WEEKLY UPDATE      September 21st, 2007

TOOTING THY OWN HORN...(blush) ...If you are smart enough to read the Ponca City News you saw, on Tuesday, that the Ponca City Development Authority, (PCDA) in partnership with ConocoPhillips and Oklahoma State University, was awarded the International Economic Development Council’s (IEDC) highest award for the University Multispectral Lab. The presentation was made to PCDA in Phoenix at the IEDC Global Summit. Now winning an award judged by and given by your peers in the economic development profession as the top project of the year, (in a community with less than 50,000 people) is pretty cool so pardon our big head. Allow us, please, to have an “aw shucks” moment and really point out that this award, (did I mentioned that it is IEDC’s highest award?) is called the partnership award. During the ceremony, remarks were made that these awards, (there was one award for communities under 50,000, one for communities 50k-200k and one for 200k and up) recognized not just talk, not just fluff but a real, solid economic development project that is doing what it said it would do. More to the point, it honored the partnership between PCDA, ConocoPhillips and OSU. It was said in Phoenix and we say it again now, that but for ConocoPhillips there would be no UML, no UML jobs, no UML $140 million positive local impact over ten years, no high paying UML jobs, etc. And but for OSU…ditto, ditto and ditto. Finally, but for the State of Oklahoma, the UML doesn’t happen. PCDA says thank you. THIS WEEK ...back to work and so we were, even the PCDA staffers in Phoenix collecting the above mentioned award. During the Summit, we were setting up a meeting with an out of state company coming here next week. We also continued to assist contractors working on bids for the Encompass Tool project. In addition, there were three other projects having paperwork tweaked during the week. To come clean, however, the IEDC Summit took most of the time. Fortunately, PCDA has Katherine, “they went to Phoenix and all I got was this tee shirt” Long manning the office, handling inquiries and communicating with ongoing projects. OK IN THE GATEWAY ...the OK Gateway Regional Economic Development group came home to Ponca City today, meeting at City Hall. The keynote was on passenger rail service, (look for an upcoming story in the Ponca City News about this). Also on the agenda were discussions about workforce, regional job fairs, (workforce again) joint marketing efforts and more. Attending the meeting were Senator David Myers and Representative Rex Duncan who both discussed the rail issue, the upcoming legislative session and the role of regions in economic development and legislative influence. Our own Rich Cantillon gave a federal legislative report which covered everything from health care, to rail to who might be or might not be President in ’09. Rich was in DC this week with the State Chamber on their annual trip. UPCOMING.... Tue, Oct. 2nd: Governor’s Workforce Council Conf; Reed Center, 8-2 p.m. (note: workforce) Wed. Oct. 10th: Oklahoma Manufacturers Alliance Conference (note: workforce...again) Thur. Oct. 11th: PCDA Trustees October Board Meeting, 7:30 a.m., Chamber office 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 Visit Ponca City Development's Latest News Archives © www.goponca.com - Ponca City Development Authority - Ponca City, Oklahoma