A Spanish factory now calls Elk City home. Escofet, a 140-year-old Spanish company that makes concrete benches, tables, and building facades for public spaces, opened its first United States production plant right here in Elk City, cutting the ribbon the week of Oct. 19. The roughly 32,000-square-foot plant starts with six employees and plans to grow to somewhere between 40 and 60 jobs as production ramps up, shipping products to projects across the country. Executives said they spent about two years choosing a site and picked Elk City for its raw materials, interstate access, central location, and workforce. Elk City native Jennifer Cain is a co-founder and the office manager, and Escofet US is led by Jorge Tomás Cortés. Companies can build anywhere; this one looked at the whole country and chose us. (The Penny News, Oct. 23)
Sales tax: Elk City leads the region. The Oklahoma Tax Commission’s October distribution — mostly August and early September sales — put Elk City at the top of western Oklahoma. Elk City received $1,521,727.08, up 12% from $1,358,887.11 a year earlier, a gain of nearly $163,000. Weatherford was up 24% and Clinton up 36.6%, while Sayre was the only city surveyed to decline. Statewide distributions rose 9.4%. Sales tax is the money that paves streets, runs the pool, and finishes projects like the animal shelter below, so a second straight double-digit month is the kind of boring news that pays for interesting things. (Kool 94 / The Penny News, Oct. 28)
The Elks’ playoff push ran into Clinton. Elk City’s football season took a hard turn Friday night, as Clinton beat the Elks 42–21 in the rivalry game on Oct. 30, according to The Oklahoman’s Week 9 scoreboard. A week earlier, Elk City had won its second straight, beating Douglass 34–12 to keep its playoff hopes flickering. The Clinton loss drops the Elks to 2–7 overall and 1–4 in District 4A-1. The regular season closes Friday, Nov. 6 at Bethany at 7 p.m. — a pride game now, and a chance to send the seniors out with something to feel good about. (The Oklahoman, Oct. 30)
Community and regional activity
Jimmy Webb came home — and you can still watch it. “Great Performances – Jimmy Webb: American Songwriter,” filmed at the Elk City native’s sold-out homecoming concert at Oklahoma State’s McKnight Center, premiered nationwide on PBS on Oct. 30. Webb, who turned 80 in August, performs songs like “Wichita Lineman,” “By the Time I Get to Phoenix,” and “Galveston” with Vince Gill, Lyle Lovett, and Ashley Campbell, and producers believe it is the first “Great Performances” episode ever filmed in Oklahoma. If you missed the premiere, OETA has another airing Thursday, Nov. 5. A kid from Elk City wrote some of the most recorded songs in American music; set the DVR. (The Oklahoman, Oct. 29)
Rabid skunk reminder — this one still matters. Health officials are still asking anyone who may have encountered a skunk near Great Plains Regional Medical Center in mid-October to call them. The skunk, found in the parking lot near the hospital’s patient intake entrance and captured around noon on Thursday, Oct. 15, tested positive for rabies. Rabies is deadly once symptoms appear, but a prompt evaluation after exposure can determine whether treatment is needed, and it is not too late to check. The Oklahoma State Department of Health’s epidemiologist on call can be reached at 405-426-8710, around the clock. Keep your pets’ rabies shots current, too. (The Penny News, Oct. 19)
Saturday bus service — Red River wants to know. Red River Transportation is surveying local communities about whether there is a need for Saturday transportation service. If you or someone in your family would use Saturday rides — to work, to shop, to a doctor — this is the survey that decides whether it happens. It is posted in the Elk City OK Community Discussion group on Facebook and at surveymonkey.com/r/RRTOnDemand. Two minutes now beats no bus later.
Politics
Today is Election Day. Polls are open today, Tuesday, Nov. 3, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. at your assigned polling place, and anyone in line by 7 p.m. can vote. Two things Elk City voters should know: Beckham County’s only early voting site was in Sayre, so if you planned to vote early here, that ship sailed Saturday — today at your regular polling place is the way — and there is no Elk City city question on this ballot that we could find in any state or local listing. Your local content is the county, state, and federal races and the two state questions, SQ 845 on judicial nominating and SQ 847 on property tax assessment caps. Check your sample ballot on the OK Voter Portal at oklahoma.gov/elections before you go.
