News

The Saints’ Roost Museum’s tenth annual Col. Charles Goodnight Chuckwagon Cookoff is one of the first rural tourism events approved for matching reimbursement funds from a new Texas Department of Agriculture program designed to help rural communities leverage their tourism marketing dollars. 

TDA announced last week that 15 rural Texas communities were approved to receive a total of $127,963 in matching reimbursements in the first round of funding for TDA’s new Hometown STARS program.

Hometown STARS (Supporting Tourism and Rural Success) funding for the September 26 Chuckwagon Cookoff will provide $4,442 in matching funds for promotional packets, advertising, direct mail, posters and signs.  The cookoff annually attracts about 1,000 visitors to Clarendon, and funds raised by the event support the continuing operations of the Saints’ Roost Museum.

The grant application was submitted on behalf of the museum by the City of Clarendon through the Clarendon Economic Development Corporation.

Hometown STARS was launched with TDA’s “Texas Yes!” program in late 2003.  “Texas Yes!” is a broad-based membership program open to rural communities, businesses, and organizations.  The goal of the “Texas Yes!” program is to spotlight and promote rural Texas.  Funding for the Hometown STARS program is provided through a grant from Gov. Rick Perry in support of TDA’s rural tourism promotional efforts.

“Tourism is an important way for rural communities to bring in new dollars and share the diversity and beauty of our great state,” said Agriculture Commissioner Susan Combs.  “The Hometown STARS program offers a hand to rural communities as they create fresh ideas and new opportunities through their tourism efforts.  The range of projects approved for funding provides a wonderful example of the take-charge attitude alive in rural Texas today.”

Hometown STARS is a competitive dollar-for-dollar matching reimbursement program open to “Texas Yes!” community members.  Eligible communities apply for the funds by submitting a tourism event promotion proposal to TDA.  Proposals are reviewed and scored by the Hometown STARS Review Team, an independent panel with expertise in marketing, media, tourism and rural communities.  TDA makes the final award decision based on this input.

Of the 15 proposals submitted for the first round of Hometown STARS funding, all were approved for either full or partial funding.

Other rural events funded in this round include the following:

City of Cactus – matching reimbursement funds for brochures and print and broadcast advertisements to promote the city’s Diez y Seis de Septiembre Celebration. 

City of Crowell – matching reimbursement funds for print and broadcast advertising, promotional literature and direct mail to promote the city’s stargazing opportunities. 

City of Dumas – matching reimbursement funds to spotlight the city’s High Plains Ag Expo, Aug. 24-26. 

City of Eden – matching reimbursement funds to promote the Fall Fest in Concho, Texas, Sept. 24-26.  

City of Hearne – matching reimbursements for billboards, promotional materials, direct mail, and Web site enhancements for the Crossroads Music Festival, Sept. 25. 

Hemphill County – matching reimbursement funds to promote “Break Away from the Ordinary,” a tri-county effort designed to spotlight Hemphill, Lipscomb and Roberts counties.  Promotional materials will encourage visitors to discover the art, music, and history of the region, located near the Canadian River adjacent to the Texas High Plains. Materials will spotlight the Texas Prairie Rivers Musical in Canadian, the Canadian Arts Alliance, the Naturally Yours Dance Platform in Lipscomb County, and the High Plains Youth Art Show in Roberts County.

City of Hico – matching reimbursement funds for banners, brochures, advertising, and posters to promote the city’s 1st Annual Texas Steak Cook-off and Tourist Trap event, scheduled to take place May 22, 2004. 

Karnes County – matching reimbursement funds to promote the Karnes County Sesquicentennial Celebration, May 1, in honor of the county’s 150th year.  

City of Madisonville – matching reimbursement funds to promote the city’s annual Texas Mushroom Festival Oct. 15-16. 

City of Miami – matching reimbursement funds to promote the city’s Annual Cow Calling Festival, June 4-6 in Roberts County.  

City of Perryton – matching reimbursement funds to promote Ochiltree County’s Pioneer Days Festival held the third weekend in August. 

City of Quanah – matching reimbursement funds for posters, fliers, advertising, direct mail, and billboards to promote the musical show “Pump Boys and Dinettes,” which will be May 29-30. 

