Trust authority established to build new jail

25 Years Ago

—The Sequoyah County Criminal Justice Authority, a trust, was established Monday by county commissioners to oversee the funding for and construction of the new Sequoyah County Jail.

The authority members hired an architect, a financial advisor and a bond counsel at their first meeting Monday. With the recommendations of Jerry Moore, assistant district attorney who serves as an advisor to the authority, the authority members approved and signed contracts with the architect, financial advisor and bond counsel Monday.

Jeff Andrews of Muskogee has been the architect working with county officials on the jail project. His fee will be 7 percent of the cost of the project which was tentatively set at $3 million.

Andrews said later that the cost of the new jail, which will be paid by a halfcent sales tax approved by county voters, was roughly estimated at about $2 million.

50 Years Ago

—Missouri Pacific trains are again running through Sallisaw after a derailment on the western edge of the city Saturday afternoon which left 13 cars in a tangled pile of wood and steel.

Ten cars were turned over and three were off the track and on the ground.

A tank car full of acetone, a highly inflammable fluid, often used for cleaning, caused several anxious hours when it overturned and its contents began to spill onto the ground.

The tanker was filled with 16,193 gallons of the liquid.

Highway patrol troopers, sheriff’s deputies, city police and Civil Defense personnel kept the area clear of sightseers for several hours until a firm from Fort Smith could come to the wreck and pump the acetone out of the tanker.

—After working diligently to saw through the bars of the skylight in the Sequoyah County Jail, a Florida man’s bid for freedom was cut short when he got stuck in the window.

When found, he was dangling half way through the window, nude except for a pair of shorts and unable to move either forward or back.

Gregory Smith, who was arrested for possession of marijuana, is wanted by law enforcement authorities in Florida.

He used part of a hack saw blade to cut through a single bar of the window, stripped down to his shorts so he could easily slip out, but apparently misjudged his size.

It took over an hour to free him by cutting away a second bar.

The lock on the door of his cell was jammed and so wasn’t working properly, therefore he was able to leave his cell and get to the skylight, which is in the jail area.

75 Years Ago

—Plans for conversion of Sallisaw’s telephone system to dial operation were disclosed today by George F. Pierson, Manager of Southwestern Bell Telephone Company. Time of converting the exchange is dependent upon delivery of materials, but Pierson said the company’s present view is that the changeover will be made sometime late in 1950.

The intricate dial equipment, the manager said, will be manufactured on special order, so that it will be “tailormade” to meet the needs of Sallisaw.

The project, which will call for enlargement of the local telephone building and a complete change-out of present equipment, will cost an estimated $125,000 gross, the manager said.

“The new installation will not only take care of all those now served, but will allow for considerable further growth,” Pierson said.

100 Years Ago

—Telegraphic advices reached the sheriff’s office this week that police officials in Los Angeles, California, had placed under arrest Thos. J. (Jeff) Kirk of Marble City, charged with a crime committed at Marble City in 1923, when Mack Dodson was killed. At the time the crime was committed, and when the officers found it difficult to apprehend Kirk, the Los Angeles police were notified and asked to apprehend and hold him and the arrest this week followed such instructions, attesting the efficiency and watchfulness of the Los Angeles officials.

However, the case came to trial last year, Kirk having surrendered to local officers, and the jury returned a verdict of guilty and a sentence of twenty years was imposed upon the accused man. He appealed the case to the Criminal Court of Appeals of Oklahoma and the case rests there now. Kirk is at liberty under an $8,000 bond and when the first news reached Sallisaw of Kirk’s arrest in Los Angeles, officials were puzzled since he was not supposed to leave the state until a final decision was handed down, but when inquiry was made through the attorney general’s office at Oklahoma City, it was found that permission had been granted Kirk by the higher court, to go to Los Angeles for a short stay. This leave of absence was unknown to local officials, but immediately upon securing such information a telegram was dispatched to the California city reciting the facts which exist, but no word has reached Kirk’s relatives nor the local officials as to whether he has yet been released although it is presumed that he has.