The familiar faces of longtime re-enactors will be joined by several new ones this year during Fort Reno’s annual three-day Tombstone Tales.

Mustang sales tax revenues climbed by more than $158,000 in the first two months of fiscal year 2008-2009, and City Council member Scott Gibson says the growth is proof the economic incentive paid to Lowe’s Home Improvement Store is more than justified.

Although the committee studying the county’s need for a new jail has not met formally for several weeks, members are working independently to move the process forward.

The dread, Reggie Cervantes says, starts about a month before the Sept. 11 anniversary.
“You wake up one morning, something clicks in your head, and you realize the clock is ticking, that you have less that 30 days,” she said. “And as the day gets closer and closer, you realize you’re all alone.”

Former Bronco infielder Jimmy Gillespie was looking forward to being a Rose State Raider with best friend Chase Ashley. Two weeks before the college sophomores were set to move into their apartment, Ashley was hospitalized and died this past Monday.

Mustang’s familiar horse underwent a makeover Tuesday, as City Council members approved a new city logo.

City Council members turned on the tap for a study needed to move forward with Mustang’s planned wastewater treatment plant expansion Tuesday.

The Council approved the city’s participation in a study required by the Department of Environmental Quality.

Jail committee members got a detailed “tour” Wednesday of the $24.8 million facility rejected by voters May 13, in an attempt to “find a starting place.”

When Kayla Balliew’s family came to Mustang, Rachel Synco was one of the first people she met — she never imagined two years later she would help prolong her new friend’s life.

Balliew donated her right kidney to Synco in June. Weeks later both young mothers said they are healing faster than they expected.

Beatrice Cleo Farris

Mustang City Council members looked to snuff out fireworks concerns Tuesday, approving a cut in the time period fireworks are allowed to be used and banning low-point beer in Wild Horse Park during that time.

Saying he’d taken an “undetermined amount of abuse,” District 2 County Commissioner Don Young addressed news reports about a $1.5 million, 15-mile section of road which began to fail a week after it was completed at Monday’s Commissioners’ meeting.

A committee charged with finding solutions to the county’s jail headaches had its inaugural meeting July 10.

The committee, appointed by County Commissioners Phil Carson, Don Young and Grant Hedrick, was formed after a proposed $24.8 million facility was soundly rejected by voters in May. The group held its first meeting in Yukon to “get ideas, compile information and find a way to sell the right facility to the residents,” committee chairman Jim Crosby said.

Mustang School Board members chose Bonnie Lightfoot as interim superintendent Monday night after approving Karl Springer’s resignation.

Springer started Tuesday as Oklahoma City School District superintendent.

Tate Publishing is hoping to hit a sweet note with its newest division, Tate Music Group, launched earlier this year.

The division - patterned in a way after the publishing side - was a dream of Tate leadership that happened much earlier than expected, founder Rita Tate said.

Richard Dale Scholle
Jack Schrock
Nicholas Allen Hodges
Charles Eugene Wilson
Randall Wayne Carver
Lydia Mitchell

Mustang School Board members are expected Monday night to move toward searching for a new superintendent after Karl Springer accepted the top spot in the Oklahoma City School District.

A crumbling strip of a $1.5 million asphalt overlay undertaken by District 2 Commissioner Don Young grew to about 100 feet last week, and two road construction experts say it is only the beginning.

A month ago, the Mustang City Council voted against joining a proposed Canadian County Economic Development partnership. The move took some El Reno city leaders by surprise.

A familiar face in the Mustang real estate market is changing, with the merger of Marolyn Pryor Realtors with two Coldwell Banker agencies.

Union City firefighters moved closer to breaking ground on a new station after one year of “hurry up and wait.”

Two Mustang enterprises will hit the World Wide Web this weekend as features of OklaTravelNet, a site spotlighting attractions around Oklahoma.

Segments filmed in late June at the Mustang Historical Society and Isn’t That Kute Tea Room will air today and Sunday, OklaTravelNet host Whitney Allen said. Tate Publishing Company was featured on the Web site two weeks ago.

Failures on a $1.5 million road overlay led to a war of words Tuesday between County Commissioners Don Young, Grant Hedrick and Phil Carson.

