loaf-n-jug gives backclean line hearing continued to march 1-3 · 1/3/2011  · from jerusalem to...

Volume 112 No. 43 75 Cents Thursday January 27, 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. Jan. 18 59 28Wed. Jan. 19 43 19Thurs. Jan. 20 31 09 .04Fri. Jan. 21 46 18Sat. Jan. 22 58 19Sun. Jan. 23 48 22Mon. Jan. 24 40 15MARKETSWheat $Milo $Corn $ (spot prices subject to change)

BORN ON JAN. 27

DEATHS-PG. 3

THIS DAY IN HISTORYJAN. 27

CIMARRON COUNTYJAIL BLOTTER

THIS DAY IN MUSIC

ROBERT MATHEWS-84JERRY GARRISON-25VICKIE TAYLOR-88JACK WILLIAMS-90

1756 Wolfgang AmadeusMozart Austria, musicalprodigy/composer (Figaro)1828 Louis Schubert com-poser1832 Lewis Carroll[Charles LutwidgeDodgson], author (Alice inWonderland)1834 Dmitri Mendeleevchemist (discovered peri-odic table of the elements)1900 Hyman G RickoverUS Admiral (father of mod-ern nuclear navy)1919 David Seville [RossBagdasarian], Fresno CA,(Alvin & Chipmunks)

1785 1st US state univer-sity chartered, Athens GA1870 After accepting 15thamendment, Virginia is re-admitted to Union1880 Thomas Edison pat-ents electric incandescentlamp1927 Harlem Globetrottersplay their 1st game1943 1st US air attack onGermany (Wilhelmshafen)1948 1st tape recorder sold1951 US begins 126nuclear tests at NevadaTest Site1967 Apollo 1 fire kills as-tronauts Grissom, White &Chaffee1973 US & Vietnam signcease-fire, ending longestUS war & military draft

1-23Orlando Davilla- posses-sion of marijuana and para-phernalia.

1956, Elvis Presley’ssingle, ‘Heartbreak Hotel’was released by RCARecords, who had just pur-chased Presley’s contractfrom Sun Records for$35,000. The song sold300,000 copies in its firstweek and would eventuallysell over a million, becom-ing Elvis’ first Gold record.1958, Little Richard en-tered The Oakwood Theo-logical College in Hunts-ville, where he was or-dained as a seventh dayAdventist Minister.1962, The Beatles ap-peared at Aintree Institutein Aintree, Liverpool. Thegroup had played heremany times before but thiswas their last performanceat the venue. Brian Epsteinbecame infuriated whenthe promoter paid TheBeatles’ fee (£15 pounds)with handfuls of loosechange. Epstein took thisas an insult to the group,and made sure that TheBeatles never played forthat promoter (Brian Kelly)again.1968, The Bee Gees madetheir live debut in the USwhen they played at theAnaheim Centre, Califor-nia.

LOAF-N-JUG GIVES BACK

Loaf-N-Jug’s District Manager, Robert Gump, makes apresentation to the Soutar Memorial Library last Wednes-day.

The Boise City Christian Church’s Minister, DavidMassey, reads to the children during the Loaf-N-Jug pre-sentation.

By C.F. David(I traveled to Oklahoma

City with the intention of at-tending hearings on Thurs-day Jan. 20 about servicecharges by West Texas Gas,and Clean Line Energy’s ap-plication for utility status. Iwoke up Thursday morningwith 1/8 inch of ice on my carwindows and mechanicalproblems. After repeatedunanswered calls to the capi-tal building, I assumed every-one had stayed home. I waswrong. The meetings wereheld and attended; just notby me. My apologies-Ed.)

The Administrative LawJudge hearing the OklahomaCorporation Commission’s Pub-lic Utility Division’s, cause of thepurchased gas adjustment causehas agreed and taken to reviewcomplaints against West TexasGas’ fuel delivery charges.

Representative GusBlackwell and Corp. Comm.Public Information Officer MattSkinner explained that WTG isnot a gas production company,but instead a fuel delivery com-pany. In that capacity, and byOklahoma law, the companycannot charge anymore for thefuel than what they paid for it.The company’s profit comeswith a fuel delivery charge, a fig-ure that in some instances in thepast has been seventy percentof the cost of the fuel. (In De-cember my home used about$43 in fuel. The delivery chargewas $50 or slightly more-Ed.)

Blackwell said he received42 calls to his office the firstmonth after WTG raised theirdelivery charges, and had re-

ceived 12 this month.(In the first month at least one

Boise City business saw its fuelbill go from $200 to $600, al-though it has never peaked thathigh again.)

“They, (the Corp. Comm.),will go back and look to see if itis within the tariff,” (allowed),Blackwell said.

Blackwell also explained thatseveral Cimarron County citi-zens had friends and family liv-ing outside the county yet servedby WTG, who had never seenthat level of a rise on their bill.

