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This Week

Ina Mae Blasingame

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Ina Mae Blasingame, 90, of Mineral Wells, died Wednesday, May 10, 2023, in Weatherford, Texas.

Graveside services will be 2:00 PM Saturday, May 13, 2023 in Citizens Cemetery in Clarendon, Texas with Robert Kelly, officiating.

Arrangements are by Robertson Funeral Directors of Clarendon, Texas.

Ina was born January 31, 1933 in Cheyenne, Oklahoma to I.B. “Kenneth” and Jewel Walker Morrow.  She had worked various jobs prior to her retirement and had been a resident of Mineral Wells the past 15 years.

She was preceded in death by her parents; her brothers, Ira Kenneth Morrow and Earl Morrow; her sisters, Maggie Stewart, Rosey Meyers, Lucy Torres, and Helen Myers.

Survivors include her sons, Robert Irl Kelly and wife Geannie of Daleville, Alabama and David Carroll Kelly and wife Linda of Mineral Wells, Texas; her daughter, Louella Clydene Wilson and husband Lloyd of Seguin, Texas; a brother, John Tom Morrow of Clarendon, Texas; a sister, Mary Brown of Amarillo, Texas; 5 grandchildren; 4 great grandchildren; and a host of nieces and nephews.

Sign the online guestbook at www.robertsonfuneral.com

Hedley names top grads for 2023

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HHS Salutatorian Joshua Booth and Valedictorian Savannah Trent.

Hedley High School has announced that Savannah Trent and Joshua Booth are the top students for the Class of 2023.

Trent is the valedictorian with a 3.91 GPA. She is the daughter of Johnny Trent.

Trent has been very active in high school being involved in most every extracurricular offered. Trent played basketball all four years of high school and joined a few other sports here and there. She was on the cheer team for three years.

Trent is a member of the National Honor Society and was a part of the One Act Play for three years. She’s been a member of the yearbook class and has spent most of senior year taking pictures at all sorts of events.

After graduation, she plans to attend Clarendon College to get her license in cosmetology and later own her own salon.

Booth as a GPA of 3.76 and is the class Salutatorian. He is the son of Janita Booth.

Booth has competed in basketball, football, track, and cross country all four years of high school. He was inducted into the NHS as a sophomore and is now the president of the NHS.

Booth plans to attend college to achieve a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice.

Trent and Booth will be recognized with other members of the Hedley Class of 2023 during graduation ceremonies in the Owl Gym on Saturday, May 27.

Bi-District Champions!

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The Clarendon Broncos secured the bi-district championship this past weekend, winning two games over West Texas High School. For details and playoff schedules, see page six of this week’s Enterprise.

The Clarendon Broncos aremoving on in post-season with two huge knockout wins over West Texas last weekend. The boys in maroon scored 37 runs in the best of three-series to only five for their opponents to claim the championship.

The Broncos won the first game 12-1 and won the final game 25-4. Junior Easton Frausto was on fire on the mound in the first game going the full five innings with 10 strike-outs and allowing only one run.

WT was the first to cross home plate in the first inning with their only run of the game. The Broncos would go two innings before they were able to put five runs on the board in the third. Frausto was a workhorse at the plate and knocked down a double that scored the Broncos’ first runs and repeated that hit in the fifth. They scored a total of seven runs in the final innings thanks to several big hits.

Overall, the Broncos were strong offensively and defensively. They racked up nine hits and only committed one error in the field. They also grabbed five stolen bases and only seven strikeouts. Harrison Howard collected two hits and two runs and Colton Caudle managed on hit and two runs. Tyler Harper and Jared Musick had two RBIs while Frausto brought in five RBIs.

Game two ended in the Broncos favor due to the 17 hits racked up by the Broncos. Behind the pitching of Howard in the first two innings. Howard allowed no hits and no runs. He threw five strikeouts and only walked one hitter. Harper and Wilson Ward took over the duties for the remainder of the game with Harper throwing two innings with six strikeouts and allowing three hits. Ward went one inning on the mound.

WT made one final attempt at a comeback in the third inning scoring four runs, but it was too little too late. The Broncos were too strong and stopped WT from scoring again.

The Broncos will play Sundown at 11:00 a.m. on Thursday, May 11, in Floydada. Game two will be on Saturday, May 13, at 4:00 p.m. in the Area Round.

CHS wins Pantex STEM grant

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CHS science teacher receives a STEM grant check from Pantex Education Outreach Specialist Darla Fish.

The sky is the limit for science, technology, engineering, and math educational efforts for Clarendon High School and four other schools in the Texas Panhandle.

Through $1,000 grants provided by Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS), the managing and operating contractor for Pantex, the schools will soon be advancing STEM education with projects ranging from robotics to drones. These grants fund STEM activities in the classroom and represent one of the many ways Pantex is investing in the development of the future workforce.

Pantex Education Outreach Specialist Darla Fish visited CHS Monday afternoon to present the $1,000 check to science teacher Timothy Leeper.

