The Enid Enforcers travel to Joplin, Missouri tomorrow to take on the Joplin Crusaders in a rematch of the 2012 CFL Championship game. The Enforcers have played the Cursaders 9 times previously with a 6-3 record. The Crusaders are currently 4th in the the National Rankings of some 390+ teams. The Enforcers traveled light in their previous game missing 6 starters and our kicker and lost a close one 28-31.

The division championship trophies and the coveted CFL Championship in the middle.

This Championship Run makes the 4th time in just 6 years that the Enforcers have played in the CFL Championship game, cracking the national rankings 4 times themselves. In the 6 year run,  the Enforcers overall record is 46 wins and 14 losses.

The Championship Game will be held at Missouri Southern University (MSSU)s Fred G. Gughes Stadium. Field Location 3950 Newman Rd. Joplin, MO 64801

The Enid Police Department has been notified by the Oklahoma Department of Corrections that Danny E. Hart has been classified as an “Aggravated” Sex Offender.  Whenever a sex offender, classified as “Aggravated” or “Habitual” moves into a residence, the police department of that jurisdiction is required by state statute to notify the citizens of that neighborhood.

Danny Hart, Aggravated Sex Offender

Danny Hart was convicted of Lewd or Indecent Proposals/Acts to a Child in Enid, Garfield County, Oklahoma on June, 24, 2010.  His victim was a child under the age of 13 years old.  Danny Hart is not wanted for any crimes and he has registered as a sex offender with the Enid Police Department.

Danny Hart is a White male, Date of Birth December 3, 1990.  He is 5’6”, 227 lbs., brown hair and brown eyes.  He is currently residing at 408 N. Oakwood 4A, Enid, Oklahoma.

Danny Hart is being supervised by Probation and Parole Officer Julie Hensley.  Her phone number is 580-977-3425.

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The Enid Police Department has been notified by the Oklahoma Department of Corrections that Samuel Robert Booth Jr. has been classified as a Level 3 Sex Offender. Whenever any sex offender moves into a residence, the Enid Police Department notifies the citizens of that neighborhood.

Samuel Booth, Level 3 Sex Offender

Samuel Booth was convicted of Forcible Sodomy on April 28, 1993. His victim was a child under 13 years of age. Samuel Booth is not wanted for any crimes and he has registered as a sex offender with the Enid Police Department.

Samuel Booth is a White male, Date of Birth September 24, 1974. He is 5’10”, 185 lbs., brown hair and brown eyes. He is currently residing at 346 E. Cottonwood, Enid, Oklahoma.

LOCATION OF 346 East Cottonwood:

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As promised, here are some photos of some of the highlights of the Enid Enforcers game on Saturday night.

(Enid) -

The Central Football League championship has it’s two finalists.  Enid will face Joplin after both won their games on Saturday night.

Kansas, itself a former two time league champion, was defeated nearly from the word go.  The Enforcers took a commanding lead by the time Trey Benton score on a 20 yard pass from quarterback Corsey Young.  Corsey Young was set to have a stellar night, throwing a magnificent 55 yard TD strike to Ricky Green to make it 24-0 just before halftime.

Young would later scamper into the end zone to seemingly put the nail the proverbial coffin, making the score 31-8.   The Cougars only score was a fumble recovery that was due to the ball being so slippery from the heavy rain in the Enid area.  Kansas then scored on a 2 point conversion to get to their 8 points.

The offense wasn’t the only thing gelling.  The Enforcer defense was stout. DB Lawrence Jordan, had 3 interceptions in the first half.  By the third quarter, the Cougars had switched to their third different QB in an effort to ignite something.  But the rain and the defense wouldn’t let the fire start.

As always, I took many pictures, and will upload a gallery of them, hopefully tomorrow.  Congrats to the Enforcers!

Book Title:  “Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made”

Author: Stephen Pastis

Timmy Failure is a confident, ambitious kid whose goal in life is to have the world’s best detective agency. Only problem is, he’s pretty much clueless. He’s eleven so I’ll cut him some slack.

