Jenks Tribune, Digital Issue 41 - May 22, 2020

FRIDAY, MAY 22, 2020

JENKSTRIBUNE.COM

City Enters Phase 2 Of Reopening TULSA ER & HOSPITAL DOES THEIR PART AND FORGIVES DEBT

POPULAR JPS TEACHER RETIRES

FOUR JENKS STUDENTS NAMED ACADEMIC ALL-STATE

DUSTIN HUGHES NAMED JHS WRESTLING COACH 807 East A Street Jenks, OK 74037

Call or text us 918-955-8152 biergartenjenks.com

‘Opening Jenks’ Phase 2 Underway

By Kyle Salomon

Two weeks following the initial phase of “Opening Jenks” began, Phase 2 commenced last Friday.

Ordinance No. 1517 repealing Ordinance Nos. 1510, 1511 and 1513 to lift restrictions in Jenks imposed due to COVID-19 pandemic passed unanimously at the April 27 special City Council meeting.

Phase 1 went into effect May 1.

“Opening Jenks” follows state guidance and includes local specific guidance.

Phase 2 is a continuation of Phase 1. A larger number of people can gather.

All businesses are allowed to open, including bars.

The Oklahoma Aquarium will open its doors a little wider.

There are no forced paths in the facility in Phase 2 and people can purchase tickets on site and not just online.

In Phase 1, the skate park at Veteran’s Park and Bark West were open, but now in Phase 2, playground equipment will also be open. However, park restrooms will remain closed.

City leadership and City Council still recommend adhering to social distancing guidelines, avoiding gathering in groups of 50 or more (in Phase Two) and limiting contact with others as much as possible.

“Local hospital availability has held steady through phase one, so we’re cautiously optimistic about the second phase of reopening for now,” Jenks Mayor Robert Lee said. “We’re still encouraging people to limit their public activities, keep their distance, and wear masks. We’re still seeing new daily infections, so do whatever you can to avoid being one of those people we’re counting.”

Tulsa Er & Hospital Forgives $2.1 Million Of Patient Medical Debt Submitted Tulsa ER & Hospital, located in the Tulsa Hills area, is announcing that it will forgive $2.1 Million dollars of current outstanding medical debt for patients who received service at the physician-owned hospital from December 2019 until April 1, 2020.

Dr. Mark Blubaugh, Medical Director for Tulsa ER & Hospital, explains, “In the midst of the pandemic, many individuals are struggling financially. This is our way of helping our community and the people that have supported our facility.”

There is no application or petition process required for previous patients to qualify for the debt forgiveness, and it will be applied automatically.

Tulsa ER & Hospital has initiated a Dual Care program to help alleviate concerns about COVID-19 by creating a separate entrance, lobby, and treatment area for COVID-19 patients.

The debt forgiveness program allows Tulsa ER & Hospital to alleviate patients’ concerns on the financial side as well.

“Fewer people have been going to the emergency room to seek treatment, in part due to concerns about COVID-19, but also because of financial hardship. Many patients are delaying medical care right now, and as emergency providers on the front line, we see the unintended consequences every day. It’s heartbreaking to see so some patients delay emergency care for issues that should be addressed quickly. We have had patients with strokes, heart attacks, and abdominal pain present long after the window of opportunity for optimal treatment,” states Dr. Blubaugh.

Patients should not delay their emergencies out of financial concerns. Most commercial insurances have generously agreed to cover patients’ out pocket expenses for COVID-19 related treatment and testing at this time. In situations where a payor does not cover these expenses, Tulsa ER & Hospital will be waiving patients out of pocket expense during the COVID-19 emergency period.

For emergencies unrelated to COVID-19, Tulsa ER & Hospital offers payment plans and flexible options. Tulsa ER & Hospital proudly offers patients and employers straightforward cash pricing options that are available on our webpage. Patients can call or text Tulsa ER & Hospital at 918-517-6300 24 hours a day, seven days a week should they have any questions or concerns.

FRIDAY, MAY 22, 2020

JENKSTRIBUNE.COM

J. David Jewelry Owners Give Back To Healthcare Workers With ‘Angel Wings’ Submitted On March 22, J. David Jewelry did what other businesses across the state were told to do. Both showrooms closed, which meant their 3D printers used for making stunning custom design pieces would not be creating jewelry.

