News

By Cheryl Johnson, Clarendon Enterprise

The Howardwick Beautification Club is sponsoring its annual Christmas project beginning December 7, 2003, with the lighting of the Nativity scene in Howardwick City Park at 7:15 p.m.

Everyone is invited to attend the ceremony led by Dr. Geona Goad of Howardwick Baptist Church, followed by refreshments and caroling at City Hall.

Judging for the lighting contest will be December 11. Registration will not be required. Turn your lights on that Thursday, and you will be entered. First, second, and third places will be awarded in two categories – general lighting and religious, with houses and trailers judged separately.

New this year will be a grand prize for the one house or trailer judged best overall.

Check out those lights and get them up.  Let’s make Howardwick sparkle again this year.

The Texas Panhandle is currently experiencing a critical need for all blood types, according to Coffee Memorial Blood Bank.

A blood drive will be held next Monday, December 1, at the Bairfield Activity Center from 1:30 p.m to 5:30 p.m.

All donors will receive a gold Christmas ornament, and appointments can be made by calling 1-800-658-6178.

Clarendon College will likely begin soliciting bids for the construction of a new library next month following last Thursday’s Board of Regents meeting.

Architect Jim Doche presented blueprints for the facility at the meeting, and CC President Myles Shelton discussed the timeline for the project.

The college anticipates starting the bidding on or about December 8.  The bids will be opened on January 8, 2004; and the regents will meet on January 15 to consider awarding a bid.

The library, which will be built between the Administration Building and the Harned Sisters Fine Arts Center, is expected to take eight to ten months. CC officials hope to be using the new facility for the 2005 spring semester.

The $1.4 million library project is being built with funds which have been donated to the college.

The present library on the west end of the Administration Building was determined to be inadequate by the Southern Association of Colleges & Schools (SACS) during CC’s last accreditation visit in 1994.  SACS officials will make another accreditation visit in the fall of 2005.

In other CC business, regents accepted final completion of the new softball field and the Livestock & Equine Center. Officials reported that the contractor is still working to complete items on the punch list for the new residence hall. Those items include some remaining work on doors and effacing and concern about inconsistent coloring of the patio.

The board received a report on the Texas State Performance Measures. CC students completed courses at a rate of 92.3 percent during 2003, and more than 97 percent of students required to take a licensure exam (such as LVN and EMT students) did so successfully.

Regents approved a resolution authorizing a grant application to the Chapman Forestry Foundation for landscaping around Regents Hall.

Regents accepted the resignations of custodian Ramona Santos and assistant softball coach Brandi Perry. Henry Hermesmeyer was hired as a custodian, and the contracts of Sharron Rust and Gay Tibbets were renewed.

Drafts of the strategic goals and institutional plan, entitled “Opening Doors, Changing Lives,” were distributed to the board The plan is an outgrowth of visioning exercises done earlier this year.

The Associated Ambulance Authority was awarded a $35,000 grant from the Texas Department of Health (TDH) last week to help purchase a new ambulance.

Authority Director Anita Aaron said her office received a congratulatory phone call from TDH last Tuesday after sending in the grant application in April.

“We were very blessed,” she said. “We were thrilled just not to be rejected and then to find out that we got just what we asked for.”

Aaron said the ambulance service received the maximum possible award under a TDH Local Project Grant program. The funds will be used to replace the authority’s oldest ambulance, which is a 1995 model that will be traded in.

 “Because of where we are located, we rack up a lot of miles,” Aaron said.

The ambulance service, which operates a total of three ambulances under the authority of the Donley County Hospital District, had only 30 to 45 days to fill out an application that Aaron said was much more complex than previous applications.

“This was a team effort,” she said of the application. “There is no one person responsible for the success of this grant.”

Ambulance service personnel Debra Hill, Anna Summers, Brent Aaron, Connie Wheatley, and District Administrator Alan Graham assisted Anita Aaron with the application.

Work is already underway on several grant applications to come up with an additional $45,000 needed to purchase a new ambulance, and Aaron says the state grant will make finding the extra money much easier.

“It puts us in a better position since we’ve already been awarded a grant,” she said. “It opens doors and makes us look more attractive to other grantors.”

The ambulance service has one year to use the state funds and seeks to find the matching funds within that timeframe.

