Volume 113 No. 22 75 Cents Thursday September 01, 2011P.O. Box 278 •105 W. Main Street • Boise City, Oklahoma 73933-0278 • Cimarron CountyPhone 580-544-2222 • Fax 580-544-3281 • e-mail bcnews@ptsi.net

Visit The Boise City News online at it’s Website at boisecitynews.orgOr it’s new Weblog at boisecitynews2.wordpress.com

BOISE CITY WEATHER Hi Lo rn

Tue. Aug. 23 98 64Wed. Aug. 24 101 64Thurs. Aug. 25 98 62Fri. Aug. 26 100 68Sat. Aug. 27 95 68 .12Sun. Aug. 28 97 68Mon. Aug. 29 90 67 .02MARKETSWheat $8.13Milo $7.34Corn $8.40 (spot prices subject to change)

THIS DAY INMUSIC

BORN ON SEPT. 1

DEATHS-PG. 3DORTHY KOHLER- 84

THIS DAY IN HISTORYSEPT. 1

1866 James “GentlemanJim” Corbett heavyweightchampion boxer (1892-97)1875 Edgar RiceBurroughs novelist(Tarzan, Mars Saga)1922 Yvonne De CarloVancouver BC, actress (10C o m m a n d m e n t s ,Munsters)1923 Rocky Marcianoheavyweight championboxer (1952-56)1933 Conway Twitty[Harold Jenkins], Miss,country singer (HelloDarlin’)

69 Traditional date of thedestruction of Jerusalem1614 Vincent Fettmichexpells Jews from Frank-furt-on-Main, Germany1739 35 Jews sentenced tolife in prison in Lisbon Por-tugal1807 Aaron Burr acquittedof charges of plotting to setup an empire1865 Joseph Lister per-forms 1st antiseptic sur-gery1922 NYC law requires all“pool” rooms to changename to “billards”1941 Yellow star becomesobligatory for Jews in theReich to wear

HAVE YOU SEEN THIS WOMAN???

OKLA. GOV. MARY FALLIN

Many months ago, TheBoise City News, sent Gov.Fallin an e-mail to her officeinforming her that though we

were sure she and the FederalGovernment were helping ourfarmers, that the people ofCimarron County needed tosee her boots on the groundto know she cared. We re-ceived no answer and the Gov-ernor, has yet to visit, (Shemissed two opportunities whilecampaigning.) We offered abounty of $50 for GovernorHenry, but since Ms. Fallincarried the county and she stillhasn’t visited, The Boise CityNews will pay $25 to the per-son that proves to us she’sbeen here as governor.

CIMARRON COUNTYJAIL BLOTTER

1952, Atlantic Recordsbought Ray Charles’ con-tract from SwingtimeRecords, where Charleshad been recording in themellower, bluesy style ofNat King Cole and CharlesBrown.1953, The Texas duo ofBuddy Holly and BobMontgomery auditioned forradio station KDAV’s Sun-day Party. The duo starteda slot on Sunday afternoonthat became known as TheBob and Buddy Show.1956, 19 year old Jerry LeeLewis arrived at SunRecords hoping for an au-dition, only to find thatowner Sam Phillips was onvacation in Florida. JerryLee recorded some demosthat Phillips would hearwhen he returned.

8-24James Winford Maddox-warrant, failure to appear,released on a bond of$12,000.Rakim Jamar Brown- DUS,Speeding, held on a bond of$17,000.

8-26Cole Twombly- Servingtime.Daniel Foster- Possessionof a controlled dangeroussubstance, (Meth), andparaphernalia, bonded out.Duane Foster- Possessionof a controlled dangeroussubstance, (Meth), andparaphernalia, bonded out.

It’s open...Traffic started over the U.S. Highway 287 by-pass onTuesday. The by-pass crosses over U.S. 56/64/412, justeast of Boise City.

