16 Pages

Wednesday

April 5, 2017

No. 101 of the 128th Year

Fifty Cents Kingfisher, Kingfisher County, Oklahoma USPS No. 295-420

Hennessey Hootenanny’s last hurrah

Edmond man to lead Heritage schoolBy Michael SwisherTimes-Free Press Managing Editor

Popular local musical revue closing after 14 seasons

Kingfisher ’s next principal at Heritage School said he loves small towns and leading young people.

Therefore, he said, his next venture is the perfect fit for him.

Watonga native Shane Hood was approved Monday to take over as the new principal at Kingfisher ’s third and fourth grade center. He’ll succeed Kathy Kadavy, who is retiring after this school year.

The vote came unanimously after about a half-hour executive session of the Kingfisher school board and upon Supt. Jason Ster-nberger’s recommendation.

“Leadership has always been a calling for me,” Hood said. “I’m really looking forward to this journey.”

Hood has spent the last two years as a fourth grade teacher at Cross Timbers Elementary School, which is in the Edmond Public Schools district.

“There are many positive indi-vidual qualities that he possesses, but there are a few things he men-tioned that really stood out to me,” Sternberger said. “It was how he has a servant leadership mindset, advocates for the kids and he is a

servant for the staff.”After graduating from Watonga

High School in 1998, Hood attend-ed Southwestern Oklahoma State University, where he met his wife, Janet, a Purcell native.

They married in 2000 and he be-came a youth pastor in Piedmont prior to earning his bachelor’s in elementary education from the University of Central Oklahoma in 2003.

Hood served as a minister for 13 years before getting into the education field two years ago.

He is set to earn his master’s degree in educational leadership from UCO this summer.

The Hoods have two daugh-ters: 10-year-old Kylie and 7-year-old Addison.

“Edmond is a great communi-ty,” Hood said. “But it’s big. My wife and I feel there’s nothing like being in a small town.”

From his days as a youth pastor and a fourth grade teacher, Hood said the age group of children he’ll be overseeing is an important one.

“It’s a great age to mentor the children,” he said. “Leading young people has been a passion and this is an opportunity to lead and help grow that next generation.”

Sternberger said he expects a WATONGA NATIVE Shane Hood, standing, with Supt. Jason Sternberger, prepares for his new role as principal at Kingfisher Heritage School. [Photo Courtesy KHS Photography]

If you’ve been waiting to see one of Hen-nessey’s Hometown Hootenannies, Saturday may well be your last opportunity.

After 14 years, the four-times-a-year musi-cal revues, featuring area talent performing a mixture of country, bluegrass and folk music, are coming to an end.

Retired Dover teacher and administrator and Hootenanny coordinator Cathy How-ard is retiring from her 14-year volunteer re-sponsibilities for talent procurement, event promoter, program designer and copier, flyer distributor and janitor.

Howard is quick to point out that the event would not happen without the sup-port of Hennessey United and her reliable all-volunteer crew – Jimmy Berkenbile as emcee and sound technician, Michael Hobbs

HEART OF THE HOOTENANNY Cathy Howard, left, has organized the show for 14 years. At right is local country crooner Buck Goucher from the early days of the program. He became the event’s perennial closing act. [Photos Provided]

and Jamie Akenhead at the admission booth, Paul Babiak on the spotlight and Hennessey graduate and cowboy crooner Buck Goucher, who’s provided local color for the program since its inception.

But ever since Hennessey civic leader Helen Cline dreamed up the hootenanny idea and persuaded Howard to take the helm in 2003, the project has been Howard’s baby.

Cline is a founding member of Hennessey 2010, the local economic development organi-zation founded in 2000 that evolved into Hen-nessey United in 2010.

“I had just graduated with the second class of Leadership Kingfisher County and had just started drawing retirement and had dropped down to half-time teaching,” Howard said. “I figured if I was serious about putting what I learned in the leadership class to work, I needed to take on the [hootenanny] job.”

By Christine ReidTimes-Free Press Senior Editor

What a difference one letter makes.

An article in Sunday’s Times and Free Press about Newfield Exploration breaking ground on its new water recycling plant south-west of Loyal inadvertently listed the project’s anticipat-ed cost at nearly $10 billion.

