News

Donley County Junior Livestock Show and Auction will be held Saturday, January 11, at the Clarendon Community Center located behind Suna AutoMall.

More than seventy young people will be exhibiting their beef, sheep, and swine projects at 9:00 a.m. The day’s activities will conclude with an auction at 6:00 p.m.

During the year, these participants spend many hours feeding and caring for their animals, and the auction gives them an opportunity to be rewarded for their hard work.

Many participants will take their livestock on to major shows in Ft. Worth, San Antonio, and Houston.

If you would like to support the Junior Livestock Show and sale or need more information, contact Lon Adams at (806) 856-5323.

By John Taylor, CISD Counselor

Students in Clarendon Schools and across the state will face a new assessment this spring. The Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills, or TAKS test replaces the decade old TAAS test.

The new TAKS test, (pronounced ‘tax’) is more rigorous due to increased depth and complexity of the questions.

Teachers prepare students for the TAKS by teaching the state curriculum, the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills or TEKS.

One of the biggest changes brought about by the new assessment program is the Student Success Initiative. Under this program, 3rd graders must pass the TAKS Reading test in order to be promoted to the 4th grade. They will have three opportunities to meet expectations. Additional instruction will be provided for all students who do not pass. A parent can request a GPC or Grade Placement Committee be formed that will ultimately decide if the student will be retained should the student not meet requirements on the third test. In 2005, all 5th graders will have to pass both the TAKS Reading and Math tests to be promoted to the 6th grade. In 2008, 8th graders will have to pass these tests to be promoted to the 9th grade.

Another change TAKS brings is a shift in the Exit Level test (the test that high school students must pass to graduate) from the 10th to the 11th grade. The Exit Level TAKS will consist of an English Language Arts test, a science test, a math test, and a social studies test- all of which must be passed before the student can graduate.

Clarendon High School has made several changes the past few years to address the TAKS requirements. An alternating block schedule has been in place for 2½ years. Longer blocked classes allow the teachers enough flexibility during each class to teach the TEKS and address the critical thinking required by TEKS. Several master schedule changes have been made, and all student graduation plans are devised with TAKS preparation in mind. Also, all juniors are now required to be enrolled in both a science and math class.

Since this year’s juniors took the Exit Level TAAS last year, the new TAKS Exit Level requirement will go into effect in the spring of 2004 for the senior class of 2005. All current CHS students have met Exit Level requirements.

The new TAKS test brings a more complicated testing schedule. Writing at grades 4 and 7, Reading at grade 9, and English Language Arts at grades 10 and 11 will be given on February 25. The third graders’ first opportunity to pass the Reading test will be on March 4 (any student not passing will retest on April 30 and if necessary, again on July 8). Reading at grades 4-8 will be on April 30. TAKS Math will be as follows: grades 3-8 and 11 on April 29, grade 10 on April 30, and grade 9 on May 1. Social Studies will be given on May 1 in grades 8, 10, and 11. Science will be assessed on May 1 for grade 5 and May 2 for grades 10 and 11.

TAAS has not gone away completely. It is still the graduation requirement for any current junior, senior, or out of school examinee who did not pass while in school. While no CHS students will need to retake the TAAS, it will be offered to out of school examinees this spring to those who register by January 24, 2003. Anyone interested in testing should contact the Clarendon counselor’s office at 874-3241.

Four area men are starting the New Year in the custody of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice following their December 30, 2002, sentencings by 100th District Court Judge David McCoy.

According to information from the district attorney’s office, Dustin Dean Dann and Bobby Carol Atkinson, both of Childress, came to plea agreements with the State through District Attorney Stuart Messer. They were represented by attorney Earl Griffin.

Dann received 2½ years in prison for the third degree felony of Unlawful Possession of a Firearm. Atkinson was sentenced to three years in prison for the third degree felony of Driving While Intoxicated.

Carson County inmate Terry Wayne Gollihugh and Donley County inmate Preston Wayne Havens came before the court on motions filed by Messer to revoke probation.

Gollihugh was placed on felony probation on January 4, 1999, for Driving While Intoxicated. He received three years in a TDCJ Institutional Division for his probation violation. Gollihugh was represented by attorney Steve Cross.

Havens was placed on probation for the second degree felony of Indecency with a Child and the first degree felony of Aggravated Sexual Assault on May 23, 2002. He was sentenced to 15 years in a TDCJ Institutional Division for violating probation, and he was represented by Earl Griffin.

