Band awards
Howardwick to host citywide May 21
The Howardwick Citywide Garage Sale will be held this Saturday, May 21, beginning at 8 a.m.
The City of Howardwick Volunteer Fire Department will serve lunch at the Community Center at McMorries Memorial Park starting at 11 a.m. A hamburger, drink, and chips will cost $6 each or two for $10.
Eighteen garage sales are participating this year, and a map of the sale locations is printed on page eight of this week’s Enterprise.
Early voting starts May 16 in Republican runoff
Donley County voters will go back to the polls beginning Monday, May 16, when early voting starts in Republican and Democratic primary runoffs and for a re-vote in the Precinct 4 Republican commissioner’s race.
In addition to state runoffs, local Republican voters in Precincts 1&2 will decide who will be their party’s candidate for Justice of the Peace – Sarah Hatley or Connie Lane. Whichever candidate wins, they will face no opposition in the November General Election.
Precinct 4 Republicans will also be getting a “do over” of the March Primary in their county commissioner’s race. Challenger Brad Dalton originally beat incumbent Dan Sawyer by one vote but discrepancies with some voter registrations following the new precinct lines drawn after the 2020 census cast doubt on the accuracy of the vote. Sawyer sued Dalton over the election, but Dalton agreed that the inconsistencies were sufficient to warrant a new vote, which was then ordered by the District Court.
Early voting will be held for all races held Monday – Friday, May 16-20, 2022, at the Courthouse Annex between the hours of 7:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.
Election Day will be Tuesday, May 24, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. with Republicans voting in the Courthouse and Democrats voting in the Courthouse Annex.
Applications for mail-in ballots must be received by May 13.
Voters elect challengers to city, school board
Voters put two new faces on the Clarendon City Council and the Clarendon CISD school board last Saturday, while also returning four incumbents.
City voters, looking to fill three positions on the city council, returned former alderman Tommy Hill to office. He will join incumbents Larry Jeffers and John Lockhart, who were re-elected.
Vote tallies were Jeffers 208, Lockhart 197, Hill 149, and incumbent Eulaine McIntosh 131.
In the election to decide three seats on the Clarendon CISD Board of Trustees, Donny Howard will become a new member on the board and serve with incumbents Chuck Robertson and Robin Ellis.
Vote tallies at the school were Robertson 296, Ellis 258, Howard 235, and incumbent Zack Robinson 206.
Donley County voters followed the rest of the state in approving by wide margins two proposed amendments to the Texas Constitution designed to lower property taxes. Proposition 1 and Proposition 2 were approved locally by margins of 289-53 and 269-87 respectively.
County enacts ban on outdoor burning
The Donley County Commissioners Court enacted a burn ban during their regular meeting Monday, May 9.
The court made the decision in consultation with Clarendon Fire Marshal Jeremy Powell, and Precinct 3 Commissioner Neil Koetting, who is the Hedley Fire Chief, also participated in the discussion.
State and local officials continue to warn the public about the fire danger associated with persistently dry conditions. Even with rain possible this week, high winds and warm weather can quickly make conditions ripe for grass and wildfires.
Under the commissioners’ order, no outdoor burning is allowed on a day of a forecasted Fire Weather Watch or a Red Flag Warning issued from the National Weather Service in Amarillo.
Anyone engaging in outdoor burning must contact the Donley County Sheriff’s office prior to ignition and give the dispatcher a burn location, a contact phone number, and approximate burn time. The person engaging in outdoor burning needs to be present on the site of the burn until the burn is completed.
Anyone engaging in any form of outdoor burning is asked to burn with extreme caution at all times.
Forecasters can issue the watch or warning for all or selected portions within a fire weather zone. The Red Flag event is verified when the weather and fuel conditions listed below are met simultaneously for any three hours or more during the period.
The following weather and fuel conditions must be forecast to occur or already occurring before issuing a Fire Weather Watch and/or Red Flag Warning: Minimum relative humidities equal to or less than 15 percent; 20 foot winds of 20 mph or higher and/or gusts to 35 mph or higher; and an NFDRS adjective fire danger rating of “high” or higher.
For information, log onto https://www.weather.gov/ama/.
The burn ban will stay in effect for the next 90 days. Violation of a burn ban can result in a Class C misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $500.
Commissioners also considered an order prohibiting fireworks in the county but did not approve that order.
Flying shark
Editorial: Consider city’s progress when casting votes
It’s election time again, and voters will be casting their ballots Saturday to determine who will make decisions on their behalf for Clarendon CISD and the City of Clarendon.
Voters across Texas are also casting ballots on two proposed state constitutional amendments, which each promise to reduce your property taxes in some form or fashion. That’s a recurring theme of our state leaders – cut local property taxes. Your editor is all for lower taxes, but he’s also for educated children so that hopefully society will be run by people smarter than we are in a few years. Cuts in property taxes – although always accompanied by pie in the sky talk of the state helping out more – almost always ends up with our schools and local governments having their hands tied. And of course, cutting your tax rate is of little consequence if your appraised values eat up your savings, and our fearless leaders in Austin do nothing about that except perhaps encourage it.
But I digress. The point of this column was not to wax forlornly about our pitiful state “leaders” but to instead discuss the local issues on the city front.
Regardless of the outcome of Saturday’s election, change is coming to City Hall. Mayor Sandy Skelton has been pretty upfront that his days in office are coming to an end with the pending sale of his home and plans to move out of state. And then at the last city meeting, City Administrator David Dockery announced his intention to retire next April.
