A “changing of the guard” occurred Monday.

New county officials were on hand at the Board of Kingfisher County Commissioners’ weekly meeting.

Besides District 2 Commissioner Mike Sparks, who sat in the chair of former Commissioner Ray Alan Shimanek, now retired, present were: new County Clerk Emily Lee, formerly first deputy to retiring County Clerk Jeannie Boevers, Sheriff Aaron Pitts and Undersheriff Ed Cangiano.

Much of the agenda dealt with bookwork necessary to certify the new officials in their positions.

Besides voting approval of Pitts as sheriff’s department head, the board of county commissioners approved Sparks’ appointment of Clay Vincent as first deputy and Alisha Haymaker as second deputy in District 2, Pitts’ appointment of Cangiano as undersheriff, new Court Clerk Lauren Stroh’s appointment of Haley Countryman as first deputy in the court clerk’s office and Lee’s appointment of Sandy Eaton as first deputy in the county clerk’s office.

Other actions related to changing officials’ position regarding financial matters included: Tresa Jones, retiring long-time secretary-bookkeeper in the sheriff’s office, was removed from all sheriff department accounts; Lee was removed from county clerk, charity, general, general sales tax, ARPA, REAP, county audit and excise board accounts and AmberLee Green was added; Tommy Bohnstedt was appointed for District 2 accounts; Sandy Eaton was removed from county clerk accounts and Kathryn Meeker was added for county clerk accounts and Amanda Blades was added to court clerk’s accounts.

Another item related to the changing of the guard called for removing the outgoing officers – Shimanek, Boevers, retiring Sheriff Dennis Banther, former Undersheriff Jonathan Riedlinger and retiring Court Clerk Lisa Markus from all accounts in each department and adding Sparks, Lee, Eaton, Stroh, Pitts and Cangiano as requesting officers.

The changes are required to meet statewide auditing requirements.

In other agenda action, commissioners approved the following:

• An Oklahoma Emergency Management office grant award of $22,500;

• $600 indigent burial/ cremation payment to Wilson Funeral Home for Christopher Richards who had been living at Shamrock Nursing Center;

• Monthly reports of the offices of sheriff, county clerk, assessor, treasurer, health department and election board;

• A $165,807 REAP grant for Kingfisher Rural Water District, and,

• Appropriations and transfers for the month of November 2024.

Attending the meeting were all commissioners – Anthony Schwarz, District 3, chairman; Sparks, District 2 and Jeff Moss, District 1– along with County Clerk Lee as official minute clerk, County Engineer Nik Smith, County Emergency Management Director Ryan Deatherage, Cangiano, Pitts and Kelly Buck of Kingfisher, a visitor.

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