make,” Stavenhagen says. “I left main street nine years ago because of bad business and moved to a location where business was good.”

But in all that time, the local merchant was unable to sell his downtown building; and when his partnership in The Clarendon Outpost dissolved late last year, he felt that God was calling him back downtown.

“I’m not trying to be all religious,” he said, “but I don’t think I’m back in this building just for my business.”

Nevertheless, business is good at 218 S. Kearney. Stavenhagen’s Radio Shack dealership and video business is growing and will celebrate its grand opening on March 23.

“The thing downtown needs is shops that don’t have what all the department stores offer,” Stavenhagen said. “The key I think is putting in merchandise that is unique.”

In addition to his usual lineup of VHS and DVD movie rentals, electronic gadgets and components, and Zenith televisions, Stavenhagen is now offering office supplies, is providing a sign-up place for CentraMedia online services, and is planning to add a section of gifts – as soon as he figures out what would be unique.

“I don’t need to offer the gifts Henson’s has or the gifts the Nook has. I need to be different.”

Fredericksburg, he says, is a popular place to shop because of its unique stores. And it’s also popular because building owners are willing to invest money in the appearance of downtown, which he says is something Clarendon needs to do.

“We need to get Kearney Street dressed up. I’ve made the inside of this place look nice; and when the weather warms up, I’ll make the outside look nice.”

Stavenhagen says the public has given him a wonderful response to returning to downtown and that many people come in and compliment him on the new fixtures and professional appearance of his store.

“One gentleman came in and said to me, ‘Now this is what a store is supposed to look like,’” Stavenhagen said. “You can’t sell out of an empty wagon, and you’ve got to have stuff looking nice.”

Since he re-opened January 3, Stavenhagen says his business is better than it was at the Outpost and much better than it was downtown ten years ago. His office supply business is just getting started, and he expects it might take six months for it to really catch on.

But already he says he can tell God has blessed him, and he’s planning to take in the back room of his building to offer even more office supplies in the coming months. He also wants to explore grants as a way to help revitalize downtown and get more shops on Kearney Street.

“If we get a shop with unique merchandise on one side of me and a shop with unique merchandise on the other side of me, then that’s good for me, and that’s good for Clarendon.”

New products continue to arrive and line the shelves of The Clarendon Outpost as the store changes to meet the needs of more local customers.

As one of the most popular stores in town, the Outpost is experiencing a lot of changes as it approaches its tenth anniversary later this year. Gone are the Radio Shack and video rentals, and in their places have been placed a wide variety of goods that customers have said they want.

“When Duckwall’s closed (last November), it left a big gap,” said Outpost owner Paul Bivens. “A lot of people asked us to fill that gap.”

Bivens and his wife, Elmonette, have brought a Ben Franklin variety franchise into the Outpost and are now offering a large department of dollar merchandise in addition to fabric, sewing and knitting supplies, and artificial flowers.

“A lot of toys are coming soon as well as a sporting goods department that will focus on fishing,” Bivens said.

To make room for the new merchandise, the Outpost reoriented its Branigan’s Jewelry department and moved its Hallmark selection across the store.

The changes are coming in large part to surveys sent in by readers of The Clarendon Enterprise in which they were asked to list the craft and variety merchandise they wanted to see in the Outpost, which is located at US 287 and Koogle Street.

“We’ve run a few surveys in the last 30 years that I’ve been in business,” Bivens said, “but we had more response to that survey than anything we’d ever done. There must have been more than 100 people that cut it out of the paper, filled it out, and sent it to us; and I figure that many more must have looked at it.”

Bivens said it’s taking a while to get everything in place, and advertising for much of the Ben Franklin goods won’t start until July, but already he is seeing an increase in store traffic.

“We’ve had more people walking around and shopping in here than normal lately.”

Bivens says the Outpost welcomes everyone’s business and “polite” comments; and he says while they can’t carry everything, they are still interested in what people are looking for.

Local consumers are still taking in all the new offerings after last Wednesday’s grand opening of an Ace Hardware franchise inside Clarendon’s Lowe’s supermarket.

The store becomes the fifth full-line home center owned by the Littlefield-based Lowe’s Pay & Save, Inc., and it now carries everything from birdbaths to lawnmowers to plumbing supplies in addition to a fully stocked grocery store.

“It has been outstanding,” said Lowe’s Ace manager Blain Burton. “We have had lots of positive comments about the convenience and availability of the store and about how Clarendon has been needing this for a long time.”

