News

ELLY GRIMM

 • Leader & Times

The USD 480 school board had an easy evening at its most recent meeting Monday evening.

Beginning the meeting was the Good Things, which featured Paul Fisher and the PE elementary school archery team.

“We’ve been doing archery in house for roughly the past seven years or so, and it’s only been the past couple years that have seen us travel to Wichita and more seriously compete,” Fisher said. “Both of the years we’ve competed, we’ve brought home a trophy, and we’re really proud of how we’re doing. We recently hosted an in-house competition between Prairie View Elementary School and Cottonwood Elementary School, and there is a traveling trophy for that. The Prairie View team took home the trophy this time around. Last week, we took 16 students from those schools to Wichita to represent USD 480’s program in the 3rd Annual Air Capitol Archery Tournament, and they ended up winning it all and bringing the gold back to Liberal again. There are other archery tournaments out there, but that tournament is the one that fits us best as far as scheduling and facilities use and all of that. We only take 5th graders to the Wichita tournament, but in our in-house competition, that features 4th and 5th graders. We use compound bows – some of you might remember from the past when those bows were really big and cumbersome, but they’ve been redesigned from what you remember.”

Seward County Clerk’s office

2024 AUGUST PRIMARY

SEWARD COUNTY COMMISSION DISTRICT FIVE

Bee Symons (R) has filed his intent to run for the office of Seward County Commissioner District Five.

Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation

TEXAS COUNTY, Okla. – As the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation continues its investigation into the deaths of 27-year-old Veronica Butler and 39-year-old Jilian Kelley, an additional arrest was made April 24.

Based on the evidence and information gathered from the case, 31-year-old Paul Grice was arrested and booked into the Texas County Jail on two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of kidnapping, and one count of conspiracy to commit murder in the first degree.

Butler and Kelley went missing March 30 and found deceased in rural Texas County  April 14. This is still an ongoing investigation at this time.

The OSBI would like to thank the Texas County Sheriff’s Department and Oklahoma Highway Patrol for assisting with this arrest.

ELLY GRIMM

  • Leader & Times

Those dealing with substance abuse issues may soon have a new option for sober living thanks to action by the Liberal City Commission at its most recent meeting Tuesday evening.

Up first for the commission in its new business was discussion of an Oxford House facility.

“I would like to start off by saying we’re doing a bit of rebranding. Our program will now be called Treatment Court instead of Drug Court – it takes a little bit of that stigma away and it also allows the people going through the system, when they’re applying for jobs and other stuff, it’s an easier sell to say you’re in Treatment Court,” Municipal Court Judge Jason Maxwell said. “We currently have 10 active cases in Treatment Court right now, and five of those cases have been in a fairly long-term stay of at least 90 days. Those five cases right now have a combined 2,000 days of sobriety and are doing really well. Where we struggle is with the people who are coming in early – we have five more applications pending, and we anticipate new clients coming in pretty steadily throughout these next several weeks. We’re growing, which is a good and bad thing, but it is what it is, and it’s necessary. We don’t have housing for our people, and I know the commission has heard me say that before. In particular, we don’t have structured/supported housing for people coming out of treatment and starting on their sobriety. A lot of our clients go to inpatient treatment to start off, and that gives them a good start, but for a lot of them, their next stop is Stepping Stone Shelter, which is just not a good, structured place for them to go. And that’s not just a Treatment Court issue, it’s an issue for all the people with the District Court who are going through substance abuse issues and everyone else with the Municipal Court program, so we need to find a way to give these people some support and give them a good start. If we can’t give these people housing and a structured place to live, they’re going to have a really hard time focusing on maintaining their sobriety and everything else. With the grant we recently received, we do have built in the ability to help people for the first couple months, but we don’t have a place for them to go. That’s where Oxford House comes in, and it’s an option for these people to get started and have a new chance.”