Around the State

Nursing home resident charged

An elderly Tahlequah nursing home resident was charged this week with sexual battery.

Cherokee County prosecutors filed the felony count against Eldon Eddleman, 78. Reports state Eddleman and the alleged victim are residents of Grace Living Center on Cherrie Street in Tahlequah. It also states both are in wheelchairs. The victim cannot speak, reports state.

Authorities allege Eddleman touched the victim’s private parts. Tahlequah police were called and submitted a report to the district attorney’s office. Assistant District Attorney B.J. Baker is prosecuting the case.

Ad valorem tax time nearing

Cherokee County Treasurer Inez Peace wants to remind the residents of Cherokee County the tax season for the 2009 ad valorem taxes is approaching.

Statements should be mailed around the first week of December.

The taxes are due by Thursday, Dec. 31. If tax amounts are more than $25, the homeowner has an option of paying half by Thursday, Dec. 31, and the second half by Wednesday, March 31, 2010, without any penalty.

Any homeowner who does not receive a statement should call 456-3321 for the amount due. The law does no exempt anyone from penalties because a statement was not recieved in the mail.

Airport board meets briefly

Tahlequah Airport Advisory Board worked its way through a light agenda Tuesday evening.

Airport Manager Greg Blish said the new fuel pump for the airport fuel tanks is in, and he is waiting for the pump to be installed. The installer had some jobs ahead of this one in Tulsa.

Blish told the board he was unable to make connections with City Hall personnel Tuesday to get fuel sales numbers for October. Those will be available at the next meeting.

The board also briefly discussed moving the tetrahedron – an object on the ground that measures wind direction and velocity – to a new location. Blish said it should be a relatively simple procedure.

The next regular meeting of the Tahlequah Airport Advisory Board will be Tuesday, Dec. 15 at 5:30 p.m. in the Terminal Building.

OBN, cops make drug arrests

STILLWATER (AP) — Stillwater police and Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics agents have announced 64 arrest warrants for people illegally buying pseudoephedrine. Pseudoephedrine is a key component in making methamphetamine and customers are limited by state law to buying 9-grams per month without a prescription.

OBN spokesman Mark Woodward says police and agents began serving the warrants Monday throughout Payne County. He says 34 people had been arrested by 11 a.m. Tuesday on misdemeanor counts of buying more pseudoephedrine than allowed by law.