Earlier this week Aaron was in San Antonio for the Texas State EMS Conference on behalf of the ambulance authority and was attending the Rural EMS Task Force meeting of the Governor’s Emergency Trauma Advisory Council.

“We’re developing an elected officials’ guide to EMS as to who we are and what we do,” she said.

Aaron said currently the state considers EMS to be a “non-essential” service while law enforcement and fire departments are considered “essential” services.

The Burton Memorial Library held an open house and anniversary party Saturday morning in celebration of 80 years of service to the people of Donley County and Clarendon.

Approximately 80 people attended the party hosted by the Friends of the Library. Attendees enjoyed cake, cookies, and punch; and author Kyle Garner was on hand to sign copies of his book, Whatever It Takes.

The library was established by the Pathfinders Study Club in 1923 and was originally located on the second floor of City Hall. Before that year was over, the library was moved to larger quarters on the first floor.

Gabie Betts Burton served as the library’s first librarian and was instrumental in its founding. She held that position for 24 years and for many years wrote a weekly column, “Library Notes,” for The Donley County Leader. On the library’s 14th anniversary, she wrote the following:

“If I were asked to name the institution of most value to all the people of a community, leaving out the church and school, of course, I should answer ‘a library.’ Nothing else contributes to the happiness and well being of as many individuals, both old and young, rich and poor. For books are no respecters of persons. They contribute their stored treasures of wisdom, of beauty, of inspiration, of wit, and of eloquence to all who are willing to delve into them.”

The library became a department of the city in 1928 and then became a joint city-county operation in 1945, partnership that continues to this day.

Local people often thought of the institution as “Mrs. Burton’s Library.” She retired in 1947 and passed away in 1948. Two years later, the library was renamed the Gabie Betts Burton Library at the urging of the Pathfinders Club.

In March 1977, City Hall was remodeled to its present configuration for municipal offices, and the library was moved into former tax office in the Donley County Courthouse, the present site of the Commissioners’ Courtroom. Space there was very limited and cramped.

An official Library Board was first created by city and county officials in September 1977 and helped the library meet the standards to join the Texas Panhandle Library System in 1978.

An anonymous gift of $50,000 combined with the hard work and donations of local civic leaders led to the purchase and remodeling of two buildings on Kearney Street, and the library moved to its modern home in August of 1981. At that time, the name was officially changed to the Burton Memorial Library.

 Several people have followed in Mrs. Burton’s footsteps to care for her library. Those people holding the title of librarian have been Gabie Betts Burton, May Lumpkin Prewitt, Edith Speed Barnes, Miss Isla Smith, Sarah Cline, Lawrence Neece, Annis Stavenhagen, Diane Chamberlain, Mary Lynn Bills, Mary Green, Carolyn Blackerby, and Jerri Shields.

Mrs. John Justice was also a longtime library employee under the tenures of Mrs. Smith and Mrs. Cline. She also worked under Mr. Neece through the Green Thumb Program.

Today’s library continues with that same spirit of community service embodied by its namesake and provides the public with access not only to traditional books but also to audio books, videotapes, and access to the Internet. Under the watchful eyes of Librarian Jerri Sheilds and her assistants, Mary Lynn, Irene Oatman, and Bill Russell, it seems certain that Mrs. Burton’s library will continue to bring pleasure, inspiration, and learning to the people of Donley County for many years to come.

Source material for this article was provided by the Burton Memorial Library, the files of The Donley County Leader, and the late Helen Porter Lowe.

Donley County Commissioners approved implementation of a new service Monday that will allow crime victims to be notified automatically when the felon in their case is released from jail.

Chris Jones, whose Louisville, Ken., company developed the VINE (Victim Information & Notification Everyday) program, said in the called meeting that full funding for the project comes through the Texas Attorney General’s office.

The Texas VINE will upload booking information from the sheriff’s department into a state database, which can be accessed by the public. Anyone will be able to call a toll free number 24 hours a day to find the custody status of a prisoner as well as upcoming court dates for that prisoner.

People can also register with VINE free of charge to be automatically notified any time there is a change in a prisoner’s status. The system, which will eventually be implemented statewide, will be updated every 15 minutes.

Jones said the attorney general’s office would provide a computer for the sheriff’s department and also provide for the software and training for local personnel.