City Council members shot down a motion by Ward 5 Councilwoman Linda Hagan for an audit of city books Tuesday.

Canadian County wheat farmers reaped a record harvest for 2008 with high field yields and high-quality grain meeting skyrocketing prices.

It has been 117 years since construction began on a stately house in the middle of the Oklahoma prairie. Recently, Fort Reno celebrated the rebirth of that house during its annual meeting.

Mustang High School students wanting to park their cars at school may face random drug testing this fall.

Mustang School Board members were asked to study a proposed student drug testing policy, which would require MHS students seeking parking permits and ninth- through 12th-grade students participating in competitions to submit for random drug testing starting as early as Aug. 1. The board is expected to consider the policy in more detail at its July 23 special board meeting.

Mustang School Board members approved seeking $1.4 million in MAPS for Kids bond funds to buy 80 acres for a future school campus.

The property is half of 160 acres available at the southeast corner of SW 44th Street and Czech Hall Road. Mustang school officials have sought a contract to buy the east half of the land, Superintendent Karl Springer said, with the option to purchase the rest in 2009.

Area officials announced changes to the county’s floodplain areas Monday and urged residents to make sure their homes have not been included in the new maps.

For the first time in 19 years, Canadian County will have a new sheriff, after challenger Randall Edwards defeated incumbent Lewis Hawkins for the seat in the Republican primary Tuesday.

Tracey Lee Geringer

Ward 5 Councilwoman Linda Hagan called for a city-wide audit Tuesday, saying residents want to know “where all of the money is going.”

The request — “for discussion, consideration and possible action regarding a request that I’m making that the Council have a full and complete audit of all city accounts done, including monthly cash flow projection of revenues and expenditures including carry-forward” — was made, Hagan said, because residents have approached and called her, questioning what “is happening” to sales tax money.

Dale Howard Roberts
Rev. R. Frank Skillern
Ryley Currey
Noreta Grady
Warren D. Hacker

Pebble Creek Golf Course should have a new owner this week, and golfers could be teeing off this weekend.

Local residents and business owners Steve Baker and his wife, Carla Baker, said Monday they are expecting their purchase of the golf course from developer Robert Crout to be final sometime this week. If the closing proceeds as scheduled, Steve Baker said he plans to open for business Saturday.

Dale Howard Roberts

In five days 60 Mustang-area residents raised more than a church in the Arizona desert — they brought hope.

District 2 Commissioner Don Young spent more than $1.7 million since April 1 on maintenance and operations, more than twice the sum expended the entire nine months prior to that time.

Young, who announced he would not seek re-election June 3, said Monday the increased spending is to pay for “a 15-mile asphalt” project. Appropriations ledgers obtained by Mustang News showed of the more than $1.7 million spent by District 2 in a 70-day period, $1.5 million of it was paid to Schwartz Asphalt.

County staff said the job encompasses filling potholes and laying an asphalt cover on Reno Street, from the El Reno city limits west to Heaston Church and a portion of Airport Road south toward Union City.

Parents will pay 30 cents more per meal for their children to eat in Mustang school cafeterias this fall.

Doctors cutting into Mustang resident Sherri Nance’s skull to remove a life-threatening brain tumor were dumbfounded.

The vestibular schwannoma doctors had seen in a magnetic resonance image the day before wasn’t there. Instead they found a cyst. Nance said the doctors told her they believe the tumor died on its own. The case was unlike anything they had ever seen, she said.

Mustang Chamber of Commerce leaders and City Council members vowed to “work together” to hammer out a contract between the two entities Tuesday.

Several members of the chamber’s executive board attended the Council meeting to discuss financial arrangements between the city and chamber. The need to draft a new agreement between the city and chamber came to light earlier this month, when it was discovered the chamber’s lease for its office at Mustang Town Center expired in 2004.

Questions first arose about the city-chamber relationship during budget sessions and the June 3 budget hearing when some Council members questioned the benefits of the arrangement between the two.

As Lowes Home Improvement celebrated their grand opening last week, one city official questioned whether the incentive deal struck with the retailer was “set in stone.”

Ward 5 Councilwoman Linda Hagan said she was “very upset” by the agreement negotiated by city officials — and approved by City Council — in June 2007. During a June 3 city budget hearing, Hagan said she had asked the city attorney if the contract could be broken.

