January 2025

Funeral services for Louise Hope McNew will be held at 11 a.m. Friday, Jan. 31 at El Reno First Baptist Church.

Viewing will be held at Wilson Funeral Home on Thursday, Jan. 30 from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.  

Services for Steven Howell are pending with Huber-Benson Funeral Home.

Steven died Jan. 17, 2025, at St. Anthony Healthplex in El Reno.

Services for Joyce Baustert are pending with Huber-Benson Funeral Home.

Joyce died Jan. 16, 2025, at her home in Okarche.  

Medical marijuana retail operations are welcome inside the El Reno city limits, but those who want to grow the stuff, clean it or transport it must remain outside the city boundaries. The city council voted 4-1 Tuesday night to prohibit medical marijuana grow operations inside the city limits. Council member Amy Neathery cast the lone dissenting vote. 

Earlier, the El Reno Planning Commission had voted 6-0 to deny an outright ban of medical marijuana grow operations inside the city limits. 

PowerSchool, a massive cloud-based software company, reported a data breach that affects more than 12,000 current and former El Reno Public Schools students and faculty.

According to ERPS Associate Superintendent Pat Liticker, the district was informed last week that unauthorized access to certain customer data found on Teacher Table and Student Table happened within the PowerSchool’s platform.

Lingo Construction began renovation at the corner of Choctaw and Sunset on what will be known as the Filling Station once completed.

The city of El Reno purchased the property and then secured a $1.2 million grant to transform the former service station into a Route 66 attraction.

The plan is to have the renovation done before the Burger Day Festival in early May.

Yukon city leaders said Tuesday night they would not force annexation as they claim Yukon’s neighboring municipality to the west has done.

Yukon City Council, at its Dec. 17 meeting, initiated a process to annex 2,079 acres of unincorporated land immediately west of the city limits toward El Reno. One week before, on Dec. 10, El Reno’s city council initiated annexation efforts for some of the same area. 

After a brief warm-up, temperatures are forecast to drop near arctic levels over the weekend and possible snow is expected Monday and Tuesday.

A traffic stop on Interstate 40 in Canadian County led to the arrest of Chun Fu Lin, 43, on complaints of trafficking marijuana. 

The incident on Jan. 12 occurred at approximately 3:43 p.m. when a deputy initiated a traffic stop after allegedly observing Lin’s vehicle traveling east on I-40, following a vehicle too closely.

Canadian County commissioners at their Jan. 13 meeting voted 3-0 to renew membership in the National Association of Counties (NACo).

The annual membership fee is $2,295.

Canadian County had previously been a member of NACo, but commissioners were not taking an active role.

On Monday, commissioners cited the potential benefits of attending NACo’s next legislative conference in Washington, D.C.

NACo is the only national organization that represents county governments in the United States.