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The Donley County Community Fund is taking applications for grant applications.
If your organization is a 501(c)3 non profit, government entity, or a school, you are encouraged to apply. You can request funds for special projects or any need your organization might have up to $1,000.
Applications are available at the Clarendon Visitor Center or from Jacob Fangman at Herring Bank or online at https://bit.ly/3FTOTC6.
Applications are due by November 22, 2021.
A slow but steady decline continues to be the trend among COVID-19 cases in Donley County.
The Clarendon Family Medical Center reported Tuesday that it is monitoring 10 active cases this week, down from 13 last Tuesday.
Six new cases of the disease were confirmed by the clinic in the last week. There have now been 513 confirmed cases at the clinic since the pandemic began.
Local health officials continue to encourage people to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
Vaccination rates continue to improve slowly among Donley County residents.
The Texas Tribune reports this week that 33.5 percent of Donley County residents are fully vaccinated. That represents a total of 1,092 people, up from 1,065 two weeks ago. The Tribune says 1,293 local residents, or 39.7 percent, have received the first of two vaccination shots.
The Moderna vaccine is available at no charge at the local clinic for everyone ages 18 and up. The Pfizer vaccine is available in Amarillo for kids ages 12 and over.
State Rep. Ken King (R-Canadian) will be touring a segment of House District 88 on Tuesday, October 26, to discuss the 87th Regular Legislative Session as well as the Special Sessions that followed.
King will be in Clarendon at the Clarendon College Bairfield Activity Center from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m.
The representative will also be at the following locations earlier in the day: Exhibition Building in Canadian, 10965 Exhibition Center Rd, at 9 a.m.; the Miami High School Auditorium at 100 Warrior Lane at 10:45 a.m.; and the Pampa EDC/Pampa Chamber of Commerce-MK Brown Room at 200 N. Ballard at 1:30 p.m.
Rep. King will give a quick overview of the session and then solicit feedback from constituents on issues of vital importance to them and their communities.
By Ted Harbin
Bret Franks had just made his third National Finals Rodeo in four years in December 2000, proving his place as one of the elite saddle bronc riders of the time.
His wife, Darla, was pregnant – very pregnant – with their second son, Cole.
“I was as big as a barn,” she said, noting that she also was with-child in 1997 when Bret competed in Las Vegas for the first time. Both Cole and his older brother, Clint, were February babies, separated by three years and four days.
Both boys have followed in their father’s footsteps in the world of rodeo. At age 20, the baby of the family is already making a name for himself. He’s clinched the 2021 Resistol Bareback Riding Rookie of the Year title and is heading to his first NFR, 12th in the world standings after a phenomenal campaign.
It’s been so good, in fact, that Cole Franks can’t put his finger on one thing that stood out more than the others. It’s been so good that he has a chance to become just the fifth person in ProRodeo history to win a college title and a world championship in the same calendar year, following in the footsteps of Ty Murray, all-around 1989; Matt Austin, bull riding 2005; Taos Muncy, saddle bronc riding 2007; and Haven Meged, tie-down roping 2019.
“Making the finals is really great,” Cole Franks said. “When I got my card this year, I wasn’t focused on it or even looking at the finals this year. I was just looking at the rookie deal and banking on making the finals next year. For it to happen this year is really cool.”
His focus changed sometime over the summer after the College National Finals Rodeo, where he dominated bareback riding and also advanced to the championship round in saddle bronc riding. He left Casper, Wyoming, with both the bareback riding and the all-around national titles. Then he jumped in the rig with bareback riders Tim O’Connell, a three-time world champion, and Jess Pope, who won the average at his first NFR last December.
“When I got in with Tim and Jess, they asked me what my goal was, and I told them my main goal was the rookie,” he said. “They told me to make the main goal the finals, then the rookie will take care of itself.”