From the first page of this book I was hooked. By the time I met the Librarian, Flo, “Flo is not short for Florence. It’s short for “Misshelve my books and the blood may FLOw,”” I knew I was in love. The rest of the cast is great as well. For instance, Timmy’s business partner is his pet polar bear named Total.

Author Stephan Pastis is the creator of the comic strip Pearls Before Swine, so nearly every page throughout the book has a fun drawing that helps to add to the comedic value.

Besides comedy, there are a few words that will challenge some readers but I didn’t feel it was overwhelming.  This would be a great book to read as a family this summer!

ENID, Okla. – As part of the “100 days of summer fun,” Leonardo’s Discovery Warehouse will be holding a hedgehog day on June 8, 2013, to welcome two new hedgehogs, Sprinkles and Donut, to the animal exhibit.

Throughout the day, the children will be able to ask the staff any questions, and will even have the opportunity to pet the hedgehogs.

Julie Baird, Leonardo’s executive director, is excited for the addition of these hedgehogs.   “At Leonardo’s, we are always looking for fun learning opportunities,” Baird said. “The new hedgehogs offer an interesting opportunity for our children to learn.”

Leonardo’s will be open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with extended hours at Adventure Quest from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. The cost is $7 for all day admission, and children under the age of two will receive free admission.

Don’t forget, the June membership drive is still in progress. For the entire month of June all new and renewing memberships at Leonardo’s Discovery Warehouse will receive a 10 percent discount.

For more information about Leonardo’s or upcoming programs and activities, please call 233-2787 or visit www.leonardos.org.

There is a water main break on Pierce Street between Oklahoma and Cherokee.  City of Enid work crews are on the scene.  Motorists should avoid the area and drive with caution in this area.  Due to a water main break at the intersection of Pierce and Oklahoma, City of Enid work crews have shut off ten valves impacting water service to local residents.  Water will be turned off impacting a two block radius at the Pierce and Oklahoma area.  The water is estimated to be off in this two block area for the remainder of the day.

ENID, OK (June 6, 2013) –

Enid Public Transportation Authority (EPTA) is scheduling two public meetings to obtain input from our citizens about changes to the transit operations, services offered,  and fare rates. The meetings are scheduled for Monday, July 10th at 11 am and 6pm.  Both meetings will be held in the Council Chambers at the City Administration building.

The City of Enid, Oklahoma is taking nominations for recipients for the “Walk of Fame” Award to be awarded each year in September during the celebration of the Cherokee Strip Days.

The Walk of Fame, located at the Cherokee Strip Conference Center, is an award given by the Mayor and Board of Commissioners of the City of Enid to two persons, one living, and one posthumously.

To be considered for the Walk of Fame a person shall:

a.     Have demonstrated a lifetime of service to the community in general; or

b.     Have made an extraordinary contribution or act of selflessness or statesmanship for

        Enid.

 Nominations will be accepted in the office of the City Clerk until 5:00 P.M. local time on June 21, 2013.  Nominations received after that time will be retained for consideration the following year.

A Walk of Fame committee will review the nominations, consider any person that meets the criteria outlined above, and perform any needed investigation to insure appropriateness.  The Committee may also consider persons who do not receive nominations.

Information may be obtained in the office of the City Clerk, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Municipal Complex, 401 West Owen K. Garriott Road, Enid, Oklahoma, or by calling 580-616-7271.

EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY, Chestnut Street from 9^th to 10^th will be closed for approximately two weeks to repair a gas line.  Traffic is advised to use caution when entering a construction zone.

Over the last several weeks we have endured the stress that comes from the most dangerous weather in the world. Central Oklahoma has endured 2 EF5 tornadoes within 2 weeks of each other. That’s almost unheard of. This said, I did mention earlier this spring that we would have storms and many of those would be very dangerous. This has come to pass, just not in our area. We have had all the ingredients to have the super severe weather here but storms to our south have robbed a lot of that energy from the area several times. I am not complaining but here are few points to ponder; you’ve seen the devastation, you’ve seen the deaths, you’ve watched all the drama on television, and now here comes everyone out of the woodwork as experts on how to prevent all of this from happening. It starts with a simple word: PREPAREDNESS