The district attorney complimented the Probation Department on these cases.

“I want to commend the work of the Probation Department for keeping tabs on these men and letting us know when they violate their probation requirements so we can work to keep our cities and counties safe for all of us,” Messer said.

Renowned painter Olive Freda Vandruff Bugbee of Clarendon died here on Saturday, January 4, 2003, at the age of 94.

Memorial services will be held at 2 p.m. January 15 in the Hazlewood Lecture Hall at the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum in Canyon

Born at Martin’s Ferry, Ohio, on April 17, 1908, to Ross and Mame Buskirk Vandruff, she spent much of her childhood traveling in the Southwestern United States with her geologist father and her mother. In Chicago, she studied with painter Edmund Giesbert at the University of Chicago.  She also studied with Chicago sculptors Elisabeth H. Hibbard and Frederick C. Hibbard in the mid 1940s, eventually becoming an assistant to them. Vandruff moved to San Antonio in 1931, where she became an assistant to sculptor Pompeo Coppini.

About 1937, she married the engraver Charles F. Anderson.  In 1950 she operated a sheep ranch near Kerrville. While in the Hill Country, she became a renowned painter of animals and birds and was often commissioned to paint pet and horse portraits. She met Western artist H.D. Bugbee of Clarendon in 1960, marrying him the following year and relocating to Clarendon. 

Upon Bugbee’s death in 1963, Vandruff succeeded him as curator of art at the Panhandle-Pains Historical Museum until her retirement in 1982. After retiring, she still volunteered at the Museum, driving the 150 mile round trip from Clarendon nearly every day until November 2002.

Vandruff worked in several media, including pastel, watercolor, casein, and oil.  She was a member of the Coppini Academy of Fine Arts in San Antonio and began exhibiting there in the early 1930s.  By the early 1960s, she had had numerous solo exhibitions.  Vandruff’s paintings are found in private collections across the United States.

Among her patrons were former President Lyndon B. Johnson and Texas Governor Dolph Briscoe.  Her public commissions consist of murals in Texas and Oklahoma, including a mural of Palo Duro Canyon for the First National Bank of Amarillo, now Bank of America. In 1976, she was included in the landmark exhibition, “The Women Artist, in the American West, 1860-1960,” in Fullerton, California.  Recently, she was included in the Dictionary of Texas Artists, 1800-1945.

A memorial exhibition of Vandruff’s paintings will be presented in the Bugbee Gallery at the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum in Canyon.  The exhibition will include works of art from her personal collection as well as from the Museum’s.

Her body will be cremated.  Arrangements were under the direction of Robertson Funeral Directors, Inc., of Clarendon.

Local gun enthusiasts will have to find a new place for target practice after the Clarendon Board of Aldermen closed a local shooting range Monday night.

The action followed complaints by county resident Laban Tubbs, who told the board in December that he had recently found two bullet holes on his property – one in the roof of his house and the other in the side of his barn about four feet from the ground.

“If the shot that hit the roof had been any lower or to the left, it probably would have gone through one living room window and out the other side,” Tubbs told the Enterprise last month.

He also said that he and his nine-year-old daughter had been outside when they heard bullets whizzing overhead and gunshots coming from the range adjacent to the municipal airport. Tubbs’ house is approximately three-quarters of a mile from the range.

“If anyone shoots above the berm, they are directly in line with my house,” Tubbs had said.

During Monday’s called meeting, Mayor Tex Selvidge said the area had never officially been opened as a public shooting range but had been used for several years without incident.

“We never had a problem before,” he said, “but now it’s obvious that there is a problem.”

Selvidge agreed with earlier comments by Tubbs and Sheriff Butch Blackburn that only a few shooters were to blame for the irresponsible behavior which led to the property damage.

“We had a ‘Rules of Shooting’ sign posted out there,” the mayor said, “but they shot holes in that and knocked it over.”

The board voted to cable off the entrance to the range, to post “No Shooting” signs, and to level an earthen berm at the site.

“We’ve already have an ordinance against shooting inside the city limits and on city property,” Selvidge said. “The sheriff assures me that it will be enforced.”

The aldermen agreed that anyone caught shooting at the airport should face the maximum fines allowed by law.

In other city business, Brent Wheeler of GreenLight Gas presented a proposed rate increase for Clarendon natural gas customers. The utility is currently seeking a rate increase for all of its customers through the Texas Railroad Commission, but Clarendon and Hedley have not ceded their local control to the state in this matter.

