This Week

Engineers and city officials worked feverishly this week to apply for a grant that could pay for curb and sidewalk improvements along Fifth Street near the Clarendon Public Schools.

Clarendon aldermen only found out about the grant last Tuesday, November 26, during their regular meeting after it was presented by board consultant Colby Waters. The deadline is 5 p.m. this Friday.

With only three days left to fill out the application, city officials at press time were consulting with engineers, the Childress District TxDOT office, local law enforcement, and the Clarendon ISD administration in order to gather necessary information.

The grant through the Texas Department of Transportation’s (TxDOT) Safe Routes to School Program provides funding for up to $500,000 for improvements within a two-mile radius of a school. The grant covers items such as pedestrian and bicycle crossing improvements, curbs and sidewalks, and widening roadway shoulders.

The grant requires a 20 percent match, which might be waived if the improvements are related to the state highway system. Fifth Street from Koogle Street west is a state farm to market road.

If successful, the city hopes to use the grant to construct curbing and sidewalks along Fifth Street from CISD west to the city limits. Other improvements might also be done on the side roads which connect to Fifth Street near the school and on Bugbee Avenue from Fifth Street to the Clarendon College campus.

City officials will likely be working on the grant right up to the deadline and say they intend to hand-deliver their application to the district TxDOT office Friday.

Late Night Shopping gets underway this Thursday with businesses in downtown Clarendon turning their Christmas lights on at 6 p.m.

Girl Scouts will gather at the Lions Hall at 5:30  to turn on the community lights there Hot drinks will be served afterward in the Girl Scout office.

Merchants will be staying open late every Thursday between now and Christmas. Shop Clarendon first and support your hometown businesses.

Clarendon College joined other Texas colleges, universities, and state leaders this month in launching an unprecedented statewide campaign, called College for Texans, to encourage hundreds of thousands of additional people in Texas to pursue higher education over the next decade and more.

CC President Myles Shelton said the campaign has four major goals: Participation, Success, Research, and Excellence. The later two are goals for major universities, but the first two are goals for all colleges and universities in the state.

“If you look at the demographics in Texas between now and 2015, you see a growing population which will participate at the same or lower percentage in higher education,” Shelton said. “Texas is already lower than California, New York, and Florida in terms of the percentage of our population enrolled in college.”

The campaign to increase college enrollment statewide was authorized by the Texas Legislature last year and is directed by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.

“Although more people than ever are enrolled in Texas colleges and universities, the increases haven’t kept pace with the state’s population growth, leaving Texas on a path to becoming a less educated, less prosperous state,” said Commissioner of Higher Education Don Brown. “We must close the gaps in student participation and success for all of the state’s people, especially for low-income groups and people in regions of the state with low college-going rates.”

As higher education participation rates and educational attainment decline, average annual household income is projected to fall by an estimated $30 billion to $40 billion statewide by 2030 – with dire effects for Texas families and the state’s economy, according to demographers.

Shelton says the future of the Texas economy is linked to citizens receiving college training and job skills.

“If we don’t increase participation in higher education, then we won’t have a trained workforce, and there is a direct economic impact with not having a trained workforce,” he said. “Those jobs will go somewhere else.”

Only 23.3 percent of the population which is age 25 and older in Donley County has earned a college degree, according to the 2000 US Census. Another 28.5 percent have some college but no degree.

Shelton said surveys show that every dollar invested in a community college education returns $9 in higher future earnings for the individual. Every dollar invested by state and local governments in education returns $18 statewide.

A survey commissioned by the Texas Association of Community Colleges concluded that a better educated Texas could save $276.3 million in improved health and in reduced welfare roles, lower unemployment, and less crime.

Gov. Rick Perry says getting a higher education is also tied to having more opportunities in the future.

“An educated Texan inherits a world of unlimited opportunity, and higher education is critical to achieving higher aspirations,” said Perry. “This campaign will help empower more young Texans to live their dreams by teaching them how to prepare academically and financially for college.”