They were right. As the only rookie to have qualified for the NFR, Franks has that title in his back pocket heading to Las Vegas to battle for the world championship, set for Dec. 2-11 at the Thomas & Mack Center. He is in an elite field that features 12 NFR veterans, including three men that own nine of the last 10 gold buckles: O’Connell (2016-18), Clayton Biglow (2019) and Kaycee Feild (2011-14, 2020).
Maybe, just maybe, this is what Cole Franks was bred to do. He was born Feb. 14, 2001, in Guymon, Oklahoma. Being the father of two, Bret Franks kept his focus on rodeo but less on competing. He retired in 2004 but stayed around rodeo for another five years as the general manager for a stock contracting firm.
He moved the family south 150 miles to the Texas Panhandle town of Clarendon and eventually became the rodeo coach at Clarendon College. With his son picking up points and several others contributing along the way, the Bulldogs won the men’s team title this past June.
It was actually Bret Franks’ third men’s team title as a coach; he’d done so in 1997 and ’98 while coaching at his alma mater, Oklahoma Panhandle State University.
The fact that the Okies became Texans didn’t change much. The terrain in the Panhandles is much the same, and rodeo was always around the corner. From 2009-2015, he was a part-time rodeo judge, marking scores and making sure the rules were applied. He still does it from time to time, but he was always and forever will be seen as a coach.
“From Little League baseball to football and everything else, Dad was always my coach,” Cole Franks said. “I started competing in eighth grade with junior high steer riding. At all the rodeos Dad would judge, they’d have donkey riding. That’s where bareback riding started.
“I’ve team roped a little bit, but the roughstock stuff is all I knew growing up. I never paid attention to the timed events.”
A junior at Missouri Valley College in Marshall, Missouri, he still competes in saddle bronc riding at college rodeos. His success in bareback riding, though, has positioned Franks on a launching pad, ready to take off up the charts.
“I’ve gone back and forth a lot about riding broncs, too,” he said. “I would give it a couple more years or at least riding a lot better in broncs before I would really go.”
There’s also something about bareback riding that fits his personality. It’s much like his early days of playing tackle football; he was a little fireball, nearly a foot shorter than the three other captains walking out for the coin flip.
“Bareback riding is just more of a fight,” said Franks, all grown up and 5-foot-7. “I wouldn’t say I’ve always had a fighter’s personality, but I’ve always wished I was in a way. I think that’s what made me stick with it because of the aggressiveness of it. In the bronc riding, you have to be relaxed to a point, but in bareback riding, it’s 100 percent bare down.”
Soft-spoken to a point, Cole Franks knows what he wants to achieve. He is a second-generation NFR qualifier, and that speaks volumes about how he was raised and how he wants to honor his family. But, like any competitive athlete who is always about bettering himself and circumstances, he wants to do even better than Dad.
“It’s cool to think I’m following in Dad’s footsteps, even if it’s in bareback riding and not bronc riding,” he said. “I have always told myself that I had to make it at least three times, tying Dad’s three. But I want to make it to where I have three gold buckles to put with Dad’s three back numbers.”
Those Montana Silversmiths gold buckles are elusive. There are less than a handful of bareback riders over the last decade that have claimed world championships, and everyone understands it’s going to be a battle in Las Vegas.
But Franks is up for the fight. It’s in his nature.
The Mulkey Theatre has announced plans for the “On Any Sunday Block Party” to be held Saturday, November 6, and vendors and merchants are invited to join the fun.
Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the motorcycle movie “On Any Sunday,” the block party will feature live music from the Caliche Dust Band, motorcycle displays, food, and vendors followed by an anniversary screening of the movie.
Admission to the block party from 5 to 7 p.m. is free, and a ticket to the movie is $10.
For more information or to sign up as a vendor, call the Visitor Center at 874-SHOW.
State Rep. Ken King (R-Canadian) will be touring a segment of House District 88 on Tuesday, October 26, to discuss the 87th Regular Legislative Session as well as the Special Sessions that followed.