Wheeler told the board his company’s goal is to have one gas rate for their entire service area rather than different rates in each city.

“We are the first [gas] utility to ask for a regional rate,” he said.

The proposed regional rate is being reviewed by the railroad commission, and Wheeler recommended the city not take any action until the state makes its ruling.

The board agreed and voted to suspend GreenLight Gas’ notice of rate increase, which gives the city a total of 125 days to review the request. If approved, the average residential customer would pay an additional $4.86 per month, and the average commercial customer would pay an additional $15.83 per month.

The city also discussed and approved a lease purchase agreement for the new trash truck at 4.36 percent for five years. And the board authorized the city clerk to co-sign on the city’s general fund in the absence of the mayor or the mayor pro-tem.

Oscar Auker of Clarendon will perform during the 19th annual National Cowboy Poetry Gathering being held January 25 through February 1, 2002, in Elko, Nevada.

Poets and musicians, ages 11 to 87, from fifteen western states will be featured on six stages during the Gathering.  Each year thousands of fans travel to this small Nevada cow town in the dead of winter to celebrate ranching and cowboy culture.

Auker is an 11-year-old cowboy living with his family on the JA Ranch near Clarendon.  Oscar has been reciting poetry for as long as his mother can remember.  In June of 2002, he performed for the first time at the Cal Farley Boys Ranch Youth Gathering.

Oscar performs his own poems, classic cowboy poems, and his personal favorites from cowboy poets Red Steagall and Larry McWhorter.  Like most cowboys, Oscar prefers to be on horseback chasing cows, but he also enjoys reading and helping around the ranch with chores.

For more information about the Gathering, call 1-888-880-5885.  An Internet cybercast of the NCPG’s key speakers and performers begins January 29 and concludes February 1, 2002.  Log on to www.westernfolklife.org for an in-depth look at the Gathering schedule or to hear audio clips from past events.

A local girl came away with only minor injuries after a three-car accident just after noon December 20.

Christine Holden, age 17, was northbound on Koogle Street when southbound Mary Ann Humek of Irving, 29, failed to yield the right of way while attempting to turn left onto Third Street, according to a report from the Donley County Sheriff’s Office.

Humek’s 1990 Ford F-150 struck Holden’s 1999 Pontiac Grand Am in the left front quadrant. Humek in turn was struck from behind by Jeannie Lea Clark, 41, driving a 1995 Lincoln Towncar. Clark was following too close behind Humek, the report said.

Local emergency personnel responded quickly, and Holden was transported by the Associated Ambulance Authority to Northwest Texas Hospital in Amarillo as a precaution. She was treated and released and suffered only minor injuries, her family said.

One citation was issued to Humek as a result of the accident.

American Electric Power (NYSE:AEP) has completed the sale of two of its Texas retail electric providers (REPs) to Centrica, a leading provider of retail energy and other essential consumer services.

Plans to sell the two REPs – Mutual Energy WTU and Mutual Energy CPL – were announced in April.  The transaction received approval from the Public Utility Commission of Texas and clearance under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act from the Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice.

The immediate cash proceeds from the transaction are valued at $185 million, which includes $146 million in the customers and $39 million related to the access to AEP’s customer relationship management and billing arrangement systems.  The funds will be used by AEP to retire outstanding debt and strengthen its balance sheet.

In addition to the immediate cash proceeds, the transaction includes two-year power supply and back office agreements.  The transaction also includes an earnings-sharing arrangement opportunity and protects the company against downside exposure.

Mutual Energy WTU and Mutual Energy CPL sell retail electricity to more than 810,000 residential and small commercial customers in south and west Texas.  These customers are served at the “price to beat,” a statutorily defined rate for customers with a peak demand of one megawatt or less who do not switch to competitive providers.  Full customer choice began in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) on Jan. 1, 2002.

“AEP’s strengths are in the wholesale energy markets and in the efficient operation of electricity transmission and distribution systems,” said Tom Shockley, AEP’s vice chairman and chief operating officer. “Building the business design necessary to be successful in a competitive retail market like Texas requires a special focus, which Centrica has with its background in retail marketing.  AEP’s resources are better focused on our strengths and strategy.”

As part of the transaction, Centrica assumes the obligation to serve those customers who choose the “price to beat” and gains the “West Texas Utilities,” “WTU,” “Central Power and Light” and “CPL” brand names.  Centrica also takes provider of last resort (POLR) responsibilities as defined by Texas regulations.

