ELLY GRIMM

   • Leader & Times

The USD 480 2027 Teachers of the Year have officially been announced.

This year’s Elementary and Secondary Teachers of the Year were Rosi Estrada from Meadowlark Elementary School and Josiah Smiddy from Eisenhower Middle School. While both have multiple years of experience working with the district, their paths toward working in education were rather different.

ROBERT PIERCE

   • Leader & Times

Two Borger, Texas, women are dead following an accident early Saturday morning south of Guymon, Okla.

At 12:30 a.m., the Oklahoma Highway Patrol said two unidentified vehicles, Unit 1 and Unit 2, were near the intersection of Oklahoma Highway 136 and Texas County, Okla., Road Y.

OHP said Unit 1 ran into the rear of Unit 2, causing Unit 2 to become engulfed in fire., The crash is still under investigation.

The driver of Unit 1, 19-year-old Israel Morales of Texhoma, Okla., was not injured, and he was wearing his seat belt at the time of the accidents.

The driver of Unit 2, Maria I. Fernandez, 52, of Borger, and a passenger, Maria Villanueva De Fernandez, 78, also of Borger, were pronounced dead from injuries sustained in the accident. Both were wearing their seat belts at the time as well.

L&T staff report

Thursday afternoon, the Liberal City Commission unanimously selected Nathan McCaffrey to fill the unexpired term of Matt Landry, who resigned after moving to the Kansas City area.

McCaffrey was one of nine candidates who applied to fill the position, along with Kathleen Alonso, Jeffrey Hall, Jeff Mitchell, Bee Symons, Amy Lujan, Kelsey Kronawitter, Edgar Ortuño and Eric Volden.

McCaffrey previously served on the Seward County Commission, where he also served as chair. He was defeated in the Republican primary by Tammy Sutherland-Abbott in 2022.

ELLY GRIMM

   • Leader & Times

Adventure Bay Water Park has been a Liberal staple for many years now and soon, it will be demolished in order for renovation work to happen.

At the most recent Liberal City Commission meeting, the commission unanimously voted to award a contract to Stoppel Dirt LLC, in the amount of $250,905.19 for the work. As Recreation Director Matt Quint tells it, the decision toward demolition took a long time.

“When you looked at the whole water park from the street, it looked fine. A lot of patrons and people thought it looked okay, but once we got to inside the facility and  we were able to do a walk through with all the commissioners and other city leadership and everybody involved there, we showed them the issues we have to deal with day to day,” Quint said. “For example, with the pirate ship, there was sinking going on there. We also had water lines broken, and those were coming out of the pump house. The pump house was also starting to cave in. Over time, we had a lot of issues, and I think when everybody was able to see that with their own eyes, it helped everyone realize we were in big trouble. And then when you start factoring in the pricing of all that, it made more sense to demo for this season and start for fresh for the 2027 season rather than basically put a band-aid on everything. I feel like it was a tough decision, but the right decision moving forward. We wanted to get it going immediately on the demo side of it. Then on the build of everything, that’s going to take some time. We’re getting a lot of interest from companies out there for the build work, so that’s exciting.”