This Week

The City of Clarendon hit a new high for the month and the year when Comptroller Glenn Hegar distributed December sales tax allocations to Texas municipalities.

Clarendon’s allocation for the month was $34,932.58, up 13.35 percent over the same period last year, which had a total of $30,816.71.

The December allocation pushed the city to a new high for a calendar year with a total of $445,159.93 for 2020. That figure is more than $21,000 higher than the $423,749.33 the city brought in during 2019, an increase of more than five percent.

December allocations are based on sales made in October by businesses that report tax monthly.

City Administrator David Dockery told the City Council last week that Clarendon had hovered at or near the $400,000 mark for a few years and now $450,000 is within reach.

Howardwick also ended the year up 34.7 percent above last year at $19,512.34 after its December allocation came in at $1,275.97, an increase of 14.75 percent.

The City of Hedley had a December allocation of $576.09, which was down less than one percent. Hedley still finished 2020 on a positive note, up 6.3 percent at $10,735.84.

Statewide, Hegar sent $790.3 million in local sales tax allocations for December, 3.7 percent less than in December 2019.

Thirty-five new cases of COVID-19 were confirmed by the Clarendon Family Medical Center since December 6, according to information provided to the Enterprise Tuesday afternoon.

CFMC spokesperson Marsha Bruce said the number of active cases remained steady at 20 this week, and the clinic was not seeing any surge from the Thanksgiving holiday so far.

Donley County Judge John Howard, MD, said Tuesday that the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine is not available locally at this time and that the local clinic will be waiting for the Moderna vaccine, which does not require the extreme refrigeration for storage that the Pfizer vaccine needs.

The clinic has now conducted 918 tests with 271 of those being positive. Added with known positive tests on local residents conducted at facilities outside of the clinic, the total number of positive cases is 314 with six deaths.

By Ted Harbin, TwisTed Rodeo, & Roger Estlack, Clarendon Enterprise

Clarendon College alumnus Wyatt Casper finished his appearance at the National Finals Rodeo in Arlington in with a tie for eighth place in the 10th round last week.

Casper tied with Shorty Garrett with 83.5 points in that round; however he remained second in the average behind ultimate saddle bronc champion Ryder Wright. Casper was also second in the world standings with $320,984 behind Wright, who had $348,471, according to the NFR website.

The world standings leader for most of the year, Casper watched his advantage slip away after Thursday’s eighth round, when he finished in sixth place while Ryder Wright won the night and moved to the No. 1 spot on the saddle bronc riding money list.

“I enjoy nights like this, not the one last night,” said Casper, who rode Calgary Stampede’s Xena Warrior for 88 points to win the ninth round Friday at the National Finals Rodeo. “I think she could have won Horse of the Year for the last two years. She is just an outstanding bronc. She gives it all she’s got every time and bucks hard. She is pretty fun to ride. I’m lucky to draw her.”

For his efforts, Casper pocketed $26,231 and took a big leap back toward Wright, who finished in a tie for second place. Casper trails by just $1,314 with one night remaining. And, truthfully, he has had an amazing NFR. He has placed in seven of nine rounds and earned $121,270 in just nine days.

On Friday, Casper was second in the average with 290.5 cumulative points on eight rides – he was bucked off in the fourth round – but he had virtually no chance to catch Wright for the average title. The best he could do was stay second in the aggregate, which will pay $54,577.

“It’s a nail-biter. It helps bring out the better in me, and I think the same goes for Ryder,” Casper said.

By Ted Harbin, TwisTed Rodeo

ARLINGTON, Texas – It’s not often that a cowboy can earn money at the National Finals Rodeo and not be happy about it.

That’s exactly what happened Thursday for saddle bronc rider Wyatt Casper, who rode Andrews Rodeo’s Brutus for 82.5 points to finish sixth in the eighth go-round, earning $4,231. Meanwhile, his closest competitor for the world-title race, Ryder Wright, won the round and pocketed $26,231.

With that, Wright moved into the lead in the world standings, while Casper, a Clarendon College alumnus, fell to second, $9,253 behind the leader with two nights remaining in the 2020 ProRodeo season.

