Latest news with #Maggard
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Boys & Girls Club Ag Day draws 250-plus youth
The Cliff Hagan Boys & Girls Club's Mike Horn Unit, 3415 Buckland Square, is never short of Owensboro youth. But on Thursday, the number increased to more than 250 with its second annual Harvesting Dreams Ag Day project that exposed the youth to different aspects of farm life. Ryan Bibb, the club's chief operating officer, said youth from the Ohio, Butler and Henderson county sites were also transported in to take part, upping the number of children for a typical day. 'Last year we planned for 200 but this year we planned for 250,' Bibb said. 'We've increased our capacity at all of our locations. We're averaging between 190 to 200 a day here at this location.' The Ag Day program is an expansion of the club's emphasis on agriculture that was introduced in 2016. Bibb said agriculture falls into the club's 'four priority outcomes,' which are academic success, good character in citizenship, healthy lifestyles and life and workforce readiness. 'So the ag program really encompassed all four of those because part of what we're trying to show them is that there are viable options out there in the agriculture industry — maybe not farming, but other things they can do in that industry,' he said. 'It takes patience; it takes perseverance and it takes some resiliency to see something all of the way to the end.' Bibb added it was a three-year $88,000 grant from Cargill, the agricultural giant that bought Owensboro Grain at the end of 2022, that made it possible to expand. 'Ag Day kicks off the ag program and then along with that, we do a farm-to-table dinner in the summer,' he said. 'And that's the culmination of the kids going out to Cecil Farms and planting their own vegetables; we actually start them here in our greenhouse; we take them out, cultivate and harvest and then they use those vegetables for the farm-to-table dinner.' For Thursday's Ag Day, students were treated to hands-on activities such as a petting zoo, a large John Deere tractor provided by Wright Implement and balloon animals by the Rizpah Shriners of Owensboro. Jerry Maggard Sr., who's a longtime member of the Cliff Hagan Boys & Girls Club's board of trustees and a member of the Rizpah Shriners, was there as his alter ego 'Shabby the Clown.' Maggard said the Cliff Hagan Boys & Girls Club provides hundreds of youth with a positive outlet while teaching them life lessons along the way. 'It's all about the kids,' Maggard said. '…Ag Day is great; it teaches kids about farming and different types of farming. And this is a safe haven for kids; they can interact with the other kids and make friends for life.' Outside on the baseball field, Nick Goss of Equestrian Enterprises brought his farm animals consisting of alpacas, sheep, ducks, goats and a miniature donkey. 'It's the joy for one,' said Goss about being part of the AG Day project. 'There's no age limit to animals — so you'll get adults; you'll get kids. Everybody enjoys this. I enjoy the education part of it. Most of these kids are never going to see these animals because a lot of them live in town. …So where else are you going to see an alpaca up close?' Next year will be the last for the Cargill grant but Bibb said the goal would be to continue Ag Day even when the funding ends. Bibb added that Ag Day remains an ongoing effort to provide the youth with 'adequate opportunities' when they're at the Cliff Hagan Boys & Girls Club. 'It's really just exposing them to as many things as we can while we have them here,' Bibb said.
