go ponca

Weekly Update

11/30/07

CLOSING OUT NOVEMBER
...if you are like us, you can’t believe we’re almost out of November even though your inner Santa has been telling you all week that it was December. PCDA spent the week doing what we do the rest of the year, working projects. We had three meetings this week with companies that want to grow here and continued to work with two others that are inching closer to the tipping point. We also looked longingly at two proposals that are sitting on the desks of other companies. The traffic signal for the Mertz expansion is beginning the design phase and the mobilization for the Encompass Tool building continues. Look for traffic signals and sticks in the air after the first of the year. If you like watching concrete dry, head out to Bob where it was poured for the parking lot this week. Two of the companies mentioned above are playing musical chairs with Bob, (circling it and wanting it but not moving until their own internal music stops). Either could pull the trigger at any time.

YIKES SAID SYKES
...this fall, Sykes landed a big contract that requires them to ramp up and add an additional 200 people. Great news for Sykes and for Ponca City. We now have to fill those jobs. Sykes hosted an open house yesterday to publicize the openings and the new way they are going about their business. More fun, higher pay, part time shifts, and more, creating a more people-friendly shop. If you know anyone who needs a job or anyone who wants a second or part time job or a post-retirement job, stop by Sykes across from the airport.

HIT ME AGAIN
...Monday, the Osage Tribe held a ground breaking for a new casino. PCDA gets asked all the time whether casinos represent sound economic development. What they do represent is an investment in the area by the tribes and the opportunity to invite people from outside the area to come and leave some money behind. The Ponca City area now has seven casinos in play or announced and others are under discussion. Whether you like casinos or not, seven casinos is a lot and, more to the point, it is a reality that can either be ignored or embraced for other economic growth, (tourism, gaming education etc.). Building a larger hospitality industry, however, requires more workforce. All roads seem to come back to that.

TALKING TONKAWA
...PCDA was in Tonkawa on Tuesday meeting with our partners at the Tonkawa Development Authority, (TDA) and the Tonkawa Tribe. A great partnership is growing between the community and the tribe in our neighbors to the west. Tonkawa also met with the USDA about potential help on a badly needed industrial access road that would serve Holiday Lighting. This critical business need has not made the state’s radar screen but the feds and the tribe might help. To assist Chair Brad Purdy in pulling off these potential coups, the TDA just acquired Janet White from the PCMC for a physician and one parking spot.

UPCOMING....
Thur. Dec. 6th: State Chamber’s Public Affairs Forum, OKC 10-2 www.okchamber.org
Fri. Dec. 7th: Ponca City Christmas Parade, 6 pm, Grand Avenue
Thur. Dec. 13th: PCDA Trustees monthly board meeting, 7:30 am, Chamber of Commerce

Ponca City Development Authority
102 S. Fifth Street, Ste. 3, Ponca City, OK 74601
580.765.7070/580.765.0969-fax

Or E-Mail - David Myers CEcD - Executive Director