Roger Estlack

When a representative of the Working Ranch Cowboys Foundation called Laban Tubbs, director of the Ranch & Feedlot Operations Program at Clarendon College, and told him that the Foundation wanted to give the program some financial help, Tubbs was excited.

He immediately began to think about things the program needed, such as a few supplies, a jacket sponsor for all the students and maybe some scholarship help. That’s when the Foundation representative told him that all that was fine, but they were talking about a significant grant, maybe $50,000. Then, Tubbs got really excited.

The Working Ranch Cowboys Foundation is the benevolent arm of the Working Ranch Cowboys Association, which is headquartered in Amarillo and produces the World Championship Ranch Rodeo each November in Amarillo. The Foundation has as its goal to provide assistance to ranch cowboys and their families in times of need.

“The association was started years ago with the intent of furthering our Western heritage and helping the working cowboy on the ranch,” said Sam Daube, president of the Foundation.

“Now, we’re able to make a bigger impact with this grant to the Ranch & Feedlot Operations program. They are educating kids to work on a ranch, and by making a grant to that program we are able to help a lot of people.”

Daube says that the grant is a matching grant, and in order for the program to receive all of it, CC must raise another $50,000.

The Ranch & Feedlot Operations program is a work force educational program that is structured to help young people get an introduction into the ranching and feedlot industries.

“Clarendon College was seeing a lot of rural kids who weren’t going to college but needed some sort of education to help them get started with their lives and their careers,” said Jason Green, an instructor with the program. “We start out with basic animal health, basic nutrition, basic feeds and feeding, marketing, anything that you would probably learn while working for an operation for a year or two.

“Probably 80 percent of the students coming into this program have what you would call a cowboy background,” Green said.  “They grew up on a ranch, and they know that working on a ranch is what they’re going to do the rest of their lives. Some of them already have jobs. Sometimes the ranches pay their tuitions so they will come here and learn something and then go back to the ranch and go to work.”

To complete the Ranch & Feedlot Operation program takes two semesters. However, Clarendon College also offers an RFO Associate Degree, where the student takes math, English and science courses in addition to the agriculture courses taken in the RFO program. The student graduates with an associate degree after two years of course work, and this provides a good basic program for a student who wants to transfer to a major university and obtain a bachelors degree.

Green said that each student pays, in addition to his tuition, a professional services fee that goes toward artificial insemination schools, training clinics and things like that. He says that they always run short of funds for those services before the end of the year, and they plan to use part of the WRCF grant to supplement that.

“There are also lots of travel expenses,” Green said. “We have two vans that hold 14 passengers each, and this year we went 6,500 miles. So we can use some help on those expenses, and we’re also going to use some of the money to help boost our scholarship fund. We give 13 scholarships a year, and we need some help in that area right now, too.”

Plans are in place for a spectacular Saints’ Roost Celebration next month in Clarendon.
The 133rd annual celebration will be held July 1-3 with the Fourth falling on Sunday this year.

Activities begin Thursday, July 1, with downtown merchant sales and a junior rodeo at the Clarendon Outdoor Entertainment Association’s area followed by a dance on the slab.

The fun continues on Friday, July 2, with more sales downtown, a Depression Lunch at 11 a.m., and annual Henson’s Turtle Race will be held at 1:30. The first night of the COEA Ranch Rodeo at 7:30 p.m. Music for the dance that evening will be provided by the Buster Bledsoe Band.

Saturday will be the big day of activities with a Donkey roping at the arena and the Kids Bicycle Parade at 10:00 a.m. downtown. The 4H Craft Fair also begins at 10 a.m. on the Courthouse lawn with the Old Settlers Reunion at 10:30 and live entertainment during the day. Contact the Donley County Extension Office for craft fair booth space.

The Shriners’ Barbecue Lunch will start at 11 a.m., and tickets are on sale at Henson’s and the Enterprise..