Joy in the Cause is a local-to-Oklahoma non-profit whose mission is to provide care, compassion, and joy, one personal act of kindness at a time.

“Our partnership with Lisa Bain and Joy in the Cause is special to me,” Joel Wiland added. “Lisa and her team truly are the warriors in all of this.

Their volunteers have hand-sewn over 6000 face Owners Joel and Kendra Wiland made the decision masks and given them to healthcare workers that their 3D printing capability would be put to and first responders. Angel Wings was a natural good use, benefiting the community and frontline partnership that has affected so many.” heroes. They began creating what are now known as “Angel Wings.”

You can get your own reusable straps that will drastically increase the comfort of your face masks “Our Angel Wings have been shipped all across on their new website: www.angelwings.life the country,” stated Joel Wiland, “to those on the front lines, first respon​ders, and to those in need, and the demand continues to grow.”

One of the biggest complaints people have of face masks is how they rest on people’s ears. The Angel Wings take the masks off of their ears, making them much more comfortable for constant, everyday wear.

“We are trying to make healthcare workers around the country a little more comfortable,” stated Kendra Wiland. “For every Angel Wing we have sold to the public, J. David Jewelry gifts another to Joy in the Cause, to distribute them to frontline healthcare workers and first responders.”

Shop Small. Shop Local.

Hire 381 Creative For All Your Graphic Design And Marketing Needs!

Jinger Wiesman Owner/Graphic Designer 381creative.com 918.813.0654

HEARING FROM T HE OWNER’S BOX

Chase Your Futures, But Don’t Forget Where It All Started

By Kyle Salomon Graduating from high school is one of the most significant events a person goes through in his or her life I remember walking across the stage at the Mabee Center 14 years ago, hearing my name called and receiving my diploma.

At that point, it began to sink in that I was a graduate of Jenks High School and felt like the world was finally opened to me.

It breaks my heart for the students of the class of 2020 that they are not getting the chance to finish their senior years in a normal way or getting the chance to go through normal graduation procedures due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, there is no doubt in my mind that this group of young men and women will be as ready as any class before them to take on what the real world has to offer. They have been through the Teacher Walkout of 2018 as sophomores, the Historic Arkansas River Flood of 2019 as juniors and now the Coronavirus pandemic as seniors.

Needless to say, the senior class of 2020 is battle-tested.

The outstanding people, who lead Jenks Public Schools, have worked tirelessly to make sure these graduates get to experience at least a version of a graduation.

A virtual graduation took place Monday and that is thanks to Jenks Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Stacey Butterfield, the Jenks Public Schools Board of Education, the Jenks Public Schools Administration and all the teachers and faculty for their hard work and preparation in making this time as special as possible for this group of students.

There is still hope for a traditional commencement ceremony on June 26 at the Mabee Center in Tulsa. I truly hope that event can occur because walking across stage and hearing your name called is one of the most memorable moments of your life.

I want to close by saying thank you to this senior class. Thank you for your hard work, your determination, your resiliency in tough times and your willingness to sacrifice and put others first.

You have been an inspiration to all of us in the Jenks community and we all look forward to watching what you accomplish in the near and long-term future.

As important as it is to move forward and press on with your lives, it is equally important to always remember where you came from and who helped you along the way.

Best Of Luck Jenks High School Senior Class Of 2020.

Go Get Em! Sincerely, Kyle Salomon Owner, Publisher Jenks Tribune ksalomon@jenkstribune.com

Founded, owned, operated and published by Hyperlocal LLC 329 S. Elm Street | Suite #201 Jenks, Oklahoma 74037 Phone: 918-528-7272 | Fax: 918-528-5605 | jenkstribune.com

Jenks Tribune Staff

Kyle Salomon Owner Hyperlocal LLC Publisher: Jenks Tribune

Jinger Wiesman Creative Director/ Advertising Executive Jenks Tribune

Office | 918-528-7272 Mobile | 918-231-0787

Office | 918-528-7272 Mobile | 918-813-0654

ksalomon@jenkstribune.com

jwiesman@jenkstribune.com

Jenks Tribune Mission Statement “We are the Jenks community’s hometown source for hyperlocal news, sports and information that the people of our community need to know.”

