April 15, 2020 Issue, Page 1 of 8

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= —<—<—!a News Serving Western Oklahoma Since 1901. Wednesday, April 15, 2020. Weekday Edition USPS taking steps to Businesses soldier on during crisis assure safety By Manda Smith, Contributing writer “I feel I have an obligation to the community that I grew up in to provide Covid 19 has caused unemployment rates in the United States to skyrock- them with their medication as safely as I possibly can,” she said. for employees, et, with many workers being laid off or furloughed during the crisis. Even with doing pickup only, there are still dangers, and Thomas and her public Many people, however, who are deemed “essential” are still going to work fellow employees are doing the best they can to stay safe and follow social every day, putting themselves at risk to provide goods and services for the distancing guidelines. The United States Postal public. “We have been using PPE (personal protective equipment) - gloves, mask, Service said it has a dedi- Some of these essential people on the frontlines in our community said glasses - since March 17,” she said. “With being able to provide our patients cated Coronavirus Disease they will be there for their fellow citizens for as long as they can. with curbside transactions, we can maintain a safe distance. Patients still 2019 (COVID-19) Com- Medical marijuana dispensaries haven’t been open for long in Elk City, need education. We are still able to do this being as far as 10 or more feet mand Response leadership with Oklahoma only voting to legalize it in June 2018. 420 Farmacy in Elk away. I miss the one-on-one patient care, but I feel we are doing great con- team that is focusing on City has its first anniversary coming up this month on April 20, and owner, sidering the difficult circumstances.” employee and customer employee and Elk City native Jennifer Thomas has no plans on closing dur- Hemp Hill dispensary in Elk City is offering curbside pickup as well, and safety in conjunction with ing the pandemic. they are still allowing people inside, for now. operational and business “We are doing strictly curbside pickup right now,” she said. “But we are “We offer curbside, but the store lobby is open,” said Ronnie Webb, own- continuity during this CO- still open. If we were to shut our doors, it would affect so many patients. Ier of Hemp Hill. “We are limited to two people at a time. The store is disin- VID-19 pandemic. have patients from the range of 3-90 years of age, many of which suffer from fected every hour or as needed.” “We continue to follow conditions such as cancer, Crohn’s disease, anxiety, post-traumatic stress, Hemp Hill has been open for a little over a year, and Webb also works the strategies and measures seizure, pain, diabetes, ADHD, recovering opioid addicts, fibromyalgia, behind the counter. He discussed how he and his employees are keeping safe recommended by the Cen- rheumatoid arthritis, depression and insomnia. These patients choose CBD, during this time. ters for Disease Control Kratom and medical marijuana cannabis to treat their conditions versus con- “We have face masks, but we have not felt the need for them yet,” he said. and Prevention and public ventional pharmaceutical prescription medications. See Businesses page 2. health departments,” USPS stated in a news release. “The CDC has information Christensen Law Group PLLC along available on its website at with InterBank of Elk City provided https://www.coronavirus. Great Plains Re: nal Medical Center gov that provides the lat- with 100 plastic shields made by a 3D est information about CO- Printer operated by Deep Fork Tech- VID-19.” nology in Oklahoma City as a counter- USPS said in order to measure for shortages of personal reduce health risks for em- protective equipment (PPE) during ployees and customers and the COVID-19 health emergency. The to safeguard its operational shields were delivered last week. and business continuity, it Shown here are Darin Schmidt, senior is ensuring employees have vice president, InterBank - Elk City; access to hand sanitizer and GPRMC CEO Corey Lively; CLG Direc- that they can receive surgi- tor Anthony Moore; and Marnie Tosh, cal masks and gloves upon GPRMC director of marketing. Submit- request. The USPS said ted photo. it has shipped 15 million masks See USPS page 2. State census response rate a ASCOG: More census responses little better than 10 years ago needed The Association of South Rural counties lag as count finishes its second week Central Oklahoma Govern- ments stated it needs more By Hogan Gore, Gaylord News “Our response rate, so far, looks like it’s trending a little better than in responses to the 2020 Cen- Forty-one percent of households in Oklahoma have completed the na- 2010,” said McGoldrick, chief of staff and general counsel for the Oklahoma sus, as the date from the tion’s first primarily digital census with one-third of surveys completed on- Department of Commerce, which is working with the U.S. Census Bureau to census helps the govern- line since the count began last week. increase the state’s response in the 2020 census. ment in myriad ways and As good as it may appear, that puts Oklahoma toward the bottom of the “People seem to be happy with filling it out online; the only issues we’ ve in turn it can help cities and state response ranking. Currently, the Sooner state is ranked 42nd in the had, at least in Oklahoma, is we have a lot of rural areas that do not neces- counties. country, one spot behind Texas and one notch ahead of New York state. sarily have good broadband access,” said McGoldrick. “It may be harder for ASCOG said in a news Canadian and Cleveland counties have both recorded just over a 50 per- them to do the online census, but obviously you can always fill out a paper release that there are key cent response rate, the highest in Oklahoma. But only about 11 percent of the copy.” areas where the informa- households in Beaver and Harper counties have completed their forms while In addition to lacking internet access, the census faces issues with people tion collected in the 2020 only 6.5 percent of Cimarron County households have completed theirs. not wanting the government to have their information, fear over citizenship Census will help drive pol- Despite the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on efforts to promote the questions, which are not included in this year’s census, and an overall lack icymaking and shape the count, Josh McGoldrick, is encouraged. See Census page 2. future of the United States. From the release: Sayre man sentenced to 25 years in federal prison 1. Apportionment State population counts from the decennial census By Shonda Little, The Beckham County downtown OKC bank, BancFirst, and attempted to detonate it. are used to reapportion Record Varnell had previously been convicted of these charges in federal court in seats in the U.S. House of A Sayre man was sentenced to 25 years in February 2019, after a jury returned guilty verdicts. Representatives. No state federal prison in late March for attempting to DeGuisti, who oversaw most of the case’s court proceedings, told Varnell has permanent claim to blow up a bank building in Oklahoma City. that he took “no joy” in sentencing him. The prosecutor, led by United States their current number of as- U.S. District Judge Timothy DeGuisti sen- attorneys Matt Dillon and Mark Stoneman, had requested that Varnell be signed House seats. State tenced Jerry Drake Varnell, 26, for two counts sentenced to life. population counts deter- of malicious attempt at destruction of property Varnell’s lead attorney, Vicki Z. Behenna, asked for a more lenient sen- mine how the 435 seats are used in commerce and/or affecting commerce tence of 15-20 years imprisonments, citing Varnell’s well-documented diag- split across the 50 states and one count of attempted use of a weapon nosis of mental illness, including schizophrenia. Varnell APNews of mass destruction. Varnell was arrested Aug. The judge then sentenced Varnell to 300 months, or 25 years, in federal eee ee ?s ‘ shii 12, 2017, after he drove an inert bomb to a See Sentenced page 2. OS Weather Vol. 118, No. 28 Mail delivery View online ALAA A tomorrow 67 / 35 75 cents, 8 pgs. 580.225.3000 elkcityoknews.com