Roger Estlack

An Amarillo youth lost her life and two friends were hospitalize following a one vehicle accident near Clarendon early Friday morning, August 3.

The Texas Department of Public Safety reports that a 14-year-old girl, who was driving at the time, was pronounced dead on the scene by Justice of the Peace Pat White. Two other 14-year-old girls were transported to Northwest Texas Hospital in Amarillo. One had non-life-threatening injuries, and another was still hospitalized Tuesday morning.

The girls were traveling southeast on US 287 about 1.8 miles southeast of Clarendon in a 2006 Chevrolet Z-71 pickup at about 3:22 a.m. DPS says the truck left the road and traveled into the center median, across a cross over, and struck a delineator post before traveling into the northwest inside lane of US 287. The driver over-corrected to the left and lost control of the vehicle, which began to rollover, went airborne, and crashed into a large tree before coming to rest on its top in the center median facing north.

The driver was not wearing a seatbelt and was ejected from the vehicle. The passenger, who sustained non-life-threatening injuries, was wearing a seatbelt. It is unknown if the critically injured second passenger was wearing a seatbelt or not. She was partially ejected.

DPS Trooper Lynn Mays Speed is believed to be a factor in the crash and also said the accident is still under investigation. Mays also said that DPS cannot release the girls’ names as they are all minors.

The Clarendon CISD Board of Trustees extended the contract of Superintendent Mike Norrell during their regular meeting July 11.

Trustees met for over an hour behind closed doors to evaluate Norrell’s performance before returning to open session to accept his contract and compensation package unanimously.

Norrell started with Clarendon schools in April 2015. His contract will now run through the 2022-2023 school year.

In other personnel matters, the board acknowledged the resignation of teacher Cobette Riza and approved offering a probationary contract to Christi Benson.

In other school business, Norrell presented the STAAR and EOC scores to the board, and Elementary Principal Mike Word delivered an Early Reading Report.

Trustees approved a contract with Johnson & Sheldon for auditing services. Region 16 ESC Contracts for 2019-2020 were approved as presented, and policy updates recommended by TASB Policy Service were approved.

The board also approved the tax deeds for Trust Property in the City of Howardwick as presented.

The Clarendon City Council last week deliberated the fate of a proposed aquatics facility and discussed using city funds to help make up a shortfall between the low bid and money dedicated to the project.

A&S General Contractors had the lowest price of $2,716,838 when bids were opened on July 9. Funds currently dedicated to the project through donations and grants, however, total $2,253,055, leaving a shortfall of $463,783. City officials would also like to have a five percent contingency fund of $126,842 in the event of change orders or cost overruns.

The city has until August 23 to accept or reject the bid submitted by A&S.

“Things have changed dramatically over the last four years,” Mayor Sandy Skelton told the council. “I’m feeling okay about investing city funds into this project.”

Skelton told the council that the cost of building the swimming pool had gone up from $500 per square foot of surface water in 2015 to more than $800 per square foot today. City officials had initially said four years ago that no public funds would be spent on constructing the facility, but he said they had no way of knowing then what was going to happen with the prices of steel and concrete. The mayor also said a strong economy has pool builders busy and not hurting for work, which leads to higher prices.

The project has now been bid three times, coming in over budget each time. The most recent low bid has come the closest to the funds available but only after the size of the project was reduced from about 4,200 square feet of water surface area to 3,160 square feet.

“We highly recommend not bidding again,” Skelton said, noting that he and City Administrator David Dockery have been meeting with A&S to find ways to cut costs.

One proposed way to save about $180,000 would be to use gunite (or sprayed concrete) instead of cast concrete walls for the pool. City officials note that there is a trade-off in using the cheaper method, however, in that it leads to increased maintenance costs down the road and is considered not as strong as traditional building methods.

The city also has about $1.1 million in general and capital reserves and could tap some of those funds to help make up the short fall as well as pursue additional donations.

“We’re going to have to put in some city funds if we want to go forward,” Dockery said.

Clarendon Economic Development Corporation Secretary Roger Estlack and CEDC President Robert Riza both addressed the council about the water recreation project. The CEDC gave $25,000 initially to the project and also financed bonds of $500,000 to help pay for its construction.

Estlack urged the city to accept the current low bid, negotiate as much savings as possible, and use city reserves to make up the difference in order to start construction and open the aquatics center in 2020 rather than further delay the project.

Riza said the time has come to finish the project and that if the city fails to do so, it would never be able to go ask for donations for this kind of project again.

Alderman Larry Jeffers said he was not opposed to using city funds to support building the pool, and Alderman Nathan Floyd agreed.

“I feel good about it,” Floyd said.

Alderman Jacob Fangman asked about other costs associated with opening a pool, such as equipping lifeguards, signage, and other expenses. He said he worries about putting too much of the city’s reserves into the project.

“I think a pool is a great thing, but we need to think about the big picture,” Fangman said.
Skelton warned against considering scrapping the pool project and said the city would be in the hole with design and other costs if the project is not pursued.

“Personally, I think it would be a terrible mistake to scrap this project,” the mayor said. “Donors don’t want their money back. They want a pool.”

The city council took no action on the pool last week but will take up the issue again during its next two meetings in August.

“I was pleased with the thoughtful discussion the City Council had at its July 25th meeting regarding the financial details for the proposed swimming pool,” Mayor Skelton said after the meeting. “Over the next three weeks, we will be working diligently to cut costs and raise additional funds. The Economic Development Corporation and the Donley County Commissioners Court have contributed to the proposed pool, but the City of Clarendon has not done so thus far. However, the City Council has discussed the possibility of contributing in the next two or three weeks.

“In my personal opinion, it would be a huge lost opportunity for the residents of Clarendon and Donley County to not go through with this project,” Skelton continued. “How often does a city receive a large amount of donated funds for any project? If we do not construct the pool, the City would have to return 100 percent of the donated funds to many, many donors. I talked to a gentleman not long ago and he said ‘just use those donated funds to pave our streets.’ I reminded him that the donors gave funds exclusively for the pool and nothing else. Street paving is an entirely different issue. We all want more streets paved but that issue will need to go to the voters after the replacement of the old cast iron water pipes, a project that is currently underway. City Council members want streets paved as much as anyone else, but it doesn’t make sense to pave streets before the water pipe replacement project is complete.”

Editor’s Note: Next week the Enterprise will publish an updated drawing of the pool design as well as list the features currently planned for the facility.