Hughes Set To Take Over Jenks Wrestling Program Jenks Public Schools, in conjunction with the Jenks Athletic Department, has announced Dustin Hughes as the new head wrestling coach at Jenks High School.

Hughes, who graduated from Jenks in 2003, takes over for Ray Weis, who retired this past winter after 20 years of guiding the Trojans on the mat.

“I am incredibly humbled and honored to become the head coach at Jenks,” Hughes said. “This is such a special place with a strong tradition of excellence, and I’m thrilled to accept this position. I’m especially grateful to our superintendent, Dr. (Stacey) Butterfield, and to our athletic director, Tony Dillingham, for giving me the opportunity to lead this team. I want to thank Ray Weis for being my coach, colleague and friend. He set a great example for me, and I know all of the things I learned from him will serve me well in this new role.”

Hughes graduated from Oklahoma Baptist University in 2008 and received his master’s degree in Sports Administration in Secondary Education from East Central University in 2009. He has worked the last seven years as a physical education teacher at the Jenks Freshman Academy.

In addition to his teaching duties, Hughes has served as an assistant coach for the Jenks wrestling, baseball, and softball programs. Prior to arriving at Jenks, the 35-year old Hughes was a teacher and assistant coach in Claremore and Bixby.

“We are excited to bring Coach Hughes into this position, and we know he will provide exceptional leadership and guidance to our student-athletes,” Dillingham said. “Coach Hughes is a product of this program. He understands the culture, as well as the expectations. We know the future is extremely bright for the Jenks wrestling program.

During his time as a Trojan wrestler, Hughes recorded 100 career wins. The four-year letter winner was a state runner-up, a two-time regional champion, and a three-time state qualifier.

Hughes was also a part of a football state championship and a baseball state championship in his tenure as a Trojan athlete.

FRIDAY, MAY 22, 2020

JENKSTRIBUNE.COM

In this time of uncertainty, let this be your assurance;

“I will walk you through your real estate needs whether buying or selling in the safest of manners for all public health.”

Please give me a call and let’s discuss.

Bringing the Best in Real Estate to Jenks Andrea Salomon

Sales Executive | Coldwell Banker Select 8990 S Sheridan | Tulsa OK 74133

Asalomon@cbtulsa.com AndreasHomeSite.com | 918.231.0957

Gill Retires Following More Than Three Decades Of Impacting Students’ Lives

By Kyle Salomon Long-term educator Deborah Gill retired this year from her multi-decade teaching career.

Gill taught in the Oklahoma public school system for 27 years and at the collegiate level with Tulsa Community College for 12 years with several of those years overlapping.

Quite a few of those years were spent teaching at Jenks High School, where she completed her final year last Friday.

The Jenks Tribune has the chance to talk with Gill in a Question and Answer session about her career and how teaching has impacted her life and so many others she has taught.

Jenks Tribune: How many years have you taught and where and what all did you teach?

Deborah Gill: I began teaching at Chelsea High School where I taught 11th and 12 grade English and newspaper. I was just four years older than my students and when I decided to start my graduate work at OSU (Oklahoma State University) that summer, some of my students were on the campus as well. Two students even asked me to be in their wedding.

While I was working on my Masters in Curriculum and Instruction and commuting to Stillwater, I met a group of teachers from Sapulpa who encouraged me to interview there.

That’s how I began teaching ninth-grade English and newspaper at what was then Sapulpa Junior High. Doing the newspaper was interesting then... I truthfully went to the press in the basement of the administration building and set type. I would come home with ink all over me. I left SJH a couple of weeks prior to the birth of my first child and stayed home with our three children while they were little.

I returned to teaching as an adjunct professor at TCC (Tulsa Community College) when my youngest was in school full day and began teaching freshman composition I and II (mostly II).

TCC continued to be my part-time position until we were about to have two children in college at the same time and full-time employment looked like a good idea.

I returned to Sapulpa, this time at the High School, where I taught American Literature and AP English Literature and while continuing teaching night courses at TCC. When Jenks High School offered me a position, I made the move to teach English 12 and AP English Literature. It was a natural transition. My own three children had attended Jenks, and I had modeled my AP Lit curriculum after what I had known from their teachers at JHS. As you can tell, my teaching career is not as smooth as some, but it’s been good. I believe according to the State of Oklahoma, I have taught 27 years public schools and 12 years at TCC (some of that overlapping).