The annual Western Parade will be at 2 p.m. followed by the Lions Club’s Cow Patty Bingo. The Ranch Rodeo will be held at 7:30, and Greg Allen will open for Tommy Gallegher at the dance.

The celebration will also feature a Trade Show each night at the rodeo, and Guy Ellis is the contact for booth space. COEA will also be hosting the traditional calf scramble and other kids’ events prior to the rodeo.

If you have other events going on during the celebration, please contact the Chamber of Commerce to get them on the official schedule.

Sales tax receipts for the City of Clarendon fell nearly six percent when Texas Comptroller Susan Combs announced her office’s May tax allocations recently.

Clarendon’s sales tax revenue for the month was $21,846.84, which was down 5.86 percent from $23,207.08 for the same period last year.

For the year-to-date, the city is at an almost break-even point with total sales tax revenue of $149,029.72, which is up 0.03 percent over last year.

Hedley’s May allocation was down 10.61 percent to $328.37, but that city is running
ahead for the year-to-date with $3,509.05, an increase of 8.92 percent.

The City of Howardwick’s allocation this month was up 71.62 percent to $1,152.28, but the gain only brought the year-to-date figure up 1.38 percent to $5,876.38.

Statewide, Combs’ office collected $1.78 billion in sales tax revenue in May, a 0.1 percent increase compared to May 2009.

“Total sales tax collections have met or exceeded year ago levels for a second month in a row, following 14 months of decline,” Combs said. “This may indicate that a bottom has been reached.

“May sales tax collections from retail trade, oil and gas, and restaurant activity outpaced those of May 2009. Remittances from other sectors, however, such as construction and manufacturing, fell below last year. While overall economic conditions and sales tax revenues appear to be stabilizing, there remains a risk of further deterioration, before a sustained recovery is underway.”

Combs delivered June sales tax allocations of $292.6 million to Texas cities, down 1.5 percent compared to June 2009. So far this calendar year, city sales tax allocations are down 4 percent compared to the same time period last year.

June’s sales tax allocations represent sales that occurred in April. The Comptroller’s July sales tax allocation will be made on Monday, July 12.

Clarendon College began the long process of selecting a new president last week after the Board of Regents reviewed criteria set by a search committee.

The board studied the suggested qualifications and characteristics the committee wants in a new president at their regular meeting June 17 and made a few recommendations, CC President Bill Auvenshine said.

The 11-member committee then met Tuesday night to finalize that list and approve ad listings and content for a brochure for prospective applicants.

In addition to detail professional qualifications, the committee is looking for candidates who, among other traits, have an understanding of the Texas Panhandle, an appreciation for local history, high moral and ethical standards, a good sense of humor, leadership, and strong communication skills.

They also want to see candidates with demonstrated records of building programs and facilities as well as experience with budget matters, state appropriations, accreditation knowledge, and several other characteristics.

Auvenshine said the college would begin advertising right away in the Chronicle of Higher Education and in the Community Times Review, publications that go out to colleges around the country.

“We’ll advertise for 30 days and begin screening applicants on July 29,” Auvenshine said.
The committee will name ten finalists on August 26, and the Board of Regents will narrow that field to five in September. Interviews for the top five will be conducted in October.

Auvenshine earlier this month announced his intention to resign at the end of the calendar year. He has served as the college president for three years.

The committee is comprised of the following people – Regents John Howard, Susie Shields, and Jerry Woodard; faculty senate president Gene Denney; CC staff representative Terry Ashcraft; CC administration representative Annette Ferguson; alumni representative Genella Eads; community representative Tex Selvidge; foundation representative Walt Knorpp; Pampa representative Lee Porter; and Childress representative Tom Baliff.

In other college business, regents last week approve purchasing $252,502 in new wind energy training equipment; received draft copies of the budget for 2010-2011; set a board budget retreat for August 5 and budget hearing for August 19; approved hiring Chris Joblin as assistant baseball coach and Amanda Askew as ranch horse coach; accepted the resignation of Judy Newton, who is retiring; and accepted a bid on tax delinquent property.