VINE will also allow the local sheriff’s office to automate its booking system, which currently is not computerized.

A date was not given as to when the system would be operational.

In other county business, the commissioners’ court met in regular session November 10 to discuss several items.

The court considered taking action on casting the county’s votes for the Donley Appraisal Board but delayed that agenda item until December 8.

Commissioners approved a resolution authorizing the county’s participation in the Panhandle Regional Planning Commission’s FY03 Regional Hazard Mitigation Planning Project.

A resolution was also approved which authorizes a representative of the Texas Comptroller’s office to explain the new GASB 34 accounting rules to each county office holder.

The court also voted in favor of accepting a proposal from Creative Cuts of Cleburne for a new 36-inch plaque depicting the state seal and the words “County of Donley” to be hung behind the judge’s bench in the district courtroom. The plaque will be paid for with money from the courthouse restoration fund.

The Texas Department of Health (TDH) has issued a statewide health advisory reporting heavier-than-usual influenza activity in the state and urging people to get a flu shot.

“It’s not unusual to have flu occur this early in the season. What’s unusual is to have this much of it this early,” said Texas Commissioner of Health Eduardo Sanchez.

Influenza, or flu, has been reported in Bell, Bexar, Brazos, Collin, Harris, Jefferson, Montgomery, Nolan, Smith, Travis and Williamson counties the first two weeks of October.

“Get a flu shot,” Sanchez advised. “That’s the first line of defense.”

Authorities report that the flu vaccine is in plentiful supply this year. People wanting to get a flu shot should contact their doctors, employers, or local public health departments or watch for announcements from supermarkets and other businesses offering the shot to the public.

Flu season officially begins in October and runs through May, usually reaching its peak in Texas in January and February.

This season’s vaccine protects against the A/Panama, A/New Caledonia and B/Hong Kong strains of the influenza virus and against other similar strains.

Most people six months or older can receive the flu vaccine, but it is especially encouraged for children 6 months to 23 months, people 50 and older, residents of nursing homes and other long-term care facilities, diabetics, women who will be in their second or third trimester of pregnancy during flu season, people with weakened immune systems, and people who have asthma or other chronic respiratory, heart, or kidney conditions.

It takes about two weeks for the vaccine to be effective.

Influenza is a viral respiratory illness marked by the sudden onset of fever, headache, extreme tiredness, dry cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, and muscle aches. The illness is spread when an infected person coughs, sneezes or talks, sending the highly contagious virus into the air.

As a flu control measure, Sanchez stressed that people with flu symptoms should stay home to avoid infecting classmates or colleagues.

Influenza is not a reportable illness in Texas, so exact flu case numbers are not known. Instead, TDH relies on a surveillance network of reporting sites around the state to track influenza levels and identify circulating strains of the virus.

More information is online at: www.tdh.state.tx.us/ideas/influenza/overview

The Clarendon Board of Aldermen rescinded its previous action on a zoning issue last Tuesday after receiving legal advice.

The reversal follows a 2-1 vote at the October 28 meeting to allow Sue Leeper to build an assisted living center in the R1 residential zone, which primarily restricts buildings in that area to single-family houses, two-family houses, duplexes, apartment houses, and multiple-family dwellings.

City Attorney James Shelton advised the board that it could not grant a “use variance” – allow property in a zone to be used for something other than what the zone intended.

“There is no provision to allow a use variance,” Shelton said. “I think the council needs to take action tonight to deny the permit because we just can’t do it.”

The city attorney said if the city wants to allow the assisted living center in that location, it would need to follow the proper due process and amend the zoning ordinance to define an assisted living center as being acceptable in the R1 zone.

Officials briefly debated whether the October 28 action was “illegal” or “improper” before Alderman Bobbie Kidd moved, seconded by Mark White, to deny Leeper’s request because “proper procedures were not followed.” The motion carried, 3-1-1, with Aldermen Janice Knorpp, White, and Kidd in favor; Alderman Tommy Hill opposed; and Alderman Michael Tibbets abstaining.

Later, the board took up the issue of amending Ordinance 207, which is the city’s zoning ordinance.

“It is my considered opinion that we need to encourage people to invest in Clarendon rather than discourage them,” said Alderman Tibbets, who also pointed out that the city has not been applying the zoning rules consistently.