College for Texans will motivate primary and secondary students to prepare and aim for college and ensure that colleges reach out to embrace those students. The campaign will inspire parents, teachers, and communities to support each child’s aspirations to prepare and enroll in post-secondary education.

“It starts in the public schools with making the college preparatory program the standard program and recruiting and retaining qualified teachers,” Shelton said.

College for Texans is designed to give all people, especially families without any higher education experience, information about the value of higher education, the preparation needed to participate and succeed in college, and ways to find financial aid or otherwise pay for college. The campaign is aimed at helping bring 300,000 additional academically prepared people – beyond the 200,000 additional students expected to enroll based on current trends – into higher education by 2015.

“I think the College for Texans plan is necessary for Texas and will benefit Clarendon College,” Shelton said. “It’s necessary for us to have an educated workforce. We’ve got to communicate to current and future students that success in the future is going to be based on further training beyond just a high school diploma.”

By Cheryl Johnson, Clarendon Enterprise

The second annual Donley County Old Fashioned Christmas Celebration will be held on Saturday, December 7, 2002, in Clarendon.  The event is sponsored by the Donley County Tourism Council.

The day begins at 9:00 a.m. with the Breakfast with the Star at the Community Fellowship Church.  They will tell a story to the children, sing songs, and make crafts. 

Downtown merchants and businesses around town will hold special sales beginning at 10:00 that morning.

The Family Treasure Hunt will also begin at 10:00 a.m. at the Burton Memorial Library. Children can pick up their map at the library and visit each merchant for a special treasure.  The hunt will continue until noon. The library will also host a homemade cookie walk at 10:00 a.m., kids craft corral, and storytime.

A Charity Tree Forest display will be set up at the Downtown Ministries Building from 10:00 to 1:00 with information on the Charity Tree Forest.  Businesses, organizations, and individuals are encouraged to purchase a tress, decorate it, and then donate it to an organization or individual of their choice.  More information will be available at the display. 

Nightwinder will be providing entertainment at the Downtown Ministries Buildling from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

A craft show, cake walk, face painting, and concessions will be open to the public at 10:00 a.m. at the Old Gym.  KEFH will hold a live remote broadcast from the location.  Hay rides will ferry shoppers from the activities downtown to the craft show all afternoon. Crafters are still needed for the show.  For more information on the craft show, contact Dawn Watson at 874-2141.

The Clarendon College Nursing School in downtown Clarendon will hold a bake and craft show Saturday morning.  They will do free blood pressure checks.

Kids can have their picture made with Santa at Janie’s Beauty Shop.  Poor Boy’s Antiques will host an Art and Quilt Show from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.  The Chamber of Commerce Open House will also be held during the celebration.

By Cheryl Johnson, Clarendon Enterprise

The Howardwick Beautification Club will light up the Nativity Scene at the Howardwick City Park this Sunday, December 1.

The First United Methodist Church Youth Band will provide entertainment. Rev. Genoa Goad of the Howardwick Baptist Church will give the invocation. Refreshments will be served at Howardwick City Hall immediately following. The public is invited.

The club will also hold a Christmas Lighting Contest for the residents of Howardwick.  Entry forms are available from Peggy Cockerham, and the deadline to enter is December 6.  Entries will be judged on December 8.

Panhandle Groundwater Conservation District personnel will present information at the Claude Activity Barn in Armstrong County on Thursday, December 12 at noon.

PGCD personnel presented information on the 2002 Rainfall Enhancement Program, which ended on September 30, 2002, at the “Range Management Conference” in Wheeler, on October 24 and to a gathering of Roberts County landowners on October 25.

These meetings are designed to present results of the 2002 season and to receive comments and inputs from District residents.

The meeting will be in conjunction with the Armstrong County Extension Service’s “Fall Producers Meeting, and those planning to partake of the meal need to RSVP to 226-3021.

Additional presentations will be given in each county throughout the District in the near future.  PGCD invites everyone to attend one or more of these presentations. 

The district is interested in the community’s comments and would like to share their data with everyone.