Reagan County – matching reimbursement funds for posters, advertisements, direct mail, billboards, and banners to promote the Classic Sheepdog Trials to be held in Big Lake in November. 

City of White Deer – matching reimbursement funds for banners and brochures to promote the city’s annual rodeo.  The event is held the last weekend in July.

The Hometown STARS program provides up to $15,000 in matching reimbursements to rural Texas communities that are members of “Texas Yes!” to offset the cost of their tourism promotion efforts.

Application deadlines for the next round of funding will be announced in April.  For more information, go to www.TexasYes.org or call (866) 4TEX-YES (866-483-9937).

People who skip out on city water bills will soon find it more difficult to get away thanks to a new alliance among regional cities.

The Panhandle Regional Recovery Association (PRRA), which became active on March 29, allows member cities to collect overdue accounts on behalf of other member cities.

“You can run, but you can’t hide,” Clarendon City Administrator Sean Pate said of utility debtors.

Under the new system, when a resident leaves Clarendon with a past due water bill and moves to Claude, for example, then that resident must pay the Clarendon bill before Claude will turn on his water service.

The customer is charged a $25 fee, which goes to the PRRA; the collecting city gets 25 percent of the overdue payment; and the city where the account originated collects the remaining 75 percent. The system works on all new and existing accounts.

“When the customer moves to a member city, the individual is notified; and if they don’t pay, they get their water turned off.”

City Hall has about $25,000 in delinquent accounts on its books, but only those accounts that have become delinquent since July 1, 2003, can be entered into the system.

“In the last couple of days we’ve entered into the system 24 accounts  worth about $3,000,” Pate said.

Currently, there are 22 Texas Panhandle cities in the PRRA, and Pate thinks that number will soon increase.

“For it to really work, we need to get all the cities in a 50 mile radius of us to join,” said Pate, who is also a member of the PRRA Board of Directors. “We’re getting one or two new cities every week, and by the next six months, I think we’ll have nearly all the cities in the Panhandle.

The PRRA is the first effort of its kind in the state, and such a system would have been illegal before new legislation took effect last summer under HB 2036. Now, all eyes are on the Panhandle as regional groups in North Central Texas and on the South Plains prepare to form revenue recovery associations of their own.

“We envision it going statewide to the point where if you leave here and move to Texarkana, we’ll still catch you,” Pate said.

The financial condition of the Medical Center Nursing Home has become a central issue as voters prepare to cast ballots in next month’s hospital board election.

Board member Alan Fletcher is raising concerns over the home’s financial losses, the cancellation of the Donley County Hospital District’s professional liability insurance, and the amount of debt the district has.

Fletcher points to the district audit report for fiscal year July 1, 2002, to June 30, 2003, which shows Medical Center Nursing Home had a net loss of $199,739, and says the home has lost more than $600,000 in the last four years. He says part of the problem is that the budget has been prepared based on 96 percent occupancy and that average occupancy is closer to 91 percent.

But district administrator Alan Graham says the district’s books really look pretty good, and he says he’s willing to discuss the matter anytime. He doesn’t dispute Fletcher’s numbers, just the interpretation of them, and he says the nursing home is on track to make a profit this fiscal year.

The $199,739 loss shown in the audit report, Graham notes, includes expenses for more than $110,000 in depreciation and interest payments on bonds totaling $88,696, – the latter of which should be considered a hospital district expense rather than strictly a nursing home expense.

The hospital district is comprised of three components – the nursing home, the Associated Ambulance Authority, and the district itself, which has some administrative duties and is responsible for indigent health care payments.

Graham said the annual audit report only has two categories – one for the ambulance service and one entitled “Medical Center,” which includes the nursing home and the district expenses – and that can be confusing.

Graham also said the audit report does show a net loss for MCNH in the last fiscal year. He said past reports have shown losses every year going back to 1990 and beyond, including fiscal year 2002 when the home had a pre-depreciation profit.