The cost is actually ex-pected to be $10 million for the plant, on top of approxi-mately $40 million the com-pany has already invested

in underground pipelines which will connect it to a series of holding pits so the recycled water can be sent out as needed to the com-pany’s ongoing hydraulic fracturing operations.

The plant is expected to be completed midsummer, with the capacity to recy-cle all water produced by Newfield’s area fracking operations at current rates of production, company officials said.

Price tag corrected

Seniors still availableKingfisher County grad-

uating seniors for the Class of 2017 are still available to be sponsored or congrat-ulated in our upcoming Senior Edition.

Seniors from Kingfish-er, Dover, Okarche and Lomega are available for individual sponsorship by

businesses or individuals and congratulatory boxes can be purchased to run next to the photos of Hennessey and Cashion grads.

See a list of seniors in an advertisement in last Sunday’s paper or contact Robin Johnston in our ad department for more info.

KINGFISHER COUNTY Engineer Heath Dobro-volny, left, accepts his Roads Scholar certification. [Photo Provided]

Kingfisher County Com-missioners praised County Engineer Heath Dobrovolny for completing requirements to receive the state Roads Scholar certification at their weekly meeting Monday.

He received his certificate at a ceremony last week at the Association of County Commissioners of Oklahoma Conference in Norman.

Presented by the Local Technical Assistance Pro-

gram, an outreach program of the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technolo-gy at Oklahoma State Uni-versity, the Roads Scholar Program is an educational series designed specifically for county commissioners, county road foremen, city public works officials, tribal officials and the employees of public agencies responsible for transportation infrastruc-ture.

The program’s purpose is to provide these individuals with a basic education in the civil engineering-related and other technical aspects of their jobs. It consists of eight courses, totaling 112 hours, which relate to road and bridge maintenance, con-struction and repair. These courses include aggregate road maintenance, excava-tion safety, testing for soil properties, project manage-

ment and plan reading. Commissioner Jeff Moss

reported that Dobrovolny had completed the degree work and been awarded the completion certificate.

Commissioners Moss, Ray Shimanek and Keith Schrod-er applauded Dobrovolny’s achievement and praised his quick and capable attention to the responsibilities his job required.

Engineer named Roads Scholar

BUSINESS AS USUAL — A new federal law signed Monday rolling back new regulations on privacy for internet service providers won’t affect how Pioneer Telephone Cooperative does business. (See related story on Page 14.) General Manag-er and CEO Richard Ruhl, front row, third from left, led a Pioneer Cellular delegation to Washington, D.C., including Jerry Kadavy, Kim Grellner, Blake Callaham and Justin Brewster, to join other members of the Rural Wireless Association to advocate for rural wireless carriers. RWA members pictured with the Pioneer crew in front of the Federal Communications Commission building include Carri Bennet and Erin Fitzgerald, second and fourth from left. [Photo Provided]

[See School Page 14]

[See Hootenanny Page 14]

[See County Page 14]

2 Wednesday, April 5, 2017 Kingfisher (Okla.) Times & Free Press

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Kingfisher (Okla.) Times & Free Press Wednesday, April 5, 2017 3

The Guthrie Gunfighterswill re-create an old fashioned law man

and outlaw gunfight

Lace Guild of Oklahomamembers will demonstrate the various

methods of making lace – bobbin, needle, crochet, and tatting

Rope Maker, Dennis Mosswill demonstrate rope making done on farms and ranches before 1900.

Participants will be able to take home a sample they helped make.

BlacksmithingVisitors will see demonstrations and learn

the seven basic steps of blacksmithing. Definitions of upsetting, piercing, and

punching (three of thos basic steps) will be explained.

Flintknapping, Neil Garrisonwill demonstrate how arrowheads are

chipped out of stone.

“Buffalo Bill” Kent SheltonWashwoman Susie White

will teach everone how the clothes were washed and dried during the pioneer days.

Medicine Man, George Hopkinswill put on a great show, and demonstrate

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Anna Crosswhite, a King-fisher High School senior, was awarded the FFA’s Northwest District Star in agribusiness last week and could be in line for the state’s top prize.

