Oklahomans in rural areas and small towns are searching for funding to support water and wastewater infrastructure. According to Kevin Wagner, director of the Oklahoma Water Resources Center, more than $80 billion is needed to ensure the state has adequate drinking water and wastewater systems now and in the future.
The El Reno area emerged from a bitter cold and a COVID winter to find a spring that brought back some sense of normalcy. Graduations, festivals, proms and events were no longer considered among the untouchables.
The spring gave people time to breathe and for many, a time for reflection.
April
Scott Beard found the liquid covering the ground near his farm west of El Reno one recent Sunday morning. He knew it wasn't water.
Beard said a nearby Devon drilling operation had leaked the black solvent into a bar ditch that connects with a creek. The leak was so heavy it forced the solvent past two containment barriers, he said.
Other than a few years while living in Stillwater, Dwight Kennedy and his extended family have spent the past four decades spreading holiday cheer by feeding citizens of El Reno on Christmas Eve.
“Originally my wife (Diana) and I would get cases of corn, beans, bread and turkeys and we went all over town delivering to houses. We were going off the list given to us by the Department of Human Services but we found out that it was the same list that everyone else was using,” said Kennedy.
The new Canadian County fairgrounds complex needs more power.
Acting as the Canadian County Public Facilities Authority, the three county commissioners last week approved spending more than $9,000 to increase the power at the new center at 3001 Jensen Road East.
The Canadian County Expo and Event Center – featuring an indoor arena, open-air pavilion and large meeting hall – opened in July on the northwest corner of Jensen and Alfadale roads just south of Interstate 40.
Editor’s Note: This is the first of a series of stories looking back at the year that was 2021.
JANUARY
The COVID pandemic that arrived in 2020 lingered into the beginning of 2021 for the El Reno area as well as the entire world. And while a vaccine was beginning to be administered, there were other issues to deal with such as a sub-arctic blast of air that made the beginning of the new year feel much like the following year.
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From Legion Park to houses throughout the city of El Reno, the holiday spirit has been brought to life in a vast array of themes and lights.
A portrait of Gen. George Armstrong Custer displayed in the Custer County Jail for many years was removed recently and replaced with a temporary one of former Cheyenne-Arapaho Chief Moses Star.
A permanent, larger portrait will be displayed in the jail.
Voters in Canadian County who want absentee ballots mailed to them for elections in 2022 should apply now, Canadian County Election Board Secretary Wanda Armold said today.
Any registered voter may request absentee ballots for a specific election or for a full calendar year. No excuse is needed to vote by absentee ballot. Armold said there are many ways to apply.
The Harold Hamm Foundation and Continental Resources have given a combined $50 million gift to create the Hamm Institute for American Energy at Oklahoma State University.
The Hamm Institute’s mission is to educate the next generation of energy leaders — in Oklahoma, the United States and from around the world — cementing Oklahoma’s legacy as a global energy leader.
