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River Stage Information The Caney River at Bartlesville The Caney River at Ramona The Verdigris River at Lenapah The Verdigris River at Claremore Other area bodies of water Water level at Copan Lake Water level at Hulah Lake Road Condition Reports: Oklahoma 1-888-425-2385 or at http://www.dps.state.ok.us/cgi-bin/weathermap.cgi or for traffic advisories http://www.okladot.state.ok.us/newsmedia/traffic-advisory.htm Kansas 1-800-511-5368 or http://511.ksdot.org/KanRoadPublic_VE/Default.aspx Missouri 1-800-222-6400 or http://maps.modot.mo.gov/travelerinformation/TravelerInformation.aspx Arkansas 1-800-245-1672 or http://www.arkansashighways.com/Road/mapopt.htm Texas 1-800-452-9292 or http://www.dot.state.tx.us/GIS/HCRS_main/viewer.htm Bartlesville flood prone intersections PSO Power Outage Information Verdigris Valley Power Outage Information Posted September 2nd, 2010 The results of last month's primary runoff in Nowata County will be decided today. In the Democrat race for District 1 Commissioner, Kellis Pierce and Curtis Barnes each had 178 votes. Because the ballots for the November 2nds General Election have to be printed and mailed to military and overseas voters by the 17th of this month there is not enough time for a third election and officials will draw the winner's name. Today's Election Board meeting is set to take place at noon at the election board office in Nowata. _________________________ The Bartlesville School Board continues to accept applications for citizens who are interested in serving from the Office 7 seat. The seat had been held by Barry W. Lowe since 2001. Lowe announced his retirement from the board during a July 17th meeting. The retirement became effective yesterday. You must live in District 7 in order to serve on the board. If you are interested in filling the seat for the remainder of the year, please send a letter of interest and a resume to School Board President Marta Manning, 1100 South Jennings, Bartlesville, Oklahoma, and the zip code is 74003. The deadline for receiving the letter of interest and resume is Thursday, September 9th. The school board will then decide who to appoint to fill the Office 7 seat for the remainder of the year. To see where District 7 is located, go to www.bps-ok.org and click on the board of education link. __________________________ The Oklahoma Employment Security Commission has released their unemployment numbers for July of 2010. According to the commission, McCurtain County reported the highest unemployment rate at 11.2 percent while Beaver County reported the lowest unemployment rate at 3.6 percent. Locally, Nowata County is ranked 7th in the unemployment rate. The commission reported that Nowata County has an unemployment rate of 9.1 percent in July of 2010. The figure is down two-tenths from June of this year which was 9.3 percent. Osage County reported their unemployment rate at eight percent, which is down five-tenths from 8.5 percent from June. Meanwhile, Washington County's unemployment rate for July was 5.7 percent. That figure was at 6.1 percent in June of 2010. __________________________ State Auditor and Inspector Steve Burrage says he is delaying the release of a special audit of Broken Arrow Public Schools. Burrage had planned to publicly release the audit on Thursday, but said Wednesday he has "serious concerns regarding the independence of the special auditor assigned to the audit." Burrage says he was particularly concerned that a draft version of the audit was inappropriately released last week. He says he plans to assign two different special auditors to conduct the audit, which will include compliance with the state's competitive bidding act. Burrage said last month the audit has been under way for three years and its release has been delayed by lawsuits and other legal issues involving the northeastern Oklahoma school system. Posted September 1st, 2010 Crime Stoppers of Bartlesville and Washington County needs your help to solve their Crime of the Week - and identify two people wanted for robbery. According to Crime Stoppers coordinator Eric Peterson at about 1:10 Monday morning two people robbed a convenience store in the 2500 block of SE Washington Blvd. No one was injured and the suspects fled the scene on foot with an unknown amount of money. The pair were both heavily clothed in an attempt to conceal their identity. Preliminary descriptions indicate that both subjects are young adult males, one of whom is thought to be a white male and one of which is thought to be a black male. Crime doesn't pay, but Crime Stoppers does. Crime Stoppers will pay up to $1000 cash for information leading to the arrest of the party or parties responsible for this crime. If you have information about this robbery or any unsolved crime in Bartlesville, Dewey, or Washington County, call Crime Stoppers at 336-CLUE or 1-800-222-TIPS. You can also text Crime Stoppers at 274637 and put tips620 in front of your message or submit a web tip at www.bcrimestoppers.com anytime day or night. The phone numbers have no caller-ID attached and your identity is not traceable via text or web, so you can remain anonymous. Crime Stoppers doesn't want your name, just your information. _________________________ A Bartlesville cardiologist was recently approved to serve on the Oklahoma State Medical Association’s Board of Trustees. Dr. Stan DeFehr of BlueStem Cardiology was voted in as OSMA District 1 Alternate Trustee during the trustees’ meeting in Oklahoma City last weekend. Dr. DeFehr has been a member of the Jane Phillips Medical Center medical staff since September 1980. He is board certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine and Cardiovascular Disease. Dr. DeFehr has been a member of the Jane Phillips Medical Center medical staff since September 1980. He is board certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine and Cardiovascular Disease. internship and fellowship. The OSMA board is comprised of 13 trustees who represent different geographic districts. Likewise, there are alternate trustees from those same 13 districts who participate in the quarterly meetings and vote should the trustee from their respective district be unable to attend. Dr. Lawrence Brotherton, a general surgeon from Claremore, is the trustee from District 1, which encompasses Craig, Delaware, Mayes, Nowata, Ottawa, Rogers and Washington counties. __________________________ Bartlesville City officials have announced that city services, including the public library, will close at noon on Friday due to employee furloughs and will be closed through Monday, which is Labor Day. Police and Fire services are not included in the closing. All City services will open on Tuesday, September 7th at their normal times. Posted August 31st, 2010 U. S. Senator Tom Coburn appeared before constituents yesterday afternoon in Pawhuska as part of his series of town hall meetings across the state. Coburn’s emphasis, rather than a report on what’s going on in Washington, D. C., was hearing what’s on the minds of the voters. The health care bill continued to be the top topic with concerned families, military personnel, and even nearby hospitals possibly having to drop services, programs, and operations. Coburn also addressed questions regarding immigration, the economy, and the constitution. During yesterday’s session, he pointed out the need for quality education, asking the question why we give the Federal government 20 percent of the states revenue while it mandates as much as 60 percent of the curriculum. _________________________ Three Heisman Trophy winners from the University of Oklahoma and the state's first lady, Kim Henry, are leading an initiative to promote cancer prevention, aimed at high school students. Henry joined Steve Owens, Billy Sims and Jason White on Monday to announce the program dubbed "Win-Win Week," which will run from Sept. 13-17. Henry says the idea of the program is for high school students to use their athletic events to draw attention to efforts to prevent cancer. Schools participating in the program will be encouraged to "pink out" every athletic event during the week. Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association assistant director Amy Cassell says that agency, which oversees prep athletics, will award a state championship trophy to a school in each classification that conducts the most effective prevention and fundraising program. __________________________ The Oklahoma State Senate has appointed a third member of the Jane Phillips Medical Center staff to the Community Hospitals Authority. The senate President Pro Tem Glenn Coffee appointed Director of Quality and Performance Diane Garrett to serve on the panel that is charged with enhancing the care of medically indigent persons and support the Oklahoma State University College of Osteopathic Medicine and the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine. Garrett will serve a 3-year term. Garrett says she looks forward to helping provide medical care for those in need. Garrett is responsible locally for effectively managing the processes involved in preventing infection, case management, risk management, utilization review, compliance, and patient relations. Previous senate appointments include Vice-President of JPMC Clinical Operations, Sam Guild and Diabetes Program Coordinator, Shannon Bailey. __________________________ In the regular meeting of the Washington County commissioners, the commissioners decided to table a couple of items concerning selling a couple of pieces of county owned property until more information could be gathered. Those will now be included during a future meeting. n other county business, commissioners heard a report and discussed details concerning the county Inmate / Trustee work program. Purchase orders were granted for supplies and equipment for the inmate work program. The commissioners also approved an annual memorandum of Agreement with Cherokee Nation and Washington County. __________________________ No one from the Osage County Health Department was present to update Commissioners during Monday morning's County Commissioners meeting. Commissioners awarded bids for an Oil Distribution Truck, with the winning bid going to Boxer Construction Equipment for a 1998 Ford F-Series truck with a 2,000-gallon tank for oil disbursement to be used on the county's roads. The winning bid for the oil distribution truck was for $38,900. Commissioners took the time to explain the latest wave of County Bridge and Road Improvement Cash Funds over the last several weeks. According to Chairman Scott Hilton, due to recent legislation from the state, O-DOT in the past was responsible for holding all road and bridge project money in a fund earmarked for each of the state's 77 counties. Hilton said, that this was no longer the case due to a change in the law that was recently passed by the State Legislature, and that O-DOT was now returning the funded money back to the rightful counties. Hilton went on to explain, that these funds that were held by O-DOT now have to be accounted for based on each of the project's. Hilton said, that none of the money came from any of the county's resources, such as property taxes, but instead that the monies came from the state through the sale of special fuels, gasoline and a small percentage of tag sales. Commissioners approved the funding of 8 separate county projects. Of the eight, three of the projects were for bridges that totaled $15,349 with the remaining five projects going toward roads in the amount of $493,032. All combined, Osage County Commissioners approved the transfer from O-DOT's coffers to Osage County in the total amount of $508,426.70, some of the