El Reno will begin operating a municipal ambulance service July 1. 

In a unanimous vote, the city council officially signed off on the plan that will see the creation of the El Reno Emergency Services Department.

Ed Fowler, formerly with Pafford EMS, will oversee the operation, expected to have close to 20 employees.

The action took place at the regular meeting of the council on Tuesday evening. 

Rain forced some changes to A Small Town Weekend, but participants and spectators appeared to be having too much fun to notice. 

The 27th Annual A Small Town Weekend drew throngs of people to Sunset Drive, also known as Route 66, as well as Adams Park.

The El Reno Firefighters Local Union 2367 had to move the Hot Wheels races to the nearby Trinity Lutheran Church basement and the El Reno Cruisers moved the car show to the paved parking lot just east of Memorial Stadium, avoiding the soggy, rain-soaked turf of Adams Park. 

Happy Father’s Day! 

This past weekend I went to the Oklahoma Press Association’s annual convention. It was held in Shawnee at the Grand Casino.

It was nice to see my fellow newspaper friends from across the state. We learned a lot, laughed a lot, ate some good food, maybe gambled a little and had an overall good time. 

Project Transformation (PT) is an eight-week summer reading camp hosted by Wesley United Methodist Church. 

About a month before the camp was scheduled to open, leaders learned that the federal Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cut funding to all Oklahoma AmeriCorps Programs.