The animal shelter is moving — slowly. Commissioners approved an $8,025 change order to Nebhut Construction for the new animal shelter, which moves the facility from South Main Street to a building directly south of the airport, on the old juvenile center site. Mayor Micah Kilhoffer said out loud what a lot of residents have been saying: the timeline has frustrated people, with delays blamed on getting equipment, materials, and workers on site. The project is in the plumbing and electrical stage, after which finish work can start — but no completion date was announced. Credit to the mayor for naming the frustration instead of pretending it is not there; now the town is watching for that finish date. (The Penny News, Oct. 29)
Commission business and city money. The commission’s recent documented agenda included accepting a $156,569 state Rural Health Transformation grant for an EMS/community paramedicine vehicle, a FEMA grant toward a new fire tanker, and more than $540,000 in progress payments on the FY2025 Water Main Improvements project, plus $272,465.90 toward Elk City CAPP Park. The commission was scheduled to meet again Monday, Nov. 2 at 2 p.m. at City Hall, 320 W. 3rd St. Also on the civic calendar: the Library Board meets today, Nov. 3, at 4:30 p.m. at the library, 221 W. Broadway. Two longer-term items worth watching: the Chamber received a $211,250 Project 66 grant to renovate and light Parker Drilling Rig #114 for the Route 66 centennial, and city officials are continuing plans to expand Fairlawn Municipal Cemetery as burial spaces run short. (City of Elk City; The Penny News)
Events
It is a school-calendar week in Elk City — light on festivals, heavy on kids and concerts:
- Tuesday, Nov. 3: Election Day, polls 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. at assigned polling places. Elk City FFA also competes at the State LDE Contest in Stillwater from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., and the Library Board meets at 4:30 p.m. at the Elk City Public Library.
- Wednesday, Nov. 4: EC Football Booster Meeting, 6 to 8 p.m., in the ECHS Commons.
- Thursday, Nov. 5: ECHS Prism Concert, 7 to 8:30 p.m. at Elk City High School — and if you would rather stay in, catch the OETA airing of the Jimmy Webb “Great Performances” special Thursday night.
- Friday, Nov. 6: Elk City football closes the regular season at Bethany at 7 p.m. Make the drive and be loud; it is Bethany’s Senior Night, but it is our seniors’ last regular-season game too.
- Saturday, Nov. 7: Elk City band students travel to Elgin for the SWOBDA All-Region Honor Band, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.
- Sunday, Nov. 8: St. Matthew Women’s Bazaar and Turkey Dinner at St. Matthew Catholic Church in Elk City — an annual fall favorite. Recent listings had a garbled serving time, and past years ran late morning to early afternoon, so check the Beckham County Record events calendar or call the church before you go hungry. The Vogue Boutique on N. Main has also posted a Christmas Open House for Sunday afternoon, 1 to 5 p.m.
- Coming soon: Elk City FFA Labor Auction, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 6 to 8:30 p.m. at the Elk City Civic Center, and the ECHS Choir Veterans Day Program on Wednesday, Nov. 11.
Gossip Corner
The post all of Elk City read this weekend came from an Elk City woman. For the last two Halloween nights, her family has left a candy bowl out while they take their own girls trick-or-treating, so the house still plays along even when nobody is home. Sunday morning they found the bowl empty and checked their cameras: a grown man had emptied the entire bowl into his two children’s bags while his wife watched — and, as the post pointed out, his own kids were questioning him while he did it, because even they knew it was not right. The homeowner declined to post the video or screenshots out of respect for the children’s privacy, which is a class act all by itself. And when her 3-year-old daughter heard there was no candy left, she offered to share from her own bucket. She is three. The post drew more than 100 reactions because it landed on something true: what you do when you think nobody is watching is who you are, and the smallest kid on the street understood the assignment better than the adult did.
The rest of Halloween was an argument — a friendly one. Some folks posted that they only saw six or seven trick-or-treaters all night and wondered whether to buy less candy next year, while another neighbor wrote in to say it was the best Halloween night in years, just like childhood, and thanked the high schoolers for a haunted trail so good one middle schooler flatly refused to go through it. Both can be true on different streets; Halloween in Elk City is alive, it is just unevenly distributed.
A few other threads to know about, handled honestly: one popular post asked, in less delicate words, why a local woman was forced to resign, and 63 comments later nobody in the thread actually seemed to know. Neither do we — no public explanation has been posted anywhere we can find, and personnel matters are rarely explained in public, so we will leave that one where it belongs until somebody official says something on the record. Another post voiced a family’s anger over a loved one’s death in a nursing home. We are not repeating claims we cannot verify, but a grieving family asking for answers deserves a real investigation, not a rumor thread, and we hope they get one.
On the lighter side: keep an eye out for Poopy, a lost dog last seen near the Elk City Walmart last week — his owner’s friend is offering a reward and posted in Elk City OK Community Discussion. Somebody in Cheyenne is giving away two free billy goats, come and get them, which is either a bargain or a warning depending on your fence. Parents compared notes on teen haircuts (yes, $30 and up seems to be the going rate, and the thread has recommendations), a mom is hunting for a daycare with an opening that takes childcare vouchers for an 18-month-old if anyone has a lead, and 65 comments’ worth of you confessed what you named your cars — Lou Lou and Beverly among them. Elk City, never change.