Leeper’s students will study drones and learn about education opportunities and occupations related to operating and designing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). CHS students will also be qualified to take the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Unmanned Aircraft Systems Drone Knowledge Test, receiving a two-year license for UAV operations in a variety of fields.

This year’s other grant recipients and projects are as follows:

Boys Ranch High School students will use four programmable drone sets to learn piloting, foundations of coding, and how to use the engineering design process to solve real-world challenges. Students will experience the role that technology and automation play in our world, and market themselves and the application of their skills to various career fields.

Fort Elliott CISD has already implemented robotics and engineering into the curriculum, and will use its grant to increase these programs and advance STEM opportunities for upper elementary students. This grant will help purchase coding design skill cards, coding robot sets, and STEM Bins.

Pampa High School’s program will instruct students how a computer works and how to repair a Personal Computer. It can be downloaded onto classroom computers, supporting an unlimited number of users. The application will instruct Principles of IT, Computer Maintenance, and Practicum of IT classes, using gamification to apply gaming strategies, improve learning, and create an engaging environment.

Rogers Elementary project in Amarillo is to offer students more opportunities in critical thinking, problem solving, and creativity. They will be tasked to collaborate with their peers, improve social skills, and work together through engineering and coding challenges. Students will gain knowledge of the four pillars of computation thinking: decomposition, pattern recognition, abstraction, and algorithms.

The goal of the CNS grants is to foster advancement of STEM activities in the classroom and to help develop Pantex’s future workforce. This is the second year that Pantex has offered STEM classroom grants to Amarillo and the top 26 counties of the Texas Panhandle.

Dozens of submissions were received and evaluated by a panel of knowledgeable employees at Pantex. The group carefully reviewed all the applications and narrowed the impressive list down in order to recommend the five winners.

“To help increase the number of young men and women entering STEM fields, Pantex has offered region-wide grants for the last couple years,” Fish said. “Often times, these successful students become part of the Pantex workforce as we are continually searching for talented professionals to join us in our ongoing mission of securing the nation.”

Gibson, Word win new seats in votes

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New members will be joining the Clarendon school board and the Hedley City Council following last Saturday’s local elections.

Former elementary principal Mike Word will join the Clarendon CISD Board of Trustees after he and incumbent Chrisi Tucek were chosen by voters in a three-person race to fill two positions.

Word had 191 votes, Tucek received 166 votes, and Ginnie Siefkas had 20.

In Hedley, six candidates were running for three positions on the city council. Challenger Tanya White Gibson was the top vote getter with 35 and will join the council with incumbent aldermen Trisha Chambless and Jennifer Floyd, who had 29 and 27 votes respectively. Also running were incumbent Alicia Hanes with 18 votes, Calvin Holland with 18 votes, and Christine Coyle with 15.

Voters in the City of Clarendon voted widely in favor of reauthorizing the quarter-percent sales tax for street maintenance by a margin of 111 to 30.
Clarendon residents first approved the street maintenance tax in 2019. The levy raises about $60,000 per year, which is directed toward street repairs and improvements.

Three city candidates were unopposed on the ballot and received the following votes: Mayor Jacob Fangman 131, Alderman Terri Floyd 126, and Alderman Eulaine McIntosh 93.

Sheriff warns about teens’ illegal rides

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Donley County Sheriff Butch Blackburn is issuing a warning to parents and teens this week about the use of illegal vehicles on city streets.

The sheriff says with the end of school getting close, he is concerned that the growing problem will get only worse if parents don’t take action.

“Side-by-sides, golf carts, four-wheelers, and dirt bikes are all illegal on city streets,” Blackburn said. “Parents need to find a different place for kids to ride these toys.”

Blackburn says he doesn’t want to see anyone get hurt and his office will be cracking down on these violations.

Touring the options at Texas Tech

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Ben Estlack

Last Thursday, my family and I took a trip to Lubbock so I could take my first college tour at Texas Tech!

We woke up Friday morning and went on the general campus tour. The general tour was a tour showing where everything is while telling some of the fun facts and stories behind the campus and its buildings. Then we went to lunch, and I had the amazing opportunity to eat lunch with the Dean of the Graduate School and his council. He was a very fun guy, and he was very adamant on my going to Tech.

After lunch, I got to go on a more specific tour where I got to meet with a representative from each of the departments I was interested in. The first department was the Biology department where I got to meet with a professor of microbiology. He told me a lot about getting into college, and then he took me around and showed me some of the snakes that they have in their reptile lab.

The next department I met with was the mathematics where I met with a representative who helped me see which classes I would need to take in order to graduate with the degree I want. Then, at the very end of the day I went and met with a professor of Mechanical Engineering who helped point me in the direction I want to graduate and helped me narrow down what I want to graduate with.

After we were done meeting, he took me to the basement where they have a shop where the mechanical engineering classes work on projects, and I immediately fell in love. They had a room full of 3D printers, they even had a metal 3D printer to print parts they can’t machine. Then he showed me some of the projects, and they had a Mars rover and a jet engine that was made for a senior project.

