This Week

Work on two city projects is proceeding, and one should be finished this month, according to City Superintendent Jim Roberts.

The biggest project is on the west side of town where waterlines are being replaced to help maintain a constant pressure and quality.

The waterworks improvement is being paid for by a $248,034 grant from the Texas Department of Housing and Urban Development. The original plan called for 9,600 feet of waterlines to be replaced. That plan was scaled back at one point as engineers expected increased costs, but Roberts says most of the plan was restored.

Work is being done by Triple L Utilities of Dumas, which has done other jobs for the city, including the new sewer plant a few years ago. Roberts said Triple L could be finished with the project in about three weeks.

The city’s other project – a new solid waste transfer station – has been staked off, and Roberts said Tuesday he hopes to begin moving dirt on it this week.

The station, located in front of the city’s Three Feathers Recycling on W. North Front Street, will consist of five roll-off boxes where citizens can dump trash, tree limbs, or recyclables. When completed, it is expected to be open seven days a week.

This project will be partially funded by a $52,800 grant from the Panhandle Regional Planning Commission.

Roberts said city workers will haul caliche from near the municipal airport to build an earthen ramp that citizens will drive up on to dump stuff into the trash boxes.

According to the terms of the PRPC grant, the transfer station must be completed by August 31, 2001.

The Outreach Health Services Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) Program is sponsoring a free health and nutrition education class entitled, “Childhood Obesity: Lily Faces a Problem,” throughout the  month of June 2001 for pregnant women and mothers with children up to age five.

Cases of childhood obesity in the United States have risen about 50 percent over the past 20 years. The alarming rise in overweight children is no surprise to Linda DeFrank, Outreach Health Services WIC nutritionist and education specialist.

WIC employees routinely graph the height and weight of children enrolled in local WIC programs. Just as the studies and statistics are saying, DeFrank does see more and more young children who are tipping the scale a little too much.

“This issue is much bigger than worrying about whether or not your child will get teased at school,” De Frank said. “When children are obese, they are at higher risk for developing type II diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, and other unwanted health problems. Most people don’t develop these diseases until they are well into their adult years. Also, most overweight children grow up to be overweight adults. So the higher threat of disease stays with them.”

Joyce Devereaux, Director of WIC Programs at Outreach Health Services, said the epidemic of childhood obesity is a combination of two social trends: lack of physical activity and poor food choices.

“Children today are typically more sedentary than their parent used to be,” Devereaux said. “Statistics show that they are spending most of their time in front of a television, computer, or video game. Their parents on the other hand, spent more time as children playing outside and riding their bikes.

“What’s worse, in today’s school environment, children are no longer required to have physical education every day. Today, physical education classes have almost become an option in our schools.”

Perhaps even more concerning than the sedentary lifestyle is the diet many children consume today. According to Devereaux, society eats “convenience” foods more than ever.

Convenience foods can consist of fast foods, such as hamburgers and French fries, packaged snacks, such as potato chips and candy bars and even breakfast items such as donuts and pastries. Unfortunately, most of these types of foods are usually high in fat or high in sugar.

“Convenience foods are usually loaded with calories but very low in nutrition,” Devereaux said. “If the food already has a lot of calories, think about how many more calories we add when we go to Wendy’s and have the meal “biggie sized’ for just 40 cents more. Top that off with the sugar that comes from the soft drink, and you can see how the calories are showing up around the waistlines of our children.”

Devereaux understands why many working parents buy fast foods for their children. The zero prep time and affordability make it an appealing option for busy parents. The downside is that parents have little or no control over the fat or sugar content, and the  menus do not typically offer all of the food groups, either.

“You can’t order cooked broccoli or asparagus at most fast food restaurants,” Devereaux said. “The food groups that seem to be eliminated from fast foods are the vegetable group and fruit group. These are two vital food groups for overall health – and they just happen to be low in calories.”

Outreach Health Services provides a variety of services through its WIC Clinics including free nutrition education, breastfeeding classes, immunizations, health screenings, and vouchers for health foods to pregnant women and mothers with children up to age five.

Outreach Health Services provides WIC services to Donley County and operates a WIC Clinic in Clarendon on the second Monday of each month.

For more information, class schedules, or to make a reservation, call the Outreach Health Services WIC Clinic in Clarendon at 874-3011.

COLLEGE STATION – Grasshopper populations are beginning to increase with the warmer temperatures and drier air in most of Texas, said Dr. Cliff Hoelscher, entomologist with the Texas Agricultural Extension Service.

