The primary election is over, and Pottawatomie County chose a new District Attorney. Incumbent Allan Grubb was one of three Republicans running for the position. Grubb received 2,387 votes, Tanya Roland received 2,543 votes, and Shawnee High School alumni David Hammer took the race by a landslide with 6,854 votes.
However, the voters chose to keep the incumbents for Wards 1, 2, and 5 in office in the Shawnee City Election. Daniel Matthews, Cami Engles, and Mark Sehorn all won their respective seats.
The fourth seat (Ward 6) was up for grabs, with three candidates vying for the position. Shawnee did not choose a clear winner, so a run-off will be held between Alan Rogers and Lauren Richter in August.
With a population of over 31,000 in Shawnee, the voter numbers reveal a low turnout for the local elections. However, this is not an unusual problem in non-Presidential election years.
As quoted multiple times throughout my life, ‘You don’t get to complain if you don’t vote.’
The Heart of Oklahoma Expo Center is gearing up for the International Finals Youth Rodeo. Contestants should begin to arrive on July 8. This is the 30th anniversary of the first IFYR, but it is the 29th rodeo to be held since the pandemic forced the Shawnee Civic & Cultural Development Authority to call off the event in 2020.
If you will remember last year’s comeback rodeo, it proved to be a bit of a challenge to get everything ready for the arrival of contestants from across the United States. And as of this past weekend, the facilities were not looking ready.
However, a three-day event was held at the Expo over the weekend. It was the debut of Happy Festival, an Electronic Dance Music (EDM) concert.
Social media blew up with comments about loud music, which according to posts from local residents, could be heard up to 3 miles away. However, social media posts from attendees were very positive and ready to purchase tickets to the next concert.
Happy Festival was scheduled to open the gates Friday afternoon. The EDM Bands took the stage, two stages according to the map found on the HappyFestivalok.com FaceBook page. Music was scheduled until 12:30 the following day.
An interesting icon on the event map was the mark for the cannabis vendors. These are legitimate businesses and have a right to sell their goods. But the event was held less than two weeks before the kids, high school kids, arrive at the same venue to compete for some big money and great prizes. Do you see a problem with this?
Hopefully, any and all remnants of the products for sale were kept contained, and the area is thoroughly cleaned before the young contestants arrive.
If you go back to when Spectra was first brought into the mix at the Expo, citizens were promised, BIG name performers. This publisher did not recognize a single band name, but country music and old rock are more my style, so that is not a fair comparison.
There was a big all day concert held in Henryetta earlier this month, with some well-known country names, including Stoney Larue and Blake Shelton.
How did the city of Henryetta put on a concert like that? Not sure, but I spoke with a few who attended that were very impressed with the entire set-up. They were especially thrilled with the volunteers who directed traffic at every turn to assist drivers back to the highway at the end of the night. We were told the folks were extremely polite and helpful, making the exit from the venue the best they’d had when attending events like this.
It is proof that when all parties work together, good things happen.
Suzie Campbell
