Kingfisher (Okla.) Times & Free Press Sunday, May 27, 2018 3A

TOPICS

Presented as a service to the community byHeritage Pharmacy

1309 S. Main • Kingfisher, OK(405) 375-6300

•Convenient Drive-Thru•Free Local Delivery •Vaccines

•Se Habla EspañolHOURS:

Monday-Friday 8am-7pm; Saturday 8am-4pmClosed Sunday

A supplement that combines antioxidants with zinc and copper is a relatively inex-pensive and effective means of halting the progression of the ‘wet’ form of age-relat-ed macular degeneration (AMD), a degen-erative eye disease, concludes research published online in the British Journal of Ophthalmology. In ‘wet’ AMD, abnormal blood vessels grow underneath the reti-na. These vessels can leak fluid and blood, which can damage the macula—the part of the retina responsible for central vision. But the drugs (anti-VEGF therapies) current-ly used to treat ‘wet’ AMD are expensive and have been linked to heightened risk of inflammation of the inside of the eye (en-dophthalmitis) and possibly stroke as well.

* * *

Dennis SatchellRPh

Vanessa EnglandPharmD

Phil WoodwardPharmD

Vacation BiBle School!Join Us For

at

REGISTER ONLINE: federatedchurch.tv/connect/vbs

May 29 - June 1

9:00 ~ 11:30 am• • •

PRE-K through

6TH GRADE

are welcome to attend

• • •400 W. FAY

KINGFISHER, OK

Monday,May 28thin the KHS Commons

Doors open @ 11:00 a.m.Lunch to Follow • $13.00 per person

REUNIONKingfisher All School

Hosted by theClass of 1968

The KHS Class of 1968will be holding its Reunion...

SUNDAY, MAY 27THFor more information, contact

Jimmie Ellyson...405-368-5357

WILCZEKScholarship Fund Benefit Dinner

~SATURDAY, JUNE 2ND~Loyal Lions Building-Blue Bldg on Main St.

Serving starts at 4:00 p.m.

If you were at the memorial dinner, we thank you and welcome you back. If not, we hope you come see us!

Donations can also be made at BancFirst

WHAT’S ON THE MENU?•Calf Fries •Hamburgers •Corn•Smoked Ribs •Smoked Cabbage •Potato Salad•Smoked Chicken •Green Beans •Rolls•Pulled Pork •Baked Beans •Desserts

Tea • Water • Lemonade • Coffee

For Questions Contact:Ty Gardner: 405-368-4682

Dustin Scheffler: 580-748-0674

DINNER BY DONATION ONLY

“Choose life,choose love everyday.”

–KARINA WILCZEK

By Addison ThemerStaff Writer

County Engineer Heath Dobrovolny said the coun-ty isn’t looking for more legislation from the state regarding temporary water lines, but is pushing for oil and gas companies to be more upfront and honest with landowners about their plans regarding the use of these water lines.

Dobrovolny spoke at last Thursday’s Lions Club meeting.

Decisions made in King-fisher County may set a precedent in the develop-ment of regulations in other Oklahoma counties because there is no formal written policy in the state, Dobro-volny said.

While the state statutes may not be clear, there is still a lot of concern relat-ing to the transportation of produced water through water lines in county rights-of-way.

Many landowners are showing concern about the environmental impacts pro-duced water can have if a spill or leak occurs, he said.

Dobrovolny also ex-pressed his consternation about liability issues.

“The Oklahoma Corpo-ration Commission requires the oil and gas companies to clean up any spills, but what is stopping these companies from looking to third party individuals or the county

Engineer tells Lions Club he anticipates water line issue to be resolved in courts

for financial compensation in the result of an accident that damages the water lines?” he said.

A request was made to delay the implementation of new permit require-ments for temporary water lines by 120 days. The county commissioners vot-ed to deny this request and the new permit was effec-tive immediately.

The language of these new permits requires that only freshwater, not pro-duced water, can flow through the lines.

This has caused back-lash from oil and gas com-panies who are recycling produced water for use on active well sites.

The new permits appear to ban the transport of this recycled water back to the sites through the tempo-rary water lines. Recycling reduces the demand for freshwater, Dobrovolny pointed out, and he noted

that oil producers say the process is not financially feasible without the use of temporary water lines.

The new permits place more emphasis on the rights of the landowner. Landowners must give con-sent for the temporary lines and are entitled to financial compensation, he said.

To begin a line, oil and gas companies must show documentation of consent from landowners. They can obtain 30-day, 60-day, or 90-day permits with no limit on the amount of times they can renew the permit, said Dobrovolny.

