Dateline: July 24, 2003

Commissioners hold meeting in newly restored courtroom

By Roger Estlack, Clarendon Enterprise

The Donley County Courthouse resumed its role as an official place of county business Monday when the commissioners’ court held a special session there.

“This is a very historic day for our county,” said Judge Jack Hall in opening the meeting. “Perhaps another commissioners’ court met on a day like this one 112 years ago when they opened this building.”

The sound of hammers and other carpenters’ tools were heard throughout the meeting as construction workers continued putting the finishing touches on the restoration of the courthouse.

“We certainly want to thank everyone responsible for making this a reality,” Hall said. “We appreciate our architects, our contractors, [project administrator] John Kiehl, and especially the taxpayers of Donley County.”

The first item of business in the Commissioners Courtroom was considering bids for work on two bridges on the JA Ranch Road.

The court approved a recommendation by engineer Che Shadle to reject the bids for the proposed work on the approaches to the bridges over Troublesome Creek and Mulberry Creek. The project will be re-bid with the work on the road surface eliminated in order to reduce the cost of the job. Bids will be opened at the August 11 meeting.

Commissioners discussed buying furniture for the county treasurer and the judge’s secretary in preparation for moving their offices from the courthouse annex to the courthouse. The court approved a proposal for furniture from Elliott/Russell in Amarillo and, in the same motion, approved a proposal from Memphis Glass to place a protective tempered glass top on the antique table in the Commissioners Courtroom.

The court approved a monthly lease agreement with Lanier Copier to provide a photocopier in the courthouse and continued negotiations with Valor Telecom and NTS Communications to provide a telephone system for the courthouse.

August 4, 2003, was set as a special session to review budget requests with county officeholders.

The court approved Commissioner Ernest Johnston’s attendance at an upcoming state health department conference on bioterrorism.

Commissioners also authorized sending letters to the cities of Clarendon and Howardwick stating that only trash from the unincorporated areas of the county would be accepted in the county roll-off box.