As you all know, I have harped on this for years and people still call the day of the storm asking, what do I do and where do I go?  There may be many reasons for this that we’ll never understand but how do you reach as many as you possibly can? Even through our email, Nixle, Viaradio, Face Book, Twitter, and paging portal systems we only reach about 6-8 thousand people in a jurisdiction, countywide, of about 60 thousand. You can watch television and now we have people telling you to get in your car during tornadoes and drive south. That just puts more people’s lives in danger. Then here is this question; do I stay in my car if I am caught out in a tornadic storm or do I get out of my car and into a ditch? To me, that’s the same thing as being in a house without a saferoom or cellar and being told to get out of the house and into a ditch. If anyone receiving this email read my blog post of June 2^nd, I addressed this issue to a point. Here a hyperlink to that blog:  http://gcem.org/good-information-or-panic-during-storm-season-and-beyond-6213/   Read this when you have time, it’s fairly long.

There will be many new concepts on what to do coming out over the next several months and years. I will address my thoughts on these issues in later posts.

I take this position seriously. THIS IS NOT A GAME. Being a warning coordinator within my emergency management position with both city and county involves a lot. People’s lives are in the mix. Overseeing our storm spotter network is a big responsibility too. Our spotters are NOT chasers. We have done away with that because some in the past had decided to follow their own rules and not ours. You don’t need to be in the debris field of a tornadic storm to get the word out. You just get dead if you aren’t careful. Storm spotters are observers. They stay at a nominal distance derived from their experience and location and report what they are seeing. We then relay that to the NWS through our direct access to their forecasters, both on-line and over our 2-way communications networks. We are far more advanced here than most people realize. Many of our spotters will become CERTIFIED for the first time, through the office of emergency management later this month. We are finalizing the list now and will publish that list later this month. Our network consists of personnel from all of our Rural Fire Departments, Sheriff Deputies, and Enid Police Officers. There are also personnel from our surrounding counties that will be certified through our program. These people are the most dedicated personnel I have had to privilege to work with and train.

I always stress to have several ways to get weather information besides your phone. Systems can fail due to winds and lightning, just remember that. I understand this very vividly when we took a direct hit by lightning in our operations center. It killed everything. The first time in 17 years we were 100% down. Just keep this in mind.  Make sure you have a NOAA weather radio too. Our local radio station call numbers are 103.1 KOFM and 107.1 KNID. Hopefully they are still on the air. Several news agencies here in town forward our info too. Support and watch them online if you still have internet. Watch television if you can handle the drama.

Finally, let’s get to the weather. There is a chance for more thunderstorm activity today as a cold front finally works into the area. The rain we have had this morning has stabilized the atmosphere such that if we do encounter more storms, without getting any sunshine, then most likely they won’t be severe. If the sun comes out, it will de-stabilize enough to put us on the borderline for severe weather. If that happens, large hail, damaging winds, and heavy rainfall will be our main threats. The tornado threat here is low. We might even have storms overnight once again. I’m working on coffee fumes right now anyways.

Stay safe and input from you all is important. Let me know your thoughts on some of these issues. Like I stated before, changes are forthcoming. I would like to attend the up and coming meetings with NWS officials with ideas that came from our citizens.

Have a super day.

Mike

The outside eastbound lane on Owen K. Garriott at Van Buren and Garriott will be closed for one week to allow for street and storm sewer repair.   Traffic is advised to use caution when entering a construction zone.

In the aftermath of May 20th’s storms, you no doubt saw many shirts being made as fundraisers for the victims of the tornadoes in Moore (and the forgotten devastation from May 19th).

Some organizations are donating to the American Red Cross or other organizations.  However, there is some leeriness in donating to American Red Cross, 1) after the 9/11 fiasco, 2) after the Haiti fiasco, and 3) after the texting fiasco here in Oklahoma where funds people thought were going to help Oklahomans but were simply going into the American Red Cross’s general disaster aid fund.  Now, we know the American Red Cross is on the ground in Moore and providing assistance, so we know some American Red Cross money is being spent here, but just how much has to be in question.