King will be in Clarendon at the Clarendon College Bairfield Activity Center from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m.
The representative will also be at the following locations earlier in the day: Exhibition Building in Canadian, 10965 Exhibition Center Rd, at 9 a.m.; the Miami High School Auditorium at 100 Warrior Lane at 10:45 a.m.; and the Pampa EDC/Pampa Chamber of Commerce-MK Brown Room at 200 N. Ballard at 1:30 p.m.
Rep. King will give a quick overview of the session and then solicit feedback from constituents on issues of vital importance to them and their communities.
“The input and ideas I receive from these meetings help me effectively represent and advocate for my constituents in the Texas House,” King said.
Early voting begins Monday, October 18, for this year’s state constitutional amendment election.
Voters across Texas are being asked to consider the fate of eight proposed amendments to the state constitution. Those amendments were publicized in newspapers throughout the state last month and are available online at https://bit.ly/3ly08rn.
Ballots may be cast early at the Donley County Courthouse Annex during regular business hours through October 29. The general election will be November 2.
Sample ballots are available from the Clerk’s Office, and voters are reminded that they must bring a driver’s license or similar ID with them to vote.
By Patrick Svitek, The Texas Tribune
Heading into election season, Amarillo state Sen. Kel Seliger says he feels like members of his own party might be using redistricting to oust him after years of tension with Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a fellow Republican.
Seliger is deciding whether he will even run for reelection, but if he does, he is now staring down perhaps his toughest primary yet.
He has received two primary challengers, including Kevin Sparks, a Midland oilman who previously served on the board of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, the Austin-based conservative think tank. Meanwhile, Seliger’s district was redrawn by his Republican colleagues in the Senate in a way that he says is designed to hobble a potential reelection bid.
And on Tuesday, former President Donald Trump, a close ally of Patrick, endorsed Sparks and bashed Seliger as a “RINO” – Republican in name only – in a rare intervention in a Texas legislative race by the former president.
Reached by phone on last week, Seliger offered only five words in response to the endorsement: “It comes as no surprise.”
But the senator has otherwise been outspoken about his proposed new district, alleging it was constructed to tilt the primary in favor of Sparks. While he is waiting until after the redistricting process is done to decide whether to seek reelection, Seliger said the perceived effort to draw him into a harder primary would backfire because the new counties are still rural – and local officials in those counties “hate TPPF because they are virulently anti-local control.”
“This map doesn’t serve the purpose that was sought because these are rural counties, and I almost always win all the rural counties,” Seliger said.
The proposed new district removes four counties from the Panhandle – Donley, Hall, Collingsworth, and Wheeler – and adds a dozen to the southern end of the district, closer to Midland. The Senate approved the map proposal last Monday, with Seliger as the only Republican voting against it.
“I believe, members, that really what this is about is to take counties out of the Panhandle and move them closer to Midland because a member of the board of Texas Public Policy Foundation is running,” Seliger said on the floor before the vote.
He confirmed after the vote that he was referring to Sparks, a former board member – and that he “absolutely” felt the district was being redrawn to advantage his opponent.
Sen. Joan Huffman, the Houston Republican who chairs the Senate Redistricting Committee, defended the proposed new configuration of Seliger’s district, saying the additional counties were necessary to make up for lost population in the 2020 census.
Patrick’s chief political strategist, Allen Blakemore, scoffed at Seliger’s claims in a statement Wednesday.
“After spending 17 years working against the interests of conservatives, often being the only Republican to vote with Democrats on key issues and being ranked as the most liberal Member year after year, Senator Seliger now feels there is an elaborate scheme designed to thwart his election,” Blakemore said. “The timing speaks for itself.”
Patrick himself has not publicly commented on Seliger’s primary. But during a trip to Midland last week, Patrick told the Permian Basin Petroleum Association that the Senate needs an oil and gas expert – which Sparks happens to be.
