A note from the South Tulsa Citizens Coalition about the proposed IVI toll bridge:
Dear STCC Supporter:We thought you may want to know that County Commissioner Bob Dick called a meeting with a select few of our elected officials on Thursday, September 29th regarding the proposed toll bridge. Commissioner Dick invited City Councilors Bill Martinson, Randy Sullivan and Tom Baker, Bixby Mayor Joe Williams, Jenks Mayor Vic
Vreeland and Tulsa Mayor Bill LaFortune and his chief of staff. City Councilor Bill Christiansen (whose district the proposed toll bridge will be in) was not invited, but attended anyway. Commissioners Miller and Collins did not attend.It is STCC's understanding that Commissioner Dick invited only certain city officials to this meeting as to not trigger the Open Meetings Act. Once again, more meetings regarding the proposed toll bridge without public input and behind closed doors.
During the meeting, Commissioner Dick made the following comments .....
- The proposed toll bridge must be constructed at its current location because various individuals and entities had bought land counting on the toll bridge to go in at its current location.
- IVI and/or the County is willing to give the City of Tulsa a piece
of the pie in order to get the bridge constructed. No specific numbers were discussed however.Jenks Mayor, Vic Vreeland commented that STCC is a group of only 5 people and that STCC does not represent the number of people that it purports to represent. (He obviously has not been to any of our meetings.)
It is STCC's understanding that the basic tone of the meeting was "what can IVI and/or the County do to get this toll bridge pushed through?"
The meeting concluded with Commissioner Dick agreeing to come back to
the table at a later date with the specifics of the deal the County and IVI are proposing. STCC encourages you to email or write the elected officials and advise them not to be persuaded by Commissioner Dick and IVI's tactics. An attachment is included with this message with all of their email addresses. Please let them know that you know what is going on and it is not acceptable.Thank you once again for your continued support.
Comments (5)
I'll be voting ABB. Anybody but Baker.
Posted by The A Team | October 1, 2005 10:50 PM
Posted on October 1, 2005 22:50
Is Grand Bank or other banks in Bixby listed as reps. for the bridge. Can BATESLINE post the various individuals such as developers, people that want a fast profit on real estate/business deal and entities that bought land counting on the toll bridge to go in (list your speculation of what would be a nice fast profit for all of these) Thanks for BATESLINE keeping us informed on the proposed toll bridge.
Can you imagine how nice it would be if we had Michael Bates for Mayor in the next Tulsa election.
Posted by susan | October 1, 2005 11:58 PM
Posted on October 1, 2005 23:58
Mr.Dick states the bridge must be built because these people invested in the land on the promise that it would be built. Well , tooo bad!! Tough luck!! Agreements like that should never have happened. Who hasn't made a bad investment in their lives. This bridge should be on Riverside Drive. Stop this bridge!
Posted by Jan Thomas | October 2, 2005 4:31 PM
Posted on October 2, 2005 16:31
The attitude of Mr. Dick never ceases to amaze me. Mr. Dick now freely admits that the reason that he needs the bridge is because his IVI friends purchased land around the bridge. I believe the citizens of Tulsa County, including myself, owe STCC a great deal of gratitude.
Posted by Jeff Scott | October 2, 2005 9:34 PM
Posted on October 2, 2005 21:34
If there is an accident on the Memorial bridge, Bixby Public school administration thinks it would be nice to have an alternative route for their school buses to go since some parents allow their children to wait at bus stops all by themselves as the parents go on to work. Personally, I think these parents that go on to work leaving their children to catch the bus should always have a support system in place in case the school bus breaks down or an accident happens. George (an attorney) and Rachel Gibbs )a doctor) oppose the bridge plan as it is now since Rachel already has to go to work an hour early to avoid
the Jenks school traffic on Yale or Sheridan. This area around the 111th and Yale and 111th and Sheridan district has beautiful expensive homes and is already a high traffic district (2 lane road)without adding extreme volume of traffic if the new bridge plans is approved. Keep up the great work Michael on the Great Plains connections. Facts on Batesline keeps digging all KRMG and other news channels/reporters will be coming to Batesline to see the news as we NEVER see it reported in the Tulsa World by Ken Neal or the head bobber reporter or the Mayor's office.
Posted by susan | October 3, 2005 2:21 AM
Posted on October 3, 2005 02:21