This Week

The Donley County Sheriff’s Department reported Friday that burglars involved with Columbus Day crimes in Lelia Lake have been arrested.

Chief Deputy Butch Blackburn said Brandy Machell Savers, age 24, and Cecil Ray Turner, age 26, were arrested by Postal Inspector Fermin Romo in Palestine, Texas, on October 13.

Savers and Turner confessed to the October 9 break in at the Lelia Lake Post Office where they stole several money orders, Blackburn said. The duo also broke into Reynolds Machine & Supply and stole cash and tools.

The couple also burglarized the Estelline Post Office the same night.

Blackburn said Savers and Turner tried to pass off the one of the stolen money orders in a Dallas post office, but the postal clerk recognized it as being stolen.

The clerk refused to take the money order, went to the parking lot, and wrote down the suspects’ license plate number. They were also captured on video tape.

Fermin recovered some money orders as well as tools taken from Reynolds’ store.

Blackburn said the couple is scheduled to be arraigned on federal charges in Amarillo this week. They will also face state charges for the break-in at Reynolds.

Turner has a long criminal history, Blackburn said.

Donley County Clerk Fay Vargas reports a recent article in the Amarillo newspaper has caused some confusion about voting a straight ticket in the General Election.

Voters can mark an X next to their favorite party to cast a vote for every candidate of that party. But if a voter then marks a vote for an individual candidate in another party, that vote would override the straight party vote for that particular race. In other words, you don’t get to vote twice in the same race.

Early voting began Monday and will continue in the Donley County Courthouse Annex until November 3, 2000. Vargas reports her office will be open for early voting from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., including the noon hour.

The General Election will be November 7, 2000, and a sample ballot will be printed in next week’s Enterprise. Profiles of local candidates are being published this week on page 12.

The Clarendon School Board met in regular session October 17.

A bid to replace the doors on the Old Gym was accepted from a Childress firm in the amount of $11,378.

The board approved a motion to add girls softball as a UIL extracurricular sport. Athletic Director Roger Hoeltzel presented cost factors, and Coach Kathy Barton presented results of a survey to assess the level of interest in adding the sport.

Time management, conflicts with other sports, and transportation issues were discussed. Stan Shelton offered the support of the Little League.

Coach Keila Cruce reported on tennis issues. She was concerned about the conditions of the courts and said a lot of the work can be done by personnel and students.

The board expressed appreciation to the coaches for their efforts and also for their eagerness in getting softball started for the girls of CISD.

CHS Principal Larry Jeffers gave a report on Parental Consent Requirements. He is mailing a waiver out that parents can sign allowing their children to leave the campus. A policy will have to be adopted by January 1, 2001, and will go out with registration packets at the beginning of the next school year.

Hysinger reported on school alteration and cancellation procedures for bad weather. He also discussed spending Activity Fund Miscellaneous money on trophy cases and a grill/vent for the Bronco Gym.

MUNDAY – Hot, dry weather conditions this year favored two boll weevil eradication efforts under way on the Rolling Plains, said a Texas Agricultural Extension Service entomologist.

“There are two active boll weevil eradication programs on the Rolling Plains – the Rolling Plains central zone and the Rolling Plains northern zone,” said Emory Boring, Extension entomologist based at Texas A&M’s Agricultural Research and Extension Center at Vernon. “Next year will be a critical period in the central zone.

“Fewer insecticide applications will be made there, and remaining boll weevil infestations will be spotty. Most insecticide applications there will occur from mid-June through mid-July and from mid-August through September.

“But trapping to gauge weevil numbers will continue at the same pace as this year. By the end of 2001, the central zone will probably be pretty close to their eradication goal.”

Boll weevil numbers are low in the northern zone, which begins in Hardeman and Foard counties and stretches east through Wilbarger, Wichita, Archer and Clay counties, he noted.

“Most irrigated cotton in the northern zone is located in Hardeman and Wichita counties. This year’s drought helped raise weevil mortality there, and lower September treatment thresholds have pushed weevil numbers well below those in the western counties of this zone,” Boring said. “There is little boll weevil migration from the north or south into this zone – thanks to its isolation from weevil-infested counties further to the east, and eradication programs in Oklahoma and the Rolling Plains central zone.”

Boll weevil migration has been a problem on the western side of the northern zone – especially around Turkey, Texas, the entomologist said.

“Even so, the addition of about 56,000 acres of cotton below the Caprock in Motley, Dickens, Kent, Briscoe, Garza and Crosby counties should help curtail weevil migration,” Boring said. “Producers and landowners in these counties voted to become part of the Rolling Plains northern zone in May. Diapause control applications started on this acreage in early September.

“This additional acreage establishes a well-defined boundary, and better isolation, for the western part of the northern zone, and will help limit weevil migration into the northwest part of the central zone.”

Trapping will continue to be an important part of both zone’s eradication programs.

“Workers in both zones will again place boll weevil traps around fields, after producers establish the 2001 cotton crop,” Boring said. “If there are fields in your area without traps by the time cotton reaches the four-leaf stage, contact the eradication program work unit in your county.

“Trapping, and monitoring trap numbers, tells us when to make insecticide applications. It’s very important that these applications are made where over-wintered boll weevils are moving into young cotton. This keeps weevils from depositing eggs in squares that are ¼-inch and larger. If producers and landowners continue to work closely with their eradication zone, we can lessen the cost and time necessary to achieve eradication on the Rolling Plains.”

There are eight active boll weevil eradication zones (programs) in Texas, operated and governed by cooperative efforts between producers and the Texas Boll Weevil Eradication Foundation. In late September, the Southern Rolling Plains zone was the first to declare its counties (Coke, Coleman, Concho, Irion, Mason, McCulloch, Runnels, Schleicher, Tom Green, and southern Taylor) “weevil free.”

There are three active boll weevil eradication zones on the High Plains. Producers in two other High Plains zones will soon decide when, and at what cost, to “activate” their eradication programs.

The Texas Agricultural Extension Service estimates that boll weevils cost the state somewhere between $25 million to $50 million annually, before eradication programs were initiated.

Eradication programs in regional zones are first approved by producers, and are funded by a combination of farmer assessments and state monies.

More information on the boll weevil eradication effort under way in Texas is available by visiting the Texas Boll Weevil Eradication Foundation site ( http://www.txbollweevil.org).