WE GONNA CHUNK THE GREATPUNKIN, CHARLIE BROWN

By Deb RebelThe P&T Grower Club has

a very busy fair week, the 13ththrough 17th of September!Come Join Us

Team Inertia, centrifugalflinger Punkin Chunkin team,will be near the CimarronCounty Free Fair; Thursday,Friday, and Saturday after-noons. They’re here to struttheir stuff, tune their machine,and CHUNK. The ScienceChannel will be joining the funThursday, to film for a showcalled “The Road to Chunkin”which will be aired in Octoberin the leadup to the show fea-turing the National PunkinChunkin contest held in earlyNovember and show aired nearThanksgiving.

We look forward to themcoming and chunkin’ for us.However we still need two ad-joining quarter sections to chunkover, preferably next to the fair-grounds and going south to

north. The bottom few acres willget trampled, and the rest will gainsome smashed pumpkin andsome ATV tracks. If you can helpout in this, it would be greatly ap-preciated. The loan of somecattle panels for marking off the‘pit’ area to keep people safe andoff the field would also be mostgreatly appreciated. And last butnot least, we’re short of hands...

This is a great opportunity toshow everyone out there whatBoise City is really like, please helpin boosting our fine city, our greatcounty, and of course, our Fair!

The Tomato Weighoff will beheld Wednesday, September 13thfrom 3-6 pm, at the New FairBuilding. It does not have to beripe. It does not have to be per-fect. You do not have to be acounty resident to enter the con-test. First prize senior division,$500! ($500/250/100/75/50/25/20/15/10/5)

and Junior Division $100 ($50EE savings bond and $50 cash)

($50-50/50/25/10/5) Junior mustbe under 15 as of the day ofthe weigh off.

The Five State CimarronWeigh off for Giant Pumpkinsand Giant Squash will be heldin the Arena, Saturday Septem-ber 17, from 9 a.m. to when-ever we’re done. These are thebig ones that fill the backend ofa pickup and need a forklift. Wewill be even more honored tohave an officer of the GPC(Great Pumpkin Common-wealth) attending this year, thisis the sanctioning authority whosupplies the rules and regula-tions we follow. If you remem-ber the big pumpkins on a trailerat the fair and on north Ellis;these should be even bigger.

Don’t forget, there are anumber of additional premiumsoffered for fair entries by theP&T Grower’s Club. Checkthe fair books for the classesand amounts. Come to the Fair,we’re going to have a blast!

The Oklahoma State andEducation Employees GroupInsurance Board (OSEEGIB)has adopted premium rates forits HealthChoice health, dental,life, and disability insuranceplans. The Board action tookplace at its August 19 meetingand will be effective for the 2012Plan Year.

The adopted premiums forthe High Option health plan rep-resent an overall decrease of.4% over current rates. For 2012,the Board voted to use $39 mil-lion in reserve dollars that areavailable as a result of lowerthan expected claims costs overthe past two years. The use ofreserve dollars will off-set theprojected 5% increase in claimcost that was announced duringthe July meeting. The most sig-nificant premium savings wereseen in the spouse rate whichexperienced a 2% decrease.Also, for the 2012 Plan Year,HealthChoice health plans willbe adopting additional screening,prevention, and treatment ser-vices that will be available withno cost sharing to members.

Board Chairman RichardWomack said, “Although healthcare costs continue to increase,the Board is pleased that reservedollars were sufficient to helpstabilize premiums. While wewere able to eliminate and mini-mize increases for 2012, theBoard’s consulting actuary pro-jected a 5% increase in total plancosts. We need to be mindfulthat we are not immune fromthese cost increases and planreserves may not always beavailable to off-set premiums,”he said. “Both the projected in-crease for 2012, along with anyprojected increases for 2013,based on the upward trend inhealthcare costs, will be factorsin setting premiums for the 2013Plan Year,” Mr. Womackadded.

“In the past five years, pre-miums for the HealthChoiceplans have increased an aver-age of 4.5% which is about halfof the national average of ap-proximately 10%,” stated FrankWilson, plan administrator. Ad-ditionally, Mr. Wilson said, “Asa self-funded plan,HealthChoice rates are a directreflection of plan claims costswith more than 95% of all pre-mium dollars paid out in mem-ber claims.”

