As we wrap up 2025 and step into the new year, we wanted to take a moment to look back at some of the top stories covered by Garvin County News Star staff over the last year.
County Government
In January, longtime county treasurer Sandy Goggans announced she would be retiring at the end of March. Goggans had served as Garvin County Treasurer since 2002. The Garvin County Board of Commissioners appointed Goggan’s first deputy, Cyndi Nunez, to serve the remainder of Goggan’s term.
In February, county voters narrowly rejected a 1-cent sales tax proposition that would have funded a new county detention center. County officials said the new stand-alone detention center project is needed to increase capacity and allow for adequate segregation and to bring the county’s jail facility up to modern detention standards, improving safety for staff and detainees and allowing for updated mental health and medical capabilities. The measure failed by a 61-vote margin in an election with a voter turnout of just 1,463, or 8.7%, of those registered to vote in the county.
In July, county officials began looking at options for a new Garvin County Dispatch Center and Emergency Management building. Emergency management officials said a new facility will provide a more secure and storm-hardened command center for the county’s emergency operations than the current location on the second-floor of an older building in downtown Pauls Valley.
The Garvin County Board of Commissioners voted in July to move forward with finding an architectural firm to conduct a feasibility study for the new building. In September the board approved making an offer on 4.5 acres of land west of Pauls Valley, which could eventually serve as a site for the new center, and in October county commissioners approved hiring an architecture firm to draw up building plans.
Education
In May, the Whitebead School Board agreed to consider a request from Paoli Public Schools to annex Paoli into the Whitebead School District. Paoli school officials said their district, which serves grades k-12, has experienced a significant decline in enrollment in recent years. The voluntary annexation would provide a lifeline to Paoli, while offering Whitebead, which only serves students through eighth grade, the opportunity to expand its district to serve students through high school.
The proposition brought out strong feelings from parents, staff and alumni in both districts and on both sides of the issue, which were voiced respectfully – and passionately – in a series of three town-hall-style public meetings held by Whitebead school board members, who said they wanted as much input as possible from stakeholders before making a decision on the issue. Whitebead’s board ultimately voted unanimously to decline the request.
Over the summer, Mid-America Technology Center asked voters to approve a 3-mill millage increase to its building fund, which would enable construction of a second campus in the northern part of its district, near Newcastle and Blanchard. MATC currently serves 18 school districts across 8 counties from its main campus in Wayne. District officials said the second campus would allow MATC to expand program capacity and better serve students in the northern portion of their district, while also opening up seats at their main campus.
The measure was rejected by voters nearly 3 to 1 (4,167 votes against to 1,378 votes in favor) during an Aug. 12 election.
Other school districts in the county passed bond issues in 2025, including Maysville, which secured a voter-approved $1.5 million bond issue for an elementary school safe room and multi-use facility, and Stratford, where voters approved two school bond issues in September totaling $9.3-million to fund projects including a new elementary school classroom building, updated auditorium seating and the purchase of school buses.
Crime and Courts
More than a year after the First National Bank of Lindsay failed, the U.S. Department of Justice announced in December a federal grand jury had handed down an indictment charging former bank president Danny Seibel with multiple counts of bank fraud and making false bank entries.
In April, the Garvin County Sheriff’s Office and Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation began a double murder investigation after two men were found shot to death at marijuana farm northeast of Wynnewood. In late May, authorities disclosed two local teenagers had been arrested and charged in the crime.
Several people were charged or sentenced in Garvin County District Court in 2025 in relation to collisions involving allegations of driving under the influence or distracted driving. Those include a Pauls Valley man charged in February for allegedly causing an October 2024 head-on collision that killed a Paoli man and a 15-year-old passenger in the vehicle, and injured two other teens; An Elmore City woman who was charged in September with manslaughter in connection to a 2024 fatality accident in which investigators allege she was distracted by her phone; and a Florida semitrailer driver who was sentenced to 30 years, with all but the first 15 years suspended, for a 2023 multiple vehicle collision on I-35 that killed two people and seriously injured another. The truck driver, who pled guilty to two counts of first-degree manslaughter prior to being sentenced in October, told investigators he had used his cell phone to answer a Ring notification from a delivery driver just prior to the collision.
People and Community
The Pauls Valley hospital, which had been operating under the name Valley Community Hospital since being acquired by owner Madhukar Sharma in 2022, closed its doors in January, perhaps for the final time, amid ongoing financial difficulties.
The hospital first closed its doors due to financial instability in 2018. The City of Pauls Valley later sold the facility to Southern Plains Medical Center of Garvin County, which reopened the hospital in 2021.
The ailing hospital’s January 2025 closure was abrupt, with the facility locking the doors only a few hours after posting signs announcing the closure.
Pauls Valley suffered another loss in July, when Homeland’s parent company HAC, Inc., announced it would be closing five grocery stores due to sustained poor financial performance by mid-August, including the Pauls Valley location. Originally built as a Safeway store, the Pauls Valley location had been serving the community as a Homeland store for more than 35 years.
Elmore City started out 2025 by breaking ground on a new EMS station. According to our reporting at the time, the new building includes three ambulance bays, a day area and separate sleeping quarters for EMS staff, a treatment room or triage area and a training room. The project is funded, in part, by a $1 million Emergency Rural Health Care Grant through USDA Rural Development.
Two Pauls Valley attractions marked significant milestones in 2025. The Okie Noodling Tournament celebrated its 25th year in June and made a last-minute venue shift from Pauls Valley’s Wacker Park to downtown Pauls Valley due to flooding concerns at the park following heavy rainfall in May and early June.
Pauls Valley’s Toy and Action Figure Museum also celebrated its 20th year in October, hosting an International Superhero Festival. First opened in 2025, the museum continues to draw visitors from around the globe to Garvin County.
We love having the opportunity to highlight the amazing accomplishments, talents, character and integrity of Garvin County’s youth throughout the year, and 2025 was no exception in that area.
In March we shared the story of four young men from Pauls Valley – Ketch Johnson, Logan Schaper, Zack Hayes and Braxton Brumley – who were recognized by local first responders for their quick action while on a camping trip at Longmire Lake in helping lake personnel with trying to extinguish a brush fire until fire crews could arrive.
In June, Lindsay senior and trumpeter Gabe McDonnell, traveled to England, France, Switzerland, Germany and Austria in June, performing on a 15-day tour with 80 other Oklahoma band and choir students selected for the Oklahoma Ambassadors of Music program.
Stratford student Katelyn Estes was named runner-up in the 2025 Congressional Art Competition in May for her pencil work of a barrel horse titled, “All Sass, All Heart.” The work is now on display in Congressman Tom Cole’s Oklahoma office.
In November we profiled Pauls Valley Junior High student and trapshooter Dakota Andrews, who recently won the Oklahoma 4-H Intermediate Trapshoot and qualified for the Oklahoma All-State Team.
Weather
The county also experienced several notable weather events this year including a healthy January snowfall of three inches on the western side of the county and areas of up to nine inches of snowfall in eastern portions of the county.
By mid-March, county commissioners issued a burn ban as high winds and dry conditions plagued the state, which saw one of the worst wildfire outbreaks in state history that month. While Garvin County fire departments saw an increase in fire calls during the outbreak and assisted on fires in surrounding counties, as of our March 21 reporting, Garvin County Emergency Management officials said less than 75 acres had burned in the county and no structures had been affected.
March’s dry conditions were followed by several severe storms in April, May and June that left wind damage paths across the county, dumped large amounts of rainfall and caused flooding concerns across the county.
