Continuing our month-by-month highlight reel of 2021’s front page news, February was almost all about the freeze. A polar vortex that settled over Oklahoma and Texas brought temperatures as low as 11 degrees below zero (even before windchill was factored in). The acute cold wreaked havoc on nearly every aspect of local life. (PHOTO 1) Cattlemen struggled to keep livestock warm and watered as stock tanks and ponds iced over and around-the-clock rescue efforts were needed to gather up and warm newborn calves before they froze to death. One person died and two were injured in crashes on icy roads. Events of all kinds were postponed or rescheduled due to the severe weather and rolling blackouts started when the power grid was compromised and then started to collapse due to dwindling natural gas supplies and frozen delivery systems. But February brought good news too. Kingfi sher Public Schools introduced its teachers of the year at the monthly school board meeting (PHOTO 2). Board President Mike Copeland (seated) is with 40-year career teacher Diane Grellner, selected by her peers as district teacher of the year, third from left, and top teachers at the other campuses included Susan Campbell, seventh grade reading teacher, Sheila Redwine, Gilmour reading specialist, and Ken Thompson, KHS English teacher. The Cashion academic team fi nished as the Class 3A state runner-up in the OSSAA academic bowl. (PHOTO 3) Team members include, from left: front row, co-coach Teresa Karns, Molly Jolliff, Kaitlin Jolliff and Alyssa Davis; and back row, co-coach Kim Simmons, Abe Ross, Jimmy Miller, Jayden Collier, Connor McCabe and Harrison Buck. A house fi re displaced longtime KPS custodian Danny Pfl euger and his wife Ann (PHOTO 4) but a group of local volunteers went to work helping to restore the home. From left are Brian Walter, Pfl euger, Heritage School Principal Shane Hood and Jeremy Lack, who coordinated the effort. A sales tax to fund the construction of a new fi re station was scheduled to return for an election in May and Fire Chief Tony Stewart and city offi cials started an informational campaign on the need to replace the nearly 50-year-old existing station (PHOTO 5). The Kingfi sher Times & Free Press pivoted to a digital-only Sunday edition for a six-month period beginning in February in order to withstand a steep loss in income from a steep decline in advertising revenue. See Wednesday’s paper for MORE 2021 year in review. [