JT: What made you want to be a teacher and when did you first know you wanted to teach?

DG: When I was a teenager and babysat children, we would “play school.” That should have been my first hint that it would be my vocation. However, teaching was not my first job out of college; I was a copywriter for an advertising agency on the public relations side. I had accepted that job early my senior year in college, but an interesting thing had happened in the meantime that made my tenure in the business world short: my mother (who had worked as an admin assistant in the schools) had asked me to get my teaching certificate while earning my Bachelor of Arts in English. This meant my last semester of college would include student teaching. That’s where and when I began to suspect I would be a teacher. I loved it. The kids were fun, the material interesting, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. When I went to a 9-5 job in an office, it paled in comparison. I looked for and found the teaching position in Chelsea and left my very brief stint in the corporate world.

JT: Talk about how teaching has changed throughout your career.

DG: Programs seem to come and go; many times, the ideas are something heard before, but they get renamed (and revised).

So, the exterior of teaching can look different. But the heart of teaching – loving kids, helping them become the best they can be, believing in the material and how it can improve them – that hasn’t changed.

One example of a change would be with teaching research.

When I first started teaching research, it was all about card catalogs, etc. Now the well of information is deeper, a positive and a negative. Much more information availability, but much less reliability. Before, I was primarily concerned with teaching students they should back their opinion with sources. While that obviously is still a concern, now I concentrate on checking the source’s reliability.

JT: Talk about how teaching has remained the same throughout your career.

DG: Let’s see if I can explain this well. Say I had a visual representation of the student when I first began teaching; the concentration, I believe, would be on the development of the mind, with little attention paid to the rest – that simply wasn’t a concern of most educators. However, my own senior English teacher was very innovative; she individualized her curriculum to fit the student’s future plans. At the time I remember being very impressed. Those of us going to college did this. . .those who weren’t, did that. All with the idea of preparing for our future. She was the unusual teacher then; today, her approach is more the expectation. A visual representation today would be more concerned about the entire body of the student – if he’s hungry, we try to do something about it, if he’s having a difficult time, we try to do something about it. I think today we recognize the student has more needs than the purely academic that we formerly concentrated on.

JT: What has teaching taught you?

DG: How fun it is to learn and that there is always something to learn.

JT: If you could pick one thing that makes teaching special, what would it be?

DG: The opportunity to be with young people. That is what I am going to miss.

JT: Many teachers become principals or administrators in education, what made you want to stay teaching?

DG: The learning is what is fun and learning with the students is the best. I get that in the classroom regularly and I love talking literature. I admit it.

JT: How have you grown as a teacher from your first day to your final day?

DG: Well, when I took my first AP Lit position, I realized I was not as well read as I should be. So, I started and developed a love of the classics – I like how reading them tickled my brain and made me think. Later, technology took a big front seat in the classroom and I am still learning more in this area – recognizing how this can serve the classroom without letting it overwhelm me.

JT: How has your family been supportive throughout your career?

DG: When I have an idea of introducing a new work or method, I will sometimes run it by them and see what they think. They are good to give me feedback.

JT: What advice would you give a young teacher or someone who is studying to be a teacher?

DG: Learn where your students are, meet them there and help them get where you want them; get to know your students – it’s a great opportunity to meet some really wonderful people and it also helps in establishing what the class needs to know.

Each year is different – what worked last year may not with this year’s group, so realize there is usually more than one way to get to the goal. Don’t be afraid to admit when you don’t know something – the students will appreciate your honesty and together you can figure out a way to learn it. It is hard work, there’s no denying it – but it is so, so worthwhile.

Jenks 2020 Graduate Maleah Crawford Selected To TU Cheer Team

By Kyle Salomon

Jenks High School 2020 graduate Maleah Crawford is getting the opportunity to continue doing what she loves at the collegiate level.

Maleah was selected to the University of Tulsa cheer squad last Friday after a stellar career with the Jenks High School cheer program.

“When I found out, I was so excited, especially to have the chance to be on a football field and a basketball court for another four years,” Maleah said. “That is my favorite part of cheerleading is leading the crowd and getting involved in the community.”

Maleah spent her sophomore through senior years at Jenks High School after transferring from Bixby. She said there is nothing like the Jenks cheer team.