After earning the District Star, Crosswhite competed with four other district winners for the prestigious title of State Star in agribusiness.

She will be recognized at the State FFA Convention in May in Oklahoma City as being the District Star, at which time the state winner will be announced.

Crosswhite’s district title awarded her a $500 scholarship from the Oklahoma FFA Foun-dation.

Crosswhite’s agribusiness

project consists of raising bees for honey in which she has ex-panded her operation over the years.

She applied for and received two different $1,000 FFA SAE grants from Monsanto her soph-omore and junior years, which allowed her to expand her oper-ation by 10 hives.

Each year, she has increased her honey harvest and this past summer harvested more than 150 pounds of honey from her hives. She then markets and sells her honey at Studio Two-O-One in Kingfisher.

Her business is named “Thir-teen Years Honey,” as she began her business at the age of 13, starting with just two hives.

Honey businessCrosswhite project earns district honor

KINGFISHER FFA’S Anna Crosswhite works with one of her hives, which earned her a Northwest District Star in agribusiness. [Photo Provided]

CHS in Okarche is host-ing a grain safety awareness and rescue training at 9 a.m. Saturday, April 8 and April 22, at the CHS Okarche County Line location 10.5 miles east of Okarche.

The training is open

KINGFISHER COUNTY Republican Women gathered April 1 to support the Walk MS: North-west Oklahoma 2017 event in Enid. Nearly $40,000 was raised in the fight against multiple sclerosis. Those participating were, from left, front row: Donna Carter, Mary Bowerman and Denise Boots; and back row, associate member Greg Boots, Shei-la Duell, Cheryl Taylor and Tamara Henderson. The ladies on the back row are from Hennessey and all others from Kingfisher. [Photo Provided]

The Plainview HCE held its monthly meeting Mon-day, March 13, at the Banc-First Community Room. Judy Hobza was hostess.

Diane Musick, presi-dent, brought the meet-ing to order at 1:30 p.m. That was followed by flag salutes and the monthly song, “When Irish Eyes are Smiling.”

Roll call was taken as 10 members were present.

Sue Craig read the Feb-ruary minutes and Terri Peck provided the treasur-er’s report.

In new business, there was discussion on the HCE Week in May. The club chose the project for the week.

In old business, the Chisholm Trail Technology Center scholarship will be finalized at April’s meeting.

Hobza provided the les-son over barn quilts.

The meeting adjourned at 3:30 p.m.

Beth Evans will host the next meeting at her home at 1:30 p.m. Monday, April 10. The lesson will be “DIY - Refinish Furniture.”

EngagementGusan-

Hellwege

Hillary Gusan and Elliott Hellwege

Hillary Gusan of Yu-kon and Elliott Hellwege of Kingfisher announce their engagement and pending marriage.

The couple will be wed Saturday, April 8, 2017, in the Kingfisher coun-tryside.

10 members attend Plainview HCE meet

Mariah Akright of Cash-ion is a new junior member of the American Angus Association, reports Allen Moczygemba, CEO of the national organization with headquarters in Saint Jo-seph, Mo.

Junior members of the association are eligible to register cattle in the Amer-ican Angus Association, participate in programs

conducted by the National Junior Angus Association and take part in Associa-tion-sponsored shows and other national and regional events.

The American Angus Association is the largest beef breed association in the world, with more than 25,000 active adult and ju-nior members.

Akright new AAA member

to the public and fire de-partments from Kingfisher, Okarche, Dover, Loyal, Cashion, Big Four, El Reno, Piedmont, Yukon and Rich-land have been invited to attend.

Grain safety training set

4 Wednesday, April 5, 2017 Kingfisher (Okla.) Times & Free Press

The Kingfisher Times & Free Press(USPS No. 295-420)

Published Every Sunday and Wednesday by Kingfisher Newspapers, Inc. at323 N. Main, Kingfisher, OK 73750

Periodicals Postage Paid at Kingfisher, OK 73750

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Kingfisher Times and Free Press, P.O. Box 209, Kingfisher, OK 73750

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General Information, Subscriptions, Circulation Phone: 375-3220

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Gary Reid, Publisher Emeritus

VIEW

(A column of opinion by Gary Reid, Publisher Emeritus)

from behindthe plow

An event expected to last a little over an hour – ground-breaking for the new nearly $10 million Newfield water re-cycling facility in western Kingfisher County – Wednesday turned into an all morning event, thanks to the county’s welcome rain storm Tuesday evening.