This transaction does not affect AEP’s ownership of its power plants in Texas and its transmission and distribution network that delivers electricity to customers.  AEP also will continue to serve customers with electric demand greater than one megawatt.

“The transition from AEP to Centrica will be seamless for customers, since little will change from the customer’s perspective,” Shockley said.  “The name of the electricity supplier will remain the same, even though the owner has changed.  The price-to-beat rates and responsibilities will remain the same.  The wires bringing electricity to the customers will still be owned by AEP, and we will continue to be responsive to customers’ needs for service connections and restoring power after outages.”

American Electric Power owns and operates more than 42,000 megawatts of generating capacity in the United States and select international markets and is the largest electricity generator in the U.S.  AEP is a leading wholesale marketer of energy commodities, utilizing its energy expertise and risk management skills to make optimal use of its generation, natural gas pipeline systems, natural gas storage, coal mines, and inland barge fleet.  The company is based in Columbus, Ohio.

By Carrie Helms, Clarendon Enterprise
 
Lions Bobbie Thornberry and Jimmy Johnson look over the 40 holiday food baskets the Clarendon Lions Club delivered to local families last week.  The club was just one of several organizations and businesses demonstrating good will toward their neighbors this year.
 
Every child goes to sleep on Christmas Eve hoping that Santa will come down the chimney with a big sack of goodies and fill the house with toys and gifts for Christmas morning. But many children, even in Clarendon, wake up to just a cold and hungry morning like any other.

Fortunately, local businesses and organizations worked hard this holiday season to ensure that no one went without this Christmas.

“Every child should have something for Christmas,” said Linda Gray, General Manager at Duckwall’s in Clarendon. “Toys for Tots is a great way to benefit kids in the community.”

Toys for Tots began seven years ago with Chamberlain Motor Company and has become a yearly tradition to be carried on by Suna AutoMall.

“All the toys go to kids in this community; that’s the reason we do it,” receptionist Vicki Sloan said. “It makes children happy who wouldn’t have Christmas otherwise.”

Duckwall’s and Suna AutoMall collected the toys, and Panhandle Community Services wrapped and delivered them to local children.

Panhandle Community Services has sponsored an angel tree for children in the community for almost ten years.

“We put up the tree the last week of November,” Robbie Hill of PCS said. “In two weeks, all 58 angels had been taken off the tree.”

Each child, ranging in age from birth to elementary school, receives a new pair of shoes, a shirt, and pants; and Lions Club members put together a basket of food for their families.

“We get the food for the baskets and the names of the families from PCS,” Lion Jimmy Johnson said. The Lions Club buys a turkey for each basket, then assembles and delivers them to families in need.

“All the Lions deliver them to the homes,” Johnson said. “Most of the people who receive the baskets are very appreciative.”

One of those appreciative families is Larinda Brown and her three children.

“The kids really appreciate the gifts,” Brown said. “It is nice that my kids get to see the true meaning of Christmas and the spirit of giving.”

Keith and Cherie Floyd of Floyd’s Motor Company and Body Shop have been busy elves repairing old bicycles to be distributed to children in the community.

“This is the second year we have done this,” Cherie Floyd said. “Last year we collected 20 or 25 bikes, and this year we already have more than 40 bikes.”

The Boy Scouts volunteered their time to help get the bikes in working order.

“We couldn’t have done it without the boys,” Floyd said. “Steve Carter and Carl Draper have been a big help.”

Floyd’s delivered bikes to a list of 15 or more children on Christmas Eve.

“We deliver them on Christmas Eve so the parents can do what they want with them,” Floyd said. “We have plenty of bicycles for any child who needs one. Every child should have a bike.”

Children are not the only ones in need this holiday season. Residents at the Medical Center Nursing Home had a chance to have their Christmas wishes fulfilled with the help of the Angel Tree at Duckwall’s.

“We have been doing the Angel Tree for four years,” Gray said. “You take an angel off the tree with that person’s specific needs written on it.”

Duckwall’s and the Medical Center Nursing Home handed out the gifts at their annual Christmas party on Thursday, December 20.

 “It helps the residents because they cannot go shopping for themselves,” Gray said. “They get so excited, and it is something easy that the community can do to help make their Christmas special.”

