{"id":51497,"date":"2022-05-05T22:19:05","date_gmt":"2022-05-05T22:19:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=51497"},"modified":"2022-05-05T22:19:05","modified_gmt":"2022-05-05T22:19:05","slug":"county-honors-former-judge-bravo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=51497","title":{"rendered":"County honors former judge … bravo!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Randall County’s courthouse annex owes its existence to many individuals, but one of them stands out … as in he really stands taller than the others.<\/p>\n

The county has performed a remarkable act of honor in putting the late Ernie Houdashell’s name on the building. Houdashell, who became a dear friend of mine after I left daily journalism in Amarillo nearly a decade ago, worked hard to swing the deal that enabled the county to build a government office building that serves the bulk of the county’s population.<\/p>\n

Houdashell, who served as county judge for 18 years, died in November 2020 of complications from the COVID-19 virus. The Commissioners Court elevated a commissioner, Christy Dyer, to the judgeship. Dyer, who is running for election this year, presided over a ceremony at the annex that resulted in its now carrying Ernie Houdashell’s name.<\/p>\n

I cannot even begin to express adequately my pleasure at learning that the county has taken this important step.<\/p>\n

Eighty percent of Randall County’s population resides in south Amarillo; those residents pay the vast majority of the tax revenue that funds county government, even though the county seat is in Canyon.<\/p>\n

That vast majority of the county population formerly renewed its car registration, paid its property tax bill and did its business with the county in a cramped structure on South Georgia Street. Houdashell laid eyes on a former department store site on Western Street and negotiated seemingly forever for the county to aquire that property. He did not quit. He didn’t surrender.<\/p>\n

The county secured the funds to remodel, refurbish and renovate the Western site and opened the new annex a couple of years ago. It is spacious. modern and well-appointed. The county was able to bring many of its services under a single roof, creating a level of efficiency it didn’t have prior to the construction of the new site.<\/p>\n

Ernie Houdashell made it happen!<\/p>\n

Randall County honors annex after former judge (yahoo.com)<\/a><\/p>\n

According to Yahoo News: \u201cHe was a mentor, my friend, and an inspiration,” Dyer said. \u201cRandall County was so blessed to have him at the helm. He leaves big shoes to fill. I work very hard and every day, I think about him and what would be his thoughts on if we were taking the right step forward for Randall County.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Ernie Houdashell would be proud. Of that I am absolutely certain.<\/p>\n

Well done, Randall County.<\/p>\n

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n

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Randall County’s courthouse annex owes its existence to many individuals, but one of them stands out … as in he really stands taller than the others. The county has performed a remarkable act of honor in putting the late Ernie Houdashell’s name on the building. Houdashell, who became a dear friend of mine after I … Continue reading County honors former judge … bravo!<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1623,3823],"class_list":["post-51497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-ernie-houdashell","tag-randall-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=51497"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51500,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51497\/revisions\/51500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=51497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=51497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=51497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}