Firefighter awards
Broncos advance with win over Sudan
By Sandy Anderberg
The Clarendon Broncos claimed the Area Championship with big wins over Sudan last week in Floydada. The 18-1-2 Broncos defeated the Hornets 11-10 and 9-2.
The Broncos will take on Ropes in the Regional Quarter Final game in Plainview on Thursday, May 16, at 4:00 p.m. Game two will be played thirty minutes after game one and game three will be played on Friday, May 17, at 11:00 a.m. if needed.
Game one against the Sudan Hornets kept the Bronco fans on edge and it went down to the wire. After a back-and-forth contest, the Broncos earned the win in the ninth inning when seniors Easton Frausto and Harrison Howard went to work.
Frausto connected with a huge double that brought Howard to the plate knowing he had to bring him home. With two outs on the board, Frausto worked to put himself in scoring position at third base. Howard knocked one down the third base line and Frausto was able to get to Homeplate for the score and the win. Overall, the Broncos posted 10 hits in the game and committed four errors.
Howard was on the mound for five innings and Frausto went in for the final four innings. Both pitchers faced 23 batters. Howard allowed one hit, four runs, two walks, and struck out nine. Frausto posted five strikeouts and allowed eight hits, six runs, and three walks.
The Broncos made big hits all game long and earned four stolen bases. Bryce Williams had two singles and two RBIs in the game as did Howard plus a stolen base. Jared Musick posted a single, triple, an RBI, four runs, and one stolen base. Musick was on his game defensively as well and racked up 14 put-outs in the game. Frausto finished with a single, a double, two runs and one solen base, while Levi Gates had a single and one run. Mason Allred had a single, one run, and one stolen base and Shane Hagood helped with one stolen base.
The game two win came a little easier for the Broncos. They had nine runs, nine hits, and committed three errors. Musick got the call and threw for six innings striking out nine. Mason Sims pitched the last inning and had one strike out.
The Hornets earned the first score of the game in the second inning on an error in the field, but the Broncos were able to put two runs on the board in the third. After a Frausto single with one out, Howard knocked down a huge triple to score Frausto. The Broncos were able to get Gates and Allred on base due to Sudan’s back-to-back errors. Bryce Williams was able to put some wood on the ball and get Howard home for a run.
A crucial fourth inning gave the Broncos the advantage they were looking for going up by five runs. Heston Seay slammed a single that brought Sims home and Frausto connected with a triple that scored Seay. Hits from Howard and Allred allowed one more run before the end of the inning. The Hornets scored two runs in the fifth, but the Broncos ran away with it in their next at bat and put two more runs on the board and went three and out against Sudan’s batters in the sixth to secure the win. With Sims on base, Seay reached base on an error that allowed Sims to take third base and score on the next batter for the final run of the game.
Local Volunteers Recognized
Band banquet
Jerald Dalton “Jerry” Askew
Jerald Dalton “Jerry” Askew, 87, of Amarillo, died Thursday, May 9, 2024, in Claude.
Services were held on May 14, 2024, in Robertson Funeral Directors Saints’ Roost Chapel in Clarendon with Curtis Odom, officiating. Burial followed in Citizens Cemetery in Clarendon.
Arrangements are under the direction of Robertson Funeral Directors of Clarendon.
Jerry was born November 27, 1936, to William Dalton and Mary Helen Henderson Askew. He married Karen Janelle West on June 1, 1955. He had worked in ranching for many years and was a truck driver prior to his retirement. He had been a resident of Amarillo the past 18 years. He loved square dancing, going to car shows and air shows, and playing with his grandkids and great grandkids. He was a very devoted caregiver to his wife for many years. He was a Baptist.
He was preceded in death by his parents; and his wife on June 25, 2022.
He is survived by his children, Danny Askew and wife Terry, Andi Odom and husband Curtis, Leigh and Cathy Askew; his grandchildren, Dale Askew, Katie Andrews, Dalton Askew, Jarod Hudgens, Alex Tidwell, Barry Askew, and Bayleigh Elder; 13 great grandchildren and his sisters, LaReece Miller and Ronda Brown.
Early morning fire destroys Clarendon home
The Clarendon Volunteer Fire Department responded to a house fire in the 800 bock of Johns Street in the early morning hours of Thursday, May 2, and the property was a total loss.
Fire Chief Jeremy Powell said the department was dispatched at 4:43 a.m. and arrived on the scene within about six minutes to find the home of Terry Sims fully engulfed.
Sims had made it out of the house, and Powell said it was likely that the fire had been burning 15 or 20 minutes before the call went out. Fire fighters worked to keep the fire from spreading to other nearby structures.
CVFD responded with four trucks and 12 firefighters and had the blaze knocked down by 5:15. They remained on the scene until 7:30 a.m.
Powell said the house was burned so badly and so completely that the department was not able to determine a possible cause.
Red Cross personnel were contacted to help Mrs. Sims following the loss of her home.
Christ’s Kids needs summer volunteers
The Christ’s Kids Ministry is in need of volunteers to help with the summer lunch program.