“Grasshoppers usually appear in late-April to May,” Hoelscher said. “They appear in cycles, and we are just in the middle of the six- to seven-year cycle of grasshopper infestations.”

“With the record-setting temperatures last year, we had the highest populations of grasshoppers that I have seen in the last 30 years,” Hoelscher said.

He said grasshoppers first appear in rangelands and roadsides because the overwintering eggs are not disturbed in those areas. Populations are much fewer in farmland and cultivated areas because the soil is disturbed.

“I think there should be fewer grasshoppers in 2001 because of the wet spring we had,” Hoelscher said. “Some of the earlier appearing species were killed by the wet spring weather. But in April it turned off dry, and we’ve seen a resurgence of grasshoppers since the 15th of April.”

During the time before they hatch, grasshoppers are in the egg stage in the ground and overwinter in an egg pod, he said.

“Grasshoppers affect pastures and rangelands as well as grain crops such as sorghum, corn, soybeans, and cotton.”

Hoelscher said the only real way to control the grasshopper population is by using insecticides. The two principal materials are Sevin, a trade name for an insecticide application, and Ultra Low Volume (ULV) Malathion. Also, Tempo’s a product for homeowners with yards and ornamental plants.

Even though grasshoppers are pests, they provide a good food for bird populations. So birds help get rid of them. If that doesn’t work, grasshoppers make good fish bait!

Five years ago, folks in Clarendon felt like they were in an Internet no man’s land, forced to pay long distance charges to hook up to most service providers. Then Extended Local Calling opened up the phone lines to Amarillo and Pampa, bringing the digital world affordably within our grasp.

Now in 2001, we again find ourselves on the communications frontier as broadband Internet services have not yet found their way to our humble hamlet. As a result, local Internet users are stuck hopelessly in the digital slow lane – poking along at a pathetic 56k bps when all the planets are aligned properly and at 28k or less the rest of the time.

Cable Internet is unknown here. Digital Subscriber Line service (DSL) is also no where to be seen. But hope springs eternal. There is a possibility of attracting a high speed, wireless Internet service to come to town, but to do so we need your help.

An Amarillo-based company wants to know how many folks in Clarendon would be interested in their service. If you think you might be one of those people, then please pick up the phone and call the Enterprise at 874-2259 or e-mail us at Clar1701@aol.com.  We’ll give you all the details.

Clarendon College has named 21 students to the President’s List and 29 students to the Dean’s List for the Spring 2001 semester.

Josh Talley of Hedley was named to the President’s List. Others named on the list were Carol Archer , Allison; Bobby Bingham, Aspermont; Alice Birchfield, McLean; Margaret Bowman, Jennings, LA; Damien Cantu, Childress; Teresa Davis, Memphis; George Eggleston, Pampa; Jason Foerster, San Antonio; Jose Garcia, Childress; Belio Gonzalez, Childress; Karen Joiner, Pampa; Ian Jones, Allison; Marcia Julian, Pampa; Melissa Krueger, McLean; Cassandra Paff, Port MacQuarie, NS; John Rusler, Canyon; Tate Seideman, Lubbock, To Soupradith, Childress; Jason Sullivan, Childress; and Terrance Weber, Childress.

Students named to the President’s List must have a grade point average (GPA) of 4.0 and are enrolled in at least 12 hours.

Brandi Beavers, Annette Daniel, and Gerard Daniel – all of Clarendon and Christy Cox of Hedley were named to the Dean’s List.  Others named on the list were Rebecca Aderholt, Pampa; Barry Bowman, Pampa; Marinda Carter, Shamrock; Itayi Chinhamo, Hounslow, Mdlsex; Sharon Cook, Pampa; Richard Fuller, Childress; Cecil Gaither, Shamrock; Kimberly Grice, Pampa; David Groschke, Waller; George Guerra, Childress; Stefane Hedrick, Plainview; Justin Hughes, Anton; Alicia Ingram, Pampa; Debra Knox, Wellington; Cassie Lax, Shamrock; Gregory Logan, Pampa; Carlos Martinez, Quanah; Jeremy Nicholas, Pampa; Chungu Nkhazi, Marietta, GA; Evelyn Noble, Pampa; Michael Pelley, Port Macquarie, NS; Shannon Rodriguez, Memphis; Bradley Schilling, Slaton; Reynaldo Segovia, Jr., Childress; and Faith Self, Childress.

Students named to the Dean’s List must have a GPA of 3.6 or higher and enrolled in at least 12 hours.

Clarendon College will receive a nine percent increase in funding under a bill passed by the 77th Legislature last weekend.