Another source of irritationwith county customers is thatwith the higher bills, WTG madethe decision to take their pres-ence out of the county, close theoffice and hire another employeein Stratford, Texas to do the job.

Skinner told The Boise CityNews that while an Administra-tive Law Judge cannot makelaw, they can make yes or norecommendations to the Corpo-ration Commission.

Part of the need for the highfuel delivery charges Skinnerexplained was due in part to theunaccounted loss of fuel gas. Hecontinued that the loss, due inpart to the inherent problems ofmaintaining long transmissionlines with unavoidable leaksmean that some of that loss willbe passed on to thecustomer(s).

The judge will make her rec-ommendations to the Corpora-tion Commission at a later date,but some in the know that hertaking it under advisement sig-nals that she will recommendsome kind of downward adjust-ment.

By C.F. DavidAccording to Matt Skin-

ner, Public Information Of-ficer for the Oklahoma Com-merce Commission, thehearing on granting CleanLine Energy Utility status inOklahoma has been contin-ued to March 1-3.

The application had beenopposed among others, byOklahoma Gas and Electric.

The company is planninga delivery line from nearHitchland, Texas to Mem-phis, Tenn., and utility statusis desired because eminentdomain would very likely beneeded and used so that theline(s) could move the wind-powered electricity with thecheapest investment.

However, OG&E, alongwith others have signed offon a settlement with CleanLine. OG&E’s most obviousobjection was for the utilitystatus since if Clean Lineobtained such status OG&Ewould have more competi-tion.

In the settlement, CleanLine agreed to among otherthings; A. To obtain all envi-ronmental and other permitsrequired; B. Operate facili-ties in accordance withNERC and regional require-ments; provide annual re-ports to the Public UtilityDivision; C. Notify the PUDof any connection of CleanLine to the SouthwestPower Pool.

With these stipulations thecommission could decidethat it is in the public interestthat Clean Line be a utilitywith Clean Line and prop-erty owners reserving rightsunder the law.

Further stipulations weremade involving private prop-erty, pointing out that issuesinvolving private propertywere not under thecommission’s jurisdiction butinstead under the Oklahomacourts.

By this Clean Line hasagreed to abide by the Land-owners code of conduct, andfurther obligates them whennegotiating reasonablesettlements for rights-of-way, offering reasonableeasement agreement with atleast two options, a one-timeup front with annual pay-

Clean Line Hearing Continued to March 1-3ments when the line goes into ser-vice, or one that provides a singlepayment; that if the two are able toreach an agreement on the kind ofeasement agreement but not thecompensation Clean Line will enterbinding arbitration before seekingother possible remedies. (This docu-ment may be seen on-line at: http://imaging .occeweb.com/AP/CaseFiles/02FDF0BC.pdf )

LOCALS VOCAL INOPPOSITION TO CLEAN LINE

Some locals, led by Mrs. DallasMeyer, a Texas County rancher, metwith the Cimarron County Commis-sion on Monday Morning. Mrs.Meyer told The Boise City Newsthat she and her husband had beensuccessful in getting the TexasCounty Commissioners to withdrawtheir support for Clean Line obtain-ing Utility status and she hoped todo the same with the CimarronCounty Commission.

Meyer told the commission thather concern began with an articleshe read in a Woodward paper lastsummer about a man whose prop-erty had been rendered useless bytransmission lines.

County Commissioner JohnFreeman pointed out that any prob-lems around Woodward were withOG&E lines, not Clean Line.

Meyer agreed but insisted shewas suspicious of Clean Line, sheadded that radiated lines spreadingall over property is what happenswhen a company has utility statuswith the right to eminent domain.

She then read Article 23 of TheOklahoma State Constitution, ex-plaining the rights of property own-ers.

Meyer referred to eminent do-main as “coming in the back door”and reiterated that she and the oth-ers present were against it.

Commissioner Freeman told thegroup that eminent domain was atool needed by all utilities in order tosecure funding, since anyone think-ing of loaning money would need toknow that the line wouldn’t be heldup with inability to obtain right-away.

“Do you have any idea what theeconomy is like in CimarronCounty?” Freeman asked “Wecan’t wait 15 or 20 years out here.”

He added that Cimarron Countywas in dire straits, that one schoolwas closing due to a tax-base law-suit and that wind energy was thecounty’s best chance at economicdevelopment.

Meyer answered that the utilityneeded to have funding in place so

that eminent domain wasn’tnecessary, that she wanted land-owners to be able to negotiatetheir price.

“I know we need transmis-sion lines for wind power.”

“My price is my economicdevelopment,” she explained.

“I’m concerned about myConstutional rights.”

“Before you condemn themtalk to them,” Freeman said.

Meyer then said that she hadtalked to them through theSouthern Great Plains PropertyRights Coalition of which shewas a former board member.