Every 90 days, more documentation is required to ensure that landowners are still consenting to the temporary water lines.

While both sides under-stand the opposing view point, Dobrovolny predicts this issue will remain prom-inent and has the potential to be resolved in court.

KINGFISHER COUNTY Engineer Lane Dobrovol-ny speaks to Lions Club members on Thursday. Dobrovolny was discuss-ing the county’s stance on the water line issue that has been a hot top-ic in the county in recent weeks. He brought with him some of the research he’s accumulated in re-cent months. [TIMES-FREE PRESS Staff Photo]

Recent Kingfisher High School graduate Addison Themer has joined the Kingfisher Times & Free Press staff for the summer.

Themer received her KHS diploma earlier this month and is enrolled at Oklahoma State University where she will major in multimedia journalism.

“It’s exciting to have Addison on board,” said Barry Reid, Times & Free Press publisher. “It’s great to see someone so talented and accomplished to have aspirations of entering a career in media. We hope to be a benefit to her as she starts that journey and have no doubt she’ll be a huge benefit to us.”

The daughter of Den-nis and Tammy Themer, Addison just completed a

well-rounded high school career.

Her honors in-cluded Oklahoma State Scholar Soci-ety finalist, super-intendent’s honor roll, 4.0 Award, Oklahoma Girls State delegate and the KHS Meritori-ous Achievement Medal.

Themer also had a productive four years in FFA, which included being a part of the 2015 ag issues forum national champi-on team. She also competed in the national parliamentary procedure contest and won several state contests including the marketing plan career

development event.Themer was one of the

valedictorians of the Class of 2018. She was the presi-dent of the National Honor Society, vice president of

student council, vice presi-dent of Kingfisher FFA and cheerleading co-captain.

Themer is also involved in the Mercy Student Ca-reers Council and was a member of the Oklahoma Honor Society.

Her duties will include newswriting, feature stories and other special projects. She’ll also take part in the newspaper’s social media video content in the coming weeks.

“She’s only been here a short time, but has picked up on things really fast,” said Michael Swisher, Times & Free Press managing editor. “We plan to take advantage of her multiple talents, which includes some social media content to help steer even more people to our print edition.”

Addison Themer

Themer joins newspaper staff

Okarche Elementary has announced its superinten-dent’s and principal’s honor rolls for the second semester of 2017-18.

Named to the rolls were:

Superintendent’sSixth grade - Madison

Nance, Anna Shirey, Su-zann Smith, Hadley Taylor

Fifth grade - Wager Black, Brenna Crider, Violet Law-rence, Zoe Palmer, Scout Payne, Ella Reherman, Kyle Sadler, Avery Schieber, Parker Schieber, Jacob Tay-lor

Fourth grade - Izabella Beam, Hannah Carnott, Jaici Easton, Cody Endres, Khyler Marshall, Addison Mingus, Jett Mueggenborg, Easton Roby, Lane Rother, Andrew Walker

Third grade - Jaci Black, Garrett England, Samuel Henderson, Kade Hen-richs, Bella Hufnagel, Kay-la Kremeier, Samantha Powers, Carter Robinson, McKenna Sadler, Hold-en Schieber, Cody Stoner, Grady Terrell, Gabriel Vogt, Kortney Wilson

Second grade - Holland Carnott, Wyatt Gangl, Bos-ton Kremeier, Grady Krit-tenbrink, Haiden Robin-son, Grady Rother, Journey Rother, Austin Walker

Principal’sSixth grade - Kera Avilez,

Rhylie Bomhoff, Chloe Goble, Jerimiah Jones, Tan-ner McMillin, Jace Rother, Afton Shirey, Gunnar Smith

Fifth grade - Briley Alig, Hudson Brooks, Katy Cre-swell, Adriana Escobar, Ky-lie Harper, Barrett Howard, Paytyn Howard, Shannon McLane, Kaytlin Steelman

Fourth grade - Xander

Becerra, Logan Boeckman, Sam Kroener, Ethan Shirey, Ben Weeres

Third grade - Brady Alig, Emma Alig, Henry Aus-tin, Kysen Avila, Kennedy Blackwood, Abbigayle En-dres, Jimmy Fuerte, Sara Jacobs, Ryan Mayo, Katie Parham, Julia Rayburn, Ricco Renteria, Daisy Ros-mus, Jett Rother, Asher Schieber, Jaxston Thomp-son, Christopher Uscanga, Presley Wittrock, Daisy Rosmus-Bishop.