After the trip, I have decided what I want to do. I want to graduate with a degree in Mechanical Engineering with a focus in Aerospace Engineering.

I am so excited that I was given the opportunity to go meet with these people and that they were so kind to me. Texas Tech is definitely at the top of my list!

Pantex named Employer of the Year by WT Engler College of Business

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Pantex Site Manager Colby Yeary receives the Business of the Year Award from Dr. Amjad Abdullat, Dean of the WTAMU Engler College of Business.

As one of the largest employers in the Panhandle of Texas, working at Pantex is the end-goal for many local university students. In recognition of its draw and excellence, Pantex was recently named Employer of the Year for West Texas A&M University’s Paul and Virginia Engler College of Business. This award recognizes employers in the community for exceptional contributions to the Engler College of Business, and commitment to promoting workplace excellence.

“Pantex has strongly committed to our students by offering high-quality internships and employment opportunities,” said Dr. Amjad Abdullat, Dean of the WTAMU Engler College of Business. “They have provided our students with valuable work experience and helped prepare them for successful careers in the business world.”

Pantex has a history of collaboration with West Texas A&M University and its students. Over the last two years, Pantex leadership and the College implemented a strategic talent pipeline to employ WTAMU students. The collaborative team led information sessions, and from these efforts alone, Pantex was able to hire 15 Buffs including six project controls representatives and five project controls summer interns, two of which have converted to Pantex employees and another two slated to star t their internships this coming summer 2023.

“The support from internships and permanent positions has helped us create exciting opportunities for Buffs while filling critical talent needs in our organizations,” said Colby Yeary, Pantex Site Manager. “This partnership helps us ensure we have vibrant talent to support our national security work now and into the future.”

Pantex employs more than 4,300 full-time personnel to fulfill its vital mission to ensure the effectiveness of the U.S. nuclear stockpile in support of the Nation’s nuclear deterrent. This unique mission requires unique skills, so Pantex reached out to their partners at WTAMU to create the mutually beneficial programs that serve both students and Pantex’s mission.

“Pantex has been a dedicated partner to our College, providing exceptional support to our programs and promoting our values and mission,” said Abdullat. “Their commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace has also been exemplary.”

“We’re grateful for this recognition from WTAMU, and we are excited to continue creating opportunities for students and to leverage their talents toward our important mission of nuclear deterrence in service of our nation and allies around the world,” said Yeary.

For more information about Pantex’s jobs and internship opportunities, see pantex.energy.gov/careers.

Ruth M. Aebischer

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Ruth M. Aebischer of Clarendon, formerly of the Edinburg-Mt. Auburnarea, passed away May 7, 2023, at Baptist St. Anthony’s Hospital in Amarillo.

Ruth M. Aebischer

Ruth was born April 26, 1944 to Hughie & Dora (Blackard) Williams. Ruth graduated from Edinburg High School with class of 1962. She married Jesse Aebischer in 1964.

Ruth is survived by her daughters, Dora Jean (Dan) Robinson of Burson, Calif., Norma Like (Leonard) Like of Amarillo, and Carol (Tony) James of Red Bluff, Calif.; her grandchildren, Jesse, Noah, Montana, Corianna, and Abbie; her brother, Edward Williams of Mt. Auburn; two nieces; and two nephews.

Ruth was preceded in death by her parents, husband, sister Mary Hubert, brother Robert (Strawberry) Williams, two nieces and one nephew.

Cremation rites have been accorded. Graveside services will be at 1:00 p.m. Saturday May 13, 2023, at Mt. Auburn cemetery in Colchester, Illinois.

Arrangements are under the direction of Cox-Rowley Funeral Home.

Elections to be held Saturday

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Voters will head to the polls this Saturday, May 6, for elections for the cities of Clarendon and Hedley and the Clarendon Consolidated Independent School District.

Early voting closed Tuesday; and by 4:00 p.m., election officials in Hedley reported 21 people had cast early ballots while 112 people had cast ballots at the Donley County Courthouse Annex for the city and CCISD.

On the Clarendon CISD ballot, voters will select two school board members from among three candidates – incumbent Chrisi Tucek is joined on the ballot by candidates Mike Word and Ginnie Siefkas.

Clarendon residents will decide for or against reauthorizing the one-quarter cent sales tax for street maintenance. The tax is already in place but must be reauthorized by voters periodically. It raises about $60,000 per year that is dedicated to street maintenance.

The Clarendon city ballot also includes the candidacies of Mayor Jacob Fangman and Aldermen Terri Floyd and Eulaine McIntosh. Those candidates are all unopposed.

Hedley has six candidates running for three positions on the city council. Incumbents Trisha Chambless, Alicia Hanes, and Jennifer Floyd are facing challengers Christine Coyle, Calvin Holland, and Tanya White Gibson
Polling Saturday for the City of Clarendon and Clarendon CISD will be in the Donley County Courthouse Annex from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., and Hedley voters cast ballots at Hedley City Hall also from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.

Election results will be posted Saturday evening on ClarendonLive.com and Facebook.com/TheEnterprise.

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