The administrator admits that the current budget was based on 96 percent occupancy, but says that the occupancy in the previous fiscal year was 94 percent and that he therefore felt comfortable projecting 96 percent. Although, occupancy for the first seven months of fiscal year 2004 has been below 96 percent, things are turning around.

“We are currently at 52 beds, which is 98 percent,” Graham said last Friday. “Hopefully by the middle of next week, we will be completely full.”

Occupancy is not something fully within the control of the district, and it is affected by everything from the economy to acts of God, Graham said. Whatever the cause, empty beds have a profound impact on the financial operations of the home when five beds can generate approximately $185,000 per year.

“We, as a community and as taxpayers, need to support the nursing home and help keep the beds full by talking it up,” Graham said. “It’s in all our best interests.”

With regards to the professional liability insurance, Fletcher says he feels taxpayers are exposed to a huge risk not having that protection, but Graham says the risk is limited and that the premium for the insurance simply went out of control this year.

“Our premium last year was $18,769 for medical professional liability coverage,” he said. “For this year we were notified that – with zero claims against us – the coverage was going up to $136,824. We simply couldn’t afford it.”

Graham said Texas tort law caps the amount for which the hospital district can be liable and also said the district does carry general liability coverage.

The district’s debt includes a bond in excess of $1.5 million (for remodeling the Medical Center Nursing Home and adding ten beds to produce more revenue) and approximately $160,000 in local notes, which were taken out to build the Community Services Building and Ambulance Building and to purchase equipment and software for the ambulance service and MCNH.

Fletcher says the district can’t keep borrowing money for those kinds of expenses. Graham says that the Community Services Building generates lease revenue for the district, that building the ambulance facility “just made sense,” and that the other equipment was needed.

Fletcher, who is in his first year of a two-year term, says talk around town that he wants to close the nursing home or fire employees are just rumors started by other board members.

“I swore when I took office out there to operate it as I would my own business,” he said. “My feeling is just that no one wants to change anything.”

For his part, Graham said the people of Donley County have to decide what services they want to do without when it comes to budget cuts. He also says he’s willing to talk to Fletcher any time to discuss his concerns but that Fletcher has never done that.

“If Mr. Fletcher has questions, he has the opportunity to come to my office any time,” Graham said, “but he has never been to my office to discuss any issues pro or con, good or bad.”

The Donley County Hospital Board will meet in regular session next Tuesday, April 20, at 6 p.m.

Seventeen CHS students placed within 14 different contests to win the District 2-A Academic Meet held at Amarillo College March 31 and April 1.

Their achievements along with the One-Act play’s points sealed the trophy for the second consecutive year.

Those placing were: Jake Miser, 6th in computer applications; Carmen Hamilton, 5th in spelling; Jeffery Calvert, 6th accounting, 5th mathematics; Tim Sears, 3rd editorials, 6th ready writing; Stephanie Fowler, 4th headlines, 6th news writing; Robert Shelton, 2nd Lincoln Douglass debate; Sarah Depew, 3rd Lincoln Douglass debate, 4th Feature writing; Shanna Shelton, 5th literary criticism; Andrea Findley, 5th ready writing; Branson Carter, 3rd social studies; Jamie Simmons, 4th social studies; Jessica Hernandez, 6th persuasive speaking; Lydia Hartman, 3rd headlines; Joaenea Horn, 2nd ready writing; Matt Aaron, 2nd literary criticism; Drew Sell, 4th current issues and events; Ottis Scrivner, 1st current issues and events.

The Social Studies team, the Literary Criticism team, and the Journalism team earned 2nd place team points.

Those CHS students advancing to the Regional Meet are Tim Sears, Robert Shelton, Sarah Depew, Ottis Scrivner, Matt Aaron, Joaenea Horn, Lydia Hartman, and Branson Carter.  The Regional Meet will be held at South Plains College in April.

Organizers are lining up candidates to unwittingly fight it out to be Donley County’s fourth Turkey King, but this year there is a twist. The candidates are all female.

“The women are going to rule the roost,” said election judge Linda Gray, “and any man who thinks he is up to the challenge is welcome to try to win.”