Trump’s endorsement of Sparks arrived Tuesday evening, less than two hours after Seliger cast the lone Republican vote against a Patrick priority bill clearing the way for party officials to trigger election audits. Seliger reportedly said he opposed the legislation because it is an “unfunded mandate of the counties, and I’m opposed to big government.”
Trump said in a statement that Seliger “is not helpful to our great [Make America Great Again] Movement and, in fact, seems like the Texas version of Mitt Romney (and that is not good!).”
Seliger has become known for bucking Patrick on the lieutenant governor’s signature issues. In 2017, Seliger voted against two of Patrick’s highest priorities, a bill restricting local governments’ abilities to raise property tax revenues and another one providing private school vouchers. The next session, Patrick stripped Seliger of his chairmanship of the Higher Education Committee, prompting a back-and-forth with Patrick’s office that escalated to Seliger issuing a recommendation that a top Patrick adviser kiss his “back end.” (Seliger ultimately apologized, but only for directing the comment at the adviser and not at Patrick himself.)
A former Amarillo mayor, Seliger has represented Senate District 31 in the Panhandle since 2004. He has gone through competitive primaries before, including the last time he ran for reelection in 2018, when he faced two challengers: Amarillo restaurateur Victor Leal and former Midland Mayor Mike Canon. Seliger narrowly avoided a runoff against Canon, winning 50.4 percent of the vote.
Patrick publicly swore off involvement in that race, but his top political lieutenant, Blakemore, was involved in Leal’s campaign. At the time, Patrick was running in his own primary for reelection – and Seliger had declined to join every other GOP senator in endorsing the lieutenant governor for another term.
Three years later, Patrick possesses no stronger ally against Seliger than Trump. Both of Trump’s Texas campaigns were chaired by the lieutenant governor.
Trump is overwhelmingly popular in the Panhandle, where he has already reshaped GOP representation with his 2020 backing of his former White House doctor, Ronny Jackson, for the 13th Congressional District. Campaigning heavily on Trump’s support, Jackson soundly defeated fellow Republican Josh Winegarner in a primary runoff in which Winegarner had much stronger local roots and the support of the retiring incumbent, Mac Thornberry, as well as Seliger.
Trump won Seliger’s Senate District 31 with 78 percent of the vote last year. He performed better in only one other Senate district.
Sparks celebrated the Trump endorsement in a fundraising email Wednesday night, saying the former president “realizes that the people of Senate District 31 deserve more conservative representation.”
Sparks is formally kicking off his campaign Monday in Midland, where he has already assembled a formidable list of endorsements. It includes Seliger’s two 2018 primary challengers, Canon and Leal; several former Midland mayors; and heavy-hitting conservative donors from the area like Tim Dunn, Douglas Scharbauer and Dick Saulsbury.
Sparks’ campaign says it also has a list of Amarillo endorsements that it will release soon.
Seliger’s other primary rival is Big Spring businessperson Stormy Bradley. She is undeterred by recent developments, saying in a statement Wednesday that neither the proposed new district nor the Trump endorsement “affect my campaign strategy for Senate District 31.”
“I myself resonate with Trump’s message to ‘Make America Great Again’ as I also am passionate towards having a thriving and secure nation,” Bradley said. “I appreciate his concern for our citizens; however, I feel the voters in District 31 are best suited to determine their next senator.”
Seliger had close to a half a million dollars in his campaign account at the end of June, though he does not appear to have done much fundraising since then. He reported one $2,500 donation on a campaign finance report that was due after the first special session, covering July 7 through Aug. 6. Meanwhile, Sparks and Bradley have started modestly in the money race, disclosing $58,000 and $29,000 in donations, respectively, on reports that go through Sept. 2.
