News

A split Board of Aldermen ended the City of Clarendon’s relationship with its longtime grant consultant last Tuesday in the wake of a disaster grant that cost the city $30,000 more than expected.

With two divisive votes during a called meeting, the board rescinded its agreement with Kay Howard of Lubbock for her to prepare the city’s upcoming Texas Community Development Project grant application and took action to have the Panhandle Regional Planning Commission (PRPC) provide future grant consulting.

“I like Kay, but I think she made an error on the last grant, and I think we need to make a change,” Alderman Bobbie Kidd said.

Howard had provided grant consulting services to the city since at least 1985, according to Kidd; and replacing her with PRPC upset Alderman Michael Tibbets.

“I don’t remember Kay ever calling a member of this council a criminal, and PRPC did,” Tibbets said. “I haven’t received an apology.”

Tibbets was referring to a November 6, 2003, article in The Clarendon Enterprise, in which a PRPC employee and former Clarendon board consultant was cited in classifying an October 28, 2003, action by the board of aldermen as spot zoning, which is illegal under state law.

“Pending an apology by them [PRPC] for a public assault by them, I can’t imagine that this is occurring,” Tibbets said.

His comments drew sharp criticism from Alderman Janice Knorpp, who said, “It’s time to get over it and do something good for the city.”

Mayor Tex Selvidge said he had not read the November 6 article the same way Tibbets had.

“There was not even an attempt to obtain an apology,” Tibbets said, “and now we have more bad blood on this council.”

“No, you do not,” Knorpp retorted. “You get over it.”

In both votes regarding grant consulting, Aldermen Knorpp and Kidd voted for the measure, Aldermen Tibbets and Tommy Hill voted against, and Mayor Selvidge broke the tie, voting in the affirmative.

In other city business last week, the board rejected all bids for the 2004 street paving project since all of them came in higher than expected.

Aldermen also discussed the 2004-2005 municipal budget, which will be considered for approval at the board’s regular meeting on September 14.

The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) is now introducing Point of Sale Sticker Printing (POSSP) and a new design for vehicle registration stickers.  The new registration stickers feature several improvements to deter sticker theft and streamline the state’s inventory control.

The new process was piloted in Caldwell and Bastrop Counties and will be implemented in 185 counties across the state beginning August 25.  This initial phase involves counties that do not process transactions through subcontractor stations (e.g. grocery stores) or automobile dealerships.  These latter types of transactions will be piloted in McLennan, Williamson, Angelina, and Harris Counties over the next few months, with full statewide implementation expected to be completed by early 2005.

Registration stickers will now be printed at the point of sale.  Information specific to the registered vehicle will be printed directly on the sticker, which will help deter theft.  TxDOT switched from license plate stickers to windshield stickers for most passenger vehicles about a decade ago to cut down on theft, and the new method will enhance these efforts. (Plate stickers are still used for motorcycles, trailers, and some other types of vehicles.) Each sticker will show the last eight digits of the vehicle identification number, the license plate number, county of registration, and registration month and year.

Because each windshield and plate sticker is vehicle-specific, it is important for customers who own more than one vehicle to be sure they apply the sticker to the correct one.   Also, customers should carefully follow instructions for peeling and applying the sticker.  The new windshield sticker must be peeled from the back of the form; otherwise, it could be damaged and a replacement sticker would be necessary.  Plate stickers should be peeled from the front of the form.

When the POSSP method is completely implemented, the new type of sticker will be issued for all registration renewals, including in-person, mail-in, and Internet transactions. POSSP prints the sticker on the customer’s receipt, so stapling stickers and maintaining manual sticker books will no longer be necessary.  This also eliminates the manufacturing and storage of 400,000 pre-printed sticker books annually for the current system.

In the past, yearly windshield stickers were printed in mass quantities based on projections of annual vehicle registrations.  POSSP will eliminate the waste of excess stickers resulting from this process each year.  As each sticker is printed “on demand” for a specific vehicle rather than pre-printed and later assigned to a vehicle, any internal accounting of the blank forms used for the POSSP is now optional rather than required.  Registration transactions will be tracked through the state’s automated Registration and Title System in much the same was as the previous method.

“This new method is a significant improvement in Texas registration processes,” said Jerry Dike, director of TxDOT’s Vehicle Titles and Registration Division.  “It also offers greater protection by making the stickers worthless if they’re stolen.”

The Clarendon Board of Aldermen tried to sort through unexpected charges related to a 2002 disaster grant during a final public hearing last Tuesday.

Grant administrator Kay Howard, who was responsible for the Texas Office of Rural Community Affairs (ORCA) portion of the joint state-federal project which funded drainage and street improvements in southeast Clarendon, reviewed the scope of work done under the grant.