Leading the 2004 flock is the esteemed mayor of Howardwick and perennial candidate Nancy Davis, who is making her third appearance on the fowl ballot. Davis narrowly lost the crown last year when Clarendon Alderman Tommy Hill defeated her by a margin of only 72 cents.

Davis also came in second in 2002, but she is expected to turn up the charm this year for a very spirited campaign.

Other candidates ready to do battle with Davis include Tessie Robinson of Suna AutoMall, Martha Smith of Clarendon College, CC Librarian Jewell Houston, Andrea Coxey of Medical Center Nursing Home, Linda Thornton also of MCNH, CHS secretary Valorie Ashcraft, Associated Ambulance Authority directory Anita Aaron, paramedic Anna Summers, and Reneé Betts of Greenbelt Water Authority.

Votes are still one penny each, and the hen with the most money wins when the fourth annual Turkey Strut Festival is held Saturday, April 24. Ballots may be cast in the jars of the respective candidates at Sayes, Duckwall’s, and the Texas Steakout. Proceeds go to promote tourism in Donley County.

Other scheduled activities for the festival include a cake walk, a volleyball tournament, a merchants’ window painting contest, a mattress race, the kids’ turkey strut contest, and a high noon bank robbery.

Anyone interested in fundraising or having an arts and crafts fair during the Turkey Strut should contact Terry Askew at 874-3844.

If your child didn’t like eating in the school cafeteria this year, chances are they’ll be even less likely to want to eat there next year following mandatory changes handed down by Texas Agriculture Commissioner Susan Combs.

New nutrition policies from Combs’ office that take 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. In addition, portion sizes for food items such as chips, cookies, bakery items and frozen desserts at elementary, middle and high schools are limited.

“This policy is the result of months of collaboration with experts and interested individuals around the state who consider children’s health and education a top priority,” Combs said.  “We want to ensure that foods served in our schools are nutritious and balanced, and we are dedicated to promoting an environment that nurtures both mental and physical development.”

But Clarendon ISD Superintendent Monty Hysinger says that while the intention of the policy may be good, it is continuing to handicap cafeteria workers in serving a variety of foods for students.

“The policy may very well do away with the a la carte line that we serve junior high and high school students,” Hysinger said. “I think we will have some kids that will just skip lunch and others that will start bringing their own lunches from home.”

Connie McKinney, Clarendon school cafeteria director, is also concerned that students will skip meals if the a la carte line is removed due to the new policy removing all fried foods from the cafeteria.

“If I can’t serve kids chicken strips and cheese sticks, I’m afraid they won’t eat anything.”

McKinney said that the deep fryer has to be removed from the school by 2006 and that all foods that once were fried must now be baked, including French fries, corndogs, and burritos.

“We tried baked burritos last week, and we noticed the kids didn’t like the change.”

Combs’ portion restrictions limit servings of baked French fries to three ounces, which McKinney says would probably be the equivalent of six or eight fries.

If CISD doesn’t follow Combs’ mandate, 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.

But Hysinger says that if children do not eat in the cafeteria, that could also affect the school’s federal funding through the National School Lunch Program.

“If they don’t go through the line, we’re not reimbursed,” Hysinger said and noted that these types of changes could raise the cost of preparing meals.

“A lot of the changes Combs forces us to make change our financial input. We still have to hold down the cost, but we have to make the changes too.”

Field trips during school hours will also be affected by this new policy.

“We will have to get sack lunches from the cafeteria and send with the students,” Hysinger said. “As far as extra-curricular activities go, we may get by with not following the policy. We just need to check into it further.”

Combs says this policy is the result of months of collaboration with experts and interested individuals around the state who consider childhood obesity an enormous concern, but Hysinger feels that schools are not to blame.

“Schools aren’t the cause of the obesity issue,” Hysinger said, “but I guess we have to do our part to remedy it.”

Hedley High School took twenty-two students to Happy High School for the District UIL Academic Meet and made a super showing, taking six first place team trophies in the six team events entered.

The Number Sense, Current Issues and Events, Calculator Applications, Science, Social Studies, and Mathematics teams all placed first and will travel to Levelland April 23 for the Regional Academic Meet.