Dockery started in 2015 and has served Clarendon as its administrator longer than any other person. In fact, when Dockery retires next year, he will have served longer than the previous three administrators combined and four times longer than any one of them. There are several factors that have led to this longevity; most of which will be saved for discussion at a later date. But without a doubt, one of the biggest secrets to his success has been the presence of Mayor Skelton and the general support of the city council through the years.
There will be time for tributes later, but for this week, it is important that voters consider what has been accomplished since 2015 and that list is considerable.
For starters, the city’s water infrastructure is vastly improved thanks in part to long-range planning and studies that actually began while Lambert Little was city administrator from 2010-2012. Those early efforts led directly to the city successfully securing and carrying out a $4 million project largely funded by the US Department of Agriculture, which led to about five miles of new waterlines being installed and a new standpipe being erected on the east side of town. This took care of dirty or stained water that some citizens had been dealing with for years and also helped replace some of the oldest water lines in the city.
The USDA project had the unintended consequence of bringing to light the old City Hall’s shortcomings with regards to accessibility under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Ultimately, city leaders decided to purchase and move into a new location on the Courthouse Square. The new City Hall provides employees with more space to work, is more accommodating, and provides a better venue for public meetings. It was a move that will serve Clarendon well for many years to come.
Some limited paving was accomplished in the last eight years and measures were taken to preserve and protect the city’s best streets. An election that would have paved most of the streets in town about 20 years ago failed at the time by 25 votes with the “Nays” most vocal about the need to replace old water lines before doing paving. It took some time, but now that’s been done. The city is now working on plans with an engineer to try again for another big project to pave streets. Time – and this election – will tell if Clarendon residents really want that kind of progress.
The professionalism exhibited by the current council and administration likely helped prompt the anonymous benefactor to offer half a million dollars towards building a city pool. It wasn’t offered for any other purpose, and city officials would have been fools to turn it down. Working together over six years, Skelton, Dockery, and the members of the city council helped raise money and ultimately saw the wisdom in committing public funds to close the gap at make the Clarendon Aquatic Center a reality.
Coupled with the final completion of renovations to the Mulkey Theatre, the aquatic center has helped bring new “quality of life” attractiveness to Clarendon and downtown in particular. Both of those features as well as downtown merchants will benefit from the city’s next big project – downtown revitalization. Grant funds will pay the largest part of new sidewalks and new lighting that will make our city prettier, more accessible, and more appealing.
All this has been done while our property tax rate has actually gone down quite a bit over the last eight years. The city has zero control over your appraisals, so talk to your state leaders if you’re upset about that. Yes, some utility charges have gone up; but on the whole, this city is much better off than it was in 2015. It’s in a better financial position, it’s planning for more improvements, and it’s better prepared for the future. Is everyone happy? No, but when has everyone ever been happy? A look at the big picture though shows Clarendon making progress. Our challenge is to keep that progress going.
City, Clarendon CISD elections to be May 7
Voters in the City of Clarendon and the Clarendon Consolidated Independent School District will head to the polls Saturday, May 7, 2022, to decided three seats on each of those boards.
Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., and all voting will be done at the Donley County Courthouse Annex. Early voting closed Tuesday with 235 ballots having been cast as of 4:00 p.m. that afternoon.
In the City of Clarendon, four candidates are vying for three seats on the city council. Incumbents Larry Jeffers, John Lockhart, and Eulaine McIntosh are joined on the ballot by former alderman Tommy Hill.
The Clarendon CISD Board of Trustees also has four candidates for three positions. Incumbents Robin Ellis, Chuck Robertson, and Zack Robinson are joined on the ballot by challenger Donny Howard.
In addition to local elections, voters across the state are casting ballots on the fate of two proposed amendments to the Texas Constitution, both of which relate to property taxes. More information about those proposals can be found here: https://bit.ly/3My4QjH.
Another round of voting will begin on Monday, May 16, when early voting starts on for the Republican primary run-off election for Donley County Justice of the Peace Precinct 1&2 with Sarah Hatley facing Connie Lane and a re-vote of the Donley County Precinct 4 Commissioner seat with incumbent Dan Sawyer facing incumbent Brad Dalton. That election day will be held on May 24.
Passes now available for aquatic center for 2022
The Clarendon Aquatic Center is ready for its second season, and annual passes are now available at City Hall.
Passes can be purchased for $100 per person and $250 for a family up to four members; each additional family member will be $50.
Parties can be booked at the center at a rate of $125 per hour for up to 50 people.
Day passes to the center will be $4 for kids ages four to 17 and $5 for adults. Kids under age four swim free.
New hours this year will be Sunday and Tuesday through Thursday from 1:00 to 8:00 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 1:00 to 10:00 p.m.
City Administrator David Dockery said the pool is full and ready to go with an opening date set for Saturday, May 28 at 1:00 p.m., and it will be open for Memorial Day on Monday. The regular season will close on Labor Day, September 5, 2022.
Terri Luna will be serving as the center’s manager this year with an assistant manager and 11 lifeguards also being employed. Six of the lifeguards are returning from last year’s inaugural season.
City officials say they are looking forward to a successful season this year and invite everyone to come enjoy the aquatic center.
Polar Bear Plunge to be held May 7
The Clarendon Lions Club has announced Saturday, May 7, at 11 a.m. as the date and time for the second annual Polar Bear Plunge at the Clarendon Aquatic Center.
The event will be open to all comers for a donation of $10 to the club, and city officials promise the water is sufficiently frigid to be worthy of the event’s name.
Prizes will be given for Best Costume, Biggest Splash, and Most Enthusiastic. Sign-ups will be available ahead of time at the Visitor Center or at the gate the day of the event.
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