A Bubble Off Plumb

When I accepted the job as editor for the Watonga Republican, within a few days I had a letter from Rep. Mike Sanders congratulating me and welcoming me. It wasn’t something he had to do. It was the only letter I got from an elected state official. It just says a lot about the kind of guy he is.

Mike never failed to stop and visit if I saw him around town, at the Cheese Festival, the grocery store, anywhere. He always seemed to recognize me, even before I explained to him who I was. I always did that because the poor man probably meets a billion people a year. But he knew.

He knew about projects going on in the county and a lot of other things going on, too. I seldom used him for a source, not because he wasn’t a fine source. He was and is. But he always pointed me in the right direction to find the specialist I needed.

I never got the feeling from Mike he didn’t have time to talk or find out what I needed to know. It always seemed like he knew and understood the pressure a newspaper deadline can create.

He never tried to come off as an ‘Aw shucks good-old-boy’. He has always been professional and well spoken, presenting himself well, even when it was more than 100 degrees in the shade. Want to think you know someone? Ask them a complicated question on an Oklahoma afternoon when everyone would rather go inside and drink some sweet tea than stand around and answer complicated questions. Mike always took it like a trouper. He never got grouchy, at least not with me.

Mike Sanders has been term limited out of office this year and even with two passionate, well spoken advocates vying for his former position, we are going to miss him and his experience going to bat for us at the capital. My hope is he won’t be gone from the political spectrum for long. We need people like him representing us.

Speaking of folks we are going to miss, the manager at Roman Nose State Park, Kyle Bernis, has taken a new job and is headed for the wilds of Wyoming. I am exceedingly jealous and at the same time more than a little saddened. Kyle has been great for the park. Under his tenure there has been tremendous progress, with the new dams and overflows on the lakes, improvement to the trails and facilities, added staff and now the addition of a new restaurant at the lodge.

Beyond that Kyle was always jovial, more than willing to help sus out an answer and just plain fun to be around. Not to mention the look on people’s faces when they heard his Louisiana accent for the first time.

Both these gentlemen will be missed. We wish them well in all their new endeavors. And like anyone who is from or has spent time in this part of Oklahoma, they know they can always call on us, and call this home.

Connie Burcham can be reached at Editor@WatongaRepublican.com