Second grade - Cooper

Okarche announces elementary honor rollsAnderson, John Campbell, Jacob England, Lawson Geheb, Shayne Howard, Will Kroener, Tenley Lud-

wig, Zara McDaniel, Mor-gan Shepard, Emory West, Hayden Wittrock, Colton Wright

4A Sunday, May 27, 2018 Kingfisher (Okla.) Times & Free Press

VIEW

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

from behindthe plow

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

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to:

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

All I know is what I read in the papers.

–Will Rogers

BUSINESS HOURS: Monday-Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

General Information, Subscriptions, Circulation Phone: 375-3220

Barry ReidPublisher, Advertising

Christine ReidSenior Editor

Robin JohnstonAdvertising Director

Newskfrtimes@pldi.net

Advertisingkfrtimesads@pldi.netSubscriptions/Legals

kfrnews@pldi.net

Brenda Slater ......................................Office ManagerMichael Swisher............................... Managing Editor Lacey Odell ..............................Subscriptions-LegalsJeremy Ingle............................Staffwriter-ProductionAddison Themer .........................................Staffwriter

Member

Gary Reid, Publisher Emeritus

Monday. Memorial Day, offers opportunities to the living to remember, with thoughtful reverence, their an-cestors who paved the way for them.

Especially, this is so for Americans who have the best lives in the history of the world.

This land of freedom and plenty didn’t occur by accident but through sacrifices by our predecessors.

They fought wars, worked hard and did without a lot of the things we take for granted today and planned to leave behind them a better place than they came to.

That should also be a pledge of those alive today.We like to visit cemeteries – and not just because that’s

where most of our friends are now – but because we like to think about the victories those hardy souls achieved.

However, it always causes a pang in our heart when we note the dates on the little graves, children who prob-ably could have been saved if they’d had access to today’s medical miracles. We wonder at those times what those youngsters might have accomplished if they had lived.

Kingfisher Cemetery is the site of the Veterans Memori-al, which is engraved with the names of veterans.

As usual, a fine program commemorating our war dead and others buried there is scheduled. Ronnie Smith, an Iraqi war veteran and first vice president of the Kingfisher American Legion, will be speaker, and an a capella vocal group, TheVocal Sounds of Oklahoma, will perform.

The Memorial Day service at Kingfisher Cemetery is always a moving event attended by many local residents as well as those returning to honor their deceased loved ones.

Early on, Memorial Day was called Decoration Day and marked a time when citizens followed a tradition of cleaning cemeteries and decorating graves.

The Old Farmers’ Almanac relates that in early rural America, this duty was usually performed in late summer and was an occasion for family reunions and picnics.

After the Civil War, America’s need for a secular, pa-triotic ceremony to honor its military dead became prom-inent, as monuments to fallen soldiers were erected and dedicated, and ceremonies centering on the decoration of soldiers’ graves were held in towns and cities throughout the nation.

After World War I, the day expanded to honor those who have died in all American wars.

No less than 25 places have been named in connection with the origin of Memorial Day, and states observed the holiday on different dates. In 1971, Memorial Day became a national holiday by an act of Congress; it is now celebrated on the last Monday in May.

The Old Farmers Almanac also provides this informa-tion:

THE POPPY, A SYMBOL OF MEMORIAL DAYThe wearing of poppies in honor of America’s war dead

is traditionally done on Memorial Day (not Veterans Day). The origin of the red poppy as a modern-day symbol of this day was actually the idea of an American woman, Moina Michael. In war-torn battlefields, the red field poppy (pa-paver rhoeas) was one of the first plants to grow.

Its seeds scattered in the wind and sat dormant in the ground, only germinating when the ground is disturbed—as it was by the brutal fighting during World War 1.

The practice of wearing of poppies was further in-spired by the poem “In Flanders Fields,” written in 1915 by Canadian soldier John McCrae. He saw the poppies in burials around his artillery position in Belgium.

Today, poppies are both the symbol of loss of life and as a symbol of recovery and new life, especially in sup-port of those servicemen who were damaged physically or emotionally.

In Flanders Fields(By John McCrae, May 1915)

In Flanders fields the poppies blowBetween the crosses, row on row,That mark our place; and in the skyThe larks, still bravely singing,fly Scarce heard amid the guns below.We are the Dead.Short days agoWe lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were

loved,and now we lie In Flanders fields.Take up our quarrel with the foeTo you from failing hands we throwThe torch; be yours to hold it high If ye break faith with us who dieWe shall not sleep,though poppies grow In Flanders fields.