“It is such a tight-knit group of girls,” Maleah said. “They are all so supportive and encouraging. I have never been on a team like the one we had this year. I think the spirit we had on this year’s team is definitely what pushed us to win state.”

The Jenks High School cheer squad won the 6A state championship last fall. Maleah it was an amazing experience.

“I don’t know that I expected us to win state at the beginning of the season,” Maleah said. “Then, as we started to get our routine, I saw how much effort everyone was bringing every day. It was a great way to go out as a senior.”

Maleah started cheerleading when she was in seventh grade, and immediately enjoyed the relationships she was able to form because of it. She said she had to go three weeks without tumbling because of the COVID-19 lockdown but was able to work herself back into shape in time before the University of Tulsa cheer tryouts.

“The tryouts were supposed to take place the weekend of April 18 and 19, but we had to do a video audition because of the virus,” Maleah said. “We had to introduce ourselves and say why we wanted to be a Tulsa cheerleader and why it was important to us.

Then, we did a few jumps, kicks and splits and then did a cheer, so I did the J-E-N-K-S cheer. We finished by doing some standing tumbling and running tumbling.”

All those trying out to be on the TU cheer team had to submit her audition video to Tulsa by May 8.

Maleah said she has always placed a big value on academics and that played a role in her choosing to attend the University of Tulsa and she plans on majoring in psychology with a pre-med track and minor in Spanish and biomedical engineering.

“I am excited to make new friends and continue being a role model through cheerleading and pushing myself in every way possible,” Maleah said. “When I think back on my time with the Jenks cheer team, I am going to remember the practices and forming memories. We had a lot of fun moments and formed a lot of lasting relationships.”

Burge Signs With Ottawa Jenks High School senior Mia Burge signed a letter of intent in March to play collegiate volleyball at Ottawa University in Ottawa, Kansas. Burge was instrumental last fall in helping the Jenks volleyball team make a 6A state tournament run.

Everybody and their dog is reading the Jenks Tribune.

YOU SHOULD BE ADVERTISING!

Four Jenks Students Named Academic All-State Four Jenks High School seniors have been named Academic All-Staters by the Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence.

Aadesh Bajaj, Michael Hwang, Jackson Jeffries, and Mark Mills were honored last weekend in a special tribute by the Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence and OETA. With the cancellation of its May 16 Academic Awards Banquet due to COVID-19, the Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence partnered with OETA Public Television to broadcast a 30-minute tribute to award winning-students and educators.

The program will also be shown on OETA World Channel at 8:30 p.m. Monday and 7:30 p.m. May 30.

The program, featuring videos submitted by the 2020 Academic All-Staters and other special guests, will be hosted by longtime Tulsa television anchor Scott Thompson, a trustee of the Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence. The program is produced in partnership with Red Rock Video Services of Edmond.

“When we learned that our Academic Awards Banquet would need to be canceled, we immediately began seeking creative ways to give our honorees the statewide recognition and honor they deserve,” said Emily Stratton, executive director of the foundation. “OETA has been a loyal supporter of our Academic Awards Program, broadcasting our banquet for many years. We are so grateful they agreed to help us pay special tribute to our award winners through a broadcast to premiere May 16 the same evening we would have held our banquet.”

The televised program will honor 100 of the state’s top public high school seniors as Academic All-Staters.

Selected from 495 nominations statewide, the student honorees hail from 75 schools in 69 Oklahoma school districts.

The 2020 Academic All-State class is the 34th to be selected by the Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence in what has been described as “Oklahoma’s most rigorous academic competition.”

Church Directory Beaver Street Baptist Church 102 W. Beaver Street Service times: 9:30am Sunday 10:45am Sunday 6pm Sunday Crossroads Church 2525 W. Main Street Service times: 10:30am Sunday 6pm Sunday 6:45pm Wednesday Dove Ministry 2833 W. Main Street Service times: 10:30am Sunday 6pm Sunday First Baptist Church 11701 S. Elm Street Service times: 8:30am Sunday 9:45am Sunday 11am Sunday First Christian Church 308 E. Main Street Service times: 9:45am Sunday 10:45am Sunday First Jenks United Methodist Church 415 E. Main Street Service times: 8:45am Sunday 10am Sunday 11:15am Sunday

Since the award program’s inception in 1987, some 3,400 high school seniors from 326 school districts have been named Academic All-State scholars. Each of this year’s All-Staters will receive a $1,000 merit-based scholarship and a medallion. This year’s All-Staters scored an average of 33.9 on the ACT, with 15 recipients scoring a perfect 36.

