News

An ambulance bill sent to a Clarendon volunteer fireman raised the hackles of city aldermen during their regular meeting last Tuesday.

Fireman Jason Christopher was treated for smoke inhalation while fighting the July 9, 2004, blaze that destroyed the home of George and Dixie Howard, according to City Administrator Sean Pate. Christopher was transported to Amarillo, was treated and released, and was back at his regular job as a city employee the next day, Pate said.

Christopher has since received a bill from the Associated Ambulance Authority for $1,214. Of that, Christopher’s health insurance through the city paid $521, leaving him with a balance of $693.

Pate said he had spoken with Donley County Hospital District Administrator Alan Graham about the bill but had been able to get the bill reduced or forgiven.

Alderman Michael Tibbets said that it did not appear the hospital district was working with the city on the issue.

Alderman Janice Knorpp also criticized the authority for the amount of the bill.

“As far as I’m concerned, charging $8.25 per mile is ridiculous,” she said.

Alderman Tommy Hill, who also volunteers for the ambulance service, urged his fellow board members not to take any action on the issue until authority director Anita Aaron, who had been out of town, could look at the issue.

In the meantime, the aldermen agreed that the bill, whether it was right or not, should appropriately be sent to the city and not to an individual fireman. They therefore directed Pate to send a letter to the Associated Ambulance Authority requesting the bill be reissued in the city’s name.

As of Tuesday morning, Pate said the issue was not resolved.

In other business, Wesley Smith addressed the board and expressed his desire to put a “stationary doublewide” on property currently owned by Gary Hunt in the west part of town. Alderman took no action since the item wasn’t on the agenda.

Depository bids were reviewed from Herring National Bank and the Donley County State Bank. Herring has been the city’s depository for the last six years.

“I think we need to rotate this business for the benefit of a small community,” Tibbets said, noting that the two bids were very close.

Alderman Tommy Hill disagreed and said, “I think we were elected to do the best with the taxpayers’ money, and Herring National Bank’s offer is a little better deal.”

Aldermen selected Herring on 3-1-1 vote (Tibbets opposed, Knorpp abstained).

The budgets of the city and the Clarendon Economic Development Corporation were approved as presented, and the board considered Ordinance 143, which governs building permits in the city. The board will consider changing permit fees at its next meeting September 28.

The National Newspaper Association recognized The Clarendon Enterprise as a national award winner during the NNA’s 118th Annual Convention and Trade Show in Denver, Colo., last Saturday.

The Enterprise received a second place plaque in the association’s 2004 Better Newspaper Contest for Best Special Issue among newspapers with circulations under 3,000 for its 125th Anniversary Edition, which was published June 5, 2003.

“This is a very prestigious honor for our newspaper,” said Publisher Roger Estlack. “To be recognized on a national level is rare for a paper our size, a first, as far as we know, for any Clarendon paper.”

NNA President Bob Sweeney, publisher and editor of Villager Newspapers in Denver, Colo., and John Stevenson, chairman of the NNA Better Newspaper Contest Committee and publisher of the Randolph Leader in Roanoke, Ala., presented the awards during the “Toast to the Winners” reception at Denver’s Adam’s Mark Hotel. Ashlee Kidd and Roger Estlack attended the convention to represent the Enterprise.

The NNA contest is the only national competition recognizing the best in community journalism.

Three years of research went into preparing the Enterprise’s 20-page anniversary edition, which gave an extensive history of the Texas Panhandle’s first newspaper from its establishment as The Clarendon News on June 1, 1878. The issue covered all changes in ownership, documented mergers with other newspapers, and outlined the evolution of technology used by the local paper from the 19th to the 21st century.

The issue also included a timeline of major local news events and revealed never before published information about the founder of Clarendon and the newspaper, Rev. L.H. Carhart, and his family.

NNA judges praised the Enterprise’s entry for its “solid writing, photos, and layout,” noted that the photos tied in well with the stories, and also had positive comments about the collage which created the front cover.

