Published: December 31, 2008 06:16 pm         

Remembering 2008

Last year produced lots of local news

Another year has come and gone. The staff of the Stillwater NewsPress compiled the biggest local news stories of last year, sorted not by order of importance but chronologically, based upon front-page stories from 2008. For a sports-related article, see page B1.



January

• The year began with the conviction of Korrus Mitchell Harrison, 23, for first-degree murder and three counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon for the Jan. 15, 2006, shootings at the then-Holiday Inn. University of Oklahoma student Paul Alejandro Shanor, 21, was fatally wounded while Legaria Thomas, Curtis Canady and Craig Owens also were shot.

• On the day of Harrison’s conviction, a Stillwater man ended his standoff with police by fatally shooting himself.

• Between $100,000 and $150,000 of equipment was stolen from Honda Power of Stillwater the same night a 1996 Dodge truck and a 2002 28-foot Pace box trailer were stolen at different locations.

• The College of Veterinary Medicine at Oklahoma State University celebrated its 60th year.

• The Stillwater City Council began considering how to address staffing issues for the Stillwater Fire Department. Possibilities ranged from doing nothing to adding 36 firefighters.

• Stillwater Public Schools began considering redistricting.

• The Stillwater Planning Commission approved the Land Development Code.

• Cushing’s Maria Lynn Wiley, 14, pleaded guilty to the May 19, 2007, fatal stabbing of Alecia Rena Dean, 23.



February

• Stillwater and the Central Rural Electric Cooperative announced an agreement allowing CREC and Stillwater Power to serve inside and out of city limits. It was a step toward the possibility of annexation.

• The presidential elections hit Oklahoma with Payne County voters going to Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican John McCain in the primaries. Jerry Franklin, president of BancFirst, won the District 5 seat on the Meridian Technology Center Board of Education. Voters also extended the county’s three-eighths cent sales tax.

• Dr. Ann Caine was chosen as superintendent of Stillwater Public Schools by the Board of Education. She had been executive director of elementary education in Moore. She replaced Dr. Walter Swanson, who resigned the previous summer due to health reasons.

• A death threat was found in a restroom at Stillwater Middle School. It read “Everyone is going to die on 2-29-08.” Police investigated.



March

• At a Board of Regents meeting, OSU hired Burns Hargis as its new president with a $350,000 salary. Hargis had been vice chairman of Bank of Oklahoma. He had resigned from the school’s Board of Regents on July 1, 2007, and would have had to wait a year to become president had legislation not passed that changed the law. He replaced Dr. David Schmidley, who left to become president of the University of New Mexico.

• At the same meeting, OSU raised its residence hall rates 4 percent while Langston University received approval for a textbook rental program that saves its students money.

• Stillwater Junior High was cleared by a bomb threat called in to the office, for which three juveniles were later arrested.

• Two days later, a bomb threat was called into Lincoln Academy.

• OSU received a $22 million, five-year grant from NASA to manage the Interdisciplinary Research and Education Experience.

• Cortney Timmons, a junior at OSU, was selected the university’s 15th Truman Scholar.



April

• Darrell Dougherty and Chuck Hopkins were elected to the City Council.

• Mercury Marine announced it was laying off 50 employees.

• The Council approved oil and gas drilling within city limits.

• The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation announced it would be housing a northcentral regional office at the Stillwater Police Department.

• Stillwater High’s Nitin Kamath and Irving Dai scored a 36 and 35, respectively, on the 36-point ACT.

• Count Stillwater was reformed. The group had challenged the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2005 population for Stillwater and is hoping to get the city to 50,000 residents by 2010.

• A track was built at Stillwater Junior High. It had to be completed before the new football stadium could begin at the high school.



May

• Gov. Brad Henry spoke at OSU’s graduation ceremony.

• The city announced, and later began, its automated trash pickup pilot program.

• Stillwater hosted the state Special Olympics as it does annually.

• Discussion continued about fire and ambulance staffing issues, with a task force committee presenting recommendations to the City Council.