The students’ average GPA was 4.20. In addition, 40 of this year’s All-Staters are National Merit semifinalists, and two are National Hispanic Scholar semifinalists.

The program will also recognize five innovative publicschool educators as recipients of its $5,000 Oklahoma Medal for Excellence Awards. This year’s honorees are elementary teaching winner Michelle Rahn, a sixth-grade STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) teacher at Will Rogers Junior High in Claremore; secondary recipient Shelley Self, an art teacher at Coweta High School; elementary/secondary administration winner Chuck McCauley, superintendent of Bartlesville Public Schools; regional university/community college teaching winner Dr. David Bass, professor of biology at the University of Central Oklahoma, Edmond; and research university teaching recipient Dr. Edralin Lucas, professor of nutritional sciences, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater.

Educator and author Erin Gruwell, who was scheduled to be the keynote speaker for this year’s Academic Awards Banquet, plans to deliver the address at the 2021 banquet.

All 2020 honorees will be invited to attend next year’s banquet as guests of the foundation. The annual gala event, which is attended by nearly 1,000 people, has been described as the” Academy Awards of public education in Oklahoma.”

The Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence is a nonprofit, charitable organization founded in 1985 to recognize and encourage academic excellence in Oklahoma’s public schools. Through its Academic Awards Program, the foundation has awarded more than $4.8 million in meritbased scholarships and cash awards to outstanding students and educators.

Following the OETA broadcasts, the tribute will also be available on the Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence website at www.ofe.org.

Jenks Bethel Baptist Church 11808 S. Elm Street Service times: 11am Sunday Jenks Bible Church 708 W. Main St Service times: 10am Sunday 6:30pm Wednesday Jenks Church 1015 W. Main Street Service times: 10am Sunday Kirk Crossing 11420 S. James Avenue Service times: 9am Sunday 10:30am Sunday Life Church Jenks 890 W. 81st Street Service times: 4pm Saturday 5:30pm Saturday 8:30am Sunday 10am Sunday 11:30am Sunday 1pm Sunday 4pm Sunday 5:30pm Sunday 7pm Monday

Newspring Family Church 2907 W. 108th Place South Service times: 9:30am Sunday 10:30am Sunday River Oaks Christian Church 300 N. Elm Street Service times: 9:30am Sunday 10:30am Sunday 6:30pm Sunday St. James Presbyterian Church 11970 S. Elm Street Service times: 10:30am Sunday The Church at Jenks 2101 W. 118th Street 9am Sunday 11am Sunday The Connecting Co. 1737 W. 81st Street Service times: 10am Sunday

FRIDAY, MAY 22, 2020

JENKSTRIBUNE.COM

Oklahoma Restaurant Promise Provides Dining Confidence With Restaurant Openings The Oklahoma Restaurant Association recently announced the launch of The Oklahoma Restaurant Promise.

The objective of the ORP is to help restaurants instill confidence with customers as they choose to return to dine-in service at Oklahoma restaurants. The Promise communicates a restaurant’s pledge for the safety of their staff and customers by following the six elements of the Promise.

The Oklahoma Restaurant Promise ties directly to the COVID-19 Food Establishment Reopening Guidance enacted by Governor Kevin Stitt, which went into effect May 1. With restaurants and their customers working together to follow the guidelines, Oklahoma restaurants can reopen and keep employees and the dining public safe.

Led by the Oklahoma Restaurant Association, a task force made up of independent and chain restaurant operators, and Oklahoma health officials provided Governor Kevin Stitt and his team with a recommended set of guidelines to support the reopening of Oklahoma restaurants. Those recommendations were a part of developing what is now known as the COVID-19 Food Establishment Reopening Guidance.

“The Oklahoma restaurant industry has an outstanding track record of protecting our employees and guests. As a way to help combat the spread of the COVID-19 virus, restaurants are more than willing to make these promises and follow the industry-approved sanitation practices, as well as other new helpful practices and protocols provided by state health officials,” said Jim Hopper, President & CEO of the Oklahoma Restaurant Association.