Every year the youth from the First Baptist Church in Clarendon fill shoeboxes with gifts for children who visit the Ministry Center Clothes Closet and Food Pantry on Saturday mornings.

“Some kids who come in here probably don’t even have running water, much less gifts under the tree,” seventh grader Austin Howard said. “It is always good to do something nice for someone else, especially at Christmas.”

Many of these businesses and organizations work non-stop all year long to keep the Christmas spirit alive.

Over the last year, the Ministerial Alliance of Clarendon spent close to $4,000 helping people in the community with financial difficulties.

“We help people pay for utilities and for their heating during the winter months,” Alliance president Rev. James Ivey Edwards said. “Part of the money was spent buying food and gas for stranded travelers.”

Panhandle Community Services is active in four counties and involved in charitable services including helping people in the community with rent, paying utility bills, and weatherizing homes.

“We provide transportation around town and take a bus to Amarillo three times a week,” Hill said. “People can make donations of money or food or volunteer to help all year long.”

The Lions Club is a service organization that makes annual contributions to many organizations including the Bronco Band, the Junior Livestock Association, Girls Town, and Clarendon College. The club also has a program to buy eye exams and corrective lenses for local school children in need.

“People can get involved by donating food or cash money,” Johnson said, “or by joining in an organization like Lions Club.”

The Ministry Center is open every Saturday morning from 10 to noon distributing clothes and food and accepting donations.

“When you clean out your closets and cabinets, please don’t throw it all away,” Jean Ledbetter of First Baptist Church said. “We are always in need of children’s clothes, coats, and shoes or canned food.”

The Christmas Spirit is alive and well in Clarendon, especially for the families who have received gifts of love from charities like these.

“It feels good to know that there are people out there who really care about families who need help,” Brown said.

With an infusion of cash from two recent grants, Donley County Commissioners began consideration of adding more work to the restoration of the 1890 Courthouse during a called meeting last Thursday.

The scope of the project had been cut drastically last year when the only bid for the job came in over budget. But with additional funds now available through a $185,000 supplemental state grant, the county is reconsidering some of the deleted project goals.

Sandstone replacement and rehabilitation is the first area the county is looking at. The original bid included approximately $250,000 to address stonework which has deteriorated or failed over the last 112 years. Funds raised through local efforts and from a successful $50,000 challenge grant will likely be directed to address the most critically needed stonework.

“I am very concerned about the stonework around that main entrance on the east side,” said County Judge Jack Hall. “I also want to look at fixing that original cornerstone. It’s very important that those men’s names be there.”

The cornerstone is badly deteriorated from time and the elements, and the names of the original builders and 1890 county officials are in danger of being lost.

Architect Chris Hutson will look at using either cast stone or real stone in rebuilding banisters on either side of the main entrance. Builders will salvage and re-use as much original stone as possible.

“Matching the color of the stone will be the biggest challenge,” Hutson told the court. “Fortunately there is a variety of colors in the building.”

The original quarry for the sandstone in the building has never been identified.

Other additional work being considered includes cleaning and restoration of the artwork on historic vault doors, rehabilitation of the stained glass window in the main corridor, exterior lighting, restoring wood floors in first floor offices, window coverings, sidewalk repair and replacement, and further restoration work on theatre seats in the district courtroom.

County officials also discussed the November collapse of a chimney on the northwest side of the courthouse.

An engineering report after the accident gave no single cause of the collapse but rather pointed to a possible combination of factors, which includes width and condition of existing masonry, weather, and a lack of temporary bracing.

Construction supervisor Stephen Dodge said Phoenix One workers had been concerned about the chimney and had put in more rebar than was called for as well as partially filling the chimney flue with concrete for additional strength.

Unlike most chimneys on the building, the one in question transitions to one side – in a stair step manner – as it goes through the attic, and as a result the center of it shifts approximately 10 inches to one side. While all other chimneys in the building are two-bricks wide on all sides, the failed northwest chimney is two-bricks wide on three sides and one-brick wide on the fourth side. This condition was unknown until after the accident, and it is that side that carries the most weight and was where the chimney failed to support the 20,000 pounds of brick above it.

An engineer has recommended additional bracing as well as lowering both north chimneys from 22 feet to 17 feet to reduce weight and wind pressures.

The Texas Historical Commission, however, has thus far resisted giving permission to lower the chimneys and insisted the now decorative chimneys be fully restored. County officials have sent a letter to the THC asking them to reconsider this decision based on safety concerns.