The 125th Anniversary Edition has previously received first place from the Panhandle Press Association and first place from the West Texas Press Association’s Better Newspaper Contest. The edition was also named Best of Show during this year’s Texas Press Association Mid-Winter Convention, beating out all other first place winners regardless of size or frequency.

There were more than 2,900 entries from 44 states and the District of Columbia in this year’s national BNC contest. Of those entries, there were more than 560 award winners.

The Greeley (Colo.) Tribune topped the list with the most BNC wins, garnering 28 awards. The Enterprise lost the first place Best Special Issue award to the Claremont Courier of Claremont, California.

Established in 1885, the National Newspaper Association is the voice of America’s community newspapers and the largest newspaper association in the country. The nation’s community newspapers inform, educate, and entertain 150 million readers every week.

Fourteen wagons will be rolling into Clarendon this Saturday for the tenth annual Col. Charles Goodnight Chuckwagon Cookoff at the Saints’ Roost Museum.

The event unofficially begins Friday night with the dinner with the Chuckwagon cooks open only to paid members of the Museum with reservations.

Gates for the cookoff will then officially open at 7:30 a.m. Saturday with breakfast and lunch concessions provided by Boy Scout Troop 433.

The tradeshow starts at 10 a.m., and Museum tours will be available throughout the day with exhibits by Kenneth Wyatt Galleries, Jim and Vanelle Stevenson, Cowboy Fudge by Jim Rentfro, Clarendon Assembly of God, Tina Hagler’s Hot Sauces, Boyd Baxter, Hedley Senior Citizens Center, Hedley Lioness Club, James and Cecilia Rowe, Steve Cook and the International Commission, Iron Buckboard Silver, Custom Cuts, and Stained Glass by Bridget & Jennie.

The second annual Saints’ Roost Gun & Knife Show will again accompany the Cookoff from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Friday and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday. The gun show is located inside the Community Center, and admission is free with a cookoff ticket or $3 at the door.

Back on the museum grounds, Patrick Robertson and KEFH-FM will provide music beginning at 11 a.m.

Live entertainment follows with afternoon performances scheduled by Audrey Brown of Clarendon, the Saints’ Roost Jamboree Band, music by Katie Askew of Clarendon, Robert Shelton of Clarendon, Delbert Trew of Alanreed, cowboy poet Oscar Auker of Clarendon, Dusty Michele Armstrong of White Deer, Gary Alan Bruce of Clarendon, Donna Sheppard of Clarendon and Booker, Payton Kane of Dodson, and the National Anthem performed by Bill Houston of Clarendon.

The Chuckwagon meal will be served at 5 p.m. with a menu of chicken fried steak, potatoes, beans, and cobbler.

At 6:30, the museum will raffle off a pair of James Owens Handmade Boots, followed by the presentation of the cookoff awards.

Admission to the all-day event is free. Tickets for the authentic Chuckwagon supper are $10 each and can be purchased in advance at Henson’s in Clarendon by calling 806/874-3517. Boot tickets are also available at Henson’s or from any museum board member.

On Sunday morning, cowboy church will be held under the tent at the museum with preaching by Shannon Hall of Loco, Okla.

All proceeds from the cookoff and the gun show will benefit the Saints’ Roost Museum’s continuing efforts to preserve the history of Donley County.

The tenth annual Col. Charles Goodnight Chuckwagon Cookoff is sponsored in part by the Texas Yes! program.

Texas Yes! is a new initiative from the Texas Department of Agriculture designed to spotlight rural Texas and promote rural Texas tourism. Make your getaway!

For more information on Texas Yes! call (866) 4TEX-YES or visit www.TexasYes.org.

Clarendon College this month has posted its highest fall enrollment in the last 15 years – and possibly the highest in the history of the institution.

CC President Myles Shelton released information Monday showing the total headcount for the current semester as 1,033 – approximately seven percent above last fall’s total and a 32.1 percent increase since 1998.

“We’re very pleased with the numbers,” Shelton said. “We think we still have room to grow on this campus and in Pampa and Childress, and we’re going to work toward that end.”