City Attorney Jonathan Miller told Hagan the contract could not now be severed.

Candidates vying for the District 2 County Commissioner spot are focusing on the July 29 primary, when the fate of at least some of the would-be county leaders may be determined.

Canadian County Commissioners shared a total of almost $38,000 in 2007 for mileage reimbursement after they chose to use their own vehicles instead of driving a county-owned vehicle.

Each Commissioner’s share of the reimbursement is in addition to their annual salaries of $54,000.

Even though the three Commissioners have access to county vehicles, each said they prefer to drive their own trucks. In all, the Commissioners shared $37,946.76 for travel claims in 2007.

County Commissioners took their first step to “reload and regroup” in their efforts to build a new county jail Monday.

District 1 Commissioner Phil Carson said officials needed to take a step forward in their efforts to “find an answer” to ongoing problems with the current jail, which include overcrowding and structural issues.

Mustang School District officials pledged Monday night to move to full-day kindergarten in August 2009, two years before the state mandate takes effect.

Victor Leroy Hand
Paul Griffin
George Bartley Sims
Kyra Dawn Sowter
Helen Willis

Perceived “isolationism” on the part of a few City Council members has left some Mustang Chamber of Commerce members feeling “left out in the cold.”

Chamber board member Ryan Tate said the cold front started with remarks made by Mayor Jeff Landrith and Ward 2 Councilwoman Kathleen Moon during recent budget sessions. During those meetings, Landrith and Moon questioned the need for an annual $10,000 allocation to the chamber, saying they had reservations about the benefit Mustang proper received for the investment. Moon also raised concerns about the chamber having an office in Mustang Town Center free of charge.

Mustang students participating in extracurricular activities may face drug testing starting in August if Mustang School Board members decide to approve a proposed policy.

City Council passed a resolution Tuesday breaking the dam on the city’s participation in a study aimed at finding a “permanent” water source.

The plan is a cooperative effort by members of the Central Oklahoma Water Resource Authority to jointly fund a $890,000 feasibility study of the Kiamichi basin. City Manager David Cockrell said the project’s aim is to determine the costs and problems associated with obtaining water from Kiamichi and transporting it to Mustang.

Vehicle counts released by Mustang city officials confirm what residents fighting traffic on city streets already know — there are more cars on local roads than ever before.

A section of a $1.5 million road project completed last week by District 2 County Commissioner Don Young is already buckling.

The estimated 30-foot section is part of a 15-mile asphalt overlay that starts on the south side of the El Reno Regional Airport and runs south to Union City and west from the airpark to Heaston.

District 2 Commissioner Don Young defended his decision Tuesday to spend $1.5 million since April on a 15-mile Reno Road project. The work comes in the final weeks when “unlimited funds” are available to Young to spend as he sees fit.

Betty Caves
William Henderson
Sherry Puffett
Terry Whitney

Momentum toward a May vote on a new county jail stalled Monday when Canadian County commissioners declined to hire a financial adviser, the next step in moving the project forward.

A plan to build a new Taco Mayo restaurant in Mustang survived the fire of angry residents Tuesday before a split City Council OK’d a zoning change for the proposed new location just west of Sara Road on East state Highway 152.

Proposals for a new multi-million dollar baseball complex in the city have hit roadblocks before. As a new $2.8 million bond issue moves toward an April ballot, some City Council members have questioned whether it is the right time to present the issue to voters.
Voters turned down a $4.5 million sports complex proposal in December 2006.

An anonymous donor is making it easier for Mustang residents to make and keep a New Year’s resolution to help the planet.

Worried a $2.9 million baseball facility bond plan might fail to get a chance at bat, residents Wednesday gathered in City Council chambers, calling for city officials to include the measure on the April general election ballot.

Daugherty, Sharon
Gourley, Lillie
Sterling, Todd

Donors have pushed contributions to The United Way of Canadian County to the 90 percent mark, and organizers say their $115,000 goal is within reach.

Growth in the Mustang community continued to boom during the last six months of 2007, as over 250 additional students attended class in the Mustang School District.

Ward 1 Councilman Jay Adams is spearheading the effort to “give residents the full picture” on a possible $2.8 million bond issue that would finance new baseball fields.