Only four-wheel-drive vehicles – aided by the services of a road grader – could get participants to the location, which is on property of J.R. Barton, southwest of Loyal.

A news story appointment turned into an adventure because of muddy roads.

The facility will be known as the Barton Recycling Facility.

The facility will recycle water used in drilling and frac-turing (fracking) Newfield Oil and Gas wells in the region.

An interesting point of the drive to the location was a road grader pushing the slick mud off the road in front of the convoy so that the four-wheel drive vehicles carrying participants could reach the location.

Although the event lasted longer than expected, it was well worth the time in getting to know the nice folks at Newfield a little better.

Cindy Hassler, corporate communications manager for Newfield, met us at the door of the Okarche Field Office and invited us in for coffee and pastries, and introduced us to the Newfield executives who would be on the program.

A more complete report on the event appeared in the Sunday edition.

Reed Durfey, water and technical services manager, welcomed those attending and acknowledged Newfield team members making the project possible. He also ac-knowledged Tim Baker of the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, who was present for the event; Marty Barton, representing the Barton family on the scene although Jerry Barton observed from a nearby vehicle; Larry Simmons, Okarche office production superintendent; Lloyd Hen-drick, operations engineering advisor; Brook Simmons, government affairs manager, and Orson Barney, water operations manager, among others.

Newfield had invested $40 million in its water manage-ment infrastructure in its STACK play before the newest project.

What great neighbors our oil companies have proven to be.

Not only have they boosted this area’s economy to un-precedented heights, they take part in civic projects to make the community better for all living here (and that’s besides being good stewards of the environment as exemplified by the water treatment facility).

Recently the Newfield Foundation made a significant contribution to the Center of Family Love at Okarche, that wonderful facility that provides a loving home for devel-opmentally disabled adults.

We hear another gift is planned in the near future.The best part of the newspaper business is getting to

meet and know so many fine people.

Democratic Socialist Party growingSocialist Bernie Sanderss, U.S. senator from Vermont

who ran for president last time around as a Democrat – and who gave Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton a much better run than expected – has given new life to socialism in the U.S.

The Democratic Socialists of America (party) is reported the fastest growing party in America after the 2016 election.

Leftist professors who dominate faculties in American universities must receive a major part of the credit/blame for the party’s appearance by letting kids out of school ignorant about economic facts of life.

Sanders, who drew the support of Democratic Socialist party members during the 2016 primaries – and might well have won the nomination except for under-handed shenanigans from the Clinton campaign, caught the fancy of the party members with his promises of free education, free food, free medical care, free – well almost anything.

Party leaders say they do not believe in government ownership of the means of production as pure socialists do (although they favor government taking over health care).

The party website makes this statement:We are socialists because we share a vision of a hu-

mane international social order based both on democratic planning and market mechanisms to achieve equitable distribution of resources, meaningful work, a healthy en-vironment, sustainable growth, gender and racial equality, and non-oppressive relationships.

This all sounds fine until you realize that socialism means more government involvement in people’s lives, thus more control and less freedom.

It also brings to mind the question: What will happen when everyone gets on the “free” bandwagon and no one is left to produce the goods needed by socialists and others?

Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher nailed the problem when she pointed out socialism works only until the money runs out. America toyed with socialism in the early 1900s but the Russian experiment made people realize that socialism works only in theory, not in practice.

John Hawkins, writing in Town Hall gives five reasons why capitalism is better.

But if you prefer the short version, he wrote:“Saying that capitalism is better than socialism is like

saying that winning a million dollars is better than being in a high impact car crash. In other words, if you have an open mind, a good grasp on human nature and economics,

People: Best part of news business

[See View, Page 5]

By Jonathan SmallFreedom of speech is in

the First Amendment to the Constitution because it’s the core of our free and open society.

The Oklahoma Legis-lature is considering a bill that would curtail this very freedom.