Stephen Howard was first place individual in Number Sense, with Will Verstuyft and Lacey Wallendorff completing the team. 

Ben Shaw was gold medallist in Current Issues and Events and combined with Katie Gregory and Ashleah Martin for top team honors.

Treva Rowland captured first in Calculator Applications with Brittney Bennett placing third and Ruth Anne Howard placing eighth in their winning of the first place team trophy.

Wallendorff and Rowland tied for first place in the Science contest with Stephen Howard coming in second, Travis Hrbacek fifth, and Bennett sixth.  Rowland and Howard also tied for the top student award in the chemistry section of the test.

Shaw picked up his second gold medal of the meet in Social Studies as the team including Will Verstuyft and Daniel Allen won the team event.

Wallendorff also gathered in a second individual gold by placing first in the Mathematics, tying a school record in the event.  Stephen Howard was second in Math, and Hrbacek completed the gold medal team.

Also placing for Hedley was Mariah Couch – fifth in Poetry and Cori Cantrell – third in Headline Writing. 

Hedley will take 15 students to Regionals with a chance to advance to the UIL State Academic Meet on May 6-8 in Austin.

Web master Ashlee Kidd and publisher Roger Estlack display the General Excellence and Ken Towery Community Service awards presented to the Enterprise by the Panhandle Press Association.

Photo by Derrol Wells / Eagle Press
 
The Clarendon Enterprise received nine first place plaques en route to winning the Panhandle Press Association’s “General Excellence” award during the PPA’s 94th annual convention Saturday in Amarillo.

The local paper swept the Division I category of the 2003 PPA Better Newspaper Contest, placing in 13 out of 15 categories. The contest was judged by members of the Gulf Coast Press Association.

“This has been a banner year for the Enterprise, celebrating our 125th anniversary and redesigning the paper itself. We’ve tried to make the paper better than ever before, and it was nice to have that recognized by our peers,” said publisher Roger Estlack. “As always, it’s important to note that we couldn’t do it without our dedicated staff and the support of our readers and advertisers.”

The Enterprise received first place honors for Feature News Photos by Roger Estlack and Cheryl Johnson; Feature Stories by Estlack, Ashlee Kidd, and Carrie Helms; Front Page Layout; Headline Writing; News Writing; Online Newspaper; Society Section; Special Edition; and Sports Writing by Sandy Anderberg, Tangela Copelin, and Estlack.

“This was our first time to win the top award in Sports Writing,” the publisher said, “and we were excited to win the Online Newspaper award since this was the first year for that category. Ashlee Kidd does a great job keeping the Web site up to date for us.”

The paper also received second place awards for Best Editorials and for News Photos and third place honors for Sports Photos and in the Serious Columns category for Helms’ “Life’s Lessons.” Estlack received an honorable mention for Serious Columns as well.

Judges said Helms’ column was “well written,” “excellent,” and “very original.” Enterprise feature photos were praised for their composition and reproduction, and local news stories were recognized for being very descriptive and for a strong use of quotes. The society page was praised for its range of coverage.

“The society page is a group effort,” Estlack said. “We put it together in the office, but we rely on our regular columnists – Gail Shelton, Peggy Watt, and Peggy Cockerham – to keep us up to date on all the community news.”

The Enterprise also received the Ken Towery Community Service Award for its support of the proposed paving project and related bond election, which was narrowly defeated by city voters last September.

“This paper tried its hardest to improve the community,” said PPA Vice President Doug McDonough.

The Towery Award is named after former Floydada publisher Ken Towery, a man who was devoted to community journalism during his career. Each year the PPA Board of Directors selects two recipients of the award, one in the weekly division and another in the semi-weekly/daily division. The winners receive a plaque and a $250 cash award.

The Enterprise has previously received the Towery Award in 2002, 2001, and 1999.

In other convention news, four journalists were inducted into the PPA Hall of Fame, including the late Ed Eakin of Quanah, who was a former part owner of The Clarendon Press; former Clarendon resident Jeane Bartlett of the Amarillo Globe-News, Rose Watson of the Moore County News-Press, and Carol Ellis of the Friona Star and Bovina Blade.

