June 2023

Members of the El Reno Arts Council learned a number of valuable lessons from the first Art Mix on 66 event held last weekend. Maybe the most important being that the next festival will be held in the fall and not the summer.

Sue Johnson, president of the Arts Council, said the inaugural event was a “great success” but the Oklahoma heat in late June was more than many could handle.

“We know we’re moving next year’s festival to the fall, probably September,” Johnson said.

A record-high annual budget totaling nearly $10.3 million has been approved for Canadian County’s juvenile center.

The Gary E. Miller Canadian County Children’s Justice Center's fiscal year 2024 budget was approved unanimously by Canadian County commissioners.

Projected revenues and expenditures total $10,285,292.56 for the fiscal year starting July 1.

“It’s a projection so there could be some amendments,” CCCJC Facility Director Melanie Johnson told Commissioners Dave Anderson, Tracey Rider and Tom Manske.

A repeat felon could see his prison stay extended after being accused of pepper-spraying three detention officers while he was an inmate at the Canadian County Jail.

Weatherford’s Damon Neal Dunbar Jr., 38, was charged with three counts of discharging a stun gun, tear gas, mace or other deleterious agent against an officer and one count of possession of contraband in jail.

The felony case stems from an Oct. 16, 2022, incident at the Canadian County Jail.

Nothing compares to the aroma of fair food, the lights and sounds from the midway and bringing home that 4-H blue ribbon from the county fair. The Canadian County 4-H Office is deep in the planning and preparation stages for the 2023 Canadian County Free Fair - Under the Big Top. This year’s circus-inspired theme promises an excellent family experience filled with county competitions, livestock barn tours, family socials and more.

Canadian County District 1 personnel are working with municipalities to improve roads this summer.

From May to July, county crews will have repaired and assisted with roads in Piedmont, Okarche and Calumet. 

“A lot of people don’t know that a road can have parts of it that are owned by the city and other parts owned by the county,” said Canadian County District 1 Commissioner Tom Manske. 

A private school voucher program funded with federal pandemic relief dollars selected schools for preferential treatment, awarded funds to families not facing financial hardship and then ran out of funds that could have been used by families that were, according to an audit released last week.

Of the $10 million Gov. Kevin Stitt allocated to the Stay in School program, $6.5 million didn’t align with the program’s purpose, which was to help families impacted financially by the pandemic continue to send their children to private school. 

Dennis was born Sidney Dennison Cooper on Jan. 31, 1951, to Wilma Ethal Shults and Albert Leon Cooper. His parents divorced when he was an infant. His mother remarried Virgil Loucks and he was raised by him and his mother.

Dennis married Charlotte Morse at Trinity Lutheran Church on Dec. 29, 1974.

He went to church on Sunday and every Sunday, Pastor Harold Kamm would stand at the pulpit and announce, “God loves you and so do I.”

U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy has declared war on a “loneliness epidemic.” Murthy noted “about one-in-two adults in America reported experiencing loneliness. And that was before the COVID-19 pandemic cut off so many of us from friends, loved ones and support systems.”

According to the CDC, 25.5 percent of adults ages 18-24 reported having seriously considered suicide in the past month.

Lola Delaney Nelms was born March 8, 1948, in Terral, Oklahoma, to Lee and Lorena Delaney. She passed from this life June 18, 2023, at the age of 75 in Oklahoma City. She operated a beauty shop in El Reno for many years.

In a recently unveiled “toolkit,” the National Education Association (NEA) advises teachers on strategies to overturn policies that require educators to use a student’s given name rather than a “transgender” name, and the organization also directs teachers to various LGBTQ+ organizations, including one that has defended prostitution and another accused of helping pedophiles access vulnerable youth.