El Reno will wait a week longer before allowing certain businesses to open. This breaks from the guidelines set by Gov. Kevin Stitt who said some businesses could reopen Friday in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mayor Matt White decided Thursday that personal care businesses will remain closed in El Reno until April 30. That was the day originally set in El Reno’s emergency proclamation.

On Wednesday, Stitt announced the rollout of a three-step plan to reopen the state beginning April 24.

A 30-year-old El Reno man has been arrested in connection with the death of Robert James Meely, 40. Police said Andrew Keifer Beartrack, 30, was taken into custody in connection with the homicide investigation.

Beartrack is being held in the Canadian County jail and faces a charge of First Degree Murder, said Assistant Police Chief Kirk Dickerson.

The arrest came on Wednesday, the day after divers searched the pond at Legion Park. The divers, from the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, reportedly found items police described as “interesting.”

Elden Eichholz turned 96 last week. He spent the day waving at passing cars that were honking at the birthday signs in his front yard.

Throughout the day there were family members stopping by with presents and wanting to give him hugs. They shied away from the contact due to his increased vulnerability to the COVID-19 virus.

“I’ve got three great-grandkids that I wanted to get a hold of them and give them a hug because they are just so cute. That was the hard part, not getting a hug from anybody,” said Eichholz.

A dog apparently knocked a space heater into a couch while a woman and her young daughter slept in another room.

If a friend had not shown up at the home at 521 S. Evans, El Reno firefighters said the outcome could have been tragic.

Sleeping inside were Leslie Simmons and Kiley, her 8-year-old daughter. The friend who arrived at the home found it filling with smoke. He was able to wake up the pair and together they pulled the couch onto the front porch.