EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the second of a two-part look back at the year in Canadian County.

As the year rolled on, El Reno heard talk of a utility rate hike, felt a rash of home burglaries, smelled the freshly turned dirt of new construction and saw a move to spur economic growth.

Here’s a recap of life in El Reno from June through December.

June
Officials wielded ceremonial shovels for the groundbreaking of Elizabeth Place apartments. The apartment complex will be built on South Shepard Avenue.

El Reno High School Principal Brian Chastain has been hired as principal of Putnam City North High School, a ninth through 12th-grade school that educates 2,100 students.

“I love my job and am not leaving for any negative reason,” he said. “Six years have gone by and I’ve enjoyed every one of the challenges.”

The Oklahoma Environmental Management Authority will contract with Boral Bricks Inc. in a $1.5 million capital investment to extract natural gas from the Canadian County landfill. Boral Bricks is building a new plant between Union City and El Reno, just west of the landfill, placing it in a good location for the planned project, said OEMA general manager David Griesel.

Real estate developer Roger Pryor of Norman has been appointed to serve a seven-year term on the board of regents for Redlands Community College.

Pryor has more than 30 years of experience in education with the last 14 years of his career spent in the Moore school district, eventually serving as school superintendent.

The yearly lease-to-purchase payments on new bleachers and improved lighting at Memorial Stadium could be eliminated if the school board decides to sell $320,000 in general obligation bonds, said Superintendent Jeff Mills.

“Our ad valorem base has grown over the last two to three years since we last issued bonds and there is money available to use and still maintain the current level of property taxes,” he said.

The school board only discussed making the move. Board president Bob Lee said approval will probably be on the agenda for the August meeting as an action item.

At the annual Chamber of Commerce banquet, eight individuals, a local business and community organization were recognized for service to the city.

The coveted Roy Stevenson Meritorious Service Award was presented to Glen Hill. The award is given to the person who best exemplifies qualities of honesty, friendship and community service.

Hill has coached youth leagues in El Reno for the past 40 years in baseball, football and basketball, winning numerous tournaments and championships.

An ambulance subsidy from El Reno residents is an issue that officials will be addressing since voters resoundingly turned down an Emergency Medical Service 522 district in May.

Parkview Hospital trustees looked at the numbers as the hospital ends its fiscal year and the $470,000 loss on its emergency ambulance service that was predicted several months ago is holding, according to a report from hospital finance director Rod Shook.

The city-owned hospital can subsidize the ambulance service until June 30, but then a decision must be made by city leaders on supplementing operational costs, said administrator Lex Smith.

“At this point in time, that’s a decision for the El Reno City Council. They are in ongoing discussions,” he said. Councilman Paul Atkins said assessing each utility payer an ambulance fee is not popular.

“We’re possibly looking at some kind of sales tax,” said Atkins, who serves on the ad hoc EMS task force.

Pilings of a concrete bridge at West London Street and South Reno Avenue sunk an inch in the mud of a small creek earlier in the month after storm water over an 11-day period wore away its underpinnings.

Now, tapping into a $1.4 million pot of disaster funds to pay for the extensive replacement caused some controversy at the City Council meeting when two members opposed the move.

In the end, its use was approved by a vote of 3 to 2 with Mayor James Moore and Councilman Tony Maldonado voting no.
The fund is a 10 percent set-aside from the infrastructure sales tax collected since 2002, required by the election resolutions approved by voters at that time. Last year, voters rejected changing the language from “disasters” to “emergencies.”

In a departure from tradition, El Reno Board of Education hired Etta Dale Junior High Principal Matt Goucher to also serve as the high school principal.

Goucher will replace Brian Chastain, who resigned last month to take a similar position at Putnam City North High School.

“When we looked at this position, we considered that the tradition has always been two principals, one for the high school and one for the junior high,” said Superintendent Jeff Mills.

“But we’ve been working with our team planning in grades eight through 12, in each of the subject areas, getting our sequence in line, communicating together, so it’s natural to transition to one administrator for these grades.”

El Reno City Council will decide if a cell phone tower will be placed in Legion Park but the decision must be made without a recommendation from the Municipal Planning Commission.

A handful of people expressed their general objection to the tower — a single pole 6 1/2 feet in diameter and up to 145 feet tall — being placed in one of the city’s oldest parks. With two members absent, MPC voted 3 to 2 to issue the conditional use permit to Cingular Wire-less to erect the tower, but to pass it needed a majority of the seven-member board

July
El Reno property owners can expect to pay more in property taxes in 2007 and 2008.