Yahoo
19-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Commissioners declare National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week
Saturday is the last day of Rogers County's first observance of National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week. The Rogers County Commissioners approved a proclamation at their Monday meeting recognizing the previous Sunday through Saturday as a week to honor the Northeast Oklahoma Enhanced 911 Trust Authority. The hub directs emergency and non-emergency police, medical, fire and animal control calls for all of Rogers County, except Catoosa. Ron Burrows, District 3 commissioner, is a member of the 911 center's board. Burrows said that at the board's most recent meeting, Executive Director Darryl Maggard asked Burrows if the county could draft a proclamation. "There's a group that really goes unnoticed unless you're in a crisis situation," said Burrows just before he read the county's proclamation. "... For them, that's an everyday occurrence. Every day, they're answering the phone with somebody in crisis." The Association of Public Safety Communication Officials has observed National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week annually since 1981. Maggard said he was honored Rogers County now observes it, too. Maggard said 911 dispatchers are unseen first responders; he said they arrange for first responders to physically assist callers but are also trained to provide help over the phone, such as guiding callers to administer CPR. Maggard said that last year, the 911 center responded to 33,000 emergency calls and dispatched 150,500 calls to the 20 departments it serves. He said it's an honor for the county to give recognition to the hard work the center's staff puts in every day. "The number comes down to 24 people [who] hold the lives of everybody in their hands, one agency that processes every emergency call," Maggard said. "Not only is that a lot of responsibility, but it speaks well for the people that we have here and their dedication that they have." Also at Monday's meeting, the commissioners agreed to engage an accounting company to prepare the county's Fiscal Year 2025 financial statement District 2 Commissioner and Chairman Steve Hendrix said up until now, the county has assembled these statements in-house. "However, that is not going to be an option for us this year, so I reached out to a number of CPA firms," Hendrix said. "Got very little interest, other than Hood and Associates." Hood and Associates, in a letter to the commissioners, said it would charge the county a $4,000 engagement setup fee and about $29,000 to prepare the statement. Hendrix said Hood already performs audits for a number of the county's authorities. Commissioners approved an expenditure of $177,800.04 to digitize 35 record books. Rogers County Clerk Jeanne Heidlage and her office have worked with a company called Kofile for the last two years to preserve old county records. Heidlage said her office and Kofile have processed 100 photostat books' worth of digital records so far. After the 35 the commissioners approved to digitize Monday, Heidlage said 35 more books remain, as well as 20 commissioners' journals. "We've got to make sure that we preserve history, and this is what this is about," said District 1 Commissioner Dan DeLozier as he made a motion to approve the measure.
Yahoo
19-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Commissioners declare National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week
Saturday is the last day of Rogers County's first observance of National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week. The Rogers County Commissioners approved a proclamation at their Monday meeting recognizing the previous Sunday through Saturday as a week to honor the Northeast Oklahoma Enhanced 911 Trust Authority. The hub directs emergency and non-emergency police, medical, fire and animal control calls for all of Rogers County, except Catoosa. Ron Burrows, District 3 commissioner, is a member of the 911 center's board. Burrows said that at the board's most recent meeting, Executive Director Darryl Maggard asked Burrows if the county could draft a proclamation. "There's a group that really goes unnoticed unless you're in a crisis situation," said Burrows just before he read the county's proclamation. "... For them, that's an everyday occurrence. Every day, they're answering the phone with somebody in crisis." The Association of Public Safety Communication Officials has observed National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week annually since 1981. Maggard said he was honored Rogers County now observes it, too. Maggard said 911 dispatchers are unseen first responders; he said they arrange for first responders to physically assist callers but are also trained to provide help over the phone, such as guiding callers to administer CPR. Maggard said that last year, the 911 center responded to 33,000 emergency calls and dispatched 150,500 calls to the 20 departments it serves. He said it's an honor for the county to give recognition to the hard work the center's staff puts in every day. "The number comes down to 24 people [who] hold the lives of everybody in their hands, one agency that processes every emergency call," Maggard said. "Not only is that a lot of responsibility, but it speaks well for the people that we have here and their dedication that they have." Also at Monday's meeting, the commissioners agreed to engage an accounting company to prepare the county's Fiscal Year 2025 financial statement District 2 Commissioner and Chairman Steve Hendrix said up until now, the county has assembled these statements in-house. "However, that is not going to be an option for us this year, so I reached out to a number of CPA firms," Hendrix said. "Got very little interest, other than Hood and Associates." Hood and Associates, in a letter to the commissioners, said it would charge the county a $4,000 engagement setup fee and about $29,000 to prepare the statement. Hendrix said Hood already performs audits for a number of the county's authorities. Commissioners approved an expenditure of $177,800.04 to digitize 35 record books. Rogers County Clerk Jeanne Heidlage and her office have worked with a company called Kofile for the last two years to preserve old county records. Heidlage said her office and Kofile have processed 100 photostat books' worth of digital records so far. After the 35 the commissioners approved to digitize Monday, Heidlage said 35 more books remain, as well as 20 commissioners' journals. "We've got to make sure that we preserve history, and this is what this is about," said District 1 Commissioner Dan DeLozier as he made a motion to approve the measure.