Enter Privation Printing and it’s benefit.  Waiting patiently to put out a benefit shirt wasn’t easy.  They first spent time on design.  This tragedy has hit every Oklahoman in the gut pretty hard. . .we wouldn’t feel right if we didn’t put our best foot forward in the design for our benefit tee. With Shelley and my back and forth method of designing, that can take a bit of time and we were just happy that our fan base was patient with us,” said owner Tim Larsen.

Next, the company took time evaluating various charities to get a better picture of where the needs would be.  In fact, Oklahomans responded the only way Oklahomans can in the aftermath of the disaster, by overwhelming volunteers and command centers with so many things that they finally stopped asking for items.  A strong credit to our state and it’s willingness to take care of each other and something that should come as no surprise to anyone inside the Sooner State.

However, soon one need did develop and it was right in the Larsen family wheel-house.  There were many displaced animals as a result of the storms and taking care of them has been an overwhelming task.  The Larsen’s are fond of animals, living on a farm with many animals.  So, animals was a perfect way to go.

On Sunday, Privation released the design of the shirt and announced that 100% of the initial run of the shirt’s proceeds would be donated to Animal Welfare of Oklahoma City who is taking care of the animals.

A beautiful shirt, no doubt.  So, how do you get one?  It’s not hard.  Simply click on the shirt above and it will take you to their Etsy Shop, where you can make a purchase.  Alternatively, you can also call Privation at (580)234-1747.  Privation is located out in the James W. Strate Center for Business Development at Autry Tech.  Privation Printing has printed many Enid-Centric shirts, including the famous, “Lego Builder” shirt, the official shirt of the “Enid Buzz,” and is the official screen printer of the Route 60 Sentinel.

As of late Sunday night, the demand for the shirts from Facebook was already overwhelming Privation.  “They are going VERY well,” expressed Larsen.  “We are already going to place an additional order of the shirts we print these on as a result of the demand.”

On Saturday night, the Enid Roller Girls were squared off against the Tornado Alley Roller Girls in their first home bout of the season.  It was a nail biter but in the end TARG squeaked out the victory 370-103.

Ok.  Let me get this out of the way, kudos to the Enid News & Eagle for finally giving the Roller Girls some love by plastering them all over the front page of today’s paper.  It is still extremely pathetic to me that it took this long and it’s even more deplorable that their sports editor refuses to recognize it as a sport. (background article here) At least the news department has some damn sense.

I’m sorry, I seriously want to let go of this whole issue of  “sport/not a sport,” but ERG being placed on the front page brought it back to the surface for me.  I had spoken about it to a few people last night at the bout, including Enid Enforcers owner Mark Timberlake, who was attending his first bout.  Not many know sports like Mark does and he was very clear in his vocalizations to me that it was very clearly a sport.  I also spoke with another attendee who was attending their first bout and halftime, they searched me out and were appalled that the ENE sports editor would say such things.  But I seriously was NOT going to bring it up.  After I got home I told myself that the issue really was moot.  It’s a sport.  But then, the ENE plastered it on the front page.  Clearly, the sports department needs to take lessons from the news department.

Now, on to the important stuff.  The bout.  It was a rout.  TARG destroyed Enid.  But the final score doesn’t really tell the story.  In the first half, ERG simply was non-effective against Tornado Alley, scoring only 16 points and being very passive (literally) on defense.  TARG jammers, including Lita-Lita Ho’Beata, were simply having their way with ERG.  They would sometimes skate through untouched and rack up as many points as they seemingly wanted.

But in the second half, Enid came out and played far more physically and the score reflected that.  Enid Coach Schoogz Knight said after the game, “…had we played the first half like we played the second, the score would have been much different and it would have been a completely different bout.”  I could not agree more.

I always take pictures of the event, but for some reason, whether it be my ignorance of photography or other factors, my pictures last night were just awful.  I managed to salvage a few that I will share here:

Click here to register a storm shelter

12:27:37 PM 2013-05-31

One more day and this one will be a long one.

Somewhere in our state today, tornadoes will wreak havoc. Hopefully it won’t be here. Here’s the scenario:

1- We have a very slow weak cold front working its way south.