State Rep. Warren Chisum (R-Pampa) notified CC President Myles Shelton last week that state funding for the two-year college will be increased from $2.12 million to $2.31 million for the next two years – a net increase of $386,000.

Senate Bill 1 passed both houses of the legislature over the weekend, and Gov. Rick Perry is expected to sign it following a review by the comptroller’s office.

Shelton said the legislature took note of the needs of small rural community colleges this biennium and gave them the same percentage increase as larger community colleges.

“There was a feeling across the state that if the community colleges didn’t get some help, tuition was going to go up significantly,” Shelton said. “This increase keeps access to the two-year colleges affordable.”

Much of the new funding will help pay for the expenses of operating the college.

“We know there is an increased cost of doing business,” Shelton said. “We see it from the price of gas to the cost of photocopiers. We also want to look at enhancing existing programs and starting new programs.”

Shelton said salaries are another area the college needs to look at in order to retain qualified staff and faculty.

CC Board of Regents Chairman Mike Butts said the increased funding is good news for CC.

“We’re going to be able to address a lot of issues that we haven’t been able to,” he said. “The cost of energy is a major issue as much as our judging teams and athletic teams travel and as much as our instructors travel to other campuses. Salaries are also an issue.”

Butts also said the new funding is good news for the local economy because much of it will be spent in Clarendon and Donley County as well as the college’s service area.

Clarendon has experienced growth during the last school year. Enrollment for the 2000-2001 year was up about 12 percent.

The enrollment increase follows the opening of a new CC Pampa Center this past year and an effort by the college to improve programs on the home campus. The 12 percent gain was reported to be evenly split between the CC home campus and its satellite in Pampa.

Shelton says Rep. Chisum is largely responsible for this year’s increase.

“I give a lot of credit to Warren Chisum for going to bat for us,” Shelton said. “He also had a lot of help down there [in Austin].”

Clarendon College remains an affordable education choice. Shelton said a student at CC can expect to pay $500 to $600 for tuition and fees where they might pay $1,500 to $2,000 at state senior college.

The Saints’ Roost Museum is announcing a new series of educational programs, which will be conducted at the museum during this summer.

The programs, “Summer Saturday Museum Mornings,” will kick off this weekend, June 2, at 10:30 a.m. and will feature Bobbie Floyd of Clarendon, who will discuss Aladdin Kerosene Lamps.

On June 9, Ike O’Neal will give a live demonstration of Shoeing Horses on the museum grounds, and Jim Douglas will utilize the museum computers for a program about the Korean War on June 16.

The museum’s front porch will be the roosting place for Mary Neal Risley and Verna Teague to share their Birding expertise on June 23, and Chuck Senter will be on the lawn tying up the month on June 30 with a Roping demonstration.

The Summer Saturday Museum Morning programs are being coordinated by museum board member Jo Shaller. Each program will start at 10:30 a.m., and admission is free to inquiring minds of all ages.

The Saints’ Roost Museum is located just off SH 70 at 610 E. Harrington on the grounds of the old Adair Hospital.

WASHINGTON, DC – US Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Clarendon) voted Saturday for the largest tax cut in 20 years. The bill passed the House of Representatives 240-154.

The plan, which has since been passed by the Senate and signed by President Bush, calls for a reduction in income tax rates, a reduction in the so-called marriage penalty, a doubling of the child tax credit, and the phase out of the death tax.

“Today in America people send more of their paycheck off to the government than at any other time since World War II,” Thornberry said. “It is only right that we cut their taxes. This bill will do that.”

The tax cut will provide across the board relief by replacing the five current tax brackets with four lower brackets. The marriage penalty will be reduced, and the per-child tax credit will be doubled from $500 to $1,000 with a retroactive increase to $600 to January 2001.

The death tax will be phased out over the next ten years.

A lump-sum refund of $300 for single taxpayers, $500 for single parents, and $600 for married taxpayers will also be provided this year.

“Some people see this bill as the culmination of what the president campaigned on and what a lot of us have been pushing for over the past several years,” Thornberry said. “I view it differently. I see this bill as the first step in giving people their money back and [as] something that will help lay the foundation for future tax relief in the next few years.”

The local congressman said he believes the capital gains tax should be reduced since more Americans are now investing in the stock market. He also says he hopes to see a repeal of the tax on Social Security benefits and the four-cent tax on fuel, both of which were passed in 1993.

“Both of these taxes were passed to help get rid of the budget deficit. Well, the deficit’s gone, but these two taxes are still here. We should get rid of them. I’m hopeful that in the coming months, we’ll be able to look at these and other areas where taxes can be reduced.”