This Week

Just two weeks before the March 21 filing deadline, very few people had signed up to run for local offices around Donley County as of Tuesday morning.

Six governments in Donley County have positions opening this year. All positions are elected at-large within the respective cities or districts.

Clarendon CISD is the only government to have a candidate for each open position thus far. Incumbents Reneé Betts, Jim Shelton, and Marvin Thompson are each seeking another three-year term on the Board of Trustees.

In the City of Clarendon, Mayor Tex Selvidge has signed up to run for re-election, but no one had yet filed for the two open aldermen seats. Those positions are currently held by Aldermen Bobbie Kidd (filling the late James Owens’ term) and Michael Tibbets (filling the term of Kent Womack.)

With three seats available in Hedley, only Bruce Howard has filed for re-election to the board of aldermen. Other expiring terms are those of Shauna Monroe and Jim Roberts.

In Howardwick, Billy F. Woods has filed to run for mayor. Two seats on the board of aldermen, however, have no candidates thus far. People in those positions currently are Shirley Ariola and Mike Rowland (filling the term of Bob Hall.)

The Donley County Hospital District has three seats up for election on the Board of Directors. The positions of Place 1 – Don Thornberry, Place 2 – Nelson Christie, and Place 3 – David Strange all expire this year. Thornberry and Christie have both filed to run.

Hedley CISD has the distinction of being the only government with no candidates at all so far. The terms of Mike Wallendorff, Jan Farris, and Carole Ward are expiring.

Citizens can apply to run for these positions through March 21, 2001. Elections will be held on Saturday, May 5, 2001. Interested individuals should go by or call the business offices of the board they are interested in for more information. The Clarendon CISD office will be closed March 12 – 16, 2001, for spring break.

By David Stevens, PanhandleNews.com

MEMPHIS – Jack Martin is worried about the preservation of rural America.

The Memphis man is particularly concerned about the future of small hospitals. If quality health care is not available, he reasons, small-town residents will have one more reason to move to the cities.

And so the former schoolteacher has put together a non-profit foundation aimed at maintaining health care, education, and quality of life in the southeastern Texas Panhandle, especially Hall and Donley counties.

And he’s enlisted the memory of a rural-American hero to help stir interest.

The Audie L. Murphy Rural Preservation Foundation is hoping to secure its first funds on March 1, Martin said. That’s when it raffles an Audie Murphy commemorative rifle with 24-karat gold engraving. Martin said the limited edition collector’s item is valued at $1,900.

Martin, 47, said he has long admired Murphy, who died in an airplane crash in 1971.

“Way back in the early ‘80s I took a group of students to Arlington National Cemetery, and I saw Audie’s grave,” he said. “I knew who he was, but that really brought it home.”

In 1995, Martin said he tracked down some of Murphy’s relatives and asked them to participate in promoting patriotism at a school in Gilmer where he was principal. Martin stayed in contact with family members and gained a greater respect for the soldier.

“I thought he was an important American that the students needed to know about,” Martin said. “He was from Texas, he was from rural America like our school was, and I wanted to tell the students how a person can achieve great things even if they’re not from a rich family. He grew up in humble surroundings and became one of our greatest Americans. He inspired me personally.”

Gene Murphy, 71, of Jacksonville, is a younger brother of Audie. He said the family worked on farms in the Greenville area in east Texas, raising cotton and corn among other crops.

Gene Murphy not only allowed Martin to use the family name for the rural foundation, he agreed to sit on the board of directors. He said his brother would have endorsed Martin’s project, and he hopes the name will help inspire success.

“I’m surprised at the number of people I’ve been around, people a lot younger than me, who remember him,” Gene Murphy said.

Audie Murphy is believed to be the nation’s most decorated combat soldier during World War II. He received 33 citations for bravery, including the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Many generations of Americans will remember him for another reason – he became an actor following his military career, appearing in more than 25 films. One of his co-stars was Hollywood legend Jimmy Stewart.

Martin hopes Murphy’s name will enable the foundation to help rural causes.

“Rural hospitals are closing ,and we have many needs,” Martin said. “I am a kidney transplant patient myself, and I’m not the only one out here. I want to be able to live here in my hometown.”

Valerie Taylor, Clarendon High School

The CHS Junior Historians held their annual Valentine’s Raffle on February 13. 

Tickets sold for $1 a piece or $5 for ten at the boy’s basketball games.  Michael McFarland, Derek Gourley, Valerie Taylor, and Tamara Bidone sold the raffle tickets. 

Items raffled included a teddy bear donated by K-Mart, a box of candy given by the Clarendon Outpost, and a dinner for two from Renee’s Diner.  During halftime of the varsity boys’ game, the prizes were drawn for.  Paul Goetze won the candy, Lauren Shelton won the teddy bear, and Ronnie Edwards won the dinner from Renee’s Diner. 

A group of fifteen Junior Historians attended the Regional History Day Contest n Canyon at the Panhandle Plains Historical Museum on February 17.  Of the nine projects entered, seven will be going to the state contest which is in Austin at the Renaissance Hotel on May 11-12.

Those going to Austin include Ashlee Kidd and Brandi Betts – first place Senior Group Display; Michael McFarland and Shanon Martin – second place Senior Group Display; Carrie Helms – first place Senior Individual Display; Tamara Bidone – second place Senior Individual Display; Valerie Taylor, Melissa McAnear, Emily Sparks, Nathan Fobbs, and Taylor Shelton – second place Senior Group Performance; Austin Sears – second place Senior Individual Media; and Nickless Devin – second place Senior Individual Paper.

