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Hermetic Switch employees donated toys to local families
Hermetic Switch employees share success with community
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container that had been in the box. The
HAZMAT team tested the substance for
acidity, and the results were negative.
The box was sealed up in a bag, and
has been sent to the Oklahoma State
7th ana 8th grade girls
beat Western Heights
Local Deaths
Lilly Bea Hall; Faye L.
Campbell; John C. HOl-
comb; Caroline S. KEIS-
man; Grace N. Mayes;
and James O. Mitchell.
See obituaries, page 2.
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Bureau of Investigation for further test-
ing.
Fire Chief Mike Brice reported that
there was no danger or hazard to civilians
or employees of the bank.
*
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KAN
| Ponca City 31 /50
Oklahoma weather
Saturday, Dec. 21
AcCUWeather.com forecast lor daytime conditions. low/high lempetalures
Oklahoma City 29 /53
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: Rick
It would
Express-Star photo by Jenese Snow
Chickasha Fire Department’s new HAZMAT team made its first official call today.
Employees of First National Bank and Trust Company found an unknown sub-
stance in a safe deposit box that had been vacated yesterday.
By JENESE SNOW
Staff Writer
Chickasha Fire Department’s Haz-
ardous Materials (HAZMAT) team, the
only municipal team of its kind in south-
west Oklahoma, made its first official
call today.
Employees at the First National Bank
and Trust Company, on the corner of
Third Street and Chickasha Avenue,
called for assistance after they discovered
an unknown substance in a safe deposit
box.
Yesterday, a woman came to the bank
to close out the box. She had power of
attorney for the owner of the box.
When an employee opened the box,
she experience a burning sensation in her
eyes and on her skin, and had to flush her
eyes and skin with water.
A spokesperson with the bank told
police that about two months ago. anoth-
er woman came to the bank to close out
the box. She looked inside and decided
not to touch anything. Later, a man came
in, carrying three metal suitcases, and
removed the box’s contents.
The substance is reddish brown, and
appears to have leaked from some sort of
Tabler Tabernacle
PpastoriRevniu Embree
invites the public to attend
an old-fashioned gospel
singing at 7 p.m. on Satur-
day, Dec. 21, at Tabler
Gospel Tabernacle, located
nine miles east of Chick-
asha on Hwy. 39. Laverne
Goodnight will be the
emcee.
---
50( Daily, $1 Sunday ■ 1 Section, 10 pages
1
3
TheExpress
GRADY COUNTY’S
St Luke’s
announces services
St. Luke’s Episcopal
Church, located at Sixth
and Kansas, welcomes the
public to celebrate the
I miracle of Christ’s birth
with carols and lessons at
10:30 p.m. and midnight
’mass at 11 p.m., Tuesday,
Dec. 24.
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - The State
Board of Education approved class-size
waivers Thursday for six school districts
where budget cuts have left them short on
funds and short on staff.
The waivers allow the districts to
increase their student-teacher ratios from
20-to-one, as mandated by state law, to
29-to-one in kindergarten through third
grade.
After this round of waivers, 11 dis-
tricts that have to report their class sizes
i1
|
A
2
a
to the Board of Education will be exceed-
ing the state limit on class size.
There are 189 school districts that
don’t have to report class size to the State
Board of Education because they have
passed bond issues greater than 85 per-
cent of property value in that school dis-
trict in the past five years.
School districts that are not exempt by
the waiver have to pay a penalty fee tor
violating the class-size mandate.
Some school districts would pay up to
$400,000 in fines if the board had not
granted the waivers, said Harriet La
Grone, assistant state superintendent.
House Bill 1017, a tax and education
reform package implemented a decade
ago, requires class sizes no larger than 20
students per teacher in the first five
grades. In middle and high schools, a
teacher cannot have classroom contact
with more than 140 students a day.
“We’ve only had one other waiver
See Board, Page 3
-
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9
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o
Jadyn Filer
granddaughter of
Rebecca Rawson
says it is only
5 days ‘til
Christmas.
Sy
8
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us
3
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44:
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With the help of local orga-
nizations. the needs of six
Chickasha families were
brought to the employees’
attention. They determined
that 112 items were needed to
help these families. By the
end of one workday, every
item had been claimed, and
the employees were looking
for more ways to help the
community. A fund was estab-
lished for gift certificates so
the families could purchase
shoes. Later a food and a coat
drive were started. In addition.
1/15/2003
"wn HISTORICAL SOCIETY
2100 LINCOI N BLVD
1°0 N LINCOLN BLVD
9 a F
City offices to
close for holidays
The City of Chickasha’s
offices will be closed
Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2002,
and Wednesday, Jan. 1,
2003, in observance of the
Christmas and New Year’s
holidays.
Regular city services
and sanitation services will
resume after the holidays,
on Thursday, Dec. 26,
2002, and Thursday, Jan.
2, 2003.
t This notice applies to
itity sanitation services
jonly, not to the services
• provided by IES I.
H 1
y1
TEXAS
IFree clothing
offered
Free clothing is offered
at 823 Choctaw. Monday
through Saturday, from 9
a.m. to noon and 1-4 p.m.
Among the items avail-
able are over 500 men’s
dress shirts, 400 dress
pants, 200 men’s dress
coats, and a large selection
of women’s clothing,
child’s clothing, shoes,
belts, purses, etc.
I
NEWS SOURCE
Watch Rick Mitchell at 5/6/1DPM
. i
( c
Hermetic Switch will give
each family a holiday basket
of food, identical to the food
baskets that the employees
will receive from manage-
ment.
