Flashbacks

25 Years Ago

July 26, 1995

Honey Bees Keep Cordell’s Koehn Busy

Busy bees mean a busy Bob.

Cordell’s Bob Koehn has two million honey bees that he keeps and cares for as a hobby, albeit a big hobby. Those bees, which are housed in groups of 60,000 to 100,000 in 30 hives, produce a sweet amount of honey each year for the area’s largest apiary owner. However being a beekeeper is not a hobby for any old drone. It takes a high pain threshold, a ton of hard work in the sweltering summer heat and, not to mention, bar upon bar of hand soap.

The bees produce honey from February to October, although the prime four months are May through August. During those months, Koehn moves the bees three times to get the nectar from different crops. In May and June the bees are taken to the fields of sweet clover, then in July taken to Alfalfa Fields and finally, in late July and August they go on to cotton fields. The bees help alfalfa farmers pollinate their crop and cause alfalfa to put on seed.

Each time they are moved he must wear the stereotypical headpiece and bodysuit. But sometimes as Koehn will tell you, that is simply not enough protection. The “buckfast queens”, the type of bee he uses, can find cracks in the armor. He said they can get inside the helmet and they can find areas of the body that are thinly padded like elbows and wrists. No matter how used he is to the stings, they “still hurt”.

“The worst time I was stung was when a hive fell over one night when I was moving it. I got about 15 stings.” Koehn said.

Pee Wees Advanced To Districts

The Cordell Blue peewee team coached by Chris Kastner, Rick Cook and Chuck Megley finished the 1995 regular season with a record of 9 wins and 5 losses. Their record earned them the 4th seat in the Sentinel post season tournament. Solid Pitching performances by Cody Froneberger, Denton Ball, Bobby Abernathy coupled with timely hitting by Quinn Haws, Derrick Megley, Landon Taylor and capped by a 3 run homer by Jeff Jaronek powered the blue past the #1 seat to place 2nd in the tournament. The victory earned Cordell a birth in the peewee District tournament at Granite. Scrappy defense by Aaron Kastner and Nocona Cook kept Cordell in the game against a hard throwing powerful Blachard team which won 9-2. Cole Gregg, Levi Feltman and Chris Garrison were also mighty contributors to a very successful season.

One Fighter Plane Gone, The Other Still Grounded

One of the two OA-10 Thunderbolt II attack planes parked at Clinton Sherman Airpark in Burns Flat got it’s okay to leave the airpark late last week. But the plane which actually fired the missile that killed Capt. Christopher Williams, 29, of Houston remains grounded.

Both planes were involved in the fatal bombing incident at Lawton’s Fort Sill Army Base two weeks ago.

Crews from the planes’ home base, Barksdale Air Force Base, flew to Clinton Sherman last week and replaced an engine on one of the grounded airplanes. After a couple of days that plane was cleared to return to it’s home base in Louisiana.

The aircraft involved in the tragedy last month was still grounded awaiting inspection from the accident investigation board as of last Monday. The investigation board is headquartered in Washington, D.C. at the Pentagon.

50 Years Ago

July 23, 1970

Cordell Population Dips to 3,161 in ‘70 Census

Western Oklahoma took it on the chin again this week with announcement of tentative census figures for cities and towns.

Cordell was listed at 3,161, down from 3,589 ten years ago. The decrease had been expected after statistics released in May for counties gave Washita county 11,563, a drop from 18,121 in 1960. The census was taken after closing the Clinton Sherman Air Base and departure of nearly every military and civilian personnel.

Corn at 401 and Canute at 407 were the only municipalities in Washita county that showed population increases during the decade.

The tentative 1970 census figures for other cities and towns in Washita county were: Sentinel--953, a drop from 1,154 in 1960. Bessie--195, compared with 226 in 1960. Corn--407, a gain from 370

Final Papers Signed For Cordell Industry Bond Money Available in Late August

Cordell landed an industry last friday, July 24, when final papers were signed by the county commissioners and Robertson Industries Southwest, Inc.

Among the papers signed was a contract with Commonwealth Construction Co. of Oklahoma to build the 150 by 300 foot metal structure to house the new Roberston plant on the Cordell industrial tract. The Commonwealth firm submitted the below base bid of $239,000 last month.

Andrew Haswell, Oklahoma City bond attorney handling the transaction for the washita county industrial authority, reported Atty. Gen. G. T. Blankenship had approved the $280,000 bond issue to finance Robertson Plant on July 23.

After a 30 day protest period, Haswell said the money should be available for the start of construction about Aug. 25 or 26.