In addition to using plan re-serves to off-set premiums, theBoard approved other planchanges designed to reduce plancosts. Beginning January 1,

OSEEGIB Adopts Rates for 2012Plan Reserves Used to StabilizePremiums and Limit Increases

HealthChoice plans will make amail-order pharmacy programfor maintenance medicationsavailable to all pre-Medicaremembers. Maintenance medica-tions are prescriptions that areusually taken on a daily basis andinclude drugs used to treat high-blood pressure, diabetes, highcholesterol, heart conditions, etc.By adopting a mail-order phar-macy program, it is estimated theplan will save about $9 million inprescription drug costs.

Another significant changefor 2012 is the introduction oftwo new plans, theHealthChoice High Alternativeand HealthChoice Basic Alter-native. These new plans arespecifically designed for mem-bers and their dependents thatuse tobacco. Mr. Wilson stated,“Health conditions related to theuse of tobacco cost theHealthChoice plans and ourmembers approximately $52million annually. While the pre-miums for the new alternativeplans will be the same as ourstandard High Option and Ba-sic plans, the annual deductiblesand out-of-pocket limits willeach increase by $250,” he said.

After applying the premiumsubsidy, HealthChoice BasicPlan rates for 2012 will experi-ence an average overall pre-mium decrease of about 1%.

Premiums for theHealthChoice MedicareSupplement Plans With Part Dwere projected to increase bynearly 14%; however, after ap-plying the premium subsidy, theincrease was capped at about8%. Similarly, the premiums forthe Medicare supplement planswithout Part D were projectedto increase by approximately11%; but with the application ofthe premium subsidy, the pre-mium increase was limited toaround 5.6%.

2012 premiums for theHealthChoice Dental Plan willincrease by just more than 1%,while premiums for theHealthChoice Disability Plan willremain unchanged. Premiumsfor the HealthChoice Life Insur-ance Plan will decrease slightly.

The 2012 premium rateswere calculated by the Board’sactuary, AON Hewitt, based onactual HealthChoice claims ex-perience data for the past 24months.

OSEEGIB provides health,dental, life, and disability insur-ance to governmental and edu-cation employees, retirees, anddependents.

I have old coins and bills forsale.

Lots of Wheat pennies, andother miscellaneous coins, plussome $2 bills. Call me at 544-3150

The Boise City BoosterClub will meet the firstWednesday of every month at6 p.m. at Dairy Queen. Weencourage everyone to come

out and help us support the‘Cats and Lady ‘Cats thisyear!!

A TIP OF THE HAT TO:

ATTENTION!!

Jessie Shannonand the guys atBoise City Co-

Op for their efforts to cleanup the area.

For most Americans, havingaccess to a High-SpeedInternet connection has becomeas much of a necessity as hav-ing access to telephone serviceor electricity. However, a largeportion of the United States isstill denied access to this essen-tial source of fast-moving infor-mation, education, and com-merce. Although most metro-politan areas are covered wellwith DSL, cable, and fiber op-tics, rural areas are limited tosatellite Internet or dial-up inmost cases. As of September2008, according to the Centerfor Rural Affairs, “Only 38 per-cent of rural Americans haveaccess to a High-SpeedInternet connection.”

PTCI had the foresight toacquire wireless spectrumwhen the FCC made it avail-able through auctions, and nowplans to use the 700 Mhz it pur-chased to deliver high-speed,4G wireless service over a newnetwork. This new network is

PTCI to Bring 4G LTE Technology to Rural Okla.based on a technology called“Long Term Evolution,” or LTE.PTCI selected the new 4G LTEtechnology because of costs.

The new LTE network speedspromise to be faster than what isavailable in rural areas today, andmore in line with speeds that areavailable in the towns and citiesthat PTCI serves. Ron Strecker,CEO of PTCI said, “The prom-ise 4G LTE holds for our ruralcustomers and the positive eco-nomic and lifestyle changes thatbroadband mobility will bring toour communities is exciting. Our4G LTE network will serve atwofold purpose — fixed wire-less services in rural homes, aswell as mobile broadband.”

