Matt Grooms and Grace Nesseth admit to being a spontaneous couple, so neither were shocked when Matt came up with the idea of leaving their home in California and never looking back.

“It was around January of last year I was reading the book ‘To Shake the Sleeping Self’ by Jedidiah Jenkins and how he cycled from Oregon to South America. In the book he talked about his parents being one of the first to chronicle their walk across America and I thought that was pretty cool,” said Matt.

He posed the idea of walking across the United States to Grace.

El Reno city officials took a tour of the new SSM St. Anthony’s Health Center being built here. City Manager Matt Sandidge said the project is coming along and is expected to be open by the summer.

“Even though the finishings aren’t in and the building isn't dried in yet, you can tell this will be a beautiful facility when it is complete,” Sandidge said. He and Mayor Matt White and Assistant City Manager Kent Lagaly visited the site last week.

“This will be an asset that we all can use and will depend on as our city continues to grow,” Sandidge said.

While the economic outlook for El Reno over the next couple of years would appear sluggish, the firm charged with auditing the municipal government said city leaders have, in the past, “made good decisions, with good information” which could help lessen the impact.

The Canadian County Children’s Justice Center's $9.3 million annual budget is only slightly up over last year, and the center still has about $6.2 million in reserves as county sales tax revenue declines.

Canadian County commissioners approved the fiscal year 2021 budget for the justice center at 7905 E. State Highway 66.

The FY21 budget totals $9,297,721.66 in projected revenues and expenditures, representing a modest 2.1 percent increase over the the FY20 budget of $9,103,069.42.