The board unanimously approved a motion by Tibbets, seconded by Hill, to begin the legal process to amend Ordinance 207 to allow assisted living facilities in zones R1 and R2 and throughout the city.

In other city business, Walt Knorpp addressed the board concerning one block of Fifth Street in front of his home. The area is part of a four-block stretch of brick paving extending from Parks to Allen streets that was once known as “the Boulevard” for its tree-lined median.

Mr. Knorpp requested that the property owners on Fifth Street between Ellerbe and Koogle be allowed to restore their section of the Boulevard at their own cost. Once restored, the property owners would be responsible for maintaining flowers, trees, or grass planted in the median.

He said he believed his neighbors would be willing to help with the project, but he wanted the city’s permission before going further with the idea. He also said he thought it might inspire property owners on the two blocks between Ellerbe and Parks to do the same type of project. (The fourth block of the old Boulevard between Koogle and Allen is now a state Farm Road.)

Alderman Tibbets said Mr. Knorpp should be applauded for his idea and moved to allow his request. The motion was approved 4-0-1 with Alderman Knorpp abstaining.

The board also considered a request from Morris Crump to close McLean and Collinson Streets between Eighth and Ninth streets. The board decided no action was necessary in this case since Crump owns the property on both sides of the streets in question.

Those streets have never been opened, but the city retains a right to put a street there in the future if necessary.

David Pitts addressed the board on behalf of the Clarendon Volunteer Fire Department and raised concerns that there would be inadequate water volume to fight a fire at the new motel or the college because the lines are not looped in those locations. Alderman Kidd said he thinks the lines are already looped near the motel. The city administrator and the city engineer will look into this.

The street paving proposals presented by Steve Smith and Darrell Leffew were discussed, and the board decided to take no action.

“We’re a year away from doing anything on this,” said Mayor Tex Selvidge, speaking to the fact that it will take the city at least that long to build up enough money from recent fee increases to be able to take on a project of any kind.

Ordinance 348 was adopted on its second reading, creating a reinvestment zone for the property at US 287 and SH 70 North where the new motel is located. The ordinance cleared the way for the board’s approval of a property tax abatement for the motel with the terms of 100 percent abatement for five years, and 50 percent abatement for three years.

The board approved a resolution allowing the city to participate in the Panhandle Regional Planning Commission’s FY03 Regional Hazard Mitigation Planning Project.

Bids for the sale of surplus city equipment were opened and approved.

City Administrator Sean Pate gave a report on the progress of the NRCS project, and he also reported that Librarian Jerri Shields has received her certification.

The fate of the legacies of Harold and Olive Bugbee is in the hands of the Panhandle-Plains Historical Society, and a large group of people gathered in the Bairfield Activity Center last Tuesday to speak out on the subject.

At stake is a 358-acre ranch northwest of Clarendon; a vast collection of art, furniture, and personal property belonging to Harold Dow Bugbee – one of the greatest Western artists of the 20th century; and a historic home virtually unchanged since its construction.

Bugbee, whose works are in collections everywhere from local homes and businesses to the Smithsonian Institution, died in 1963 and left everything to his widow, Olive Vandruff Bugbee, and to the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum (PPHM) in Canyon.

Mrs. Bugbee – an acclaimed artist in her own right whose patrons included President Lyndon Johnson and Governor Dolph Briscoe – carefully maintained her husband’s estate, kept detailed records on everything, and then also bequeathed all her belongings to the PPHM when she died in January of this year.

Now, the board of the Panhandle-Plains Historical Society, which owns the PPHM’s collection and oversees its programs, is faced with a decision of what to do with the Bugbees’ estate, which PPHM Director Walt Davis says is valued at just over $1 million.

Davis says Mrs. Bugbee’s will allows the Society to retain or dispose of her property as it shall deem advisable at its sole discretion; but at last week’s meeting, people spoke up for keeping that property intact and for preserving it for future generations.

Seth Davidson, president of the Panhandle Tourism Marketing Council, urged the Society to take its time to consider all the options.

“Take a moment – a year, two years – to decide the proper course,” Davidson said. “Olive Bugbee died. Olive Bugbee left this bequest to the museum. She intended this to be conserved and stewarded for as long as human beings conserve things.”