Freeman responded that thatgroup had signed off on thesettlement of Nov. 24.

In passing, Meyer threw intwo off hand statements aboutClean Line, the first that thecompany was under investiga-tion in New York, for hedgefunds.

Robert White, a CimarronCounty landowner and unpaidconsultant for The Boise CityNews, said his research showsthat Clean Line investors aren’tunder indictment, but rather theSecurity and Exchange Com-mission questioned them aboutthe possible insider trading ofother parties.

The second remark was thatClean Line’s owner had beenborn in Baghdad, (Iraq), this istrue. According to what TheBoise City News has been ableto learn, Selim Zilkha, was bornin Iraq…his family is Jewish,established there when KingNebuchadnezzar brought Jewsfrom Jerusalem to Babylonia,and his forebears stayed whenmost returned years later.

The Zilkhas left Iraq in themid-20th century, by way ofLebanon and Egypt. Selim is anAmerican citizen and served, in1945, in the U.S. Army.

He and his son Michael, age48, created a start-up oil explo-ration company in Houston andturned it into the company withthe most successful drill rate inthe history of the Gulf of Mexico.The company is now part of theEl Paso Corporation, of whichZilkha is a major stockholder.

Son Michael, does however,play his cards close to the vest,and refuses all interviews aboutZilkha Renewable Energy, a bio-mass company. (there is awebsite however.)

(Developing)

Boise City FFA Stands and Delivers!Members of the Boise City FFA Chapter traveled toFairview, Oklahoma to participate in the stand and de-liver workshop. Members received training on writingspeeches, choosing topics, and stepping outside of theircomfort zone. Members also had the opportunity to meetfellow FFA members from other chapters. The confer-ence helps to prepare for the upcoming speech seasonwhich will kick off in April. Members in attendance wereEvan Thornton, Frank Twombly, Cabe Embry, RebeccaMilbern, Rhianoon Toon, Kayla Mizer, and MeganTrantham.

Goodwell—OklahomaPanhandle State Univer-sity president Dr. DaveBryant announced todaythat Jon Lyles has acceptedthe position of head foot-ball coach. Lyles, 34, hascoached for 11 years andhas enjoyed success at thehigh school, collegiate andarena league levels.

Lyles replaces MikeWyatt who passed away inDecember, shortly aftercompleting his fourth sea-son as the head coach ofthe Aggies.

A Texan from Arp(near Tyler), Lyles is a 1999graduate of OPSU wherehe received his BS degreein Health, Physical Educa-tion and Recreation and healso completed his Mastersdegree at West Texas

Jon Lyles Named Head Football Coach atOklahoma Panhandle State, Goodwell

JON LYLESby Scott Puryear, SportsInformation Director

A&M University in Canyon in 2004.Lyles began his coaching career

at OPSU in 1999 and served twoyears as an assistant before mov-ing on to coach the wide receiversat Guymon High School for a year.He then moved on to West TexasA&M to do his graduate work whilealso serving as a graduate assistantthere, handling the wide receiversin 2002 and 2003.

For the next several years, Lylessucce tball, and in 2008 was namedArena Football 2 Assistant Coachof the Year. In 2010 as the headcoach of the Amarillo Venom, heguided the team to a 12-4 recordand a berth in the conference semi-finals.

Prior to accepting the positionwith OPSU, Lyles was serving asthe Associate Head Coach/Offen-sive Coordinator and Director ofFootball Operations for the NewOrleans VooDoo arena footballteam.

An excellent athlete, Lylesstarred in both football and baseballat Arp High School as well as withthe Aggies. At OPSU as a widereceiver, he had career numbers ofover 170 receptions, 2,400 receiv-ing yards, and 20 touchdowns. Per-forming on the baseball diamond forth st Valuable Player as a senior in1999 when he led the team in bat-ting average, stolen bases, and on-base percentage.

Lyles also played professional

football with the Shreveport-Bossier City Battlewings (in2001), and the Louisiana Rang-ers (2002) of the Indoor Foot-ball League.

Bryant said, “Jon Lyles hasthe coaching experience, matu-rity, and familiarity with OPSUto continue to enhance the posi-tive football program developedby the late Mike Wyatt.”

The Aggies were 6-5 in the2010 campai ill be returning fromthat squad. At present, the teammembers are working on con-ditioning in preparation for springfootball drills.

Lyles said, “I’m over-whelmed with emotion rightnow and I’m very glad to becoming back to OPSU. I’m get-ting everything into perspectiveand very much looking forwardto it.”

The appointment of Lyles iscontingent upon the approval ofthe Oklahoma A&M Board ofRegents.

On Friday, February 11, Lyleswill be on the OPSU campus fora “Meet the Coach&q will beheld at 6:00 p.m. in the OPSUBallroom located inside the Stu-dent Union Building.

GO AGGIES!!!