Others who went include Claire Rodriguez and Kelley Lemley – third place Senior Group Display; and Bryan McFarland – third place Senior Individual Display.

AUSTIN – Agriculture Commissioner Susan Combs reminds livestock producers that 240 Texas counties have been approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency for the Livestock Assistance Program (LAP).

Area counties that are approved include Donley, Hall, Briscoe, Collingsworth, Armstrong, and Gray.

LAP, administrated by FSA, provides direct payments to eligible livestock producers in approved counties who suffered grazing losses due to natural disasters during 2000. Nationwide, $430 million have been allocated for livestock producers for weather-related losses as part of the farm assistance package passed last October.

For drought-related losses, LAP benefits are available in approved counties where precipitation was 40 percent or more below normal for at least four months and where there was at least a 40 percent loss of available grazing during a 90-day period due to drought during the 2000-crop year.

Eligible producers must have suffered a 40 percent or greater loss of grazing for three or more consecutive months during 2000 due to a natural disaster.

Eligible livestock include beef and dairy cattle, buffalo or beefalo when maintained on the same basis as beef cattle, sheep, goats, swine and equine animals used commercially for human food or kept for the production of food or fiber on the owner’s farm or ranch.

For more information on LAP, visit the USDA-Farm Service Agency website at www.fsa.usda.gov/pas/publications/facts/html/lap01.htm or contact the local USDA Service Center.

Judge Jack Hall and secretary Rhonda Aveni display some of items discovered during a clean out of the Donley County Courthouse, including an antique pistol, a ballot box made from a sugar can, a wanted poster, an empty 12-pack of Pale Dry beer, and an old checker set.
 
Each passing week sheds new light on history and uncovers strange artifacts as Donley County moves out of the courthouse it has occupied since the 19th century.

The most interesting item to date was uncovered last Tuesday by the secretary of the county judge. Rhonda Aveni was working in the basement vault when she found a 90-year-old gun.

Behind some old property tax receipts, Aveni found the German made Walther pistol complete with a leather holster with “B.A.X.” stamped under the flap and one empty clip.

Local gun collector Jim Garland identified the pistol as being a Walther Model 3, which was manufactured in 1910 in Zella-Mehlis, Germany. He says the gun is in pretty rough shape with some rust and a missing left grip. The pistol also is missing one of its two clips.

“Someone used some ingenuity and made a glass or plastic piece to replace that grip, which serves the purpose,” Garland said.

County officials say they don’t know how long the gun has been there or why it was put in the basement vault. Former judge W.R. Christal said he knew of the gun’s existence, even knew exactly where it was, but had no knowledge of its origins.

Anyone having any information about this gun is asked to call The Clarendon Enterprise at 874-2259 or County Judge Jack Hall at 874-3625.

Hall, Aveni, all the members of the commissioners’ court, and county road hands were joined in cleaning out the old building by nine inmates from the Clements Unit from Amarillo. The group worked for three days last week hauling furniture, books, and county records to temporary storage facilities. They also removed all of the radiators from the building, which may be sold as scrap.

Prior to last week, Angie Papa of the county clerk’s office, spent weeks in the courthouse basement sorting and boxing county records.

“The more of that stuff we can remove on our own, the less it will cost for the contractors to do it,” Hall said. “All this kind of work will go toward the county’s match of the state grant.”

The judge expects to have the inmates come back to Clarendon to remove shelving in the basement and in the old treasurer’s office and to rip up carpet and decking on the second floor.

The only furnishings remaining to be removed are the jury box and judge’s bench.

Among other items found in the courthouse were an old wooden checker set, an empty box for a 12-pack of Grand Prize Pale Dry beer, a 1935 physician’s statement certifying a certain man to be “free from all known venereal diseases” (which apparently had something to do with getting a marriage license), and an early 1950s wanted poster for one Sydney Arthur Long, alias “Darcel of India.” According to the poster, Long was a con man who sometimes claimed to be a hypnotist. The price on his head was $250.

Judge Hall said he also ran across a civil suit filed against legendary cattleman Charles Goodnight and found “lots of dust that has accumulated since 1890.”

The county plans to preserve the artifacts it finds, but some history will probably be lost forever as the restoration of the courthouse ensues. Graffiti, for example, is scrawled on the walls of the attic in what used to be the third floor of the tower. That area may have once been used as a holding room for people awaiting trial. It’s not known exactly when the writing was done, but one piece – proclaiming that “Sheriff Mosley is not worth a dam” [sic] – can be dated closely. M.W. Mosley was sheriff of Donley County from 1929 to 1930.

Another etching reads, “Quiet in the courtroom. The judge is eating beans.”

And one inscription could be taken as a motto for the courthouse. It reads in bold, dark letters: “LET THERE BE JUSTICE.”

Judge Hall hopes to save some of the graffiti but says the plaster in that room crumbles like sand.

In other courthouse news, commissioners met on February 12 to open bids for the abatement of lead paint, asbestos, and bat guano. They awarded a contract to the Environmental Reconditioning of El Paso contingent on the approval of environmental consultant Luis Acuña.

The El Paso firm had the low bid at $30,300 and was recently given the nod by Acuña.

Other firms bidding were Asbestos Removal of Odessa with a price of $34,761.75 and the Borger-based Asbestos Maintenance with a bid of $79,300.

Abatement work will begin this month and is scheduled to be completed by the middle of April.