City Council members sold $360,000 in general obligation limited tax bonds to provide better water service and an improved road to a southwest industrial park.

Property tax will be assessed to pay off the bonds. In March, the Council unanimously approved their sale after a Texas-based steel building company announced plans to build a retail sales and warehouse in the 3500 block of U.S. 81 service road.

Scattered thunderstorms stalled wheat harvesters in Canadian County in a 2005 harvest that’s hit the halfway mark in the area.

Farmers were hoping to be back in the fields by the weekend while keeping an eye to the sky. But the grain that’s in the bin is good quality with test weights “surprisingly good,” said Barry Schroeder of Schroeder Grain.

Heritage Express Trolley was sidelined for a few weeks while a drive shaft is repaired and a street contractor finishes the street improvements that block the trolley’s garage and rail stub.

“We’ve got a double whammy here; we couldn’t get out even if the whole drive shaft hadn’t gone down,” said Vicki Proctor, Canadian County Historical Society president. Society volunteers operate the trolley, overseen by Bill Lackey and maintenance man Chester Overholser. The street contractor will be finished with the street work within a week, said Public Works Director Jim Luckett Jr. But the drive shaft was shipped out to Colorado for repairs and should be back in a few weeks.

The long-dead “Colonel” makes his unnatural presence known every now and then at Fort Reno Visitors Center. But it’s not as an apparition in white with military spurs jangling eerily — as one might expect.

It’s the odor. Something dead or dying, said Jessica Wells, fort historic interpreter.

“It’s really, really smelly, a sickly sweet death smell,” she said.

The stink permeates the building for a brief period of time and then mysteriously goes away, seeping through the outer walls of the former cavalry officers quarters, circa 1936.
Call it whatever — a tall tale, made-up mystery or simple ghost haunting — the Colonel’s story will be told at “Ghosts of Fort Reno — 2005 Tour.”

To celebrate the completion of the Reno Cinema 8 movie theater, B&B Theatres is holding a Grand Opening Gala. The event will feature live music, food and an appearance by Miss Oklahoma. Staff members will also provide tours of the theater.

More golfers are hitting the greens at Crimson Creek Golf Club and the course’s reputation is rebounding, city officials say.

Unhappy with the municipal 18-hole course’s upkeep and its profit and loss figures, El Reno Recreational Authority severed the city’s partnership with an Edmond-based private management company on May 1.

After an 11-month hiatus, a committee reviewing the merits of a tax increment financing district met to reorganize, adding new members and agreeing to meet once a week for the next few weeks.

The TIF committee was also renamed as the Local Develop-ment Act Review Committee. The name better complies with legal requirements under state law, said Dan McMahan, consulting attorney.

Developers of a $4 million assisted-living center near downtown gained support from the El Reno City Council to close a block-long portion of Evans Avenue to make way for the first facility of its kind in El Reno.

Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma and Sacred Heart Catholic Church propose to build the center adjacent to the church and school grounds at Evans Avenue and Wade Street.

“This is the site of choice for the Archdiocese and if we are unable to build a single-story facility here … it’s very possible the Archdiocese will go someplace else,” Sacred Heart Church spokesman Dave Eaton told the Council.

Nine months after national engineering company Tetra Tech Inc. was retained as the city engineer, officials have designs on another firm to finish up 2001-2002 bond projects.

Tetra Tech’s performance or work quality is not at issue, said City Manager Douglas Henley in a letter to the firm on July 13.

“We just cannot afford Tetra Tech at this time,” he said in the letter.

Canadian County will add more than $100 million in undervalued and unreported oil and gas property to its tax rolls in 2005, County Assessor Ronnie Funck said.

Translate those numbers to assessed value and the county should boost its tax revenue by $1.2 million distributed across the school districts where the “found” property is located.

The initial contract with VLS in 2002 was for $199,000, a cost that was shared by every school district and Canadian Valley Technology Center.

Canadian County cities and towns generally realized more sales tax receipts than the year before for May sales, Oklahoma Tax Commission reports show for July.

August
Canadian County workers will earn 8 percent more this year as county commissioners voted 2 to 1 to provide the raise while giving themselves and other elected officials a 5 percent salary increase.

Voting against the measure, District 2 Commissioner Don Young said the good economy “is not going to last forever. This bubble is going to burst sometime.”

The increase will cost the county’s general fund about a half million dollars more each year. The county expects to operate on about $8.1 million, up from $7.7 million last year.

