News

In full support of President George W. Bush’s recent directive to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to sustain the environmental benefits of the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), Texas Farm Service Agency (FSA) has announced a General CRP Sign-up 29 to begin August 30, 2004.

Bruce Ferguson, County Executive Director for Donley County FSA explains that CRP Sign-up 29 is offered for those acres currently enrolled in CRP and set to expire September 30, 2004 or September 30, 2005.  According to Ferguson, eligible cropland never before enrolled in CRP will also be considered for enrollment under General CRP Sign-up 29.

 “As further expansion to the CRP program, President Bush has announced a couple of new initiatives including a Bobwhite quail initiative and an expanded wetland program designed to enhance wetlands and playa lake areas,” said Ferguson.  “Provisions and eligibility guidelines for these and other new CRP components will be forthcoming as USDA works through the development process.”

In light of the projected 16 million acres of CRP set to expire in 2007 and an additional six million acres to expire in 2008, President Bush addressed his vision for the future of the CRP program – the nation’s largest, voluntary conservation program offered for private lands. 

In a continued effort to “restore, enhance and protect” environmentally sensitive land, build on producer stewardship, and enhance wetland and wildlife acres, the President expressed his commitment to re-enrolling as many CRP acres as possible up to a maximum of 39.2 million acres nationwide.

 “Producers and landowners need to understand that CRP Sign-up 29 is completely separate from potential ‘re-enrollment’ of acres expiring in 2007 and 2008,” said Ferguson.  “No provisions for these acres will be made until the 120-day public comment period has ended.”

Individuals interested in making public comment pertaining to managing the large number of acres set to expire in 3-4 years, managing future CRP sign-ups, evaluating the program’s environmental effectiveness or other related topics of concern can weigh-in on FSA’s website at http://www.fsa.usda.gov.

Comments on the issues regarding this program must be received within 120 days after the date published in the Federal Register. All written comments should be mailed to Director, Conservation and Environmental Programs Division (CEPD), Farm Service Agency (FSA), Room 4714-S, Stop 0513, 1400 Independence Avenue, S.W. Washington, D.C. 20250-0513.

For more information regarding CRP Sign-up 29 or public comment on the future of CRP, contact the Donley County FSA office in Clarendon at 874-3561 or visit the USDA Web sites at http://www.usda.gov.

The Donley County VFW Post will be hosting a Welcome Home Picnic for the 974th Quartermaster Company this Sunday, August 15, 2004, beginning at 1:00 p.m. at the VFW Hall.

The VFW is asking all of its members, Ladies Auxiliary members, and the Friends of the Donley County Veterans to supply them with all the fixings for the picnic.  They are also asking the community to help them welcome home our troops with food, donations, or anything you want to give.

The 974th Quartermaster Company out of Amarillo was deployed in Iraq for 18 months and returned home this past Friday.  The VFW of Clarendon has been sending care packages and phone cards to the troops while deployed in Iraq.  Three members from the community are members of the Quartermaster Company – G.J. Martindale, Sam Gerald, and Anita Rodriguez.

Help the VFW welcome these soldiers home this Sunday.

A Clarendon man was arrested last week in connection with a 2001 house fire that officials say was arson.

Larry Wilson, age 48, was indicted July 15 and was arrested last Friday, August 6. County Judge Jack Hall set bond at $100,000.

Sheriff Butch Blackburn said the arrest of Wilson closes the three-year-old case.

“It’s been a long investigation, but we finally close this case with this arrest,” he said.

Two other local men have previously been arrested and sentenced in connection with the fire.

Allen Turner, age 26, was arrested July 15, 2003, and sentenced to the Department of Corrections in December, Blackburn said. Two months ago, Jimmy Reese, age 49, also faced an arson charge in the case. He received probation July 1.

The sheriff said Wilson is accused of employing Reese and Turner to burn the old Saye house at the southeast corner of Sixth and Kearney streets in order to get the insurance money.

The fire started the night of February 13, 2003, and resulted in the total loss of the home. Officials suspected arson early on with Fire Chief Delbert Robertson noting that the blaze originated in the middle of the floor of an upstairs room.

The historic home was built at the turn of the 20th century and was purchased by the grandparents of Tommie C. Saye in the 1920s. Five generations of the Saye family lived there during their 60-year ownership of the property. In the 1980s, the house was sold to Clifford Alexander, whose family occupied the home for about 20 years.

At the time of the blaze, the house had been sold to the family of Larry Wilson.

The state fire marshal’s office assisted with the initial investigation of this case, and the Donley County Sheriff’s Office has continued the investigation to the present.

https://www.clarendonlive.com/2004/08/2430/

People from across the county will gather Friday evening for the American Cancer Society’s annual Relay for Life.

The event begins at the Clarendon College track at 6 p.m. as teams line up for the unique fund-raising event in which participants take turns walking or running the track in an effort to fight cancer.  Teams camp out, eat, and play games until 2 a.m. 

Team photos will be taken at 6 p.m. James Thomas will deliver the invocation, and Katie Askew will perform the National Anthem. Then the annual survivors’ lap will take place at 6:30 p.m., accompanied by the music of Dan Hall.

