Ben Estlack

It will be a busy day in Clarendon this Saturday, March 28, when the annual Clarendon College Invitational Judging Contest more than doubles the city’s population with participants from far and wide.

As of Tuesday, 2,444 contestants were registered for the event, which is the biggest single event held each year in the city. The contest regularly attracts high school FFA students and 4-H students from around Texas and nearby states.

The number of registrations doesn’t include the hundreds of parents and coaches who accompany the students to the contest, pushing the total attendance for the day close to 3,000. According to the 2020 US Census, Clarendon has a population of 1,877.

Past contests have had huge impacts on the local economy. Restaurants are typically packed for the event, and this year will hopefully be equally successful. The day also features the annual breakfast and lunch fundraiser hosted by the Clarendon Volunteer Fire Department and the Associated Ambulance Authority, which feeds hundreds of contest attendees in addition to local residents.

The event presents an opportunity for Clarendon College to showcase its campus, faculty, and programs for prospective students from a wide area.

Johnny Treichel, who is Clarendon College Dean of Students, said the event is a big recruiting tool for the college.

“This is the only time each year the college has this many potential students on campus,” he said. “And we are pleased to have such positive support from the community year after year.”

Governor Greg Abbott has announced that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has approved a request from the State of Texas for a Fire Management Assistance Grant (FMAG) for the Corner Pocket Fire in Donley County, which threatened homes and infrastructure and forced local evacuations.

“The state of Texas is working swiftly to provide additional funding to local officials and firefighters who battled the Corner Pocket Fire in Donley County,” Abbott said. “This FEMA grant will help offset costs associated with firefighting operations as our brave firefighters battle blazes and protect the citizens of this great state. I encourage Texans to heed the guidance of local officials and take all necessary precautions to keep themselves and their loved ones safe as increased wildfire danger continues.”

The Corner Pocket Fire burned an estimated 234 acres on Sunday, March 15, and prompted the evacuation of south of Greenbelt Lake to US 287.

The approval of a Fire Management Assistance Grant (FMAG) makes the State of Texas eligible for 75 percent reimbursement from the federal government for eligible costs associated with wildfire suppression. These grants are available to states and local jurisdictions to support the mitigation, management, and control of fires that threaten to become major disasters.

The Texas State Emergency Operations Center remains activated at Level III (Increased Readiness), and at the Governor’s direction state emergency response resources remain deployed by the Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM) to support local wildfire response efforts across the state.

Texans can find wildfire resources including safety tips, current fire information, and damage reporting tools in the TDEM Disaster Portal at disaster.texas.gov.

The Bridge – Children’s Advocacy Center will hold a “pinwheel ceremony” next Tuesday, March 31, at 11 a.m. at the Donley County Courthouse to mark the beginning of Child Abuse Awareness Month in April.

Bridge officials will place about 50 pinwheels on the courthouse lawn – one for each child served in the 100th Judicial District last year.

Later that afternoon, members of the Clarendon Lions Club will also place pinwheels in front of the Lions Hall, which houses the Bridge’s regional office.

The Clarendon CCISD Board of Trustees met in called session Monday, March 23, to approve purchasing new computers for high school students.

Technology Coordinator Butch Noble presented pricing to the board and asked for approval to purchase 125 new laptops to replace ones currently being used by students. Noble said the current computers will be evaluated with the best ones kept and redistributed to younger grades.

He encouraged the district to make the purchase now because the prices for computers are rising with the demands for chips and memory being affected by datacenter and other world market forces.

Interim Superintendent Larry Jeffers said a rural education grant will be used to pay up to about $30,000 of the cost of the new computers.

Trustees approved a motion to by 125 new computers for $53,360.

In other school news, Jeffers informed the board that he had accepted nine resignations for the upcoming school year – Korey Conkin, Terri Luna, Jayson Pigg, Courtney Dunn, Lindsey Baker, Madalyn Hadley, B.J. Owens, Kynna Phillips, and Erin Shaw. The board acknowledged the resignations.

Board President Wayne Hardin reminded the board of an upcoming called meeting on April 9 to review applications for superintendent and said there are currently nine applicants for that job.

The Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM) has announced a statewide test of local alerting systems to evaluate effectiveness and functionality of public warning tools.

Donley County residents could receive multiple test messages from different alerting authorities as part of this test, including landline-based emergency notification systems, wireless emergency alerting and Integrated Public Warning systems.

TDEM has begun notifying local partners of the planned drill, which has been scheduled for April 2, 2026.

“Regular training and testing of public warning systems builds readiness before disaster strikes and is an important component of community safety,” said Texas Emergency Management Chief Nim Kidd. “Conducting drills to reaffirm procedures, promote confidence in technological tools, and identify potential shortfalls is key to ensuring these systems operate with precision, accuracy, and timeliness when they are needed the most.”

This test of local warning systems is part of TDEM’s commitment to working with Texas communities to prepare for, respond to, recover from and mitigate the effects of disasters and emergencies throughout the state.

To create consistency and unified coordination across the state, a designated testing window has been established for local jurisdictions to utilize their primary, alternate and contingency systems, allowing for verification of continuity within alerting local processes.

TDEM has requested participation from designated local alerting authorities, along with local emergency management programs, school districts, primary and secondary education programs, college and universities, councils of government, river authorities, sovereign tribal nations, law enforcement agencies and any other entities with emergency alerting capability.

TDEM has also requested participating organizations share with state emergency management officials an update after completion of the drill with a summary, key takeaways and any relevant details that may provide context about the success of the local system test.