The total includes 402 students attending the home campus, 239 at the CC Pampa Center, and the remainder enrolled at classes held throughout the college’s service area and enrolled in distance learning or online classes.

Shelton said the boost in enrollment was attributable to several things including the new residence hall offering more places for students to live from outside the area, better local enrollment from the surrounding area, and the availability of programs that more students are interested in.

“It’s a combination of these things,” Shelton said. “We have several good quality programs and not just one or two programs carrying all the weight. It’s everybody working together and good recruiting.”

The enrollment figure counts students in academic and vocational classes and does not include continuing education classes.

Shelton said he is certain the college is at its highest point since the mid-1980s and is confident that the number is the highest in school history but said his staff would have to dig out records from the 1960s to be sure of that.

Despite the increase, Clarendon College remains one of the two smallest community colleges in the state. Ranger College was the smallest last year, and CC was second. Shelton said Ranger had not yet posted its enrollment numbers for fall 2004.

Enrollment this semester and next spring will be used by the Legislature in determining appropriations for the next biennium.

Despite a slightly higher enrollment, CC’s sources are preliminarily predicting a five percent cut in state funding.

“Obviously we’re going to lobby for that not to happen,” Shelton said.

In other college news, the CC Board of Regents met in regular session last Thursday and set the tax rate for the coming year at $0.2065 per $100 valuation, up from $0.1987 last year. The difference will amount to $3.98 on a $50,000 piece of property.

Regents also adopted the catalog, policy manual, and student handbook for the current academic year and accepted a bid on lot 27 in Carroll Creek Acres in Howardwick as presented by the appraisal district.

Personnel at the Pampa Center was the subject discussed in closed session.

Regents also approved hiring two academic advisors/recruiters – Jaylene Watkins in Clarendon and Lindsey Been at the Pampa Center.

Rick Gage, who will be leading the Go Tell Greenbelt Crusade beginning Sunday at 7:00 p.m., took the long way around to reach where he is today.

An evangelist who specializes in holding Christian rallies outside of the major cities in America, Rick is the son of an evangelist. He grew up in the church, knowing all the right words to say and all the right things to do. But he only did them when Dad was looking.

When Dad wasn’t looking, when Rick was on his own through high school, he would – party with the best of them, occasionally coming home drunk and sneaking into the house. Football was his whole life. He chose his college according to where he could play football, going the junior college route when no four-year school seemed interested. He had a successful first year on the field, in the classroom – and on the party scene. Rick and his friends regularly cruised bars and clubs.

“Drugs and alcohol became rituals in my life,” he says in his book, The Coach. “It wasn’t a matter of needing to be ‘accepted.’ I was already accepted and, to some extent, admired. I simply wasn’t strong enough to say ‘no.’”

But at the beginning of his sophomore year, he injured his knee badly enough to need surgery. Four-year schools that had been looking at him backed off, worried that his knee would not recover properly. Except for one school in Lawton, Oklahoma. Rick went on to play football for them and earned his degree with a goal of coaching football. Eventually, he wound up coaching at the college level, first at West Texas State and later at Texas Tech.

Through all of this, his hard partying habits didn’t change, even though every time he went home he still knew how to talk the talk. When he lost his job at Tech, Rick reached a low point. His job would end soon, he had no prospects for a new one, and he decided to go to New Orleans with friends to watch football and have a good time in the bright lights of the Big Easy. It didn’t help. He was still lonely, empty, and without hope.

Rick spent Christmas with his family; and before he went back to Lubbock to what was left of his dead-end job, his father urged him to go hear a family friend preach. So on Sunday, Rick went. James Robison talked about how God’s Son came to free captives and prisoners, and Rick realized he was a captive.

“All I could do was approach God in repentance and faith…I went forward and knelt down on my knees at the altar and cried out to God for forgiveness. Immediately, I felt as if a huge weight had been lifted from my heart.”