City officials had been told from the beginning that the US Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) would put up 75 percent of the funds and that the supplemental ORCA grant would provide the city’s 25 percent match. But with the project completed, the city has been charged by NRCS approximately $35,000 for certain “100 percent items” related to improvements on Thurman Avenue.

“I don’t know how, but there were documents presented to you with both 25 percent and 100 percent items, and you signed them,” Howard told Mayor Tex Selvidge during the hearing.

“Well where the hell did they come from?” Selvidge inquired, noting that he thought he had only signed agreements based on Howard’s recommendation.

“If I had created this problem, I would fess up and do what I need to do to clear this up, but I did not,” Howard said, maintaining that her responsibility rested solely in the ORCA portion of the project.

Howard agreed to work with City Administrator Sean Pate to attempt to negotiate with NRCS and attempt to lower the amount owed.

In other city business, aldermen met in regular session following the public hearing. Representatives of Invensys Metering Systems presented a proposal for installing new water meters throughout town that could be read by an automated system in just two hours. The total package to convert the entire city would cost $390,946. The board expressed no interest in doing this.

Tony Maxwell of Greenbelt Peanut Company said his company has to pay liability insurance of $14,000 annually because their trucks have to drive on a public street from their warehouse on US 287 three blocks north on Ayers Street to their sorting and grading facility. He asked if Greenbelt Peanut could lease three blocks of Ayers Street for four months for $4,000. Pate will consult with the city attorney about this.

Ron Lamberth asked the board to hire him as a building code enforcement officer for $800 per month and asked aldermen to consider changing building permit fees. The board agreed to continue having the city superintendent and the city administrator perform building inspections. No action was taken regarding permit fees.

A called meeting was set for August 31 to discuss the 2004-2005 municipal budget and to discuss bids for the 2004 street paving project.

Clarendon College filed suit in District Court last week against the contractor which oversaw construction of the school’s new residence hall.

According to the petition, CC claims that Reynosa Construction, Inc., of Amarillo performed faulty and defective work and “failed to construct the building specified in the contract in accordance with the plans, specifications, and contract documents.”

CC President Myles Shelton said Monday that problems have been evident with Regents Hall since the summer of 2003 and that Reynosa was supposed to have addressed those issues.

“The big problem is with the EIFS,” Shelton said. “Even though we were able to occupy the building, they (Reynosa) were never able to resolve that problem.”

EIFS is a multi-layered synthetic stucco-like material covering the trim and columns of Regents Hall.

“We’ve worked with them over the last year to no avail, and now we’ve had to take this action,” the president said.

In April of this year, Reynosa filed suit in District Court against the subcontractor who installed the EIFS, Synthetics “R” Us of Amarillo, and the manufacturer of the EIFS, Senergy, LLC, of Dallas. 

According to court documents in the clerk’s office, Reynosa and Senergy reached an agreement last month under which the manufacturer will have a technician inspect Regents Hall, make recommendations, inspect any repairs or replacement, and testify at a trial or hearing if necessary.

“This is a very expensive problem to correct,” Shelton said. “It needs to be corrected, and the college should not be responsible for it.”

At press time, Reynosa had not yet filed its response to the suit.

AUSTIN – Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn this month said the state collected $1.27 billion in sales tax revenue in July, up 9.6 percent compared to July 2003; but local returns are mixed.

“State sales tax collections have risen for 11 consecutive months,” Strayhorn said. “After seeing sales tax revenue decline for an unprecedented two consecutive fiscal years in 2002 and 2003, I am looking forward to closing the books on fiscal year 2004 at the end of August with a solid gain in sales tax.

“Our state’s economy has finally rebounded after the sharp decline that began in the third quarter of 2001,” Strayhorn said. “My Texas Index of Leading Economic Indicators points to additional economic acceleration in the coming months. One component of the index, Consumer Confidence, jumped 52.5 percent in March and by 35.4 percent in July, compared to the prior year.”

Many local governments will see increases in their August sales tax allocations, but the cities of Clarendon and Howardwick aren’t among them.

Clarendon’s rebate was down more than 11 percent to $25,185.64; and Howardwick fell 0.68 percent to $1,052.21.

The City of Hedley’s rebate was up slightly by about two percent to $537.18.

Statewide, Strayhorn sent sales tax payments of $291.9 million to Texas cities, up 10.8 percent compared to last August.

July state sales tax revenue and August allocations to local governments represent sales taxes collected in June by businesses that report sales taxes monthly and sales taxes collected in April, May, and June by quarterly filers.

Clarendon College Regents approved a $4.22 million general and education budget for the coming fiscal year when they met in regular session last Thursday.

The board also authorized a $1.593 million auxiliary budget.

“One of the biggest issues facing the college budget this year has been the continuing shortfall in state appropriations,” said CC President Myles Shelton.

In addition to the cuts in direct appropriations which began over a year ago, Shelton said CC is having a hard time dealing with reductions in state funding for state mandated health benefits.