2- The atmosphere is very moist and will become exceptionally unstable by this afternoon. We have had mostly cloudy skies during the days earlier this week. We are looking to have mostly clear skies today. Keep in mind that this might change a bit.

3-The dryline is setting up to our SSW

4- Exact locations are not set in stone by any map out there right now.

5- Today’s dangers: wherever discreet supercells form, up to softball size hail, wind gusts to 75 mph, and large tornadoes may occur.

Yesterday I had many folks call and ask if driving south to various locations was safe. I guess they don’t pay much attention to email or to the weather forecasts. Let me state this directly and to the point for today: I would re-think plans to be in the OKC REGION for later this afternoon and tonight unless you check out the weather to make sure everything is east of that location where you want to be.

 Now for our area, as it looks right now, we will be on that borderline again where it could form just to our SSW or West of us and move across or it may form over us and move ENE or it might form east southeast of the area.

Either way, until all this comes together later today, all of our spotter network and then our Task Force will be on Stand-by Alert Status.

Stay EXTREMELY WEATHER AWARE TODAY and hopefully when all this mess moves away we can get some rest.

Sign up for our severe weather alerts program by texting your ZIP Code to 888777. During severe weather, listen locally to our FM radio stations KOFM-103.1 and KNID-107.1

Finally, we will be testing our Storm Sirens on Monday June 3^rd at Noon if we don’t have to use them today. 

Mike Honigsberg, Certified Director

Enid/Garfield County Emergency Management
E.O.C. 580-249-5969
Personal Cell–580-541-1263
Blackberry- EMAIL HIDDEN FOR SAFETY PURPOSES
Twitter- @garfieldem
Facebook-Enid/Garfield County Emergency Management

Ways to get information directly from Enid/ Garfield County Emergency Management:

1. Text Alerts from Enid/Garfield County Emergency Management through NIXLE at Nixle or text your zip code to 888777 for SMS notifications. Follow the instructions. This information comes directly from our network here in Garfield County.

2. If you want our email updates, forecast information, or want to be on our paging network, email the director at EMAIL HIDDEN FOR SAFETY PURPOSES and we’ll put you on the list.

INFORMATIVE WEBSITES:

STORM SHELTER REGISTRATION:

Sign up even if you don’t have a shelter. Let us know where you go within your house. This helps our search and rescue teams find you quickly.

During any incident or severe weather we STRONGLY encourage everyone to listen to your local AM and FM radio stations. They are 103.1-KOFM.960-KGWA, 107.1-KNID, 95.7-KXLS, 1390-KCRC, 104.7 KEIF-LP.

Reluctantly crouched at the starting line,
Engines pumping and thumping in time.
The green light flashes, the flags goes up,
Churning and burning, they yern for the cup.

They deftly manouver and muscle for rank,
Fuel burning fast on an empty tank,
Wreckless and wild they pour thru the turns,
Their prowless is podent and secretly stern.

- Cake, “Going the Distance” (lyrics)

Change a view words and that intro totally applies to roller derby.  We learned a long time ago that the mainstream media in this town will never give the sport that it’s due.  It’s a gimmick to them.  And to quote, “It’s boring.”  With no apologies, to that I said, and still say….bullshit.

The Enid Roller Girls finally get to come home and play a bout in front of the home crowd for the first time this season. They will be playing the ladies from Oklahoma City Roller Derby’s All Star Travel Team, Tornado Alley Rollergirls.

Come catch the Women’s Flat Track Roller Derby action June 1st, 2013! The bout will be at Skatetown, 901 Overland Trail.  If you don’t know where that is, you did not grow up here did you?  Go to the corner of Garriott Rd where it meets Northcutt Toyota and turn south.  You will pass a Putt-Putt.  Keep friggin’ going!  You will pass some trailer houses.  Keep friggin’ going!  Then you will see it your left.  Yes, across from trailer houses.  Doors open at 6pm and the first whistle is at 7pm. $10 in advance and $12 at the door.  Get in touch with a Roller Girl (insert joke here) and she can hook you up (this joke keeps getting better) with those advanced tickets.