Rick Gage did not immediately move from that point to becoming the preacher he is today, but his life changed. He was not the same person he was before. “Christ changed my emotions (feelings); my intellect (beliefs, thought patterns); and my will (desires, choices.)”

Rick went on to coach at various universities, mostly in the east, for several years after this before he understood that God had other plans for him. Those plans are fulfilled in the crusades he conducts all across America, and in Clarendon beginning Sunday night continuing through Thursday. Come and hear what he has to say.

Fifteen wagons will be rolling into Clarendon next weekend for the tenth annual Col. Charles Goodnight Chuckwagon Cookoff to be held September 25 at the Saints’ Roost Museum.

Gates will open at 7:30 a.m. with breakfast and lunch concessions provided by Boy Scout Troop 433. The tradeshow starts at 10 a.m., and museum tours will be available throughout the day.

The second annual Saints’ Roost Gun & Knife Show will again accompany the Cookoff from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The gun show is located inside the Clarendon Community Center, and admission is free with a cookoff ticket or $3 at the door.

Back on the museum grounds, Patrick Robertson and KEFH-FM will provide music at 11 a.m.

Live entertainment follows with afternoon performances scheduled by Audrey Brown of Clarendon, the Saints’ Roost Jamboree Band, music by Katie Askew of Clarendon, Delbert Trew of Alanreed, cowboy poet Oscar Auker of Clarendon, Dusty Michele Armstrong of White Deer, Gary Alan Bruce of Clarendon, Donna Sheppard of Clarendon and Booker, Payton Kane of Dodson, and the National Anthem performed by Bill Houston of Clarendon.

The Chuckwagon meal will be served at 5 p.m. with a menu of chicken fried steak, potatoes, beans, and cobbler.

At 6:30, the museum will raffle off a pair of James Owens Handmade Boots followed by the presentation of the cookoff awards.

Admission to the all-day event is free. Tickets for the authentic Chuckwagon supper are $10 each and can be purchased in advance at Henson’s in Clarendon by calling 806/874-3517.

Boot tickets are also available at Henson’s or from any museum board member.

On Sunday morning, cowboy church will be held under the tent at the museum with preaching by Shannon Hall of Loco, Okla.

Proceeds from the cookoff and the gun show benefit the Museum’s continuing efforts to preserve the history of Donley County.

AUSTIN – Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn on Monday announced that the state collected $1.42 billion in sales tax in August, up 8.2 percent compared to a year ago.

And when the state’s 2004 fiscal year ended August 31, general revenue-related sales tax collections totaled $15.3 billion for the year, up 7.9 percent compared to FY 03, reflecting rising consumer confidence and increased business spending.

“Sales tax grew at its highest annual rate since Texas’ 1998 economic boom,” Strayhorn said. “2004 was truly an economic bumper crop of a year for Texans.”

Clarendon’s own sales tax revenue for August was up 14.77 percent to $22,841.98. Hedley’s rebate was down 50.83 percent to $244.36; and Howardwick was down 3.54 percent to $1,244.70

Clarendon is running more than 3.5 percent ahead of its collections for the year-to-date. Hedley and Howardwick are both less than one percent below their year-to-date figures for the same time in 2003.

Texas cities, counties, transit systems, and special purpose taxing districts began their sales tax rebound earlier than the state. Overall, they have now seen 15 consecutive months of increased sales tax revenue.

Strayhorn this week delivered $327.4 million in September sales tax payments to local governments, a 7 percent increase compared to September 2003. So far this calendar year, local sales tax allocations are up 8.2 percent compared to the same period in 2003. September’s sales tax allocations include local sales taxes collected in July and reported to the Comptroller in August.

Strayhorn sent September sales tax allocations of $222.4 million to Texas cities, up 6.5 percent compared to September 2003.

Calendar year-to-date, city sales tax rebates are running 8.2 percent higher than last year. Texas counties received September sales tax allocations of $19.4 million, up 5.2 percent compared to a year ago. Calendar year-to-date, county sales tax allocations are 8.2 percent higher than last year.