In fiscal year 2002, Clarendon College paid just $17,000 for its share of employee health insurance. But reductions in state funding combined with higher premiums has caused CC’s health insurance line item to skyrocket to a projected $179,000 in fiscal year 2005 – a 924 percent increase over 2002.

Of the total combined budgets of $5.813 million, only $317,000 comes from local property taxes.

In other college business, regents approved replacing the institution’s telephone system which was struck by lightning several months ago. A bid was accepted for a new ESI system from AMA•TechTel Communications with a $29,957 price tag that will be paid for by insurance.

Regents approved a proposal from Faith Fencing to install new fencing on the south and west edges of the campus for $41,000.

Board members received a report regarding the ongoing talks with Reynosa Construction and unresolved issues with the college’s new residence hall.

An update was also given on the progress of the new Dickey Library, which Shelton says is way ahead of schedule. Work is currently being held up by light fixtures which are on order. The building should be completed in October, and furniture should arrive in November. CC students will begin using the facility next semester.

The board approved hiring Judy Newton for a secretarial position and Becky Hardcastle for a single semester as a developmental studies teacher.

Donley County officials are considering slightly lowering the total county tax rate, according to the proposed 2004-2005 budget filed in the clerk’s office last week.

The proposal uses savings in health insurance expenses and increased revenue due to higher property valuations to produce a $1.77 million budget that provides for raises for employees without a higher tax rate.

Last year’s combined county tax rate was $0.50645 per $100 valuation. This year’s proposed rate is $0.4993.

“We think this is one of the better budgets we’ve had in years,” said County Judge Jack Hall. “We saved money in the health insurance line, and we’ve addressed issues of pay for elected officials and hourly workers.”

Salaries for the tax assessor/collector, clerk, treasurer, and judge would be raised and equalized at $20,388.48 under the proposed budget. The sheriff and his department would receive three percent raises, and other elected officials would receive a flat increase of $720. Most other part-time and hourly county employees would also receive raises of three percent.

County commissioners did not take a raise.

The county is showing a total decrease of more than $79,000 in budgeted expense for health insurance. Hall said that is thanks in large part to the county’s switching its coverage from Blue Cross/Blue Shield to a plan through the Texas Association of Counties.

The county switched providers in February, and the judge says this year’s budgeted amount even reflects a 10 percent anticipated increase in premiums.

Higher property valuations are projected to generate approximately $26,000 in added revenue, but Hall says much of that increase will be eaten up by unfunded state mandates.

“One-half of the revenue increase is going to indigent defense attorney fees,” the judge said. “That used to be – and should be – paid for by the state.”

The line item for indigent defense was $7,000 in fiscal year 1999. The proposed 2005 budget allocates $28,000 for that expense.

“A big part of the problem is state mandated things like that, and then the other problem is the state is taking a bigger percentage of the fines and fees we’re collecting,” Hall said. “Local taxpayers are forced to pick up the slack.”

The judge said another big expense for the county is paying to house state inmates from the time they are convicted until the state completes its paperwork and picks them up. Donley County taxpayers paid $65,361 to house state inmates in fiscal year 2004.

FORT WORTH – Wildlife, beef cows, and eco-tourists can all safely cohabit the same farm or ranch, and often to the advantage of the landowner’s wallet, said a Texas Cooperative Extension agent.

“It’s possible, for example, to set aside small cover strips for bobwhite quail in a pasture. They may lose a little in pasture production, but in the long run, they’ll be dollars ahead,” said Ken Johnson, Extension agent in Tarrant County.

Johnson is one of the speakers at an upcoming wildlife management workshop set Sept. 8-9 at the Tarrant County Extension Office, 401 E. Eighth Street, Fort Worth.

The workshop was originally designed for absentee landowners – those living in the Fort Worth-Dallas area but retreating to rural land on the weekends. But the workshops have a lot to offer full-time farmers too.

Agricultural producers are aware of the benefits of wildlife management, whether for enjoyment or to reap extra income from hunting leases or eco-tourism. It’s Johnson’s observation, however, that many don’t know where to start.

Most of the program presentations will not only show how to put existing pieces together, but also how to start a wildlife management program from scratch.

The workshop will start at 5 p.m. both days. The first evening’s program will include presentations on managing for quail, waterfowl, dove, and feral hogs. Understanding and planning for the wildlife tax valuation will also be presented.

Wildlife tax valuation is important for absentee landowners who have recently bought agricultural land but have neither the time nor the inclination to raise cattle or crops, said Dr. Billy Higginbotham, one of those giving presentations. The wildlife tax valuation allows landowners whose property is already listed as agricultural tax valuation to maintain the same tax rate, said Higginbotham, an Extension wildlife and fisheries specialist. Land appraised as agricultural land will have substantially reduced property taxes.