Other papers placing in the quest for General Excellence were the Floyd County Hesperian-Beacon (second), The Eagle Press of Fritch (third), and the Hansford County Reporter-Statesman (fourth). The Clovis News-Journal was the top paper in the Division II category for semi-weekly and daily newspapers.

Attending this year’s convention and accepting the awards on the Enterprise’s behalf were publisher Roger Estlack and Web master Ashlee Kidd.

Results from the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills exam are back, and feelings at Donley County schools are mutual: Students exceeded the expectations of the Hedley and Clarendon administrators.

Hedley School Superintendent Bryan Hill said that all ten of his school’s third grade students tested passed the reading portion of the TAKS test.

“I am ecstatic that 100 percent of our students passed,” Hill said. “I just hope the other tests come out as well.”

According to Clarendon Elementary Principal Mike Word, thirty-eight of the forty third grade students tested passed the exam for a 95 percent passing rate.

“I attribute the success of the students to the hard work of both the students and the teachers.”

Word said that those who did not pass the reading test the first time are receiving extra instruction and will have two more opportunities to retake the test.

“I believe they will both do fine on the next test.”

The parents of students at Clarendon Elementary will be receiving individual results in the mail this week.

“We want to make sure the parents know how their children did,” Word said.

Last year, students were required to answer correctly at least 20 out of 36 questions to reach the “met the standard” passing level. This year, students were required to answer 23 out of 36 questions to pass.

“Last year we had 91 percent of the students reach this level, and this year we had 95 percent reach it,” Word said

Statewide passing rates on the reading exam reached 91 percent this spring.

“This is great news,” said Texas Commissioner of Education Shirley J. Neeley. “The students, their teachers, and their parents worked hard; and they are reaping the benefits .”

This marks the second year for the TAKS standardized test. The state began a focused approach to provide scientifically-based reading instruction after the creation of the Texas Reading Initiative in 1997.

The reading progress of students, beginning in kindergarten, is closely monitored so that teachers can adjust their lessons to the needs of individual students. Then, beginning in 2003, third-grade students were required to pass the TAKS reading exam in order to be promoted to fourth grade.

Elementary students also took the writing test in February, but those results will not be made available until May.

The final portions of the TAKS testing will take place April 27, 28, and 29.

“Students will take the Math test on the 27th; the fourth and fifth graders along with the two third-graders who didn’t pass the first time will take the reading test on the 28th; and the fifth graders will take the science on the 29th,” Word said.

The population of Clarendon nearly doubled last Saturday when 1,872 contestants representing 129 FFA and 4H chapters were in town for the Clarendon College Invitational Judging Contest.

According to the 2000 US Census, Clarendon has a population of 1,974.

Local merchants feel that the students along with their coaches, families, and friends provided a boost to the community’s economy over the weekend.

“It’s a big business day for us,” said Paul Bivens, co-owner of the Clarendon Outpost. “The restrooms were busy all day long.”

Tanya Smith, manager of the Outpost Deli, said that they stayed busy until about 4 p.m. Saturday.

“It was a good weekend for us,” Smith said. “There’s no way this was not a boost for the economy. That many kids spending money in town is wonderful.”

Clarendon Steakhouse also stayed busy with the contestants, along with their coaches, families, and friends in town, according to cook Zan Adams.

“We were busy from 12:30 to 3:30 non-stop,” Adams said. “There was no place to sit, so we had to turn people away. We knew people would be in town, but we had no idea it would be that busy. We had two to three times more business last Saturday than any normal Saturday.”

The Western Skies Motel and the new Best Western American Inn also received a lot of customers.

“It was really good for business,” Jimmy Sindha, co-owner of both establishments said. “We were booked full for this weekend over a month ago at Western Skies.”

Sindha said people started calling about a month ago wanting to reserve rooms, but at the time he did not know if it would be open for business in time for the contest and could not take reservations.

“People ended up staying out of town because they did not want to take the risk of not getting a room,” Sindha said. “However, we did get about 30 people staying here Friday night from the contest.”

Johnny Treichel, CC agriculture instructor, said that he feels the contest went really well.

“We haven’t heard any complaints so far,” he said.