Another $9 million went to 87 special purpose taxing districts around the state, an increase of 11.9 percent compared to a year ago.

So far this calendar year, sales tax allocations to special purpose districts are up 6.9 percent compared to 2003.

Nine Texas transit systems received $76.5 million in September sales tax rebates, up 8.5 percent compared to a year ago. Year-to-date, transit sales tax revenues are up 8.4 percent.

Medical Center Nursing Home officials have something to strut about after a state team found no deficiencies for the second year in a row.

The Texas Department on Aging & Disability Services gave the facility a clean bill of health during an annual review late last month, and the final report was received Monday.

Donley County Hospital District Administrator Alan Graham said state personnel were impressed with MCNH.

“One surveyor told me in all his time he had never seen as happy and as content residents as he did here,” Graham said. “He told me there were no complaints, and that was a first for him.”

MCNH officials say it’s rare for a nursing home to have zero deficiencies given the broad scope of the inspection, and to have zero deficiencies two years in a row is even more rare.

“Happy residents and families that are satisfied – that’s the mission we have,” Graham said.

The inspection looks at everything from regulation compliance to food preparation to sanitation and administration.

The state team can make its unannounced visit any time from three months before to three months after the date of its visit the year before. This year, the team arrived at about 7 p.m. and stayed on site until after 11 p.m.

“Ten percent of their annual inspections each year have to be done either at night or on weekends,” Graham said.

Graham credited a team effort – from the staff up to the hospital board – for creating an atmosphere of quality care, and Director of Nurses Vickie Robertson agreed.

“Having a deficiency-free survey two years in a row is testimony to our qualified staff who exemplify teamwork and quality care,” she said.

Robertson said all the praise should be put on the employees.

“They [the staff] sent me flowers, and I told them they should have saved their money because they are the ones who make the difference.”

In addition to high marks from the State of Texas, Medical Center Nursing Home also boasts a five-star rating for 1999-2003 from the Gannett News Service’s Nursing Home Quality Report.

Donley County Tax Assessor/Collector Wilma Lindley this week released a statement denying a rumor that she is planning to retire.

Lindley, who is running for re-election, says she appreciates citizens who have come to her to learn the truth and says she fully intends to serve another four years if re-elected.

“If I had any plans of retirement, I certainly would not have paid a filing fee of $750 to have my name on the ballot,” Lindley said.

AUSTIN – Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn today transferred $594.5 million into the state’s Rainy Day Fund, bringing the fund’s balance to $878.1 million.

“I am pleased to report today that I transferred $594.5 million into the state’s Rainy Day Fund,” Strayhorn said. “As I have said so many times before, the money in the Rainy Day Fund should only be used for an emergency. I still believe we should grow the Rainy Day Fund to at least $3 billion. This would only be 5 percent of our state’s General Revenue budget, which is what rating agencies recommend for fiscal soundness and a minimum necessary if, God help us, we have a true emergency.

“I have always said that conservative fiscal policies have served our state well in the past and are the best bet for the future,” Strayhorn said.

Despite the raid of the Rainy Day Fund during the last regular Legislative session, Strayhorn said the unexpected surge in the natural gas severance tax has begun to restore the fund. All three of New York’s top bond rating firms gave their highest possible ratings to Texas’ 2004 Series Tax and Revenue Anticipation Notes (TRANs).

The Rainy Day Fund, also known as the Economic Stabilization Fund, was created by the 70th Legislature in 1987 as a savings account to help offset fiscal instability in cases of a downturn in the economy. Dollars are transferred into the fund in two ways – either by appropriations from the Legislature, which has never occurred, or when oil and gas severance taxes are above the benchmark year of 1987, 75 percent of those dollars trigger into the fund.

It takes either a two-thirds vote of the Legislature to make withdrawals from the Rainy Day Fund, or a three-fifths vote if the Comptroller’s forecasts reduced revenue before a session or if a deficit hits after a budget is approved.

Strayhorn also said economic news from her agency at the end of the fiscal year shows that the Texas economy is fighting back and poised to make strides in the near future.