Most of the Panhandle is now experiencing moderate to severe drought, while extreme drought conditions have begun to appear in the north and northwest Panhandle.

The familiar sight of TxDOT’s safety orange cones and piles of gravel strategically located near the intersection of Cheyenne and Main Monday morning signaled the start of a two-day sealcoating project on Main Street, from Sixth to Cheyenne, and from Cheyenne to Kingman Street. The project briefly reduced access to some side streets along the route, but the convoy of TxDOT trucks efficiently finished the project and moved on. Facing falling appraisal values and a troubled local economy, city and county officials are evaluating whether or not to budget for their annual sealcoating projects, and if so, what else they will cut to pay for it. Depending on what they choose, it may be a while before other city and county roads get the same treatment.

THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC has laid much of the American economy on its back—but a bright spot has made the disaster less crippling than it might have been. That is the Paycheck Protection Program, which funneled money back to workers through small businesses.

The summer slide is going to be worse this year. Students lose academic skills and knowledge when they are out of school in June, July, and the first two weeks of August. Educators are now worried about the COVID slide. Most schools in Texas lost eight-10 weeks of school in 2020, extending the summer slide from eight weeks to 16-18 weeks. Schools did the best they could to engage students with distance learning and study packets. Parents did the best they could to help students with homework. The pandemic has provided a trial run for American schools. The distancelearning experiment was not a complete success, but it did show educators how to make improvements for the fall.