News

A longtime board member of the Canadian County Water Authority, along with a veteran former employee, say the authority is being run in a manner that should draw the scrutiny of county commissioners.

Jayne Franks has been a member of the authority board for 25 years. Mary Culver spent about that long as the office manager for the entity, formerly known as the Banner Rural Water District. They claim the authority is in violation of Open Meetings laws, as well as providing preferential treatment for some.

They also allege reckless spending of funds.

Someone apparently checked out some library equipment without permission.

El Reno police said five Google Pixel laptop computers were taken from the Carnegie Library. The theft was discovered Nov. 16 by library staff.

The computers were being stored at the library, police said.

The estimated value of the equipment was $3,300, reports said.

In another police matter, reports said an officer pulled over a Hyundai Elantra being driven without the headlights on.

El Reno High School cheerleader Caleb Garrett sticks his head out of a weather enclosure to take a bite of chocolate from Ainslee Bailey during halftime of the Indians playoff football game with McAlester. Temperatures were in the low 40s for most of the game.

Construction on the new Canadian County Fairgrounds is moving along. The more than $15 million complex is being built just north of Jensen Road and east of U.S. 81.

The fairgrounds is expected to be complete by summer of 2021 and in time to host the Canadian County Free Fair.

El Reno Main Street will present the Christmas Experience Saturday in downtown El Reno.

The event will feature the annual Christmas parade followed by shopping at local stores.

Some 20 vendors are scheduled to be on hand as part of the Junk Hippie Tour and live window displays will be presented by Power Dance Company.

Young dancers from Dance Etiquette are scheduled to perform and the Joytones from First Baptist Church are also planned to perform.

A national celebration to commemorate the 100th anniversary of U.S. 66 will start in Oklahoma with a weeklong road festival that will kick off next June.

“Ever since Tulsa’s Cyrus Avery helped pioneer the U.S. highway system in the 1920s, the Mother Road has been intrinsically connected to Oklahoma and its early history,” said Jared Peterson, president, AAA Club Alliance Great Plains Region. “So it is only fitting that Oklahoma will be first in line to begin a national celebration of the 2,400-mile highway’s 2026 Centennial.”

A full moon helped light up the sky Sunday night.

LAWSUITS

Midland Funding LLC vs. Alison Dunbar for $2,327.08 to pay a debt plus interest, costs and attorney fees.

Midland Funding LLC vs. Kate Grady for $1,995.01 to pay a debt plus interest, costs and attorney fees.

Citibank N.A. vs. Christina A. Hays for $4,721.71 to pay a debt plus interest, costs and attorney fees.

Conn Appliances Inc. vs. Christine Dries for $2,134.74 to pay a debt plus interest, costs and attorney fees.

Unifund CCR LLC vs. Michael J. Onstot for $1,947.59 to pay a debt plus interest, costs and attorney fees.

As temperatures begin to cool and people spend more time in confined spaces, the number of new novel coronavirus cases are spiking – just as health-care professionals feared.

“That is what we are observing. Our trend line in the county was ticking down but now it’s starting back up. We had hit a plateau in October but then we had events like Halloween and people started loosening up their guard.

A few days before the recent Veterans Day Parade, Karen Nance of the El Reno Chamber of Commerce walked into Mary Sapp's business, Route 66 Liquor. She wanted to ask Sapp a favor’

Sapp drives a fancy Mercedes convertible and Nance thought it would be the perfect car to carry the Veterans Day guest speaker through the parade route.