Work on the business has been on-going for several weeks as contractors remodeled what one year ago was B&R Thriftway, took down the wall that separated the supermarket from the space formerly occupied by Duckwall’s variety store, built a new garden center, and gave the entire facility on West US 287 a facelift.

The addition of Ace has created ten new jobs for the local economy, six of which of are full time positions. Two of those positions belong to Burton and his wife, the former Tanya Holland of Hedley. Former Thriftway manager Buddy James will still manage the supermarket portion of the store.

The home center will not be a lumber yard; and although the store will have accounts for contractors, Burton says he doesn’t anticipate getting a lot of business from local contractors.

“We’re more for the do-it-yourselfer. We don’t really carry lumber – just some basic 2x4s, and ½- and ¾-inch plywood.”

The store does carry some fencing and farm supplies, offers three types of concrete, and has a rental center with every thing from posthole diggers and ditchers to cotton candy machines.

Burton said he understands that some customers were upset when Duckwall’s pulled out of the local market, but he said Lowe’s will try to fill that void.

“We’ve got fishing, boating, and camping supplies; appliances; and clothing,” he said. “That’s something we wouldn’t ordinarily carry in our Ace store.”

And Lowe’s isn’t through adding to its lineup. Burton said in response to comments from the community, the home center will soon be adding yarn and thread to meet the needs of local homemakers.

“We’re still listening,” Burton said. “If there’s something people can’t get, we’ll look at carrying it.”

AUSTIN – Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn said last week that every dollar invested in Texas’ higher education system returns $5.50 to the Texas economy, fueling the state’s economic engine with $33.2 billion per year.

“This is a remarkable return, even for a high stakes technology startup. But when it comes to the Texas higher education system, the stakes are much higher. We are investing in our most important venture-the future of young Texans,” Strayhorn said.

In an update of her 2003 special report, The Impact of the State Higher Education System on the Texas Economy, Strayhorn estimates that spending and re-spending of out-of-state student, research and health care dollars adds $10.1 billion per year to the state’s economic output. The higher earnings and productivity of a better-educated workforce eventually increases state economic capacity by another $23.1 billion per year.

Education plays a vital economic role, but Strayhorn said state higher education funding is losing ground to other state services. After adjusting for inflation, spending on public safety and corrections increased 223 percent in the last 15 years, while real higher education expenditures grew only 44 percent during the same period.

“I want Texas to have the most educated workforce in the nation,” Strayhorn said. “I will continue to fight for legislative approval until my TexasNextStep proposal is adopted and K-through-14 education is the norm in Texas.”

“I would rather spend $2,500 a year educating a young Texan than $16,000 a year incarcerating that young Texan,” Strayhorn said.

TexasNextStep would make higher education more affordable and accessible to more Texans, raise the skill level of the Texas workforce, and set Texas apart in the competition for jobs,” Strayhorn said.

TexasNextStep would pay for tuition, fees, and books for Texas high school graduates to attend community colleges, technical colleges, or other two-year institutions.

Every once in a while someone comes along who makes an impression on you.

For Jaci Copelin, a sophomore at Hedley High School, that person is Amy Polito.

Amy is the wife of Tony Polito, a local state trooper, and she was recently diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma and is going to have to go through treatments at MD Anderson Hospital in Houston.

The Politos’ situation is doubly trying because Amy is currently pregnant with the couple’s first child, and she will have to wait until it is safe for doctors to take her baby early before the cancer treatments can begin.

With the double cost of a new baby and cancer treatments, the Politos will need all the financial support they can get. Though the prognosis is optimistic, they still need all the love, prayers, and support the community can give them; and that is where Jaci and her friendship with the Politos come in.

Sixteen-year-old Jaci has decided to take pledges based on her track performance to raise money to help her friends at this critical time in their lives.

During this season, Jaci will participate in the 800-meter run, the triple jump, and the 300-meter hurdles. For every first place she gets, she will seek a pledge of $5, $3 for every second place, and $1 for every third place.

For example, Medina Gribble has already signed up and will donate $9 for Jaci’s performance this past week where the young Lady Owl placed first, second, and third in separate events.

Those wishing to make a pledge are asked to call Jaci or her mother, Tangela, at 856-0110 or 662-6145. If there is no answer, just leave your name, number, and address; and she will send you an envelope with the amount you owe at the end of the track season.

Or to make a one time donation to this endeavor, it can be mailed to the Copelins at RR 1, Box 50, Hedley, TX 79237.

Jaci and her mother plan to place periodic updates in the Enterprise to let everyone know what places Jaci has won at the track meets and to let them know how the fundraiser is going.