May 2025

LAWSUITS

TD Bank USA N.A. vs. Angela Payne for $8,399.51 to pay a debt plus interest, costs and attorney fees.

TD Bank USA N.A. vs. Deshawn Wright for $1,782.34 to pay a debt plus interest, costs and attorney fees.

LVNV Funding LLC vs. Timothy Yost for $1,543.14 to pay a debt plus interest, costs and attorney fees.

LVNV Funding LLC vs. Scott Botkin for $3,115.20 to pay a debt plus interest, costs and attorney fees.

Crown Asset Management LLC vs. Kristen Maddox-Pierce for $1,915.37 to pay a debt plus interest, costs and attorney fees.

Funeral services for Kenneth Gene Taylor of El Reno will be held at 10 a.m. Wednesday, May 28 at Wilson Funeral Home.

Kenneth passed away May 17, 2025. 

Better late than never.

El Reno High School’s football program kicked off spring drills last week, nearly two weeks later than normal, due to the extended spring athletic schedule used by the Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association.

“The OSSAA has some rules and we abide by those rules,” said El Reno head coach Russell Cook.

According to the OSSAA manual, football-playing schools cannot conduct spring padded drills until after the last state championship for spring sports has been contested.

Both Calumet and El Reno sent three players each to last week’s Western Oklahoma Baseball Coaches Association’s All-Star Games in Weatherford.

See Wednesday’s paper for a recap of the Small and Large School games.

Margaret M. Moon Thompson, 95, of Calumet, passed away peacefully at her home on Tuesday, May 20, 2025.

She was born Oct. 21, 1929, in Geary to Harry Owen and Faye (England) Moon. Margaret graduated from Calumet High School where she proudly played basketball.

On May 10, 1951, she was united in marriage to Harry Aldean Thompson in Calumet. They made their home in the Calumet area and spent their lives there together until his passing on Feb. 2, 2011.

Adams Park could become home to the world’s largest bison sculpture. And that could attract a massive herd of tourists to El Reno. 

So says Nathan Pratt, the son of legendary artist Harvey Pratt and a noted artist in his own right.

Pratt pitched the idea of creating the world’s largest bison sculpture to the El Reno City Council at last week’s regular monthly meeting.

El Reno High School held its graduation ceremony for the Class of 2025 Saturday at Memorial Stadium.

More than 265 seniors walked and received diplomas.

The good news is El Reno residents will now be able to have unwanted “bulk” items picked up at curbside twice a year rather than haul them to Adams Park.

The bad news, it will cost an extra $2 per month.

Last week the city council approved a new five-year contract with the Oklahoma Environmental Management Authority.

The current seven-year deal expires at the end of June. 

El Reno will remember Memorial Day with a ceremony May 26.

American Legion Post 34 Commander Larry Heald said the Memorial Day service will begin at 11 a.m. at the El Reno Cemetery. Heald will open the service with prayer and Terry Walker will lead the flag salute. 

The National Anthem will be performed by Tiera Gunsolus.

As states rush to address falling literacy scores, a new kind of education debate in state legislatures is taking hold - not whether reading instruction needs fixing, but how to fix it.

More than a dozen states have enacted laws banning public school educators from teaching youngsters to read using an approach that’s been popular for decades. The method, known as “three-cueing,” encourages kids to figure out unfamiliar words using context clues such as meaning, sentence structure and visual hints.