This Week

The historic Saye house went up in flames February 13. Arson is suspected.

A fire that destroyed a historic home here last week is under investigation as a possible arson.

Clarendon Fire Chief Delbert Robertson said the fire was suspicious because it started in the middle of the floor in an upstairs room.

The historic Saye House at the corner of Kearney and Sixth streets is probably a total loss, the fire chief said.

Authorities were alerted to the blaze at approximately 10:30 p.m. last Tuesday, February 13, by local businessman Jeff Howard, who lives across the street to the north. Sheriff Butch Blackburn said Howard’s daughter heard something and alerted her father. He noticed the fire and called the authorities.

The trucks from the Clarendon Volunteer Fire Department responded to the blaze. By midnight the top floor of the two-story house was engulfed, and firefighters worked until 4 a.m. to extinguish the fire.

“It got into the upper attic, and there was just no way to get to it,” Robertson said. “The downstairs isn’t hurt except for water damage, but I’m sure it’s pretty much a total loss.”

Texas Fire Marshall Jeff Oldham of Amarillo investigated the scene on Thursday, February 15. Blackburn said Oldham took samples of the floor. Robertson said lab tests will determine if an accelerant was used in the fire.

Stacy G. Seba, a private fire investigator hired by an insurance company, is also looking into the case.

Officials are “99.9 percent sure it’s an arson,” Blackburn said. The investigation was still ongoing as of Monday morning.

The exact age of the house is uncertain, but it was believed to have been built in the early 1900s.

Tommie C. Saye said he thinks his great-grandfather, T.M. Little, bought the home some time in the early 1920s. Little moved here with his family in 1910 and established Little Mercantile, the forerunner of Saye’s western store.

The Saye family occupied the house for more than 60 years with five generations living there over time. Tommie Saye was born in the house in 1927. A neighbor alerted him to the fire Tuesday night.

“We sat in the park and watched it go until about 1:30 in the morning,” he said. “It was history leaving.”

Saye sold the house more than 20 years ago, and it eventually was sold to Clifford Alexander. His family lived there about 20 years.

“We watched our girls grow up there,” said Alexander’s wife Ann. Their family also gathered across the street in City Park as their former home burned.

The Alexanders moved out of the house about three years ago and had reportedly sold it to the family of Larry Wilson.

The house was unoccupied at the time of the fire, Blackburn said.

A Burlington Northern-Santa Fe coal train collided with a local woman’s car Saturday east of Clarendon.

DPS Trooper Chris Ward said 71-year-old Cora Hamilton was southbound on County Road 13 when she crossed the BNSF tracks in front of the eastbound train.

Hamilton’s 1988 Dodge Aspen was struck behind the right front tire. The car was spun around two times and hit a signal pole. Ward said a railroad employee saw Hamilton ejected from the rear window of the car.

The Clarendon Volunteer Fire Department and EMS personnel with the Associated Ambulance Authority responded within minutes of the accident.

“They had a very quick response,” Ward said. “I think the ambulance got there just three or four minutes after I did.”

Ward said Hamilton, who lives northeast of Clarendon, was fortunate in that two Amarillo paramedics were traveling on US 287 and saw the accident occur. They stopped and rendered the initial first aid. The names of those two men were not available at press time.

Hamilton was transported by ambulance to Goodnight where she was picked up by LifeStar helicopter and carried to Northwest Texas Hospital.

She was listed in critical condition in the ICU as of Sunday, Ward said.

The Clarendon College Theatre Arts Company will present “I Take This Man,” a farce by Jack Sharkey, on Friday and Saturday, March 2 and 3, 2001, at 8:00 p.m. at the Clarendon College Harned Sisters Fine Arts Center. A Matinee will be performed at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, March 4. 

When lovely young Giddy Hollis spots the unconscious body of a man in tank-top and shorts lying in Copley Square just at the end of the Boston Marathon after all the other racers have crossed the finish line, she reasons that since “nice guys finish last,” this must be “Mister Right!”  So she has a helpful policeman (Jud) tote him home to her nearby apartment, pretending the man is her husband.  This comes as quite a shock to her roommate, a young nurse (Charlene) whose fiancée (Dexter) is coming over to dinner that night, especially since they have no way of getting clothing onto this comatose dreamboat. 

When Bret (the unconscious man) revives and cannot remember who he is, Giddy tells him he’s her husband—but the moment Charlene and her fiancée go out, Giddy abruptly regrets her subterfuge when Bret tries to act like a loving husband. This plot is so complicated and events happen so fast on stage that adequate description is impossible.