The second evening will include presentations on managing for large mouth bass and white-tailed deer. Other programs will go into detail on growing supplemental forage for deer and using remote sensing cameras for taking a deer census.

Those with a private pesticide applicator’s licenses will earn two continuing education units.

Pre-registration is $50 and must be received by Aug. 31. Registration after the deadline and at the door will be $75 per person. The fee includes break refreshments and a handbook.

Send registration to Jacque Hand, Conference Registration, Drawer H-1, College Station, TX 77844. Make the check to “Wildlife Management Workshop.” Include the attendee’s name, address and phone number and specify that the fee is for the “Wildlife Management Workshop for Absentee Landowners at Fort Worth.”

For more information, contact Johnson at (817) 884-1946.

ABILENE – Cotton harvest has begun in the southern parts of the state and will begin soon in other areas.

Custom harvesters move from area to area as the season progresses, and growers have to move the harvested cotton to the state’s gins for processing.

The Texas Boll Weevil Eradication Foundation would like to remind cotton producers and custom harvesters that the commissioner of agriculture declared several areas of the state to be suppressed or functionally eradicated of the cotton boll weevil, and movement of raw cotton products and harvesting equipment into or through these zones may be regulated.

The Rolling Plains Central zone, surrounding Abilene, and the Southern Rolling Plains zone, surrounding San Angelo, are functionally eradicated. The El Paso/Tran Pecos, Permian Basin, Western High Plains, Southern High Plains Caprock, Northwest Plains, Northern High Plains, and Northern Rolling Plains zones are suppressed. These zones make up a large portion of the western and northern portions of the state’s cotton-growing areas.

Harvesting equipment moving from areas outside of either a suppressed or functionally eradicated zone cannot be brought into one of these areas until the equipment has been thoroughly cleaned.

Raw cotton cannot be moved into or through suppressed or eradicated zone unless a protection plan has been filed with the Texas Department of Agriculture

TDA has developed a protection plan template for growers who fall under these restrictions and wish to gin cotton in a suppressed or eradicated zone.

The department also has developed guidelines for ensuring harvesting equipment is properly cleaned before entering one of these zones.

Many of these restrictions are placed on the movement of raw cotton and harvesting equipment from a suppressed area to a functionally eradicated area.

Brochures that provide more specific information on the restrictions are available from TDA or from the boll weevil foundation. Contact your local TDA office, or write the foundation at Box 5089, Abilene, TX 79608 to obtain a brochure.

The Texas Boll Weevil Eradication Foundation is a nonprofit, grower-initiated and funded organization dedicated to eliminating the cotton boll weevil from the state in the most cost-effective and environmentally responsible manner possible.

Connie McKinney has good news for Clarendon Elementary students. They can still eat French fries in the school cafeteria.

But before a celebration gets out of hand, McKinney, who is the director of the CISD cafeteria, notes that kids in Kindergarten through the fifth grade can only have fries once a week and the servings must be limited to three ounces.

“That’s about five or six fries,” McKinney said.

Still, that represents an easement in a string of changes handed down earlier this year by Texas Agriculture Commissioner Susan Combs in her crusade against what she has called a “childhood obesity epidemic.” Nutrition policies, which took effect August 1, require schools to eliminate all fried foods and to limit the portion sizes and fat and sugar contents of other food items.

Originally, school officials were told to get rid of their deep fryers by 2006 and that all foods that once were fried must now be baked, including French fries, corndogs, and burritos. But in a seminar last week McKinney was informed that the cafeteria could keep its fryer until 2009.

“Too many people complained about oven space,” McKinney said. “If you’re serving pigs-in-blankets, baked beans, and French fries all on one day, that would require a lot of oven space.”

McKinney says the rules allow junior high students to have French fries in three-ounce services three times a week and permits high school students to have fries every day. Junior high kids also can still have iced tea; but McKinney has to put less sugar in it, and she can only serve it in eight ounce glasses instead of ten ounce glasses.

The cafeteria also has to serve more fresh fruit and less canned fruit in order to cut back on the amount of sugar being served.

CISD officials worried earlier this year that the new regulations would spell the death of the junior high and high school a la carte lines, but McKinney says those are still safe for now.

“You’ve got to get them [the kids] to eat something,” she said.

McKinney has her own questions about the new guidelines which limits servings of fries but still permits a lot of breads in school menus.

“I’ve asked them about being able to serve ten breads [five for breakfast and five for lunch] per week, and they said there were no plans to change that,” McKinney said. “Ten breads a week. That’s a lot of carbohydrates.”

Texas schools are not in a position to ignore Combs’ mandates. If CISD doesn’t comply, the school can lose up to $1.20 at breakfast and $2.19 at lunch in federal reimbursements for each meal lost to a competitive food sale.