The Oklahoma Promise includes the following six promises restaurants will make, to the extent reasonably practicable, to customers: 1) The availability of hand sanitizer; 2) Cleaning all tables and chairs after every use 3) Proper cleaning or disposing of menus, condiments,

utensils and place setting after every use 4) Complying with social distancing guidelines, 5) Continuing to train staff members on proper food

safety practices and, 6) Posting the Oklahoma Restaurant Promise sign at the

front entrance of the restaurant for customers to

view.

Any foodservice establishment that is reopening its dining room and other full-service areas may participate in the ORP by complying with its promises. Posters communicating the restaurant’s participation in the initiative are available in both English and Spanish and can be found on the ORA’s website.

Southern Hills Country Club Awarded 2030 PGA Championship

“We hoped it would be earlier, but we always knew that this was the most likely outcome,” Johnson said. “There was a reason they put that date in there and would not commit to anything earlier. So this is not surprising.”

The announcement means that future PGA sites are confirmed for the next decade, with the exception of 2025.

With TPC Harding Park hosting for the first time later this summer, the tournament will then head to Kiawah Island (2021), Trump Bedminster (2022), Oak Hill (2023), Valhalla (2024), Aronimink (2026), PGA Frisco (2027), Olympic (2028) and Baltusrol (2029), with Congressional succeeding Southern Hills as the 2031 host.

As expected, the PGA of America went to the end of its window to award Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa a record fifth PGA Championship, choosing the date of 2030, the last year in the span in which it had originally promised the club when it announced in 2017 that the 2021 Kitchenaid Senior PGA Championship would be held there and the PGA Championship “no later than 2030.”

“We’re excited to host the 2030 PGA Championship,” said Southern Hills General Manager Nick Sidorakis. “It will be great for the city and for the members of Southern Hills.

We look forward to our continued partnership with the PGA in hosting the 2021 Senior PGA Championship. It’s been a long time since we had championship golf here and we’re excited, optimistic and hopeful that we’ll be able to conduct the championship as normal with the virus situation.”

Sidorakis was spending Tuesday overseeing the reopening of the Southern Hills dining facilities for the first time in more than six weeks. The club has largely reopened except for banquets, the pool and limited access to the training facilities.

Once the PGA of America announced it was moving its headquarters to Frisco, Texas and would host the 2027 championship on the Gil Hanse design there now under construction, it was known that Southern Hills was either going to get 2025 or 2030, with most expecting Quail Hollow in Charlotte, N.C., to be awarded the 2025 event.

A site for that year has yet to be named but it’s merely a formality now.

Andy Johnson, who was president of Southern Hills when the contract with the PGA of America was signed in 2016, said he was not surprised at the 2030 date.

The 2030 date leaves a nine-year gap between PGA championships. However the club will host the Trans-Miss Championship in 2023 and will consider rescheduling the Big 12 Championship that was to be held in April. It is also in discussions with the USGA about potentially hosting one of its amateur championships in the 2024-25 time frame.

The last USGA event at Southern Hills was the 2009 U.S. Amateur Championship.

Founded in 1936, Southern Hills has hosted seven previous major championships, beginning with the 1958 U.S. Open, won by Tommy Bolt, through Tiger Woods’ PGA Championship triumph in 2007, when he captured the Wanamaker Trophy for the fourth time.

Southern Hills hosted the 1970 PGA Championship (won by Dave Stockton), 1977 U.S. Open (Hubert Green), 1982 PGA Championship (Raymond Floyd), 1994 PGA Championship (Nick Price) and 2001 U.S. Open (Retief Goosen).

“Few American golf venues match the legacy and record of excellence of Southern Hills Country Club,” said then PGA of America President Paul Levy in 2017. “Some of our sport’s greatest names have walked these fairways and etched their name in major championship history.

The PGA of America is proud to once again connect with Southern Hills, its membership and the great sports fans of Oklahoma. We are confident Southern Hills will continue to attract respective world-class fields for both the PGA Championship and the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship.”

Southern Hills completed an $11 million renovation by Hanse in 2019 and members say the course is more difficult than ever but also in spectacular condition. Southern Hills has already set a record for corporate sales for the 2021 Kitchenaid Senior PGA Championship.

Thank you Doctors and Nurses for all you do!

- The Jenks Tribune Staff