Davidson framed his remarks in the large context of the future of the PPHM itself and said that the museum must find new constituents and that the Bugbee Ranch offers it a unique opportunity to do just that by offering visitors art, history, culture, and wildlife. In his view, a properly developed Bugbee Ranch would help capture the attention of nature and heritage tourists and point them in the direction of the “big museum” in Canyon.

Representatives from the US Fish & Wildlife Service, the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, and Texas Parks & Wildlife Department also addressed the meeting and spoke of cost sharing and easement programs which could assist the PPHM in improving the ranch for the purposes of habitat restoration, nature conservancy, and outdoor classroom possibilities at little or no cost to the museum.

“I see all of these parts just waiting to be put together into a beautiful thing,” said TPWD’s Gene Miller. “It just gets richer and richer. Let us help you.”

Don Robinson also spoke and offered his assistance to the Society.

“I knew Olive Bugbee better than most anybody,” said Robinson, who has leased part of the ranch for agricultural purposes for many years. “We would do her a great injustice not to carry on as she had done. She used to say to me, ‘Do what you want to, but don’t change anything.’”

Robinson said it was clear to him that Mrs. Bugbee “was going to walk out of that house with it the exact same way it was when she walked into it.”

Jerry Woodard, a member of the Clarendon Economic Development Corporation Board, also urged the Society to deliberate carefully regarding the future of the Bugbee property.

“This was a partnership,” Woodard said. “It was not just Olive Bugbee; it was Harold Bugbee also.”

Woodard said he felt the future of the Bugbee property shouldn’t be in question since it was obvious what the couple’s wishes were.

“It was already set up,” he said. “These people didn’t only preserve these physical assets, they also set up the funds to take care of it.”

The Society board met last Thursday, and Davis reports that action on the Bugbee estate has been tabled until the board’s next meeting on December 11. In the meantime, museum personnel are compiling a list of funding opportunities mentioned at last week’s Clarendon meeting and are seeking funding sources to undertake a feasibility regarding the property.

“There are two decisions to be made,” Davis said. “First, comes the decision on doing a feasibility study. Then comes the decision on what do we do with the Bugbee house.”

Davis said he couldn’t speak for the society board, but he believes the board is two months away from deciding on the feasibility study and potentially “multiple months” away on deciding the fate of the property.

In the meantime, the PPHM continues to catalogue and appraise the Bugbee bequest. The most valuable items from the estate have been moved to Canyon, and a security system has been installed at the ranch.

Howardwick firefighters will have better equipment and better protection following the approval of a federal grant last week.

The City of Howardwick Volunteer Fire Department was one of 11 Texas communities to receive funding under the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) “2003 Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program.”

The grant for $7,398 will be used to purchase breathing equipment, including six air packs, six spare air tanks, a three-bottle cascade system (to allow small air tanks to be filled from bigger ones), and PASS II monitors, which sound an alarm if a firefighter goes down.

This is Howardwick’s third successful FEMA grant in a row, and each was written by the department’s own Theresa Zeyen.

Howardwick Fire Chief Joe Zeyen said his 12-member department was very pleasantly surprised to be approved for the FEMA grant since they had been funded the previous two years.

“We were kind of shocked because we figured this would be a shot in the dark – you know, twice kissed, once ignored,” he said. “But it turned out to be a blessing.”

Last year, Howardwick received funding for new radios, and the year before that FEMA funded the purchase of a pumper truck.

Under Secretary of Homeland Security for Emergency Preparedness and Response Michael D. Brownsaid  FEMA is awarding 242 grants throughout the United States in the twenty-first round of a program that will ultimately total approximately 7,000 awards worth $750 million.

“In California we have seen the benefits of the suppression efforts made by the nation’s firefighters, and it underscores the importance of putting fire grant funds directly into the communities,” Brown said. “President Bush, Homeland Security, and FEMA are committed to the prevention of all fires as we are to providing preparedness to local firefighters with the critical financial support they need.”

This twenty-first round of grants provides over $14 million to help local fire departments. To date, over 5,400 fire departments have received over $380 million to support their role as first responders in the communities they serve.

Other Texas communities receiving funding in this round were Avery, Orange, Matador, El Paso, Brazos, Wall, Dripping Springs, Beasley, Glenn Heights, and Hutto.