Published: July 24, 2008 11:42 am      

Judge reinstates license

WAGONER — A Wagoner County judge has reinstated the operating license of a Broken Arrow home day-care provider that faced being shut down for housing children during an ice storm-related power outage.

District Judge Darrell Shepherd on Tuesday issued an order overturning the state Department of Human Services' revocation of Krina Hendricks day-care license and reinstating it.

"I'm very relieved," Hendricks said. "I have no ill feelings toward the DHS."

DHS revoked Hendricks' license in April for alleged violations related to her keeping children during the widespread power outages after December's ice storm.

Hendricks kept children for several of her customers, who also did not have power and had no other alternative, for periods over more than a week during the outage.

In his ruling, Shepherd wrote that the decision to revoke her license did not give due consideration to the extreme hardships the power outage caused for everyone or the fact that Hendricks' record as a child care provider was unblemished.

Hendricks said she knew she should have stayed closed. "But it was a state of emergency, and I was trying to accommodate my parents, many of whom were in a pinch," she said.

DHS officials said Hendricks should have notified the agency and that she stayed open too many days without power.

Hendricks said she believed that her power was going to be restored any day based on updates from American Electric Power-Public Service Company of Oklahoma or she wouldn't have stayed open.

Other allegations included Hendricks using her stove as a heating source and keeping fruit juice and milk on her front porch.

Hendricks said that without power, the frigid porch was the safest place for the beverages. She added that the kitchen was fenced off to keep children from going near the open stove.

"I'm just glad she got a fair hearing," Hendricks attorney, Bud Howard, said. "What they were trying to do did not make sense under the circumstances. Being open during the storm — it was a hardship on everybody, a state of emergency. And she's never had a problem before. The system worked."

The judge previously had issued a stay that allowed Hendricks to remain open until the hearing. DHS officials could not be reached for comment.