money, according to Hilton that's been held by O-DOT since 1982. Posted August 30th, 2010 A student pilot walked away uninjured after he tried to abort a takeoff and his plane ended up in a field. Bartlesville officials say the accident happened around 2:20 Saturday afternoon at Bartlesville Municipal Airport. Fire Department spokesman Bill Hollander says the pilot, whose name wasn't released, was practicing a takeoff in a Cessna 172 and had applied the brakes when he realized he had omitted a procedure. Hollander says when the left brake locked, the plane veered into a path indicator box along the runway and the left landing gear collapsed. The plane continued across the taxiway and through a field, coming to rest against a chain-link fence. The Federal Aviation Administration will decide whether an investigation is warranted. _________________________ If the bubbling water and sulfur smell weren't an indication, the flame that erupted when a Nowata County man lit a match convinced him that all was not right in his backyard. Bruce Jauhola discovered that some type of abandoned well was just 100 feet from his house. Jauhola expected it would take weeks or months to stop the leak, but Corporation Commission oil and gas field inspector Billy Shufeldt contacted him within hours. A crew came out about a week later, on Wednesday, and plugged the well bore with cement. The commission has plugged more than 1,600 wells since fiscal year 2006, and another 674 are on a to-do-list. Shufeldt estimated the Nowata County well was drilled between the late 1950s to late 1960s. Posted August 29th, 2010 Saturday morning women in Bartlesville celebrated the 90th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment. The celebration began with a rally held at the Bartlesville Community Center. Nearly every seat was taken as a storyteller - with help provided by local community members dressed in period clothing and portraying key figures in the women's suffrage movement - recounted the events that lead to the 1920 acceptance of women's suffrage as national law. Following the rally was a parade to the Washington County Courthouse where the 1873 trial of the United States vs. Susan B. Anthony for the felony offense of voting without a lawful right to vote was re-enacted. The event was hosted by the Bartlesville Women's Network. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Three environmental groups say a coal ash disposal site in Oologah is contaminating groundwater in the area. A report released Thursday by the Environmental Integrity Project, Earthjustice and the Sierra Club say the water has arsenic and heavy metals in it. The groundwater is under American Electric Power-Public Service Co. of Oklahoma's Northeastern Station. Coal ash is a byproduct of coal-fired power plants. It's been dumped at the Oologah plant since 1978. AEP-PSO environmental affairs manager Bud Ground says there is no indication of contamination to drinking water in the area. He says the company is aware of the contamination and that corrective measures should be in place by next summer. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bartlesville's Jane Phillips Medical Center is ranked in the top 100 hospitals in the nation for patient safety. The second round of the yearly Thomson Reuters Health System Benchmarks study Jane Philips is in the top ten percent of small community hositals for adherence to patient safety standards. Director of Medical Quality, and practicing pediatrician, Dr. Paul McQuillen says the hospital staff is extremely proud of the accomplishment. He says JPMC is committed to delivering quality care, and patient safety is an integral part of the hospital's focus. Over t he past ten years, Jane Phillips Medical Center has developed a number of strategies to improve performance. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A group of Oklahoma Muslims is asking sponsors of a proposed mosque near ground zero in New York City to find another location. The proposed site has drawn national attention and criticism. Members of the American Muslim Association of Oklahoma bought an advertisement in the Aug. 23 edition of The Oklahoman asking sponsors to be sensitive to U.S. citizens. It asks that the mosque be moved "to a mutually agreeable site." Spokesman Saleem Nizami of Edmond says he believes most Muslims want a compromise and for the controversy to end. But Islamic Society of Greater Oklahoma City spokesman Saad Mohammad and Oklahoma chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations director Razi Hashmi disagree. Both say they support the plans for the mosque. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Posted August 28th, 2010 The City of Bartlesville have openings for citizens who are willing to serve on authorities, boards, commissions, and committees. There's one opening on the Bartlesville Adult Center Trust Authority, two openings on the Bartlesville Redevelopment Trust Authority, an opening on the City Board of Adjustment, and three openings on the Hazard Mitigation Planning Committee in Ward 3 and 5 and at-large. Other openings include an opening on the park board, one opening on the Solid Waste Implementation Committee, and two openings on the Sanitary Sewer Improvement Oversight Committee. If any Bartlesville resident is interested in serving on one of these committees, you can stop by City Hall and fill out an application or go on-line at cityofbartlesville.org. ------------------------------------------ Former Bartlesville restaurant owner Robert Boyce appeared Friday in the Pinellas County, Flordia Courthouse to face an extradition hearing. According to the Pinellas County Courthouse website, the only action that took place was that Boyce waived reading of the charges which has effectively waived extradition to Washington County from Florida to face arson and drug charges. Boyce