News

The dam at Lake El Reno made for a popular sledding spot after last week's snowfall.

The El Reno area was walloped by some 7 inches of snow last week and that meant a round-the-clock marathon for city workers charged with clearing the streets.

Amy Smith, streets department director, said her four-person staff was joined by other city departments in working to keep the “snow routes” open throughout El Reno.

She said that meant pulling help from the parks department, the cemetery department and Public Works, as well as getting assistance from Canadian County.

An engineering firm will be paid $90,836 in preparation for parking lot upgrades at two Canadian County buildings.

A contractor will be hired to rebuild parking lots outside the Canadian County Children’s Justice Center, 7905 E. State Highway 66, and Canadian County Assessor’s Office, 200 N. Choctaw.

County commissioners approved a service agreement with GUY Engineering Services for “design and geo-tech work” on the new parking lots.

Rylan Fleenor of El Reno is a new junior member of the American Angus Association, reports Mark McCully, Association CEO, with headquarters in St. Joseph, Mo.

Junior members of the Association are eligible to register cattle in the American Angus Association, participate in programs conducted by the National Junior Angus Association and take part in Association-sponsored shows and other national and regional events.

The American Angus Association is the largest beef breed association in the world, with more than 25,000 active adult and junior members.

OKLAHOMA CITY – Rep. Rhonda Baker, R-Yukon, said the initial allocation of Redbud School Funding Grants by the Oklahoma State Department of Education should help state schools, including El Reno Public Schools.

The department last week allotted half of $38.5 million to 330 brick-and-mortar public schools statewide.

The remainder will be distributed to qualifying schools this summer.

Since 2020, Congress has approved three rounds of federal COVID-bailout funding, providing more than $2 billion combined to Oklahoma school districts to mitigate viral spread, address challenges created by the pandemic, and reverse learning loss tied to COVID shutdowns.

But more than 70 percent of that money remains unspent today, according to figures presented to state lawmakers during a budget hearing for the Oklahoma State Department of Education.

LAWSUITS

Portfolio Recovery Associates LLC vs. Tyler H. Due for $1,855.92 to pay a debt plus interest, costs and attorney fees.

Portfolio Recovery Associates LLC vs. Amelia J. Snyder for $3,882.97 to pay a debt plus interest, costs and attorney fees.

Synchrony Bank vs. Geoff Pirtle for $4,770.67 to pay a debt plus interest, costs and attorney fees.

TD Bank USA N.A. vs. Jeffrey K. Covey for $1,553.85 to pay a debt plus interest, costs and attorney fees.

With the Omicron variant fueling January’s surge in COVID-19 cases both in Canadian County and across Oklahoma, residents received a break in finding those elusive at-home test kits.

The United States Postal Service has begun delivering the first batch of the test kits to Americans who placed an order on the national website COVIDTests.gov.

The use of the at-home method is promising to help take the burden off hospital emergency rooms and doctors offices that have been swamped with residents seeking coronavirus testing.

El Reno was hit by its second winter mix of 2022.

The city was covered with several inches of snow as temperatures stayed in the single digits to low teens through Thursday.

Randy Hurst has been awarded the Oklahoma Music Educators Association (OkMEA) President’s Award. The presentation came at a Jan. 20 ceremony that was a part of the OkMEA Winter Conference held at the DoubleTree in downtown Tulsa.