• Red Dirt musicians honored Bob Childers, “the godfather of Red Dirt Music,” after his death the previous month.

• Tina Marie Schalk pleaded guilty to the Nov. 23, 2006, killing of her husband, Kenneth Harrison Schalk.

• Skyline’s Denise Ferrell was named Stillwater Public Schools Teacher of the Year.

• Mayor Roger McMillian and The Bank, N.A., were sued for sexual harassment. McMillian was president of the Stillwater branch of the bank but later resigned from that position and was dropped from the lawsuit. It was still ongoing against the bank as the year closed.

• OSU’s parking and transit service computer server was hacked, but the university said there was no indication that identity theft had occurred.

• Andrea Kelly resigned from her position as superintendent/CEO of Meridian Technology Center to become superintendent of Gravette (Ark.) Public Schools.

• Stillwater High principal Uwe Gordon announced the school would stop offering Latin and German due to budget cuts. The next day, SPS announced it had saved $30,000 on 650 new computers, by buying when a vendor was trying to move inventory.

• Boone Pickens announced he was giving $100 million to OSU to endow chairs.

• Area high schools held their annual graduation ceremony.

• M.B. “Bud” Seretean left OSU almost $5 million in securities when he died.



June

• Maj. Scott Hagerty, an OSU and SHS graduate, was killed serving in the U.S. Army in Afghanistan. Much of the community turned out for his funeral.

• The university considered, but later rejected, a proposal to switch to a four-day week.

• A case of salmonella was discovered in Payne County during the national outbreak believed to be caused by tomatoes.

• The Stillwater Board of Education unanimously approved rezoning its elementary school districts.

• Regents approved a 9.9-percent tuition increase at OSU for the second straight year.

• MerCruiser laid off 135 employees.

• Amy and Mitchell Malone donated $57.2 million to OSU.

• Construction began on the new SHS football stadium.



July

• OSU announced it raised $66.8 million for endowments from about 900 people, foundations and companies during a 40-day span.

• The Stillwater Children’s Museum moved into the former Katz Department Store building. It is expected to open in 2011.

• Sheet metal workers at Boone Pickens Stadium went on strike, but it ended within days and was not expected to delay the project’s completion.

• Stillwater teens Casey Gosnell and Scott Saunders died in a car crash in Oklahoma City.

• Linda Hatfield retained her Payne County Clerk position by defeating former Payne County Secretary of Elections Glenna Craig in the Democratic primary. There was no Republican candidate, so the race served as the general election. Craig returned to her job at the election board.



August

• Hall of Fame Avenue re-opened after being closed since February 2005 while work was done on Boone Pickens Stadium.

• The city’s population officially increased by 593 to 46,975, according to the Census Bureau.

• Robert Murphy, who had resigned from his Payne County associate district judge position to run for State Senate, refiled for his old job. He was not a finalist for the judgeship and did not win the Senate seat.

• Morrison’s Jesse Kyle Smith, 17, died when his motorcycle crashed following a high-speed police chase. SPD stated it had terminated its pursuit and was almost two miles from the scene when it was discovered.

• OSU began a new academic year.

• A 3-month-old died with no visible signs of trauma. Police investigated.

• Doug Major was named CEO/superintendent at Meridian Technology Center. Major was in charge at Pioneer Tech in Ponca City.

• Daniel Robert Hines pleaded guilty to 114 counts of unlawful use of videotaping equipment and one count of possession of drug paraphernalia and pleaded no contest to four counts of sexual battery and one county of attempted sexual battery. He was sentenced to five years in prison and 25 years probation. He had videotaped women who came for massages.

• The City Council presented a draft of an annexation plan.

• MerCruiser cut an additional 68 jobs.

• Staff Sgt. Luke Cunningham, an SHS graduate, was honored with a bronze star for pulling an injured comrade to safety in Iraq.

• Dr. Azfar Hussain, a former Fulbright Scholar, was hired to teach English at OSU. The federal government would not allow the Bangladesh native to re-enter the county despite his having an American wife and daughter and having lived here for 11 years.