Senate Bill 579 would require groups spending to advocate for or against a ballot measure, or even “publishing or otherwise offering educational infor-mation” about it, to make public the names of all their supporters.

We already have strict reporting rules for donors to election campaigns and political parties. Transpar-ency is important when it comes to politicians. How-ever, this bill goes much further, and it could threat-en, rather than encourage, free discussion.

The bill targets what some deceptively call dark money. But calling private donations dark money is like saying a private bal-lot is dark voting. People working together for a cause, whether in a small community group or a big coalition like the National Rifle Association, have a right to assemble and speak without their names going on a government list.

Under SB 579, if a group simply educated people about a ballot measure, its entire donor lists could be accessible. And we’ve seen too many instances where donors have been subject to harassment, firing, or death threats.

A leader of the left-wing organization MoveOn.org has been quoted saying that the purpose of target-ing donors is “to confront donors to conservative groups … to create a chill-ing effect that will dry up contributions.”

Such attacks are nothing new. In 1958, the Supreme Court stopped the state of Alabama from seizing membership records of the NAACP during the early years of the civil rights era. Does anyone doubt how dangerous that disclosure would have been?

According to the Fed-eral Election Commission, private giving constituted just 2.9 percent of spend-ing during the 2014 elec-tion cycle.

These dollars are freely donated to nonprofits that use some of the money to talk about public issues. There’s nothing secretive about the positions of groups like the NRA or the Sierra Club. They, and their supporters, are sim-ply exercising their First Amendment rights.

It’s important to re-member that transparency is for government; privacy is for individuals and the non-government asso-ciations they freely join. SB 579 is an ill-advised measure and should be defeated.

Jonathan Small serves as president of the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs (www.ocpathink.org).

By Andrew C. SpiropoulosChicago Mayor Rahm

Emanuel earned a perma-nent place in American political lore when, as chief of staff to President Barack Obama, he imprudently commented that the pres-ident could not let the se-rious crisis he faced go to waste.

Everyone in politics knew what he meant – the admin-istration would exploit the agitated atmosphere of cri-sis to jam through policies that otherwise would never have passed.

Every day, we see pol-iticians and bureaucrats attempt to use or even manufacture crises to create a climate of apprehension that will enable them to convince people to support their plans without asking hard questions about what they are doing. How should a sensible citizen respond to this talk of crisis? You have to be skeptical about anything you hear or read from an elected official or government agency.

Take for example our state’s budget struggles. You often hear muddle-head-ed legislators and officials comment that the budget shortfall has launched us into an economic crisis. But, of course, it’s nonsense to suggest that the state fiscal situation has caused eco-nomic problems – it’s exact-ly the opposite. Our recent economic struggles caused the budget problems.

The truth is that, no matter the current state of government coffers, our economy is improving. It’s not working Oklahomans in the private economy

who are directly affected by the fiscal woes – they’re a problem for those who work in or want something from government. In fact, the greatest danger that government’s problems will cause the economy harm is if we excessively raise taxes to sate the crisis-fueled hunger for more money to spend.

We even need to be skep-tical about the extent of the government’s fiscal crisis. This month, for example, the Oklahoma City Public Schools administration an-nounced a plan to close five schools. The bureaucrats claim this strong medicine is necessary because the state is going to cut their appropriations.

This argument is utterly disingenuous – they know the Legislature, having raised spending every year from 2012 to 2015, held it flat in 2016, and only because of last year’s revenue failure, reduced state support by only about 3 percent, will make common education its first priority. The truth is we’d all be surprised if, in the final budget deal, common education is cut at all – it’s more likely schools will get more money to fund teacher pay raises.

The district wants to exploit worries about the state budget so they don’t have to explain why they are really closing these schools. Every institution, public or private, has to be willing to look hard at its operations and cut, wheth-er a factory, a company division, or a school, enter-prises that aren’t attracting enough customers to justify the expense. With a public school district, of course, the concern isn’t about making profit – it’s about finding the best way to use your resources to serve the most children.