KLSR and Joe Davis will deliver music and announcements for the event. Entertainment for the evening includes performances by Donna Sheppard (a.k.a. Mama Cass) and Gary Alan Bruce.

Campsite awards will be announced at 9 p.m., and the Luminaries Ceremony will be held at 10 p.m. A silent auction begins at 11 p.m.

Awards for the event will be presented at 1:30 a.m. Saturday, and the final lap and the memorial/honorarium balloon release will take place at 2 a.m.

Texas shoppers get a break from state and local sales taxes this weekend – August 6, 7, and 8 – during the state’s sixth annual tax holiday.

Lay-away plans can be used again this year to take advantage of the sales tax holiday.

The law exempts most clothing and footwear priced under $100 from sales and use taxes, which could save shoppers about $8 on every $100 they spend.

The tax holiday occurs every year on the first Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of August. Qualifying items are exempt from state sales taxes, but exemption from local sales tax is up to individual cities. This year, since no cities opted out of the holiday, qualifying items will be fully exempt from tax throughout Texas.

Most clothing and footwear priced at less than $100 will be exempt from sales tax. Customers will receive the break on individual items, regardless of the total amount they buy. For example, sales tax is not due if a customer buys six shirts each priced at $99.99. But full tax is due on a shirt sold for $100; the first $99.99 cannot be exempted.

Clothing and footwear used primarily for athletic activities or for protective wear are not eligible for the exemption. Customers buying golf cleats or football pads, for instance, must pay sales tax. Athletic wear that is also used for participation in other non-athletic activities can qualify for tax exemption. For example, tennis shoes, baseball caps, and jogging suits are worn during everyday activities and thus may be purchased tax-free during the holiday.

Also excluded from the sales tax holiday are accessories such as jewelry and watches; items that are carried rather than worn, including handbags, briefcases and wallets; clothing rentals, such as formal wear and costumes; and repairs and alterations.

For information about the sales tax holiday, please visit www.window.state.tx.us or call 1-800-252-5555.

The City of Clarendon last week rejected the only bid for its proposed 2004 paving project after the price came in at almost twice the expected amount.

The Board of Aldermen directed city engineers to advertise the project again to try to generate more interest and get more reasonable quotes.

City Administrator Sean Pate said the city expected to pay about $180,000 to pave 11 blocks on portions of Fourth and Seventh streets. That estimate was based on work the city had done last year in the southeast part of town under a disaster grant.

Contractor J. Lee Milligan submitted the only bid of $355,840.60, which city officials saw as an indication that contractors are too busy right now and are not hungry for work.

“As we get closer to winter months, companies will need more work, and we’d expect bids to drop,” Pate said.

The new bids will be required to be broken down so that the city can review what each part of the project will cost, Pate said. City crews could then be utilized for some aspects of the project, such as rough grade cuts, in order to control costs.

The city is also watching the calendar as summer months draw to a close and there are fewer warm weather days to do the paving.

“Our engineers say we’re still in the clear,” Pate said, noting that he doesn’t want to split the project into fall and spring phases. “It’s to our benefit to do it all at once.

City Hall begins advertising for new paving bids this week. Those will be opened on August 19 for possible action by the Board of Aldermen on August 24.

In the meantime, the administrator said city workers will continue replacing and lowering utility lines on West Seventh Street in preparation for paving.

Pate said that water lines on that street have already been lowered where they were too shallow and that the sewer line there was needing replacing anyway.

“We’ll just be money ahead by replacing those lines ahead of paving the street,” he said.

In other city business last Tuesday, Jewell Judd returned to City Hall to again ask aldermen to consider closing the alley beside her property in Block 182B. She said she wanted the alley closed to prevent her neighbor from “driving that Frito truck across my driveway,” but aldermen pointed out that doing so would also prevent her from getting into her own carport. City officials told Judd she would also have to have her property properly surveyed before any further action could be taken.

Jean Stavenhagen addressed the board representing the Saints Roost Museum and updated the aldermen on the depot renovation. The work has been completed under a federal grant administered by the Texas Department of Transportation, but a large unexpected administrative cost has been incurred.

The board approved assisting the museum with $500 per month for August and September from the Motel Bed Tax Fund and agreed to consider further assistance in the new budget year.

The city ad valorem tax rate was discussed, and aldermen voted to keep the rate at its present $0.48555 per $100 valuation.

A budget amendment of $29,000 was approved for the 2003-2004 fiscal year to cover the cost of additional work requested by the city during last year’s paving project.

Clarendon College Regents approved purchases related to the institution’s new library when the board met July 15.

A bid from Check Point Systems was accepted in the amount of $12,750 to install security and theft detection equipment. Seven other proposals ranged from “no bid” to $40,000.

Regents also accepted a bid from Indeco, a Belton, Texas company, for new library furniture at a cost of $108,977.

Quotes for computers for the library were also considered, and regents awarded the bid to Dell in the amount of $49,994.10, which will be paid for by a grant from the Amarillo Area Foundation.

In other college business, the board accepted a bid for athletic insurance from Seymour Canter in the amount of $41,796, which is more than $8,600 lower than last year.

