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RANGERS RESCUE BOY FROM NEAR DROWNING
By CHRIS EDENS, City Editor
Two Oologah Lake Park Rangers were in the right place at the right time on Friday and a boy was saved from drowning because of their quick actions.
Rangers Rob Mills and Jason Person were on routine patrol at Hawthorn Bluff on Friday evening. They had parked their truck in the lot above the swimming beach and were watching the swimmers.
Mills noticed a boy who was struggling to stay above the water. Mills said at first it appeared the boy might have been playing around.
Antonio Ramos, 14, from Tulsa went under the water several times. Person said when he came back up he was flailing his arms around and gasping for air. Mills said it was the textbook actions of someone who is drowning.
“He was in the same spot and he would come up and gulp for air and go back down and then come back up gasping again,” Mills said.
“We could tell by the look on his face it was serious,” Person said. “He was doing the classic actions of a drowning person.”
Mills and Person jumped out of their truck and started running towards the beach. Mills was yelling for someone to help the boy, but no one seemed to notice what was happening. Person said there were six or seven other swimmers in the water near the boy, but they didn’t realize he was going under.
Ramos tried to grab on to his sister who was swimming with him and he almost pulled her under. The girl screamed for help just as Mills was reaching the water. Mills threw off his hat and dove in.
The boy was completely under the water when Mills reached him. He grabbed a hold of Ramos and got him above the surface.
“When I got to him, he was about six inches under the water. The water was murky, but I saw him and grabbed him,” Mills said.
When Ramos made it to the shore, he was scared, out of breath and complaining of a headache. The boy’s mother, Elizabeth Ramos was across the beach during the incident and she had no idea her son was in distress.
Ramos was in water that was about 10 feet deep and he was about 20 feet from the shore when the near-drowning happened. Person said it didn’t seem like the boy or his sister could swim very well and neither one was wearing a life jacket.
Ranger supervisor Paul Shockley reminds people that they can pick up a loaner life jacket at the gate for Hawthorn Bluff. The jackets come in all sizes and there is no charge to check one out.
HOT FIRE TAX ISSUE TOPS BALLOT
A News Analysis
By JOHN M. WYLIE II, Editor
A controversial quarter-cent sales tax proposal to increase funding for area fire departments tops the ballot for Tuesday’s primary election.
Democrats have no local races, but Republicans will decide a three-way race for the party’s Rogers County Sheriff nomination.
Voters in both parties will have statewide races.
FIRE TAX
The fire tax proposition would raise the sales tax countywide for four years, with proceeds divided evenly among the fire departments countywide which have stations located in the county. It was proposed by the Rogers County Fire Chiefs Association.
Proponents say the tax would be a small price to pay for better fire protection.
But opponents, including the City of Claremore, say the tax would put county merchants at a financial disadvantage when competing with businesses in Owasso, where the tax already is lower.
That in turn could hurt not just merchants but other sales tax-funded government services, such as roads and the jail (both of which are funded by county sales taxes).
In addition, questions have been raised about who would administer the funds—the proposition is silent on that issue—and the distribution of the money, with fire departments such as Tiawah serving relatively small populations receiving the same amount of money as departments serving much larger populations.
DEMOCRATS
There’s little else on the ballot for Democrats. In U.S. House District 2, Congressman Dan Boren faces token opposition from Kevin Coleman of Grove, a political novice.
Similarly, State Senator Andrew Rice is the overwhelming favorite to win the nomination to oppose Senator Jim Inhofe in the fall. The other Democratic candidate, Jim Rogers of Midwest City, has done virtually no campaigning.
For the sliver of Rogers County in the First Congressional District Mark Manley and Georgianna W. Oliver, both of Tulsa, will square off for the Democratic nomination. Manley describes himself as a progressive while Oliver says she is a conservative Democrat.
REPUBLICANS
Rogers County Republicans have the only local contest, a three-way race for the Sheriff’s nomination that has been surprisingly quiet.
Cole Butler, now with the Tulsa police department, faces current Undersheriff Barry Lamb and Chelsea police officer Rob Mallory for the right to face Democrat Scott Walton in November.
The job is open because incumbent Sheriff Jerry Prather is not seeking re-election.
Butler has been winning the sign wars, with Mallory making a strong showing and Lamb signs almost invisible. But Lamb likely has the highest name recognition because his duties at the Sheriff’s Office often include the role of media spokesman.
At the state and federal levels, Republicans will chose between former administrative law judge Dana Murphy and former State Representative Rob Johnson for the chance to face incumbent Corporation Commissioner Jim Roth in the fall.
Johnson’s ads have focused on social issues and taxes — neither of which are under the purview of the Corporation Commission — while Murphy’s ads stress her experience both as a law judge at the OCC and in the energy industry’s private sector.
U.S. Senator Jim Inhofe faces three little-known opponents — Evelyn L. Rogers, a librarian at Tulsa Community College; Dennis Lopez, a Thackerville machinist who says God “has called me to run”; and Ted Ryals, a trail attorney and tax litigator from Moore.
Incumbent Congressman John Sullivan has drawn a familiar opponent, Fran Mo-Ghaddam. She is a native of Iran who has long been active in Republican politics at the state and national levels and works as an insurance broker in Tulsa. She challenged Sullivan two years ago and ran for a seat in the legislature two years earlier.
MIDNIGHT ROLL-OVER
A red Grand Am went off the access road in the Verdigris River Park below Oologah Dam just before midnight on Monday night. The driver was rescued at the scene by Northwest firefighters and OTEMS medics, who transported the driver to an area hospital. The Oklahoma Highway Patrol did not issue a report on the accident.