“I should have ridden that horse a little better,” Casper said of Brutus. “That is a really strong, fast horse, and I did all I could to hang on to him the first couple of jumps. He was on his A game, and I wasn’t. I was s touch behind, then he had those moves, and I was trying to hold on to them. Finally, I could let go and do a little bit of swinging.”

Based on a 100-point scale, the horse earns half the points by how well it bucks. The cowboy earns points by spurring the animal from the neck to the cantle of the saddle in rhythm with the animal’s bucking motion.

“It’s tough, because you can really feel those moves on a horse like that,” he said. “To not hang one side and then the other side is pretty tough. You are trying to go at him every jump, trying to get as many points as you can. I was really lucky to get this horse down. That’s all I was really going for tonight was to stay in the average. Luckily, we got him down.”

Casper is second in the average race with 602.5 points on seven rides. Wright has ridden all eight horses for a cumulative score of $698.5. Even if Wright is bucked off one of the next two nights, he’ll still hold the aggregate advantage. There are several ways for Casper to ride off with the world title, and part of that happens in the go-rounds.

“I have nothing to lose at this point, so I’m going to go for the go-rounds and see what happens,” Casper said.

Wednesday night, Casper rode Calgary Stampede’s Y U R Friskey for 85.5 points to finish in a tie for sixth place in the seventh go-round of the National Finals Rodeo.

“I hadn’t had very good luck the last couple nights, so I stopped looking at that. I’m just going to stick to having fun. If it goes our way, it goes our way. There’s not a whole lot I can do about it if I don’t draw the best horses.”

While he collected cash – $2,115 for sharing the same score with the No. 2 man, Ryder Wright – it wasn’t what he was hoping for with the Canadian bucking horse.

“I’ve been on it at Fort Worth this year, and I was 88.5,” Casper said. “It didn’t go quite as good, but he felt a little stronger than what he did the last time. I was pretty lucky to get by him. He kind of got me bucked off by the fourth jump. I got sat back down, and it felt good.”

Casper was just 82.5 points Tuesday night and finished a few spots out of the money.

“I felt like that horse (Tuesday) night was probably at the bottom of the pen,” he said regarding the random draw out of the 15 horses that were bucked in the round. “We’re just trying to keep getting horses down. It will fall where it falls.”

Twenty-seven new cases of COVID-19 were confirmed by the Clarendon Family Medical Center in the first five days of December, and Donley County Judge John Howard, MD, says at least six local residents have now died from the disease.

Howard says adding known local cases that tested in Childress would raise total new positives the first week of December to 32. The hospitalization rate in December, however, has fallen to one in 30, compared to one in ten in November.

As of Sunday, total tests at the local clinic number 800 with 236 of those being positive since the COVID-19 virus was first detected here in March. Adding the known tests on local residents conducted at other facilities raises that total number of positive cases to 279.

The clinic is reporting 20 active cases under its care this week.

Robertson Funeral Directors of Clarendon reports they handled 35 deaths during the month of November in the six area communities they serve. While not all of those deaths are COVID-related, the funeral home’s average for November is usually 15 deaths.

Howard also noted that a third FEMA mobile morgue has been delivered to Amarillo to handle the deaths occurring in the metro area, and hospital beds are also in short supply for COVID patients.

“They don’t have room in the hospitals in Amarillo, and they are turning away people they would probably ordinarily admit,” Howard said.

To help alleviate sending people to the hospital, Howard said the local clinic is doing more than normal to get COVID patients hydrated and get them on oxygen.

“Dehydration is a problem with this disease,” Howard said.

Howard also said vaccines for COVID-19 will be coming out soon and the state is developing plans for distributing those.

The Pfizer vaccine will come out first, Howard said, but must be stored at -90°F and then can be kept in a refrigerator for up to five days. Medical facilities are finding it very difficult to get the refrigeration equipment needed to store the Pfizer vaccine, and the minimum order for it is currently 975 doses.

The vaccine from Moderna will likely be the first available in our area and the first doses will be for those professionals with direct patient contact, clinic staff, nursing home residents and staff, EMS, and school nurses. The second round of the vaccine will be for other first responders.

Howard said obstacles still have to be overcome in terms of distributing the vaccine. The Moderna vaccine will have a minimum order of 100 doses, but locations like Donley County doesn’t need that many in the first round so there are still questions to be answered.