The generosity of the
employees flooded the corpo-
rate conference room. Most
employees who had volun-
teered to supply a gift brought
it in and more.
The generosity of Hermetic
Switch employees is over-
whelming and astonishing.
Management wanted the peo-
ple of Chickasha to realize
how wonderful Hermetic
Switch employees truly are.
Times are tough for all
everyone, and people all
around are struggling to make
ends meet.
It’s great to see caring peo-
ple. who look beyond them-
selves. who can see those less
fortunate, and then do some-
thing about it.
Management wants to
thank Hermetic Switch
Employees for making a dif-
ference again.
O n 4 Vbem
Sunny Pt Cloudy Cloudy Showers T-storms Rain Flumes Snow low
Ma Aasodated Press
Tulsa 30 /50 ] Ag
Hermetic Switch employ-
ees work year around to con-
tribute to the success of the
company, and when the suc-
cess pays off, they work
equally hard to share it with
the community. Hermetic
Switch shares its profit with
the employees in June and
again in December.
Prior to receiving their
December cheeks, the
employees had already decid-
ed to share some of their suc-
cess by contributing to fami-
lies with holiday needs.
TEE.
this day in 1790, in Pawtuck- Robinson won the world wel-
et, R.I , Samuel Slater began terweight championship by
to operate the first success- defeating Tommy Bell in a
ful cotton mill in the United 15-rouna decision
States                         TODAY’S QUOTE: "It is
On this day in 1860. only as we develop others
South Carolina became the that we permanently sue-
first state to secede from the ceed.' -- Harvey S. Firestone
Union.                    We Saw
On this day in 1989, cnWC,
American troops invaded cozimnanouc "S-onnep US
Panama in order to over- g5tting older and olde r.and
throw the regime of Gen. pnderi.innpamtuomstying
Manuai Noriea                0 hide her birthday from co-
MaonpyneApTHNAYS. workers; Alexis Huft dancing;
Harvey S. Firestone (1868- andAilsademcruznand
1938), industrialist; George "5ap-o"earmgnees
Roy Hill1(1922-), director, is Entire contents copy-
80 Anita. Baker (1957-), right 2002, The Express,
45 Tracey Ullman Sar, PO Drawer E,
TODAY'S SPORTS: On Chickasha,, ,,73023:
this day in 1946, Sugar Ray •o -2. Mo ni-
$ :
Forecast
Chickasha and area
forecast: Tonight, partly
cloudy. Low of 34. Tomor-
row, mostly cloudy with a
few sprinkles possible. High
of 48.
National Forecast: Rain
and snow will continue
across the west with flurries
over the Great Lakes.
Weather Trivia: The
greatest snowstorm in
Oklahoma history occurred
on February 21 and 22.
Eight or more inches of
snow fell from the eastern
Oklahoma Panhandle to
north-central Oklahoma.
Buffalo hit the jackpot with
36 inches of snow! Winds
up to 50 mph whipped the
snow into 20 foot drifts.
Chickasha, Oklahoma ■ Friday, December 20, 2002
LI>- l-.---*—T
Lawton 33 K1 dud McAlester 33 «O
Index
Sports.............6
Religion..........4
Classifieds......7-9
Crossword......10
Date Book
Friday. Dec. 20,2002
Today is the 354th day of
2002 and the 90th day of fa).
TODAY'S HISTORY: On
—
Lott resigns
as Senate
Republican
Leader
WASHINGTON - Bow-
ing to pressure from his
fellow senators and the
Bush White House, Sen.
Trent Lott resigned his
position as Senate majority
leader on Friday after his
colleagues openly began
lining up behind Tennessee
Sen. Bill Frist.
“In the interest of pursu-
ing the best possible agen-
da for the future of our
country, I will not seek to
remain as majority leader
of the United States Senate
for the 108th Congress,
effective Jan. 6, 2003,”
Lott said in a written state-
ment. “To all those who
offered me their friendship,
support and prayers, I will
be eternally grateful. I will
continue to serve the peo-
ple of Mississippi in the
United States Senate.”
With Lott’s departure,
the only declared candidate
for his post so far has been
Frist, a close ally of Presi-
dent Bush. Frist, who made
his candidacy known
Thursday evening, had
garnered public support
from several senators
before Lott announced his
decision.
But Republican Sens.
Mitch McConnell of Ken-
tucky and Rick Santorum
of Pennsylvania also were
considered possible rivals
for the job.                - we
The 51 GOP senators
who will serve in the next
Congress plan to meet Jan.
6 to decide who their next
leader will be.
Lott’s methodical resig-
nation — a terse statement
released from the office of
Senate Republican leader
here — culminated a
weeks-long controversy
over Lott's racially insensi-
tive comments.
His decision amounted
to a 1 80-degree about-face.
Earlier this week, Lott
had vowed to stay and
fight, saying that “I was
elected by the people of
Mississippi to a six year
term. ... I have a contract
and I’m going to fulfill it.”
Lott’s fall followed a
tribute that Lott gave earli-
er this month at Sen. Strom
Thurmond’s 100th birth-
day party.
The Mississippian at the
time hailed the venerable
South Carolinian and said
he thought the nation
would have been better off
if Thurmond had won his
campaign for the presiden-
cy in 1948. Thurmond ran
as a Dixiecrat at the time,
on a mostly segregationist
platform.
One Republican official
said that Lott’s office had
informed White House
officials beforehand of his
decision. Despite specula-
tion that Lott would
See Lott, Page 3______