Regents discussed and endorsed the idea of creating a Hall of Fame for outstanding alumni and friends of the college. CC officials are still working on the details of how to set up this idea.

The board accepted resignations from Dean of Students Joel Zehr and from CC Pampa Center Advisor/Recruiter Jennifer Moore.

A letter was received from former CC board chairman Bright Newhouse commending the regents for naming the new library in honor of the late Vera Dial Dickey of Memphis.

Destination Donley County and the Donley County Extension Office are sponsoring Market Day Festival in Clarendon this Friday on the courthouse square. 

There will be a watermelon-spitting contest, watermelon-eating contest, watermelon-decorating contest where watermelons can be carved or decorated.  Awards will be given for the largest vegetable and fruit in various categories such as watermelon, cantaloupe, cucumber, squash, peppers, and tomatoes.  Entries for the vegetable contest are required by 3:30 p.m. Contests are open to all ages.

All the festivities will begin at 4:00 p.m. There will be various booths with food giveaways from local restaurants, groups selling various items, arts and crafts booths, a gun display booth, an antique car show, and a vegetable cook-off.

The vegetable cook-off is open to all who want to bring a vegetable dish to be judged.  Recipes need to be 100 percent vegetables (no meats).  Please bring in throwaway containers, or after judging is done you may remove your item.  They will not be responsible for containers.  No tasting will be done except for judging.  Best dish will be awarded a blue rosette ribbon.  Please bring your recipe along with your dish.

For more information, please contact Mary Ruth Bishop at 874-2141 or Linda Gray at 874-2009.

The total value of property in Donley County has increased 5.06 percent over last year, according to a report this week from the Donley Appraisal District.

The 2004 appraised value for property in the county’s jurisdiction totals nearly $160 million, an increase of $7.7 million over 2003 figures. The average home in Donley County is valued at $29,240.

Chief Appraiser Paula Lowrie said the appraisal district looks at all the known sales that have occurred in the last year and bases increased valuations on that information. Local taxing entities use the property valuations when setting their tax rates for the coming year.

Although some sources cite higher property valuations as a sign of a growing economy, many local residents don’t like seeing their valuation increase because it results in a higher property tax bill even if a taxing entity does not increase its tax rate.

This year more than twice as many property owners filed to appeal their valuations than the year before.

Lowrie said 98 people filed protests, and ten of those settled their disputes before the Appraisal Review Board met July 8-9.  Forty-nine of the remaining 88 presented their cases before the Board, and of those only nine were granted an adjustment.

Appraisal district officials say they can only go by the market prices set by real estate sales and follow the guidelines set by the state in setting valuations.

“Appraised values are still only 70 percent of what the sales actually were,” Lowrie said.

Valuations in all local taxing entities were up this year.

Property owners inside the City of Hedley experienced the smallest percentage increase, as property values in that city rose 3.16 percent from $5.98 million in 2003 to $6.17 million in 2004. But property in the in Hedley Independent School District had the biggest percentage increase with values rising 6.93 percent from $24 million last year to $25.7 million.

Valuations in the City of Clarendon are up 4.9 percent to $50.3 million, and property values in the City of Howardwick are up 5.99 percent to $13.7 million.  The average home in Clarendon is worth $33,340; and the average Howardwick residence is worth $23,240.

The average home in jurisdiction of the Clarendon Independent School District is valued at $30,674; and property values within the CISD increased 5.74 percent to a total of $123.2 million.

Valuations in the Clarendon College District and the Donley County Hospital District were similar to the county itself – about $160 million – with increases of 5.00 percent and 5.42 percent respectively. The difference being due to certain tax abatements given by those entities, Lowrie said.

The Clarendon Board of Aldermen tabled a resident’s request to close the alley behind her house during their regular meeting last Tuesday.

Jewell Judd addressed the board and requested the official closing of the alley beside her house in Block 182B.

Judd said the alley was not open but that it was not officially closed either and said only one of her neighbors was using the alley. She said she wanted it closed because use of the alley was disturbing the gravel she had put in for her driveway.

Aldermen tabled Judd’s request until they could look at the property.

In other city business, Linda Gray came before the board on behalf of the Destination Donley County tourism group to request funds from the Motel Bed Tax fund to help promote a Farmers Market on the Courthouse Square on July 30. The board agreed to provide $500 for this project.

Grant consulting was discussed, and Alderman Bobbie Kidd said he had spoken to grant consultant Kay Howard regarding disputed items the city is being required to pay related to the disaster grant from the US Department of Agriculture’s NRCS. Kidd said Howard told him that she was not the administrator for the NRCS portion of the grant and that she only administered the portion funded by the state’s Office of Rural Community Affairs, which provided the city’s match. Aldermen want to hear from Howard again personally.

The city’s Capitalization Policy was amended to increase the allotted leasehold improvements from $5,000 to $25,000 per the advice of the city’s auditor.

City Administrator Sean Pate reported increased income from the sale of recyclables with cardboard bringing $95 per ton and paper bringing $68 per ton. He also said he will get an estimate for a tower on which to mount the city’s new siren, and he discussed the possibility of adding law enforcement liability coverage to the city’s insurance at a cost of $500 per year.