The cast includes the following: Giddy, Jody Blackwell; Jud, Aaron Shannon; Bret, Jason Myers; Charlene, Mari Carter; and Dexter, Josh Talley.

Bring the family—even the kids—to see this concoction of wild, warm and lightning-fast hilarity. General admission is $5.00 for adults and $3.00 for children.

CC Board Members, faculty, staff, and students with CC Identification get in free.

Clarendon’s Community Fellowship Church held a Valentine dinner at the Bar H Dude Ranch on Wednesday, February 14.

Twenty-one couples, two singles, and four children attended. Brother Bryan Knowles regaled the attendees with some amusing anecdotes prior to the steak dinner. During the dinner, Katrina Burrows provided musical entertainment. After dinner, the couples played games and sang songs to the accompaniment of Wes Thomas on the guitar. The food was excellent, and the fellowship even finer.

Community Fellowship was chartered on December 10, 2000, as a member of the Texas Southern Baptist Convention with 51 charter members. The past two months have seen this fledgling church become the fastest growing church in the Texas Panhandle with membership already swelling to the mid sixties.

Presently the church has been holding Sunday morning services in the Panhandle Community Services building with Sunday School at 10 a.m. and the church service at 11 a.m. The Sunday night fellowship and services begin at 6 p.m.

The crowd has the little building bursting at the seams. Attendance each week is in the 80s.

A family in the congregation has donated seven acres to the church, and the church building committee is looking at ways to begin a building to house this rapidly growing fellowship of Christian believers. Everyone is invited to join or visit.

The Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum in Canyon opened its newly renovated art galleries at the Friends of Southwestern Art Annual Meeting on February 10.

The renovation created three new galleries and spurred the reinstallation of all the galleries. One of the galleries has been set aside for a former Clarendon artist.

The former Texas Gallery has become the H.D. Bugbee Gallery, named for the man who called this city home. The first installation in the newly created gallery features selections from the personal collection of Olive Vandruff (Mrs. H.D. Bugbee), a renowned Texas artist in her own right.

The former Eastern American and European Gallery has become the new Texas Gallery, a space nearly three times its former size, featuring Saltillo tile. Parts of the entrance vestibule (imported from England) were formerly in the now razed Herring Mansion. These architectural touches acknowledge the European roots of Texas and highlight the Society’s nationally recognized Texas collection.

The Western American Gallery has become the Southwestern Gallery. The rough-sawn pine floor and New Mexican architectural details add a new dimension to the Society’s Taos and Santa Fe collections.

The wall cases for decorative arts have been reinstalled with Indian arts. Silver, beadwork, baskets, and pottery comprise the new installation. Pieces are from the Bill Dee, Anna Wolfram Dove, Susan J. Allen, and Robert Tansill collections. The Furniture Gallery has also been reinstated, incorporating paintings into the overall design.

These changes were made possible by a generous grant from the Amos Molyneaux Trust. This is part of a three-fold plan for the Arts Wing to keep pace with the Museum’s $6.1 million renovation project, to emphasize the West in the Arts Wing and to exhibit more of the permanent collection.

Speeders beware. The Donley County Sheriff’s Department will soon be watching you much closer.

The Commissioners’ Court approved a request by Sheriff Butch Blackburn to rent three radar guns for local officers during their regular meeting on Monday morning.

“I’m going to try to help pay our way,” Blackburn told commissioners.

The court agreed to rent two mounted radars and one handheld unit for $255.14 per month for three years from Stalker, a Plano, Texas, company.

The sheriff says the new radar units could pay for themselves with just three tickets being written per month. The department wrote 59 traffic tickets in December, and 18 have been written in February as of Monday. Only 36 were written in January, but Blackburn says weather conditions kept people slowed down that month.

The new sheriff says he doesn’t intend to turn his officers into “ticket cops,” but he does plan to step up enforcement.

“One day a week we’re going to be checking traffic in our school zones and on US 287,” he said.

Blackburn said patrolling on US 287 will be focused in Hedley, Lelia Lake, and Clarendon, the last of which has a contract with the department to provide police protection.

“[Clarendon] is paying us about $100,000 per year for police protection. We’re going to try to give them a little better traffic control for their money.”

Clarendon’s mayor and five city aldermen woke up Valentine’s Day morning to an unsightly surprise in their yards – wooden turkeys.

It’s the beginning of a contest to find Donley County’s King Turkey. The winner will be announced during the Turkey Strut Festival on April 21-22.

The mayor and aldermen must pay $5 to have the turkeys removed. For an additional $5, they can have the turkeys put in someone else’s yard. The first twelve turkey recipients will be the “dirty dozen” in a race for King Turkey.