Eighteen firefighters are in line for another incremental increase in salary this year after the City Council approved the International Association of Firefighters Local 2367 annual contract for 2005-2006.

IAF Local President Chris Denny said salary increases range from about 3 percent to 4.7 percent depending on the rank and the market survey done last year.

The controversial use of a disaster set-aside fund had El Reno City Council members exchanging barbs but finally agreeing to spend close to $100,000 to repair a neighborhood bridge that had nearly collapsed during spring rains.

The project wasn’t the conflict but the method of paying for it was, as the Council split 3 to 2 in the vote. Mayor James Moore and Councilman Tony Maldonado said the disaster fund should not be used to repair the bridge.

Moore said he fears the Council will lose “confidence with our citizens” as Maldonado reminded Council members that voters last year declined a proposal that would allow the Council to use the disaster fund for emergencies.

A 145-foot cellular phone tower in the shape of a flag pole will be erected in Legion Park despite some earlier protests by residents of the area.

El Reno City Council approved 4 to 1 a conditional use permit so that SiteExcell Inc. for Cingular Communications can erect the tower just north of the tennis courts.

Mayor James Moore said nothing has changed his mind about the inappropriateness of placing a large tower in a city park.

“It’s a neighborhood park. The location is just bad,” he said.

The No. 2 fairway at Crimson Creek Golf Club features new vistas these days as Crimson Creek Golf Villas go up.

The gated community will eventually feature 22 single family homes with a private clubhouse for homeowners use. Three homes in the “Old World Renaissance” style are being built now and the clubhouse is nearing completion, said Toward Partnership co-developer Tommy Thompson.

“They’re not completely finished but in various stages. The clubhouse is just about ready,” Thompson said.

El Reno property owners could see a drop in their insurance rates once the results of a recent fire protection survey are published Nov. 1.

The survey was part of a re-evaluation of the city’s ISO rating, which is used by many insurance carriers as a factor in determining fire insurance premiums. The ISO rating for fire insurance protection can range from one to 10, with 10 being little or no protection.

The City Council learned the city’s ISO rating had dropped from six to four for most properties inside the city, meaning insurance carriers could reduce premiums because the fire protection had improved in the community since the ISO was last evaluated in 1979.

The sound of motorcycles on residential streets is likely to be accompanied by flashing lights as the El Reno Police Department recently added a second motorcycle and two officers to its motorcycle unit.

Mike Stilley and Matthew Pierce will join Officer Kevin Wilkerson in patrolling El Reno’s streets for traffic offenders.

Stilley will operate the department’s new vehicle on the day shift and Pierce will work during the evenings.

After renovating the former Sirloin Stockade restaurant, the soon-to-open Montana Mike’s restaurant removed another encumbrance when the El Reno City Council approved a conditional use permit so the business can operate a full-service bar. The sit-down steakhouse is located at Country Club Road and Interstate 40.

A 3.4 percent water and sewer rate increase has bubbled to the surface and may be in El Reno’s immediate future, officials say.

El Reno water rate is the second highest when comparing rates with six other cities of similar size. El Reno residential customers pay an average of $20.04 per 5,000 gallons used.

Streams of bright yellow mustard dripped down steaming corn dogs while the smell of fresh funnel cakes drifted through the air at the 51st annual Canadian County Free Fair as thousands of visitors flock to the fairgrounds.

Annually, the free fair is a constant drumbeat of children playing, begging parents for just one more ride at the carnival. And this year proved to be no different.

Fair board member Ted Mittelstaedt said there was a good turnout at this year’s event — about 5,000 people —and if carnival gross sales are any indication, a few more people than usual showed up for the annual event.

September
El Reno Tribune is a drop-off spot for any persons making hurricane relief donations to the Salvation Army.

John Tipps, chairman of Canadian County’s Salvation Army service unit, said checks should be made out to the Salvation Army and the memo line should specify help for hurricane victims and relief efforts.

Displaced hurricane victims are encouraged to contact a local Department of Human Services site.

By working with social workers, victims can find what programs they qualify for and be set up to receive federal and state aid.

And because an individual may not have qualified for help in his or her home state, does not mean he or she will not qualify in Oklahoma, Tipps said.

Maple School Board of Education has named aseasoned educator as school superintendent.

Harold Hayes of Norman, former superintendent at Wakita Public Schools, is settling into the seat vacated by Richard Flurry, who retired after 13 years at Maple.

