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Successful Clinton Rodeo weekend ends with senseless vandalism

The 2014 Clinton May Ball Parade was a great success
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Rollie Higginbottom of Clinton has been involved in pack horse competitions and demonstrations for a long time. He has also been in a lot of Clinton Rodeo weekend parades.

Under the direction of Wayne Griffith and Bonnie Stanke, the 2014 Clinton May Ball Parade was a great success, with a lot of entries and very nice weather.

It was great to see so many floats, and different businesses and community organizations participating. The entry that travelled the farthest was the little wagon from the Cloverdale Rodeo. They have been a part of our parade many times.

The good weather held out for the rodeo on Saturday. Clinton Ag Association president Jane Munro was in charge of the rodeo weekend along with her many volunteers and Ag members, and although the numbers have not all been tallied, everything ran smoothly and was a success.

There were a record number of entries in the rodeo this year with several locals competing. Clinton residents Russell Allison and Jim McColl were both money winners in junior breakaway and the team roping.

Rob Dube won the packhorse race both days. It was a crowd pleaser with lot of excitement, including bucking pack horses.

Attendance was good at the rodeo on Saturday, and very good for the dance featuring Barney and Dustin Bentall. The father-and-son duo attracted fans from far away as well as the usual rodeo dance crowd.

The performance from the High Bar Gang, which is a Juno nominated bluegrass band that Barney is a part of was very enjoyable.

There was a very large rodeo slack on Sunday, which meant the contestants had many people with them and led to a very busy pancake breakfast. The slack ran almost until the rodeo performance at 1 p.m. and the good weather held out until the rodeo was almost over.

The Clinton 4H Club looked after the rodeo gate on Saturday and the Clinton Lions Club looked after the gate on Sunday. The Clinton Ag thanks both groups for their hours of hard work.

However, the rodeo weekend ended on a bit of a negative note. On Sunday evening, someone drove into the rodeo arena in a pickup truck and spun donuts all over the new ground in the arena. The ruts they dug did a considerable amount of damage.

The incident is being investigated and the public is reminded the Clinton Rodeo Grounds is private property and such an act is considered vandalism. The new ground that had recently been put in to the arena took over a week’s worth of work, not to mention the time of all the contractors that did the work and easily equals more than $20,000 worth of upgrades.

Katie McCullough is the Clinton correspondent.