• OSU students Kelli M. Mellon of Lawson, Mo., Christian Dejwayn Wright of Oklahoma City and Christopher Kurt Bellmer of Katy, Texas, died in a car wreck near Ponca City.



September

• A family of four New Orleans natives fled ahead of Hurricane Gustav and stayed with their relative, Lynn Cheatwood of Stillwater.

• The city unveiled its annexation plan.

• Michelle Biggs, third-grade teacher at Skyline Elementary, was named Wal-Mart’s Teacher of the Year.

• The U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs announced it would be building a VA clinic in Stillwater. It is scheduled to open this September.

• OSU graduate and Perry native Travis Brorsen and his dog, 2-year-old boxer Presley, won CBS’s “Greatest American Dog” reality show.

• Larry Brown, president and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce, said Target plans to come to town.

• OSU bought one-eighth ownership of a Beechcraft King Air 350 to allow Hargis to fly to meet donors.

• Professors and students at the university were part of the ongoing Large Hadron Collider project in Geneva, Switzerland.

• Stillwater Public Schools saved more than $1.1 million in the first 40 months of Scott Petermann’s work as the district’s energy manager.

• The City Council voted to approve an annexation plan.

• Langston University fired Karen Matthews, a secretary, after discovering accounting irregularities. An audit later showed the questioned amount was $42,895.55.

• A note was found at Stillwater Junior High threatening a bomb. The school was evacuated. The next day, another note was found and the school again was evacuated. When a note was found on the third straight day, the school was not evacuated but three students were detained by the police. Two boys, both 15, were arrested later.



October

• As banks nationally were getting a federal government bailout, a report showed this state’s financial institutions are sound.

• Former OSU president Dr. Robert B. Kamm died at 89 years old.

• More than 200 Oklahoma Army National Guard troops returned from Iraq.

• Democratic nominee Cory Williams responded to negative campaign cards sent to voters during his Oklahoma House of Representatives race with Republican Aaron Carlson. The cards were sent by the Republican State House Committee and Carlson denied being involved.

• More than 10 homes were burglarized in a 13-mile stretch in northern Payne County. Amanda Horner, 20, and Alonzo Rupp, 28, were later arrested.

• Sheriff Noel Bagwell admitted the IRS had $114,000 in tax liens against him. He said it came from the IRS claiming he owed taxes on $80,000 worth of fuel for a fuel reselling business that later closed.

• Steve Kistler was named associate district judge. He is a Stillwater resident and OSU graduate who had been an assistant district attorney in Noble County.

• Boone Pickens gave $63 million to OSU for work on the stadium that bears his name.



November

• Barack Obama was elected president of the United States, though John McCain carried this state. Locally, Williams edged Carlson by 63 votes out of 14,421 cast. James Halligan defeated Murphy in the State Senate. Lee Denneydefeated Mike Pierson for the District 33 State House seat and Rex Duncan kept his District 35 seat by topping Rodger Ensign. Gloria Hesser held her spot on the Payne County Commission by besting Rondal Gamble and R.B. Hauf took Bagwell’s sheriff position.

• Yale City Manager Jerri Shaw was escorted out of a city government meeting by a police officer at the request of Mayor Tom Mendenhall.

• Stillwater resident and OSU student Rina Fitria died from non-Hodkins Lymphoma while waiting for a bone marrow transplant.

• OSU was part of a group receiving a $20 million grant from the National Science Foundation and the State Regents for Higher Education to study biofuels.

• Firefighters again asked the City Council to consider the fire department’s staffing issues.



December

• The OSSAA Class 6A state football championship game at Pickens Stadium saw Tulsa Union defeat Jenks.

• At OSU’s graduation ceremony, identical twin sisters Charlotte and Samantha Collingsworth each earned degrees from the Spears School of Business. The same weekend, their late father, Jim, was awarded a posthumous MBA from the school.

• The City Council annexed land near Range Road and 19th Avenue.

• McMillian announced he was running for re-election.

• The Terry and Cindee Walton family won the first Fraternal Order of Eagles holiday lighting contest and returned the $100 prize to distribute to families in need.

     

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