About 60 National Guardsmen in El Reno’s C Company of the 160th Field Artillery are among 2,200 Oklahoma soldiers now working on active duty in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

The troops are performing rescue, recovery and security efforts in central New Orleans. El Reno’s Charlie Company arrived in the ravaged city and was staged near the now- infamous convention center.

Canadian County voters marched with others statewide to soundly trounce a proposal that would have raised fuel taxes for roads and bridges.

A small turnout in the county defeated State Question 723 by a vote of 10,853 to 1,243. The measure failed in all 52 precincts, according to the county election board.

If approved, the measure would have added a maximum of 5 cents a gallon on gasoline and up to 8 cents on diesel to establish the Oklahoma Highway Trust Fund. The money would have helped improve roads and bridges and would flow directly to the state highway department, bypassing the Legislature.

El Reno Public Schools officials are denying charges of discrimination stemming from a federal civil rights lawsuit brought by the principal of the city’s alternative school.

Leonard Franks, who is black, is seeking over $100,000 in damages, alleging the district has discriminated against him by providing him with inadequate office space, no office assistant and no privacy to conduct his job.

This lawsuit comes after Franks was elevated to principal of the district’s alternative school as a result of mediation of an employment discrimination complaint. Franks filed the complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission because he said El Reno school officials passed him over for promotion in favor of a white administrator with less experience.

On Oct. 1, the county juvenile center will see its first troubled adolescents checking into the 12-bedroom group home for long-term care and treatment.

After a 10-month construction delay, the new wing and all-purpose gym at Gary E. Miller Canadian County Children’s Justice Center is open for business, said Billie Linam, director.

“All the major (construction) issues were noted and have been fixed,” she reported to county commissioners. “We’ll have staff coming in Sept. 26 who will undergo intake training.”

Watch for monthly garbage rates to increase on utility bills. But it is a price El Reno residents might be willing to pay to continue alleyway trash pickup.

El Reno City Council agreed to extend a sanitation contract until next year with the city’s trash hauler, IESI-OK Corp., with a rate hike of $2.77 because of higher fuel costs and a consumer price index adjustment.

Monthly cost to the city went from $6.88 to $9.65 per customer served. The Council would not accept a lesser price increase that included the use of all fully automated trucks but would also require 2,000 of the 5,000 customers across town to begin pulling their filled poly-carts to the curb on collection days.

About 40 percent of El Reno water customers have alleyway pickup.

Negotiations to buy property for an “unmanned” fire station can ignite now that the City Council took a look at the city’s options.

A private individual has offered a piece of land near East State Highway 66 that already has a building on the property, said Fire Chief Kent Lagaly.

“I don’t just want to stick a fire truck in there and call it an unmanned fire station,” although the concept is just that, he said. “Instead, we need to look at how the town will grow, not just in 15 years, but 50 years in the future. We want this to provide service for a long time.”

The aim is to extend the city’s fire protection and improve its fire protection rating, a move that would possibly ease property owners’ insurance burden, he said.

Since mid-August, police have seen an increase in daytime burglaries of homes and several attempts at illegal entry. In a seven-day period beginning Sept. 12, police responded to 16 reports of burglaries. Chief Fred Savage said over the past week, the numbers have dropped.

October
Three local convenience stores installed some of the first batch of lottery machines in the state.

El Reno City Council will hear from a financial adviser on the need to increase utility rates.

Officials have proposed a 3.4 percent water and sewer rate increase to comply with the consumer price index.

An unsigned letter to Canadian County Commissioner Don Young might be the flashpoint for a salary raise for juvenile detention employees.

Young said the letter writer complained that employees at Gary E. Miller Canadian County Children’s Justice Center did not get the bump in salary this year that other county employees did.

About 200 county workers on county general budget payroll were notified in August they would receive an 8 percent raise, retroactive to July 1. Elected officials received a 5 percent salary increase.

But since juvenile services employees are paid through a specially assessed sales tax, the budget is separate from the county’s general budget. Young said the juvenile services employees should be treated the same as other county employees.

El Reno residents gave narrow approval of a $410,000 bond issue to make improvements to the district’s athletic facilities.

Approximately $300,000 of the bond issue will be used to pay off the debt incurred last year when the district was forced to replace the stands on the south side of Memorial Stadium.

The remaining funds will be used to make improvements to the stadium and renovate the west lobby of Jenks Simmons Field House

Layering a tax increment financing district over a downtown sidewalk enhancement project could become reality if the El Reno City Council agrees.

