A Shawnee family safely escaped an overnight house fire that heavily damaged their home on North Beard Street.

As America observed its Independence Saturday, Fourth of July celebrations were plentiful in the Tri-county area, from McLoud’s Blackberry Festival to Tecumseh’s Hometown Celebration and a patriotic boat parade on Shawnee Twin Lakes.
Celebrations continued during the day, but it was different story by evening.
Rain and severe thunderstorms approaching the area forced cancellation of Shawnee’s 17th annual Red, White and Blue Celebration at the Heart of Oklahoma Exposition Center.
At About 7:15 p.m., Don Lynch, Shawnee/Pottawatomie County Emergency Management Director, said storms, lightning, wind and heavy rains were expected throughout the evening, so it wouldn’t have been safe to have the crowds outdoors. 

Tecumseh's Hometown Independence Celebration

Photos by ED BLOCHOWIAK

Fun during McLoud's Blackberry Festival

As America observed its Independence Saturday, Fourth of July celebrations were plentiful in the Tri-county area, from McLoud’s Blackberry Festival to Tecumseh’s Hometown Celebration and a patriotic boat parade on Shawnee Twin Lakes.
Celebrations continued during the day, but it was different story by evening.
 

Grass fires near the north dead end of Gaddy Road rage Friday west of Shawnee. Firefighters from Shawnee, Bethel, McLoud and Tecumseh battled the blazes for hours Friday. Leftover hay from a recently baled pasture likely caused the fire to persist. Scanner reports Friday also picked up a grass fire at the I-40 and Kickapoo Street intersection and another in Lincoln County. There were also at least two reports of firefighters struggling with heat exhaustion as temperatures in the Tri-County area hovered in the 90s most of the day.

A boat that had been carrying a family of four was completely burned early Friday afternoon at Shawnee’s Twin Lakes Lake No. 1.
All occupants were wearing life jackets and evacuated the boat without injury.
Steve and Dava Peters and their two teenaged children, all of Shawnee, began the holiday weekend on the water with their 1986 Bayliner when, at about 3 p.m., the rear of the boat caught fire.

Air Force Airman Christopher C. Rainwater graduated from basic military training at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio. Rainwater is a 2001 graduate of Seminole High School.

The Mabee-Gerrer Museum of Art Volunteers Society has completed their 2008-2009 year. The volunteers listed below were recognized at the society’s June 15 meeting for exceptional hours in 2008-2009.

John C. Danforth, former U.S. senator and former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, and David Boren, founder and chairman of the Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence, congratulated 2009 Academic All-Stater Sarah Cappo of Shawnee during the foundation’s Academic Awards Banquet, held recently in Norman.

Two 19-year-old Piedmont residents died Thursday night on I-40 near mile-marker 198 after the car they were traveling in left the road, flipped and struck a tree, a report by the Oklahoma Highway Patrol shows.
Piedmont resident James Hammett died at the scene due to massive injures. Kenneth Wright, also from Piedmont, died at the scene from massive injuries as well, the OHP report shows. Hammet was riding in the front seat and was wearing his seat belt.

Emergency responders worked a traffic accident with two reported fatalities on Interstate 40 Thursday night, where three helicopter ambulances responded and transported several other critical patients to an Oklahoma City hospital.

Kolin Jones of Earlsboro is one of 120 freshmen students selected to receive a $1,500 President’s Leadership Council Scholarship at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater this fall.

About 150 representatives of Oklahoma Indian tribes and several state agencies are expected to attend the third annual SoonerCare Tribal Consultation July 15 at the Citizen Potawatomi Nation Cultural Heritage Center, 1899 S. Gordon Cooper Drive, Shawnee. The meeting will be 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

FAA Credit Union has partnered with Accel Members Financial Management to offer members and their families unlimited access to free financial education and counseling services.
The program provides unbiased assistance with setting financial goals, budgeting, money management, and debt repayment.

Magician Steve Crawford is set to dazzle young audiences at two Pottawatomie County libraries this July with his program, “Circus of the Arts.” The performance is presented as part of the Pioneer Library System’s summer reading program for children, “Be Creative at Your Library.”
Crawford will share his magic at the Tecumseh Public Library, 114 N. Broadway, 2 p.m. Thursday. He will perform at the Shawnee Public Library July 14 at 2 p.m.

Shannon James Mallory and Sean Thomas Mallory, both 2009 graduates of Tecumseh High School, are among 120 freshman students selected to receive a $1,500 President’s Leadership Council Scholarship at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater this fall.

While it certainly wasn’t an unfathomable, terrain-changing epoch—or anything close to it for that matter—the magnitude-3.4 earthquake that ruptured three miles beneath the ground Wednesday near McLoud was still remarkable as far as local quakes are concerned.

Students from Oklahoma high school and college technical education programs won the nation’s highest awards at the SkillsUSA National Leadership and Skills Conference, in Kansas City, Mo. Gordon Cooper Technology Center was well-represented.