Difference between Memorial Day and Veterans DayMany people confuse Memorial Day and Veterans Day.

Memorial Day is a day for remembering and honoring military personnel who died in the service of their coun-try, particularly those who died in battle or as a result of wounds sustained in battle.

While those who died are also remembered, Veterans Day is the day set aside to thank and honor ALL who served—in wartime or peacetime—and whether they died or survived. Veterans Day is always observed officially on Nov. 11, regardless of the day of the week on which it falls.

Why Memorial Day

I’m not one of those greenies who believes that humans are a cancerous growth destroying the plan-et, but I’ll admit it’s getting a little too crowded in my neck of the woods. The old sale yard is gone that had been there so long it became an archeological dig when they tore it down. There’s houses there now where I took a lot of bids and walked lots of alleys. We’ve been invaded by a horde of rich tech gazillionaires who are buying ranches, kicking off the cows and planting grape vines and olive trees. The sale yard was our church and our social hall and now that it’s gone all us ancient geezers hardly see each other any more. And I seriously doubt a bunch of crippled old cowboys are all gonna start going to wine tastings.

I’m told that the techies like our lifestyle because, “it’s stress-free.” HA! Evi-dently they have never had a calving season where the neighbor ’s 3,000 pound, double muscled, Full French exotic bull broke in and shacked up with the six-weight heifers for two months. Or lived through a seven-year drought, have a banker breathing down their neck and have to sell cows at hamburger prices that they paid $3,000 apiece for last April.

Some of the newbies are friendly and we welcome them to the neighborhood. They come to our brandings, we go to theirs and we like them because they buy great range bulls that breed our cows because no one has

fixed any fence around here since The Great Trich Epi-demic of 1973. We are more than happy to continue this arrangement but eventually they end up fixing the fence. Either way, we win because they pay for it. And we’re

grateful that they’ve driven up the value of ranch real estate to the point any 20 acre rundown ranchette is worth a million bucks.

Some of the newbies are rich snobs who move in and build 20,000 square foot fortresses so we can’t snoop on them. Because they’re so secretive we don’t know much about them and this we cannot tolerate. There’s a law in physics that states that any vacuum of infor-mation will be filled with scandalous scuttlebutt. I know from experience that all you have to do is tell someone in a normal tone of voice in the coffee shop that you have hemorrhoids and by nightfall everyone in town knows you have brain cancer.

A filthy rich mysterious heiress who moved in a few years ago is a good example of how rumors get started. I heard it from Bill who heard it from Frank that the source of her money is either from drugs, Microsoft, automobiles, Apple, tires or oil. Although we may not know exactly where she got her money we do know

she’s got a lot of it because she’s buying up ranches like cattle feeders are buying jars of Tums.

I’ve heard the heiress has some strange ideas about how to run a cow ranch. She doesn’t brand because it might hurt the calves and doesn’t put an ear tag in their ear because it’s dehu-manizing. Rumor has it the heiress thinks it’s wrong to enslave a horse by riding one and that she gives no vaccinations, which would explain how she’s able to hog all the buzzards in the general vicinity. About the only people not spreading rumors about the heiress are ranchers who might want to sell their 60-head cow ranch to her for twenty million bucks and don’t want to be caught speaking ill of her. But they’re no fun.

We all assume the heiress must run some cows because at the last bull sale ever held at the old sale yard she left a very generous order for an Angus bull. A month later that same bull showed up in the slaughter run at the last weekly auction ever held at the market. A couple differ-ent explanations are heard on the street as to why she got rid of the bull so fast. One is that the bull shockingly de-flowered an innocent young heifer in the presence of the heiress, and the other rumor is that the bull got snuffy and put her over a fence.

Normally, I wouldn’t believe such scandalous gossip if I hadn’t started both rumors myself.

wwwLeePittsbooks.com

The Rumor Ranch

By Ginny MontalbanoThe Daily Signal

Among all the presidents he has dealt with, former House Speaker Newt Gin-grich says Donald Trump is “the most unique” and is “changing history.”

The former House speak-er has worked with many presidents, and said that although President Ronald Reagan “was remarkable in his own right,” Trump “is, in some ways, the most unique person I’ve ever worked with.”

He added: “Behind that tactical fluidity is enormous strategic steadiness.”

Gingrich made his re-marks Tuesday at The Her-itage Foundation, where he discussed his forthcoming book “Trump’s America: The Truth About Our Na-tion’s Great Comeback.”