The Local Development Act Review Committee voted unanimously to create a TIF district in a portion of the Central Business District bounded by Rogers Street on the north, the alleyway of Rock Island Avenue on the east, London Street on the south and Choctaw Avenue on the west.

The first project in a portion of the district will involve removing old sidewalks and curbing and replacing them with fresh concrete lining a ribbon of brick pavers such as those at the county election board, Canadian State Bank, the Carnegie Library and Youngheim’s Plaza.

Trustees of the Central Oklahoma Water Resources Authority are floating the theory that water underneath the sandy banks of the South Canadian River can supply the county’s drinking water for the next 20 years and beyond

The spanking new bridge that a clutch of classic cars cruised recently replaced a bridge built when Herbert Hoover was president.

“I just looked over at a 1928 car in this bunch and that just happens to be the year the old bridge here was built,” said state Department of Trans-portation chief engineer John Fuller.

“If you look at the size of that car and the vehicles that are being driven on this road today, you realize just how narrow this old 20-foot bridge was and how badly this new facility was needed.”

The $8.5 million project entailed four divided lanes. New parallel lanes were built and the existing two-line highway was rebuilt. Four narrow bridges were replaced along the 3.3-mile ribbon.

November
Three members of the Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribes have been charged in federal court with embezzlement of gaming revenues from the C&A casinos at Concho and Clinton.

Charged in U.S. Court of the Western District were James Wayne Pedro Sr., 66, of El Reno, Peggy BigPond, 51, of Concho, and Lea E. Schantz, 40, of El Reno.

Prosecutors claim Pedro took money from the Tribes for his own benefit while he was serving on the tribal business committee that oversees the tribal business and programs.

Parkview Hospital has settled a federal lawsuit for an undisclosed amount with a former ambulance attendant who claimed the hospital installed a recording device on a non-emergency phone line.

Dusty Walters filed the lawsuit in March under federal wiretapping laws. Walters’ attorney, Duane Miller of Yukon, said the suit was settled but the terms prevent disclosure of the amount.

“We can say that if my client agreed to the settlement, she must have felt it was equitable,” said Miller. Walters claimed a telephone listening device at the Hinton ambulance station taped conversations.

Harold and Bonnie Hughey say they are pleased they were chosen as “special persons” for this year’s Christmas on the Western Frontier celebration.

They rode in a place of honor in the parade that kicks off the holidays, waving to the crowd on the brisk evening of festivities in downtown El Reno.

December
After nine months of operating with only one pumper, the El Reno Fire Department has replaced the ailing truck with a larger, more functional vehicle.

In March, one of the department’s two pumpers failed a pump certification test, forcing it into retirement.

El Reno City Council authorized a $120,000 waterline project, leaving about $530,000 left to spend from the 2001-2002 bond money.

A more than $12 million outlay over the last three years has gone for public projects from the city’s last bonds issued for infrastructure. A 1 1/2-cent sales tax pays for the bonds.

The waterline project involves an 8-inch line on Watts Street from Boynton to Country Club Drive to replace an old cast iron line and adding new fire hydrants along the blocks. It is a project that was overlooked when leaders prioritized 2001-2002 bond projects, said Public Works Director Jim Luckett Jr.

Records show $656,230 is left in bond funds and if the waterline project comes in at the engineering estimate of about $120,000, money to complete public works projects is drying up.

El Reno City Council took no action after emerging from an hour-long executive session with City Manager Doug Henley on his job performance and a possible increase in salary.

In open session, Councilman Paul Atkins made the motion to give Henley a cost of living raise, but the motion died for lack of a second. Atkins said this week he is disappointed that no one agreed with him to give the city manager what the Council approved for all city employees this year.

The city of El Reno and El Reno Public Schools will benefit from the generosity of the late Wilbur A. and Jean Gardner, an El Reno couple who died without heirs.

If district court proceedings go as anticipated, the public schools foundation will receive about $200,000 to establish an endowment fund and the city will receive $100,000 to be used for an El Reno Fire Department substation.

About 330 families in the El Reno area this week are picking up donated food and toys for a better Christmas through the community outreach program, Blessing Baskets.

The program — operated by volunteers who are willing to contribute time and energy — has caught on to a source of high kilowatt energy — children.

A trickle of Canadian County voters approved a monthly 50-cent tax on cellular phone bills by 78 percent in one of the lowest voter turnouts for an election in recent memory, said Canadian County Election Board Secretary Dorothy Riley.