go ponca

Weekly Update

06/27/08

WITH OUR THANKS....Monday at 5 pm, the terms of two PCDA Trustees, Jim Leach and Chuck Van Cleave officially expire. Both gentlemen were founding members of the PCDA Board of Trustees way back in 2003. Both have served two terms and, according to the rules of the road, both are leaving due to term limits. Both have also served as PCDA officers, with Van Cleave serving as the unpaid Treasurer for PCDA for the entire five years and Leach serving as Vice Chair for the past two. This may sound like a requiem for two dynamic and very healthy individuals but we are sorry to see them go and we didn't want to not mark the moment with a public "thank you" for their service. Their fingerprints are all over a healthy and growing local economy and both leave very big shoes to fill.

YOU'RE WELCOME....welcome as in "we're happy to have you." Allow us, as Ricky said to Lucy, to esplain. Data from the census and from other sources is generally based upon trends, (what happened last decade, even estimates based upon what happened last decade). This has been a problem for Ponca City since our population shrunk in the 90's. OSU has reported that our population has grown in this millennial decade but we're still stuck with the census trending developed ten years ago. A new map released by the Department of Commerce this week, however, uses IRS data, (as in how many tax returns were filed) from the 2005-2006 period and compares that to a decade earlier. In other words, real, hard data, not estimates based upon what used to be. They produced a map showing population moving into Oklahoma counties. Said map, which includes ALL Oklahoma counties, shows the growth in places such as Oklahoma County, (OKC) Tulsa County (Tulsa) Comanche County (Lawton) Washington County (Bartlesville) Payne County (Stillwater) Garfield County (Enid) and Carter County (Ardmore). Oh yeah...one other you might be interested in...Kay County (Ponca City). In fact, the in migration in real numbers, not per capita, in Kay County matches that in Payne, Washington, Carter and Garfield, all of which are growing towards the top of the Oklahoma population growth food chain but are still under the absolute numbers (remember total people, not per capita) seen in Comanche, Oklahoma and Tulsa. Now we know this is not what most people assume but hard data is hard to argue with. The upcoming census will be critical to Ponca City and Kay County to prove the reversal in the 1990's trend.

AD DIEU JUNE...(aka this week's stuff)...as we wait for a response to an agreement hopefully burning a hole in a company's desk, we met with another new one this week. We also briefed the city commission on projects, continued full bore with our two construction projects, briefed two other companies with whom we are still negotiating and set up a meeting with another for next week. We also held a forum on childcare last night at City Hall which you will hopefully read about in the newspaper. This forum was designed to try and identify issues, opportunities and stakeholders working to make Ponca City even more family friendly

UPCOMING...

 Fri. July 4th: North Central Oklahoma's largest fireworks show, Lake Ponca, 9:50 p.m.

 Thur. July 10th: PCDA Board of Trustees meeting, (sans Chuck & Jim). 7:30 am

Ponca City Development Authority. 102 S. Fifth Street, Ste. 3, Ponca City, OK 74601

580.765.7070/580.765.0969-fax, email dmyers@goponca.com, www.goponca.com