was arrested on May 31st on a $500,000 warrant in connection of last summer's fire that destroyed the May Brothers building in downtown Bartlesville. -------------------------------------------------- Bartlesville got a peek into some of what will be going on next month when Hollywood cameras come to town for a motion picture production company. Oklahoma Film and Music Office representative Jill Simpson spoke to the Arvest Friday Forum. While she was in town to talk about the film, there was still a lot that Simpson wouldn't say. Auditions will take place this weekend at Bartlesville High School. Hours are 10 to 5 on Saturday and noon to 5 on Sunday. Simpson held to her role representing the State of Oklahoma and was very clear she didn't represent the film-makers themselves. Films are big business even in this part of the country. Simpson says a production company can make a significant contribution to the tax base of a community while it is in town and possibly lead to some jobs. Shooting is expected to start in September and continue into November. Simpson says it takes a couple of years to plan a project of this magnitude. While she was tight-lipped about the who, what, and where of the film -- even to the point of not confirming what many people would consider common knowledge, Simpson says more information will be made public soon. The project qualifies for incentive funding from the state. Simpson says the dollars are important to an Oklahoma film industry. Rumors have circulated for weeks that a romantic comedy, starring Ben Affleck and directed by Bartlesville native Terrence Malick will be filmed in Bartlesville. Local officials have said they would not comment on the issue. -------------------------------------------------------- Charges have been filed for 39-year-old Michael Curtis, Jr. for possession of methamphetamine with the intent to distribute. He also had a $250,000 warrant for his arrest from a 2008 charge. According to a court affidavit, Curtis walked away from a rehabilitation and didn't report to jail as ordered. Washington County Sheriff's Deputies were sent to the 700 block of East 8th Street to see Curtis. He told the authorities he had used meth that day. Officers found in Curtis possession a tobacco can with seven bags of meth and $408.00. Court records indicate Curtis has a criminal history including drug charges and possession of a firearm during a commission of a felony. Curtis next appearance in Washington County District Court is September 1st. Bond for all cases were set at $350,000. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted August 27th, 2010 A woman who plead no contest to a negligent homicide by motor vehicle charge will be spending the next year in jail. On Wednesday, Washington County District Judge Curtis DeLapp accelerated Rebecca Roland's sentence to one year in custody. Roland had received a five-year deferred sentence and was ordered to pay restitution and perform 750 hours of community service. A motion filed earlier this year noted that Roland still owed almost $6,000 in fines and had 254 hours of community service left. Records show Roland fell asleep July 7, 2003, while driving a car and collided head-on with a vehicle driven by Harold Eugene Hill, who died at Jane Phillips Medical Center. Roland's attorney, Kristi Sanders, couldn't be reached for comment Thursday. ______________________ A Copan man has been sentenced to two years in prison for a lewd act committed against a 14-year-old girl that occurred in 2009. 33-year-old Phillip Paul Morrison was sentenced to 10 years in prison with two to serve. He was also fined $1,000, a $500 victim compensation assessment, and will have to register as a sex offender. According to a court affidavit, the victim told child welfare workers she was waiting for someone outside her mother's house and that Morrison pulled up and asked her if she wanted to go get something to eat. They reportedly went to Sooner park with the food. The victim told the authorities Morrison touched her inappropriately. __________________________ Rogers County prosecutors have charged the police chief of Chelsea with 12 felony drug counts. Jeremy Wayne Murrell faces a Sept. 1 arraignment on charges of obtaining a controlled substance by fraud. The 34-year-old Murrell was arrested Aug. 13 on the complaints, posted $12,000 bail and was released. Chelsea Town Coordinator Kenny Weast says Murrell, who has been police chief for more than a year, was placed on indefinite paid leave. Murrell is accused of obtaining more than 3,000 pills from physicians and pharmacies between August 2009 and July. He allegedly didn't inform his doctors that he was being prescribed medications by other physicians. Court records indicated Murrell hadn't obtained an attorney. Attempts to reach Murrell for comment Thursday were unsuccessful. __________________________ A $25,000 bond has been set for a Bartlesville man who allegedly hit his daughter and pushed his girlfriend. 36-year-old Davin Keith Laws has been charged with domestic abuse. Bartlesville police were called to investigate a possible domestic abuse in the 100 block of Redwood. According to a court affidavit, Laws was being uncooperative with officers during the investigation. He was placed in handcuffs for his safety, his family's safety, and the officers safety. Laws told the police his girlfriend was sick of him and didn't want to live with him anymore. Both individuals got into an argument and reportedly Laws and his girlfriend were drinking. Laws allegedly cut the tires on his girlfriend's vehicle and while doing that he cut himself with a knife. Laws' daughter told officers she tried to break up the fight when Laws reportedly hit her right eye and her wrist was injured. Laws told the police he didn't hit the victims, but admitted that he pushed them. Laws' next court date is September 10th.