There will be volunteer meetings May 13 and May 16 at 7 p.m. at the ministry, 416 S. Kearney, for those interested. You only need to attend one meeting to get the information you need.
For more information, contact Felicia Atkinson at 806-205-1096 or Bobby Ellerbrook at 806-662-7650.
Sheriff lists phone numbers for office
The Donley County Sheriff’s Office would like to inform the public that in the event of a phone outage, a cell phone is available to reach the sheriff’s office.
Sheriff Butch Blackburn says 911 will always be available, but for administrative calls people can usually dial 806-874-3533 or 806-874-3534. However, in the event of a landline outage, the department has a cell number, 806-277-0414, people can call for administrative purposes.
City should skip acting on Sanctuary proposal
The hardest thing for anyone to do is often standing up for what is right when it is unpopular to do so. That’s the position the Clarendon City Council will find itself in Thursday night, May 9, when the subject of abortion will again be on the city agenda.
& Editor
Abortion is illegal in Texas, and that isn’t going to change in the foreseeable future. Nationally, the Supreme Court now holds that abortion is a matter left up to the states, which is what President Trump wants, and that also is unlikely to change. But that’s not keeping activist Mark Lee Dickson from his crusade to “ban abortion” by getting cities to pass ordinances to become “Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn.”
The proposed ordinance Dickson sent to Clarendon city officials last month is 17 pages long, declares abortion to be unlawful except to save the life of the mother (rape and incest are not exceptions), bans abortion in the city, prohibits abortions being performed for Clarendon residents anywhere in the world, prohibits the sale and possession of certain drugs in the city, and seeks to prevent people from coming through Clarendon to get an abortion. Enforcement of the ordinance is basically left up to citizens policing each other and filing lawsuits against each other and/or abortion providers. That’s the short version. The entire proposal is posted on our website here: https://www.clarendonlive.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/SCFTU.pdf. I encourage you to read it.
It is a far-reaching ordinance which seems to vastly overstep the city’s authority, but at the end of the day, it probably doesn’t even matter. The legality of abortion has been and will be decided by state and federal authorities. So, what’s the purpose behind all this?
Dickson is a longtime anti-abortion activist. According to his movement’s website, 69 cities have passed ordinances to “outlaw abortion” and become Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn. Two of those cities have since reversed that action. He even has a bigtime attorney who has represented President Trump and who promises to represent the city if it gets sued. If Clarendon passes the Dickson ordinance, it will be just another notch in his belt. The real consequence though is the division the proposal creates in the community, the introduction of partisan politics into local government, and the waste of taxpayers’ money and resources as city employees deal with the drama Dickson brings to town.
Last month, city council members had only a few days before their regular meeting to be introduced to the Sanctuary ordinance. They heard from a couple of people who properly filled out the public comment forms, and then the council prudently took no action on the ordinance to learn more about it. Before this month’s agenda was even set, the city was bombarded with emails and phone calls – some of them hateful in their tone – seeking to get the item back on the agenda. City employees have been put under immense stress as they try to deal with this issue, they have had to take time away from their other duties, and legal opinions have been sought. How much has this cost the city already in terms of money and lost productivity?
Abortion has nothing to do with running the City of Clarendon. We elect our mayor and city council and then they hire employees to do important things that affect our daily lives. Their priorities are to make sure the streets are fixed, see to it the trash is collected, maintain a water system, and provide a host of other city services. At this time, they should be making sure the aquatic center is ready to open in a few weeks, working on implementation of the next downtown revitalization grant, figuring out how to deal with the TxDOT’s upcoming replacement of the US 287 bridge at Kearney Street (and relocation or replacement of the sewer line there), stopping vandals from destroying the rock walls of our city park, and the list goes on and on. These are the things that the city council should be focused on instead of wasting their time on an issue that the city literally has no control over.
But instead of dealing with our real city issues, Dickson and his followers are hijacking the city agenda, forcing people to take sides, creating stress where it is not warranted, and, in some cases, behaving in a markedly un-Christian manner. Sowing the seeds of division and hatred are not how Jesus would act. If you want to minister from a point of love and compassion and promote alternatives to abortion, that’s one thing. But if you want to whip up controversy, start acting hysterical, and ignite arguments between our residents, then you just need to take that show down the road. What would Jesus do? Not this.
Thursday’s city council meeting is scheduled to be held at 5:30 p.m. in the Mulkey Theatre. The city is expecting a large crowd to attend. Abortion is probably the single most controversial issue in America, with vocal groups on both ends of the spectrum and many people landing in some shade of gray in the middle. Regardless of what comments are made at the city meeting, it is unlikely that anyone will change their personal position on the issue.
The challenge for the city council is to remember that they represent all the citizens of Clarendon, regardless of their personal position on this issue, and to also be mindful that this is not a pressing matter requiring the city’s attention. There will be pressure to pass this ordinance, but the appropriate thing is for no action to be taken. Keep partisan politics out of our city business and let our council and city employees get on with the business of serving our community.
Close call
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