PTCI has always been afrontrunner in the telecommuni-cation industry, frequently offer-ing advanced technology beforelarger providers in urban areassuch as Oklahoma City andTulsa. PTCI expects the first de-ployment of its 4G LTE network

to take place early in 2012.PTCI (Panhandle Telephone

Cooperative, Inc.), along withits wholly owned subsidiarycompany, Panhandle Telecom-munication Systems, Inc.(PTSI), provides an array ofcommunication services to cus-tomers in the Oklahoma Pan-handle area. Services includestate-of-the-art Residentialand Business Telephoneservices with many calling fea-tures, plus long distance service;High-Speed Internet servicewith help desk; Cellular tele-phone service with nationwideplans, free mobile-to-mobile,and free nights and weekends; Digital Cable TV servicewith 140+ channels, local net-works, high definition includinglocal networks, DVR, andpause live features. PTCI wasestablished in 1954 and PTSIin 1983. Both are headquar-tered in Guymon, Oklahoma.

STILLWATER – Standard& Poor’s (S&P) wanted to see$4 trillion in cuts over the next10 years in the United States’budget, but the new debt dealthat was signed into law Aug. 2called for only $2.4 trillion incuts. It also expressed concernover whether an extremely di-vided Congress could decide onhow to implement the spendingcuts.

As a result, on Aug. 5, S&Ptook action and announced itwas downgrading the UnitedStates’ debt from an AAA rat-ing to an AA+ rating. So whatdoes this mean to the generalpublic?

Eileen St. Pierre, OklahomaState University CooperativeExtension personal finance spe-cialist, said the public first needsto understand what the creditrating represents.

”A credit rating is essentiallya grade that tells investors theprobability that the organization,whether it be a government,corporation or nonprofit, issuingthe debt will pay it back accord-ing to the terms of the agree-ment,” St. Pierre said. “Thehigher the credit rating, thelower the probability there is ofdefault. By downgrading U.S.debt, S&P is telling investorsthat it believes there is an in-creased risk that the U.S.won’t be able to pay its debt ontime in the future. The other twomajor rating agencies, Moody’sand Fitch, have kept the U.S.credit rating at AAA for nowbut have warned they also maylower it in the future.”

The public needs to realizethat a rating of AA+ is still a

Understanding the U.S. credit downgradegreat rating. A credit rating is simi-lar to an individual’s credit score.A person with a credit score of830 out of 850 would have AAAcredit. If this score were to dropto 805, some financial institutionsmay now consider you to haveAA+ credit.

St. Pierre said individuals witha credit score of 805 still have ascore that is higher than just abouteveryone else. However, how afinancial institution interprets yourcredit score can be subjective,just like the S&P decision todowngrade U.S. debt.

”If the risk of default in-creases, the interest rate on U.S.debt (Treasury bonds) should in-crease. This means the govern-ment would have to pay more in-terest, which would negate a lotof the spending cuts,” she said.“This would make it harder toreduce the budget deficit. In turn,the interest rates on other finan-cial instruments that use the Trea-sury bond rate as a base, such asmortgages, would go up. This issomething that could happen overthe long-term.”

However, in the short-term,interest rates on Treasury bondshave actually gone down. Whatwe are seeing is what financialexperts call “a flight to quality.”

St. Pierre said during timesof economic uncertainty, inves-tors put their money in invest-ments they know are safe. Cur-rently, investors do not believethere are safer alternatives toU.S. Treasury securities, withthe exception of gold. This de-mand raises Treasury pricesand keeps their interest rateslow.

”The effects of the U.S.credit downgrade and globaleconomic turmoil are being feltin the U.S. stock market,” shesaid. “It’s been a roller coasterever since the S&P’s down-grade. Stock prices declinedimmediately, bounced back,only to fall sharply again. Aslong as there is economic un-certainty investors better keeptheir seatbelts on because it’sgoing to be a bumpy ride.”

By Trisha Gedon