The book is a follow-up to his 2017 book “Under-standing Trump.”

Gingrich says he wrote the new book in order to capture the entire picture of the Trump presidency.

“With all due respect to the president, who is a remarkable figure and is changing history and has shown a level of calm, steady perseverance under circum-stances that normal people would have buckled and collapsed under, this is only

half the story of Trump,” the former congressman from Georgia said.

“This is also the story of America. There is an enormous well of Ameri-can patriotism, American conservatism, American common sense that has been building up and building up and building up, and Trump came along to articulate and personify what people wanted,” he said.

“It’s this coming togeth-er of Trump and Trump’s America,” he added.

In late 2016 and early 2017, Gingrich participated in a series of lectures at Her-itage to explain Trumpism.

Gingrich credited the Trump administration with several major successes, despite the opposition by anti-Trump coalitions.

He cited the rapid nomi-

nation of federal judges, the effort to deregulate sectors of the economy, pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal, moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, the growing economy, promises of space exploration, and combating liberal bias on college campuses.

Gingrich, referred to by some as Trump’s “chief explainer,” is known for breaking through the media bias the president and his administration confront.

The media’s anger to-ward Trump goes back to the shock of the 2016 election, where the elites “checked out,” Gingrich said.

“At 10 o’clock on election night, the elites were having to confront that Donald Trump had been elected,” he said. “They have never recovered. That really ex-plains that bitterness, and the hostility, and the anger.”

He added: “One of the reasons I wrote ‘Trump’s America’ is that it struck me that we needed to have a definition of what this fight was about.”

“There can be no com-promise between Trump’s America and the an-ti-Trump coalition,” Ging-rich concludes in his book. “One side will win. One side will lose.”

Gingrich: President Trump has ‘enormous strategic steadiness’

Newt Gingrich

By David Inserra[Ed. Note: David Inser-

ra specializes in cyber and homeland security policy, including protection of criti-cal infrastructure, as policy analyst in The Heritage Foundation’s Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies.]

The word on the street is that House Republicans will vote on several immigration bills in June in order to stave off a discharge petition that would force a vote on am-nesty.

Unfortunately, these bills are in fact amnesty bills. They would betray the conservative immigration reforms that the nation has long needed.

While many of the details are still unknown, one thing we do know is that this deal is getting worse all the time.

When members of Con-gress originally discussed a “DACA fix,” it was meant to protect the less than 700,000 illegal immigrants currently in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arriv-als program. Then, Demo-crats demanded 1.2 million. President Donald Trump then offered an amnesty deal to protect 1.8 million, which the Democrats re-jected.

That’s the deal that is now being reconsidered, but chances are it will only get worse.

As has always been the case with amnesty legisla-tion, amnesty is the central and first part of the deal to take effect – everything else is just grease for the wheels. Rather than actual-ly tackling border security, improving enforcement, or closing loopholes, Congress entertains amnesty. Instead of taking a hard look at the legal immigration system and vigorously debating the many ways it can be reformed to be more mer-it-based, Congress will con-sider something worked out in a backroom deal.

Even when certain re-forms have been enacted, congresses and administra-tions have lacked the will to enforce these new policies. Amnesty is granted first, but the other promised reforms are rarely carried out.

So the question must be asked: Why would this time be different?

The last time the U.S. tried amnesty in 1986, sen-ators took to the floor and promised that “this is it. It is one time. You either show up on this one or you will be rejected.” These same senators promised that their comprehensive deal would stop illegal immigration.

We now know these promises were false—they never panned out. Since then, Congress has been unable to take meaningful action to stop illegal immi-gration. The legal immigra-tion system was designed in 1965 and hasn’t been seriously changed since.

Yet here we are again, de-bating amnesty rather than the constructive policies we so badly need.

Rather than entertain amnesty, Congress should pursue better border se-curity, adding new border barriers where needed and more technology where it is more cost-effective. Con-gress should end loopholes in our immigration laws and sanctuary cities that make it difficult to enforce U.S. immigration laws. It should also give immigration offi-cials and judges more tools to catch and remove illegal immigrants.

In addition, the Diversity Visa Lottery and all special preferences for brothers, sisters, parents, and rela-tives other than spouses and minor children should be eliminated and replaced by new merit-based visas.

These are the reforms that Congress should pur-sue, and that the American people expect.

Republicans are reported flirting with amnesty

It’s the PittsBy Lee Pitts

TIMES FREE PRESS EDITORIAL AND COMMENTARY&