News

While not running on all cylinders due to the COVID-19 pandemic, organizers could not have been more pleased with the outcome of the 22nd annual A Small Town Weekend.

“Considering the situation with the coronavirus, I think it was as good as it could possibly have been,” said El Reno Cruisers President Allen Conner.

The event schedule was trimmed, but crowds still turned out, said Conner.

The popular Route 66 Burnout as well as the Hot Wheels races and the drag races were not held this year.

While the El Reno High School graduation of 2020 was more than memorable for a number of reasons, another fact will be included in the pages of EHS history.

EHS English instructor Brian Rukes and his students spent more than a year researching the 44 men who died as a result of service in World War II who had attended El Reno public schools. The rededication of Memorial Field in October 2019 in honor of these fallen patriots captured attention far and wide.

It also led to a number of other areas where these men could be honored.

Canadian County officials said they expect to begin seeing foundation work at the site of the new fairgrounds complex later this month.

District 2 County Commissioner David Anderson said the state fire marshal has signed off on the county’s fire safety plan. And the county’s building permit has been issued.

The permit had to be issued by the state fire marshal’s office because the site is in an unincorporated part of the county, just east of El Reno.

As lawmakers faced a $1.3 billion shortfall this year, a wide range of cuts were discussed, along with various fee and tax increases. But one thing was never aggressively pursued as a cost-saving measure, at least publicly: forgoing a 35 percent increase in legislative pay set to take effect in November.

In 2019, the Legislative Compensation Board voted to boost legislators annual pay from $35,021 to $47,500, effective November 2020. The total cost of the pay raise is more than $1.8 million for all 149 lawmakers — $1.2 million in the House and just under $600,000 in the Senate.

The City of El Reno is planning to host a Town Hall meeting in the coming days to allow residents to voice their opinions concerning police relations in the community, especially related to minorities.

The meeting was announced prior to a peaceful protest rally that took place Wednesday evening outside the police department.

Adam Fox was 7 years old when his father paid for him to fly an airplane. The family was on vacation in south Florida.

The elder Fox, an Alabama boiler-maker who traveled the world for business, often taking his family along, sat the youngster on his lap and let him think he was flying.

“The plane was actually on auto pilot, but I thought I was flying it,” said Fox. After the flight, Fox remembers his father telling him he should become a commercial airline pilot. “He said all they do is put the plane on auto pilot and then go back and flirt with the stewardesses.”

The death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer has reopened the eyes of America to the racial injustices which still exist in the United States.

It also opened the eyes of El Reno High School junior Ashlyn Evans-Thompson.

“I do feel shielded some here in El Reno but just seeing everything that happened makes you want to say something and do something about it. That’s sad that this is still going on and I hope people will stop and realize what is happening,” said Evans-Thompson.