O-T SCHOOL BOARD HIRES NEW ATHLETIC DIRECTOR
By CHRIS EDENS, City Editor
Mick Wilson will serve as the new athletic director at Oologah-Talala Schools after the school board approved his hiring on Monday night.
Wilson has worked as the athletic director at Independence Community College for the past three years. Wilson is replacing Brent Payne who took the head baseball coaching job at Claremore.
Superintendent Rick Thomas said Wilson should be a great addition to the staff.
“His experience at the community college level should be a big asset to our district. I think he brings some good skills to the position. We lost a good one in Brent Payne, but I think we got a good one in Mick Wilson,” Thomas said.
Wilson’s hiring was approved after the board returned from an executive session. The board also approved hiring Cara Jones as the new assistant middle school principal.
In other business, Assistant Superintendent Jerry Rutledge updated the board on preparations in the buildings for the upcoming school year. He said renovations had been completed in the high school library and all three gym floors had been re-finished.
“The custodial staff has done a great job getting the buildings ready,” Rutledge said. “We’ll be ready for school to start.”
The board voted to declare the East Campus near town hall as surplus. Thomas said it wasn’t practical for the district to use the campus.
The 12 lots will be appraised and the district will seek sealed bids to sell the property. Thomas said if minimum bids aren’t received, the board can reject the bids.
Other personnel changes that were approved following the executive session include hiring Melissa Gibson as the upper elementary counselor, Schyler Adkins as the middle school/high school chorus teacher, Michelle Rawding as the school nurse, Sonja Jobe as a kindergarten teacher, Crystal Murphy as a lower elementary special education teacher, Amanda Siegfried as a pre-kindergarten teacher, Brenna Magette as a middle school science teacher and a high school soccer coach and Cheryl Siana as an upper elementary special education teacher.
The board accepted resignations from middle school assistant principal Jack Pugh, middle school teacher Karen Dillard, middle school special education teacher Deborah O’Conner, upper elementary special education teacher Jon O’Conner and high school/middle school chorus teacher Amanda Foyil.
“I am really excited about the new employees that are joining our team this year. We continue to get the best of the best in our district. I welcome each of these people to our district,” Thomas said.
LEADER DOMINATES NATIONAL AWARDS
Special to the Leader
COLUMBIA, Mo.—The Oologah Lake Leader received six major awards for news, community service and advertising from the National Newspaper Association, leading the state in the prestigious contest.
The Leader earned:
First Place honors for investigative journalism and community service.
Second place honors for business reporting and editorial writing.
Third Place honors for sales promotion section.
Honorable Mention for best environmental story.
The first place award for investigative journalism involved the work of Publisher/Editor John M. Wylie II and then-City Editor Bill Snyder in exposing wrongdoing by County Commissioner Mike Helm.
“Hard nosed and persistent investigative reporting peels away questionable conduct and corruption by a public official layer by layer,” said the judge.
A special prosecutor now is reviewing a criminal investigation by the OSBI to determine whether Helm’s conduct warrants criminal charges. No charges have been filed.
The first place award for Community Service involves the Leader’s investigation which disclosed that a violent felon who was a patient at the forensic mental hospital at Vinita had walked away from a picnic at an Oologah Lake Park and that the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health had tried to keep the escape secret.
“A horrifying (event) brought home through quick action, thorough research and strong advocacy,” said the judge.
The escapee was recaptured a day after Lori Fullbright of KOTV-TV6 (The News on Six) did a story based on the Leader’s investigation.
The second place award in Business Stories involved the Leader’s coverage of the carbon capture project — a worldwide commercial demonstration project worth over half a billion dollars — at AEP Public Service Co. of Oklahoma’s Northeastern Station.
The same coverage earned an Honorable Mention in Environmental Reporting.
The newspaper also won a second place award for “Boston Tea Party at NE Tech,” an editorial which disclosed a stealth plan to enact a major tax increase with virtually no advance notice to taxpayers.
“Good, action-inducing editorial taking a stand on an important issue. Well-stated and readable,” said the judge.
The awards will be formally presented in Sept. 27 at the NNA’s “Toast to the Winners” event during the organization’s national convention in St. Paul, Minn.
Other award winners from Oklahoma include: the Elk Citian, one first place, second place and third place; the Hennessey Clipper, two third places and an honorable mention; the Mustang Times, a third place, and advertising awards for the Mustang Times and the Sallisaw Sequoyah County Times .
JONES LEADS MONEY RACE;
SNYDER CLOSING IN FAST
By JOHN M. WYLIE II, Editor
State Rep. Tad Jones, a 10-year incumbent, had $22,333.52 in the bank on July 14, the end of the latest campaign finance reporting period.
Challenger Bill Snyder, who has been in politics six weeks, had $13,448.27 in the bank on the same day.
The campaign finance reports indicate that Jones — who had not expected any challenge for his final term in office — has a serious challenger.
Jones has raised just under $40,000, with $15,250 from various committees.
Committees making contributions represent ATT, the OK Ag Fund, Anesthesiologists, Oklahoma Independent Energy producers, Farmers Insurance agents, the Oklahoma Association of Insurance Agents, Rural Electric interests, Osteopathic medicine, American Electric Power, optometrists, Career Tech, the Oklahoma Hospital Association, OG&E employees, United Community Bankers and the Oklahoma Rural Water Association.
Snyder has raised $16,366, of which $2,000 came from committees. That was a single contribution from the Ironworkers Political Action League.
Itemized individual contributions to Snyder range from $20 to $5,000. Itemized individual contributions to Jones range from $25 to $5,000.
Jones listed 76 individual donors; Snyder listed 37.
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