April 25, 2020 Issue, Page 1 of 10

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Serving Western Oklahoma turday, April 25, 2020 City employees take cut in hours Theater group By Don Munsch, Editor Elk City city employees have taken a 10 percent cut in the “We can do paintless dent repair on a lot of it,” he said. “But there will be some body shop and painting involved.” looking for creative minds to hours that they work as a result of recent economic condi- He said the situation is a good deal for customers. tions, City Manager Lee Litterell said. “If somebody's been thinking about a vehicle, they can The cut is temporary, but the city can’t determine how sure save several thousand dollars more,” he said. long the temporary period will last, Litterell said. City leaders are paying keen attention to balance sheets. The dealership had some roof damage as well, Dyson said. The dealership will probably replace the metal roof on all of examine crisis “We’re going to have to control expenses going through the buildings. the rest of this budget year,” Litterell said Wednesday. By Don Munsch, Editor “The biggest part of the [damage] was to the vehicles,” he Concerning Tuesday’s rain storm that blew through Elk Have opinions or ideas you want to share about the pan- said. “We’re going to make lemonade out of these lemons. City, Litterell said there was some hail damage around town, demic? It’s going to be a good thing for everybody.” Untitled Pop Up Theatre is looking for your creativity. and a city vehicle sustained a cracked windshield because of The city commission is now holding meetings through Submissions are being accepted until April 30, said the hail. He said he heard the Walmart store in Elk City lost some skylights from the hail. No tornadoes came through Zoom, an online video conferencing service, rather than Tiphani Currell, director of Untitled Pop Up Theatre, who hold the meetings at city hall because of the COVID-18 pan- came up with the idea for the project. As stated on the the- town, he said. David Dyson, co-owner of Barber-Dyson Ford Lincoln in demic. People may connect to the meeting by using Zoom ater group’s Facebook page, people are able to seek more Elk City, said his fleet of 200 vehicles, new and used, sus- and can do so by accessing www.elkcity.com, where they opportunities to see theater and art through “Live” stream tained hail storm damage. can find instructions. via platforms like Facebook, YouTube and Zoom, and “We probably had 36 busted windshields,” he said. “We Residents who want to make a comment during the public that’s where this project comes into focus, with Facebook had one completely shattered glass. Depending on the types comment period of the meeting may do so by calling the being a platform for the winning submissions. of vehicles and the types of metals they’re made out of, city clerk at 580-225-3230 and giving their name and phone UPUT asks for people’s reflections on what’s going on [there were] some worse than others.” number before the meeting. Residents’ info must be provid- in the world with coronavirus and the quarantine. Many of the vehicles can be repaired with a certain ap- ed at least two hours before the scheduled meeting. Submissions can be funny, dark, bizarre, dramatic, seri- plication. See Cut page 2. ous or whatever emotion strikes someone about the pan- demic’s effects on life and society now. People wanting to submit their work may email them to untitledpopuptheatre@ gmail.com. Submissions should include their names and contact info on each page sub- mitted. UPUT will select the top six submissions and the- ater people will do a live performance at 7 p.m. May 2.on Facebook. “T’ve been watching everything, trying to figure out what the new norm is and how theater is changing and how theater world is trying to adapt to what's going on, and I thought this would be a great little Pop Up version of something we could do,” Currell told The News. People can write a monologue, which can be a poem, speech or even someone talking to an invisible person, Currell said. “Tt can be almost anything,” she said. Or the submission can be a duologue, which is a conver- sation between two characters. If people choose to write a monologue, then they will just have one character (actor) speaking from start to fin- ish, UPUT said. If they choose to write a duologue, then See UPUT page 2. Oil spirals below zero Comforting Hands Hospic« Elk City thanks Micah Mullins and Kay Hightower with EXP Realty in Elk City for providing its healthcare team with breakfast Monday morning. Hospice leaders said they appreciate their kindness and support during these trying times. Mullins and Hightower are members of the Norman Board of Realtors. Shown here are, front row, Micah Mullins, Pat Welsh, Carrie Perry, Vanessa Givhan, Laura Nell Hays, Priscilla Gutierrez, Shawna in ‘devastating day’ White, Heidi Lundgrin, Amy Finley, Sydney Rogers and Kay Hi tower. Back row are Caity Church, Dana Sanders and Melissa Hampton. Submitted photo from Comforting Hands Hospice. for global industry By Javier Blas and Will Kennedy, Bloomberg News Some shuttered Oklahoma The day started like any other gloomy Monday in the oil market’s worst crisis in a generation. It ended with prices falling below zero, thrusting markets into a parallel universe businesses allowed to reopen where traders were willing to pay $40 a barrel just to get somebody to take crude off their hands. West Texas Intermediate futures have been the bench- Medical association head questions Stitt’s decision mark for America’s oil industry for decades, seeing the mar- ket through booms, busts, wars and financial crises, but no single event holds a candle to this. By the end of trading, the By Carmen Forman, The Oklahoman, Oklahoma City The three-tiered approach to reopening businesses state- contract had slumped from $17.85 a barrel to minus $37.63. Following some guidelines from the White House, Okla- wide aims to have Oklahoma back to business as usual by “Today was a devastating day for the global oil industry,” homa Gov. Kevin Stitt outlined a vision Wednesday for re- mid-June, so long as the state can manage the number of said Doug King, a hedge fund investor who co-founded the opening some shuttered businesses, which started Friday. COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations. Merchant Commodity Fund. “U.S. storage is full or commit- Many other businesses previously deemed “nonessential” “This is a careful and measured approach designed to pro- ted and some unfortunate market participants were carried will be allowed to reopen on May | so long as they adhere to tect our most vulnerable while safely easing most Oklaho- out.” social distancing and sanitation recommendations. mans back to work,” Stitt said at a news conference at the In one way, it was just an extreme glitch as traders pre- Stitt announced personal care businesses, such as hair sa- state Capitol. pared for the expiry of the contract for delivery in May. lons, barber shops, spas, nail salons and pet groomers state- The governor formed a task force, led by State Chamber Elsewhere, the market proceeded as normal - Brent futures, wide coukd open Friday. They will be able to offer services of Oklahoma President Chad Warmington, to help craft the the benchmark for Europe in London, ended the day down by appointment only and must adhere to social distancing “Open Up and Recover Safely” plan. sharply, but still above $25 a barrel. WTI for June delivery and sanitation guidelines from the Oklahoma Department of Oklahoma State Medical Association President Dr. George changed hands at $21 a barrel. Commerce. Monks called the plan “hasty at best” and cautioned against But the negative prices also revealed a fundamental truth Meanwhile, the state Capitol, which has been closed to the reopening businesses. about the oil market in the age of coronavirus: The world’s public for several weeks during the pandemic, will remain “Even without widespread testing, Oklahoma has seen an most important commodity is quickly losing all value as closed. Stitt said no decision has been made on when the ongoing growth in the number of cases, hospitalizations and chronic oversupply overwhelms the world’s crude tanks, building would reopen to the public. See Reopen page 2. See Oil page 2. Weather Vol. 118, No. 32 Mail delivery View online ¢ me ut é tomorrow oe 77 / 58 75 cents, 10 pgs. 580.225.3000 elkcityoknews.com