May 2024

The 2024 valedictorians for El Reno High School are Brianna Barksdale, Emma Ketter, Cooper Park and Jadzia Taylor.

These students earned this distinction by obtaining all A’s during their high school career and taking 13 Pre-AP and AP courses with an AP course in each core subject.

Grady Lesperance is the 2024 salutatorian. He took the same number of Pre-AP and AP classes and has the next highest GPA.

Brianna Barksdale is the daughter of Sheldon Henderson and Eric Barksdale. She has a sister, Olivia.

El Reno City Council voted to condemn an “inoperable” car wash on Sunset Drive and also to purchase three properties on South Choctaw. The problem is, some of the Choctaw owners apparently don’t want to sell.

That led to the council voting to support taking the properties by eminent domain if negotiations to purchase fall through.

Council voted 5-0 at its Tuesday night meeting to declare the car wash at 1408 Sunset Drive dilapidated and authorize it to be brought down on or after June 25.

Redlands Community College recently celebrated the graduation of more than 250 students during its spring commencement ceremony that included a keynote address from college alumni Christian Wassana, actor and founder of the I am, I can, I will movement. 

El Reno’s VFW Post 382 is struggling. And longtime supporters of the local Veterans of Foreign Wars Post are hoping to enlist the public to help right the ship.

Nancy Salsman has been associated with VFW Post 382 since she was a youngster.

Salsman said the VFW Post has had its sales tax and mixed beverage licenses pulled by the state. The post cannot operate its lounge without the permits and this cuts deep into the budget, she said. The VFW owes the Oklahoma Tax Commission for the unpaid taxes.

El Reno High School May Students of the Month are Annie Kerr, Ashley Gonzales, Jasmin Caso, Caleb Wiyninger, Alejandra De La Torre, Davin Shamblin, Antonio Baxcajay, and Gavyn Bracken.

Members of the Calumet FFA Chapter won first-place honors in the state FFA milk quality and products career development event during the 2024 Oklahoma FFA Interscholastics held May 4 at Oklahoma State University.

Team members are Tina Ortiz, Summer Goff, Aspen Burns and Kieran Lunsford.

In individual rankings, Ortiz, Goff and Burns earned third-, fourth- and sixth-place honors, respectively.

Calumet agricultural education instructor and FFA adviser is Phillip Major.

MaryAnne Whetstone, 2019 El Reno High School valedictorian, recently graduated with dual majors from the University of Oklahoma.

She earned a bachelor of science in education, Magna Cum Laude, from the Jeannine Rainbolt College of Education as well as a bachelor of arts in political science, Magna Cum Laude, from the Dodge Family College of Arts and Sciences.

After mission work overseas this summer, Whetstone plans to teach in the Oklahoma City metro area next fall.

As Missouri-based Mansion Entertainment Group attempts to tweak the design of the $2 billion American Heartland Theme Park and Resort it has proposed near Vinita, a Canadian firm hired to design the massive project has filed a lien claiming it is owed nearly $5.5 million from unpaid invoices. The filing comes as the Oklahoma Legislature continues to consider a $35 million request from the city of Vinita for water infrastructure upgrades to accommodate the project.

The Ladies Frisco Cemetery Association met recently for a luncheon at a Yukon restaurant.

The organization is celebrating 108 years.

President Pat McDaniel conducted the meeting. She welcomed everyone and called upon Mary Culver to read minutes of the December meeting as well as the treasury report.

The ladies discussed a newly installed bulletin board at the cemetery in a display case built by Cotton Ruzicka, chairman of the Frisco Cemetery Board.

It shows all the burial plots at Frisco Cemetery.