Pictures of these 12 turkeys will be placed on money jars at Duckwall’s, and the winner will be the turkey who has the most money at the end of the contest.

During the contest, anyone can have a turkey put in someone’s yard for a birthday, anniversary, or gag gift for a $5 donation to the Tourism Council. Call Caroline Blackerby at the Burton Library at 874-3685 for your order and delivery.

Let the games begin.

A booming population and dwindling groundwater are issues facing Texans as they head into the 21st century.

That was the word from a panel of water experts gathered at the annual convention of the Panhandle Landowners Association in Amarillo Saturday to discuss the future of water rights.

Jack Hunt, CEO of the King Ranch, said the population of Texas will double by 2050 and the demand for water will go up accordingly. Water used for irrigation in Texas may go from 60 percent today to 40 percent or less by 2050, Hunt said.

Water plans called for by Senate Bill 1 are expected to cost $17 billion to implement, according to Hunt. Another $50 to $60 billion will be needed to renew water treatment facilities throughout the state.

“The general public is going to have to be better informed if we are to deal with these complex issues,” he said.

Paul Terrill, an Austin attorney, expects changes to the Rule of Capture in coming years that landowners need to be aware of.

The Rule of Capture stems from a 1904 state court decision, the East Case, which said that landowners own the water under their property. Terrill says the problem with the rule is that big cities can buy up water rights and drain the wells of neighboring landowners.

“The Rule of Capture, as it stands today, will not be around for long, and it’s important for rural landowners to be proactive,” he said. “The rule has served us well for 100 years, but these rights need to be defined so that they can be put down on paper, marketed, protected, and defended.”

Terrill suggested water rights might be based on a “historical use” method, on a pro rata method similar to oil and gas rights, or by a combination of the two.

The panel agreed that the best way for landowners to protect their interests was through local groundwater districts.

“We think the Panhandle Groundwater Conservation District (PGCD) does a good job of protecting landowners,” said PGCD general manager C.E. Williams.

Seventy-six percent of the state’s groundwater pumpage is coverage by water districts, but Williams says the districts face making difficult and unpopular decisions in the coming years. Already, the PGCD hope to see 50 percent of the water in the ground in 1998 still there in 50 years.

That goal is easier said that done. Proposals are already on the drawing board to pipe ground water from Roberts County and other counties in the northern Panhandle to large urban areas.

Steve Stevens, a representative of Mesa Water, Inc., said that company has purchased water rights on 150,000 acres in the northern Panhandle. Mesa originally offered the water to the City of Amarillo and to the Canadian River Municipal Water Authority, but both of those entities declined, Stevens said.

Now the cities of El Paso, San Antonio, and Dallas-Ft. Worth are interested in the water, he said, and if a pipeline is built to DFW, it would likely come through or near Clarendon.

The cost of 108” pipeline to El Paso would be $2.1 billion.

Williams said the PGCD is seeking fee authority for water leaving the district to look at and purchase recharge equipment and methods. Efforts to recharge the Edwards Aquifer down state have met with some success.

Another issue briefly discussed at Saturday’s meeting was the cloud seeding project being undertaken by the PGCD. Officials say they believe the project will increase rainfall over the district.

But opponents say the project could change weather patterns and cause the rain that might fall on their land to precipitate on someone else’s land.

The Panhandle Landowners Association has approximately 200 members. Clarendon’s Jack Craft is the incoming president of the group.

Sign ups start next Monday, February 19, for people wanting to run for local offices.

Six governments in Donley County have positions opening this year. Positions are elected at-large.

The City of Clarendon will elect a mayor and two aldermen. The two-year terms are currently being held by Mayor Tex Selvidge and Aldermen Bobbie Kidd (filling the late James Owens’ term) and Michael Tibbets (filling the term of Kent Womack.)

The City of Hedley has three aldermen seats open. Those positions are currently held by Bruce Howard, Shauna Monroe, and Jim Roberts.

Two positions are up on the Howardwick Board of Aldermen. Those are the seats held by Shirley Ariola and Mike Rowland (filling the term of Bob Hall.) Mayor Margaret Pettit’s term is also up this year.

Clarendon CISD will elect three members of the Board of Trustees to three-year terms. Jim Shelton, Reneé Betts, and Marvin Thompson currently hold those seats.

Three positions will also be filled on the Hedley School Board. The terms of Mike Wallendorff, Jan Farris, and Carole Ward are expiring.

The Donley County Hospital District will hold elections for three seats on the Board of Directors for two-year terms. The positions of Place 1 – Don Thornberry, Place 2 – Nelson Christie, and Place 3 – David Strange all expire this year.

Citizens can apply to run for these positions through March 21, 2001.