As for the proposed new district, Seliger did not mince words Tuesday. He said “the only reason verbalized to me” in a meeting with Huffman “was a desire to provide distinct oil-and-gas districts and distinct agriculture districts.” He disputed that, saying the proposed map “doesn’t do that at all,” and also dismissed the idea the new 31st District would adhere to the redistricting principle of compactness – keeping constituents as close together as possible – noting how far the north-south distance of the district would grow.
Huffman also noted that the partisan makeup of voters in the proposed new district is the most favorable one for GOP candidates.
“Sen. Seliger, I still believe you have a very compact district considering the population and the breadth of West Texas and the beauty of West Texas,” Huffman said. “You also still have the most Republican Senate district in the state of Texas.”
Seliger had offered an amendment to restore the four Panhandle counties and add different counties surrounding Midland but withdrew it, saying he wanted to spare colleagues a “difficult vote.”
Sparks has no problem with the redrawn district.
“Everyone understands that rural Texas has lost population, so it’s only natural that rural districts are larger under the proposed redistricting plan,” he said in a statement. “Instead of lodging petty attacks, our rural communities must stand together to amplify our voice in Austin.”
Clarendon senior Madie Smith has been running solid for the Lady Broncos and topped the field in the Greenbelt Gallop held last week at Greenbelt Lake.
Smith’s time for the 2-mile race was 15:11.
Gracie Wilkins was not far behind and finished in third place with a 16:06, and Avery Sawyer was sixth at 16:29. All three runners received a medal for their efforts. The team finished with 45 points, which was three points ahead of 2nd place Claude. Maudi Buckhaults was 11th at 17:41, and Laney Rummel was 24th at 20:21.
Bryce Williams placed high in the field once again for the Broncos with a time of 19:09 for the 3-mile course and Jaxan McAnear was right behind him at 20:37.
The Lady Colts ran to another team win at the Greenbelt Gallop last week and won by a huge amount of 22 points compared to 66 for the 2nd-place Claude Mustangs.
Gracie Ellis led the way with a second-place finish at 15:23 and Madi Benson was third with a time of 16:18. Kenidee Hayes ran the course in a time of 16:24 for fourth and Elliot Frausto was sixth at 16:26. Berkley Moore was seventh at 16:32 and Presley Smith had a time of 16:44 for eighth place.
Kinley McClelland was 11th at 17:41, Lilly Robinson was 13th at 18:18, Anna Balogh was 16th at 18:47, Whitney Williams was 17th at 19:28, Trystan Brown 20th at 20:02, Kinslee Hatley 21st at 20:06, Kashlyn Conkin 24th at 20:46, Mary Jo Dushay 26th at 21:02, Cambree Smith 28th at 21:15, and Jayla Woodard 35th at 23:30.
Kaleb Mays ran for the Colts and finished sixth with a time of 16:22 and Tanner Cavanaugh was 12th with a time of 18:51.
The Hedley Owls had the first place high school boys team last Tuesday during the Greenbelt Gallop Cross Country Meet at Greenbelt Lake.
The Owl team had the low score of 32 points, and Memphis was second with 82 points.
Joshua Booth led the Owls, placing third overall with a time of 19:26. Cody Bond came in fifth at 19:45.
Other Owls running were Iziak Weatherread, 8th, 20:38; Isaiah Torres, 9th, 20:50; Nick Clark, 10th, 21:00; Hayden Alston, 11th, 21:28; Javier Valles, 14th, 22:31; Braden Bond, 17th, 24:31; and Ethan Santos, 19th, 25:40.
Running for the high school Lady Owls, Madison Torres was 24th at 19:35 followed by Ashlee Holmes, 26th, 20:54; and Addison Burrell, 29th, 21:04.
Junior High Lady Owls were Meagan Weatherread, 33rd, 22:28; Madison Moore, 34th, 23:28; Katin Ehlert, 39th, 24:47; and Adrianna Villarreal, 40th, 24:48.
Collin Alston was the loan runner for the Junior High Owls and came in fourth at 15:47.
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