Ben Estlack

Hedley school trustees voted to withdraw from the federal school lunch program during a called meeting on Monday, August 10.

Interim Superintendent Larry Jeffers told the Enterprise that with a smaller enrollment as an elementary school, it just wasn’t worth it to continue to deal with the federal regulations.

“We will handle all that in house without any federal involvement,” Jeffers said, “and run the cafeteria on our own.” 

The board approved two motions related to the lunch program. The first was to discontinue the Federal Lunch Requirements due to the reduced number of students, and the second was to discontinue the National School Lunch Program. 

“We may just kick the food pyramid on its side now instead of turning it upside down,” Jeffers joked.

Jeffers said Hedley’s enrollment on the first day of school Tuesday was 35, which was about five students higher than he previously predicted.

In other school business, Monday, trustees met with the school’s attorney to discuss possible consolidation, but no action was taken following the discussion in closed session.

An hourly rate increase was approved for non-contractual employees as presented, and trustees also voted to accept the resignations of custodian Larry Ely, paraprofessional Katherine Monroe, cafeteria worker Josh Harrison, and cafeteria manager Jeremy Jeffers. 

Donley County Commissioners filed a proposed $4.47 million budget this week for fiscal year 2027, an overall decrease of about $100,000 compared to the current budget.

The proposed budget approved on Monday increases several line items, and County Judge John Howard notes that the county’s proposed tax rate is higher than the current rate, the first increase in several years. Declining revenues in traffic fines is a principal reason that taxes will be going up, Howard said, calling it “necessary to support the budget.”

“We expected to see about $500,000 in traffic fines, but it has been closer to $300,000,” Howard said.

Less highway patrol activity means lower revenues for the county, the judge said.

“We’re now months without an area DPS sergeant here,” he said. “There are DPS shortages across the state.”

Also affecting the budget is a carryover from the current budget that is about $100,000 less than projected.

The county’s total proposed tax rate for FY 2027 is $0.684567 per $100 valuation compared to the current rate of $0.558867. The proposed rate will bring in $303,444 more than last year’s budget. An estimated $2,582,425 will be collected in property taxes with fees, fines, grants, and other sources bringing in the additional revenue.

Looking towards the future, Howard notes that this coming fiscal year will be the last payment in lieu of taxes from the wind farm near Jericho, which amounts to $200,000. The wind turbines will come on the tax roll and be subject to ad valorem taxes for fiscal year 2028, but it remains to be seen what their value will be after depreciation.

Howard also says that the Texas Association of Counties has let its members know they expect the Texas Legislature to crack down hard on local governments taxing authority in the next session.

“The likelihood is the Legislature will box us in on our ability to raise taxes in the future,” Howard said.

The county is also facing increasing costs in the upcoming budget. County officials and employees will see raises with exception of the members of the commissioners’ court. This is the fourth year that commissioners and the county judge have not had their local salaries raised. 

Health care costs are another big expense for the county, going up about seven percent or close to $1,000 per employee, Howard said.

The county has eliminated two fully time positions in the new budget – a highway safety officer position that was previously funded by a grant and a position that had been split between the treasurer’s office and the Justice of the Peace Precinct 1&2 office. 

Commissioners will hold public hearings on its proposed budget as well as the tax rate on August 24 at 9 a.m. See the public notice in this week’s Enterprise for more information.

August brings annual public notices to the pages of your local newspaper as local governments prepare to set their budgets and tax rates for the coming fiscal year.

Last week’s Enterprise included a small taxing unit notice for the Donley County Hospital District, which will hold a tax rate meeting at 5:30 p.m. on August 18 at 3 Medical Drive.

Clarendon College is advertising a tax rate hearing on August 20 at 5:30 in the VIP Room of the Bairfield Activity Center followed immediately by a budget hearing at 5:45 p.m.

Donley County will hold a public hearing in the Commissioners’ Court Room on its proposed tax rate and budget at on August 24 at 9 a.m. The county is also giving notice this week of the proposed increases in elected officials’ salaries.

Clarendon CISD is giving notice that it will hold a hearing on the school’s proposed budget and tax rate on August 25 at 6 p.m. in the Administration & Technology Building.

Hedley CISD will begin advertising next week that its budget and tax hearing will be on August 27 at 6:30 p.m. in the superintendent’s office.

There are other pulic notices in this week’s Big E Classifieds, so informed citizens will want to check those out and see what is happening in Donley County as well as neighboring counties. 

Public notices inform citizens about their governments and are important to holding elected officials accountable. Citizens are urged to read the Enterprise each week to keep up with these important public notices.

The City of Clarendon is considering RV park regulations and code enforcement as leaders try to prepare the community for possible growth in the future.

Several neighboring communities are grappling with the influx of workers from data centers, and many are experiencing a surge in RV park developments as housing markets can’t keep up with demand.

The Clarendon City Council looked at an RV park ordinance from the City of Claude and a draft ordinance from the City of Memphis during a called meeting last Thursday. All of Clarendon’s aldermen agreed that the city needs to be ready if a new development comes to town, and they compared the two sets of rules with the help of Interim City Administrator Floyd Hartman.

The council decided to use Claude’s ordinance as its basis and add elements of Memphis’ proposed rules to craft regulations in the City of Clarendon.

Some of the general items agreed to last week were spacing requirements for RV parks, prohibiting open fires at RV parks, requiring RV parks to have commercial utility and trash accounts, requiring permits to build and annual licenses to operate RV parks, and requiring fencing. 

During the meeting, officials suggested the new rules would apply only to new RV parks and would not apply to existing facilities until those change hands and then the new rules would apply.

Hartman explained several items of the Claude and Memphis ordinances and also guided the council about the pros and cons of different ways to implement RV park regulations based on his years of experience in city government.

The council also discussed the need for improved code enforcement and to consider returning to requiring building permits as necessary in order for any RV park ordinance to be effective and for the city to be prepared for growth. 

Hartman will have the city attorney review the council’s ordinance ideas and bring a draft ordinance to the next city meeting. He said he believes the city could have rules in place by September or October.

The proposed RV regulations come after a June council meeting in which aldermen agreed they wanted to be proactive and have Clarendon ready for growth.