From The Files of The Seminole Producer

Plans to construct a new shopping center in Seminole are progressing and we hope to being construction around September, said Donald R. Broadland, president of Tulsa Mortgage Company, a developer of the center.

Announcement of the shopping center was first made last December. Since that time the Tulsa firm had been completing plans and negotiating with tenants. Broadland said the shopping center would contain approximately 12 firms and would be similar to the Tandy Town shopping center at McAlester.

The firm has an option and is paying on that option for property on the west side of Milt Phillips Avenue – across Magnolia Creek and just south of Pizza Place restaurant.

“We are about as definite as we can be that the shopping center is going in at Seminole,” Broadland told The Producer, “but still we cannot make an announcement about the businesses that will be located in the center until all negotiations are completed.”

With construction starting around September 1, we have set a target date of Easter, 1974 for the opening of the shopping center complex,” Broadland said.

Tulsa Mortgage Company has developed shopping centers in Tulsa and in other states as well as the one in McAlester.

In December, Broadland cited the growth of the community junior college and industrial growth as the reason his firm was attracted to Seminole. -oOo Pottawatomie County Sheriff Billy Phillips is in favor of Maud ranchers and farmers helping his department watch for cattle thieves, but he said they could not be authorized to carry loaded guns on the highways and away from their own personal property.

Sheriff Phillips statements followed a story in The Producer Tuesday which reported that several Maud ranchers were thinking about forming a posse to catch cattle thieves, who have plagued the Maud area in recent months.

”I’m in favor and think that it’s a good thing that neighbors watch after each other’s stock,” Sheriff Phillips told a newsman. “I just don’t want this thing to get out of hand with armed people running up and down the road. Transporting weapons on state roadways is against the law.

“I think most of these ranchers and farmers are levelheaded. The thing I want them to understand is that they can’t use any deadly force to detain someone they catch.”

The sheriff added, “If these ranchers do catch someone on their property they should detain them and call our department.”

The Producer talked with sources in Maud today and reports indicated that it’s almost certain that a posse of area ranchers, possibly totaling 100, will be formed in the near future.

Apparently some ranchers are already patrolling their property and their neighbors in groups at night.

Along with cattle stealing report in recent months, there have been reports of hay stealing, thefts of batteries and other automobile accessories from ranchers in the Maud area.

Curtis O’Daniel, a Maud real estate dealer and rancher, talked to Sheriff Phillips on behalf of the Maud Tuesday. The ranchers, totaling some 38 people, had met at the Maud civic center Monday night and discussed the posse idea.

“We ranchers plan to meet with the Pottawatomie County Cattlemen’s Association and try to get organized. We’re thinking pretty strongly about the posse idea,” O’Daniel said.

The posse, according to sources, will be a large number of Maud ranchers divided into groups with certain sections of land to cover at night. Probably three shifts will work during the night.

“We didn’t take a vote or decide definitely on anything at the public meeting Monday,” said O’Daniel. “We’ll probably decide everything at the next cattleman’s association meeting” Sheriff Phillips told The Producer that he had only received reports of four calves stolen recently in the Maud area. Seminole County Sheriff Bill Merryfield said that he had not had reports of any cattle stolen on the Seminole County side of Maud.

“A lot of the ranchers are not reporting these thefts, O’Daniel said. “There is a lot of stuff that gets stolen around here, but never reported. We want to catch someone doing these things and when we do we will file charges against them.” -oOo Slants – Alma Franklin’s son, Bob, modeling as a business executive in a Blue Cross insurance advertisement in the national publication, “Time” … Bob Jones’ face turning as red as his Chamber jacket because of a dog squealing during dedication ceremonies… Phillip Parks getting HIS picture made… W. Ray Davis talking about being quoted… Lloyd Brown wondering if his name will be in slants… Senator Henry Bellmon wanting to play a round of golf on the Seminole links.