The problem with play-ing the crisis gambit is that you never do the hard work of explaining to constituents why the district needs to continuously make these tough choices to improve education. When public school districts or the state higher education system an-nounce that they will study how to restructure their systems only in response to threats posed by budget shortfalls, they’re telling ev-eryone that they will prac-tice sound management only if forced by external pressure. It’s this intellectu-al and political dysfunction that’s the real crisis.

Spiropoulos is the Robert S. Kerr, Sr. Professor of Constitu-tional Law at Oklahoma City University and the Milton Friedman Distinguished Fel-low at the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs. The views expressed in this column are those of the author and should not be attributed to either insti-tution. (Ed. Note: This article first appeared in the Oklahoma City Journal Record.

By Walter E. Williams Profiling is needlessly a mis-understood concept. What’s called profiling is part of the optimal stock of human behavior and something we all do. Let’s begin by de-scribing behavior that might come under the heading of profiling.

Prior to making deci-sions, people seek to gain information. To obtain in-formation is costly, requir-ing the expenditure of time and/or money. Therefore, people seek to find ways to economize on information costs. Let’s try simple ex-amples.

You are a manager of a furniture moving company and seek to hire 10 people to load and unload furniture onto and off trucks. Twenty people show up for the job, and they all appear to be equal except by sex. Ten are men, and 10 are women. Whom would you hire? You might give them all tests to determine how much weight they could carry un-der various conditions, such as inclines and declines, and the speed at which they could carry. To conduct such tests might be costly. Such costs could be avoided through profiling -- that is, using an easily observable physical attribute, such as a person’s sex, as a proxy for unobserved attributes, such as endurance and strength. Though sex is not a perfect predictor of strength and en-durance, it’s pretty reliable.

Imagine that you’re a chief of police. There has been a rash of auto break-ins by which electronic equip-ment has been stolen. You’re trying to capture the cul-prits. Would you have your officers stake out and inves-tigate residents of senior citizen homes? What about

spending resources investi-gating men and women 50 years of age or older? I’m guessing there would be greater success capturing the culprits by focusing police resources on young-

er people -- and par-t icular ly y o u n g men. The r e a s o n i s t h a t breaking in to autos is mostly a young m a n ’ s

g a m e . Should charges be brought against you because, as police chief, you used the physical attributes of age and sex as a crime tool? Would it be fair for people to accuse you of playing favorites by not using inves-tigative resources on seniors and middle-aged adults of either sex even though there is a non-zero chance that they are among the culprits?

Physicians routinely screen women for breast cancer and do not routinely screen men. The American Cancer Society says that the lifetime risk of men getting breast cancer is about 0.1 percent. Should doctors and medical insurance compa-nies be prosecuted for the discriminatory practice of prescribing routine breast cancer screening for women but not for men?

Some racial and ethnic groups have higher inci-dence and mortality from various diseases than the national average. The rates of death from cardiovas-cular diseases are about 30 percent higher among black adults than among white adults. Cervical cancer rates are five times greater among

Vietnamese women in the U.S. than among white women. Pima Indians of Arizona have the world’s highest known diabetes rates. Prostate cancer is nearly twice as common among black men as it is among white men. Using a cheap-to-observe attribute, such as race, as a proxy for a costly-to-observe attribute, such as the probability of some disease, can assist medical providers in the delivery of more effective medical services. For ex-ample, just knowing that a patient is a black man causes a physician to be alert to the prospect of prostate cancer. The unintelligent might call this racial profiling, but it’s really prostate cancer profiling.

In the real world, there are many attributes cor-related with race and sex. Jews are 3 percent of the U.S. population but 35 percent of our Nobel Prize winners. Blacks are 13 percent of our population but about 74 percent of professional bas-ketball players and about 69 percent of professional foot-ball players. Male geniuses outnumber female geniuses 7-to-1. Women have wider peripheral vision than men. Men have better distance vision than women.

The bottom line is that people differ significantly by race and sex. Just know-ing the race or sex of an individual may on occasion allow us to guess about something not readily ob-served.

Walter E. Williams is a pro-fessor of economics at George Mason University. To find out more about Williams, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.

COPYRIGHT 2017 CREATORS.COM

Is profiling OK?

The problem with playing the crisis gambit

Transparency for gov’t; privacy for individuals

Jonathan Small

Andrew Spiropoulos

Williams