The Oklahoma Eagle Newswire
The first of five citywide town hall meetings scheduled for discussion about renewing Improve Our Tulsa will be held Tuesday, April 9, at 6 p.m. in the Hardesty Regional Library Frossard Auditorium, 8316 E. 93 rd St. Mayor G.T. Bynum and the Tulsa City Council will host the meeting, with presentations about citywide needs and priorities, and a question and answer session at the end. A vote for renewal of Improve Our Tulsa is scheduled for Nov. 12, 2019.
“Improve Our Tulsa is our basic streets and infrastructure program, and because of voter support for it in 2013 we’ve made critical progress in rehabilitating our roads after decades of neglect – but there is much more work to do,” Mayor G.T. Bynum said. “In order to continue making progress, we need to renew this program that funds not just street work but also police cars, fire trucks, snow plows, our parks, and so much more. The Tulsa City Council and I will host town hall meetings citywide to visit with our fellow Tulsans about the priorities we as a community want to set. We hope all Tulsans will join us to discuss the essential needs of our city.”
In 2018, the City of Tulsa conducted the Gallup-Tulsa Citivoice Index to assess quality of life and civic engagement among residents. Most citizens responding in this survey said that Tulsa’s roads rank as a top priority for improvement.
Improve Our Tulsa town hall meetings all will begin at 6 p.m. The remaining dates and locations after next Tuesday’s meeting are as follows:
Tuesday, April 16 – Lewis and Clark Elementary School Auditorium, 737 S. Garnett Road (Spanish language interpreters will be available at this meeting.)
Tuesday, April 30 – Booker T. Washington High School Auditorium, 1514 E. Zion St.
Tuesday, May 7 – Jewish Federation of Tulsa Sylvan Auditorium, 2021 E.71 st St.
Monday, May 13 – OU-Tulsa Schusterman Learning Center Perkins Auditorium, 4502 E. 41 st St.
“Tulsa has vital, core components, which we all use and collectively fund: our neighborhood and major streets; the equipment that’s used to spread salt or rush to calls for help; the facilities where kids play, employees work, and treasured works of art are displayed,” City Council Chairman Phil Lakin said. “Renewing Improve Our Tulsa is essential in maintaining these basic, yet critical, elements of our City, to improve our quality of life and allow Tulsa to continue to grow and thrive. I encourage folks to come to our public meetings and help us prioritize how we invest our funds to better our Tulsa.”
In the years since Tulsa voters approved the first Improve Our Tulsa capital improvements package, the City of Tulsa has been working diligently to complete those projects.
Improve Our Tulsa progress includes the following:
• Twenty-five neighborhood street rehabilitation projects and 11 arterial street rehabilitation projects are completed, with 14 projects currently under construction. The rest of the projects are in various stages of design.
• The largest Improve Our Tulsa street project completed so far is Riverside Drive between 24 th Street and 33 rd Place. Also completed are nearby rehabilitation projects on East 31 st Street between Riverside Drive and Peoria Avenue, and on Riverside between Joe Creek and 81 st Street.
• Other completed projects include North Mingo Road, East 36 th Street to East 46 th Street; the North Mingo Road and East 46th Street intersection; East 51 st Street, South Sheridan Road to South Memorial Drive; the East 61 st Street and South Sheridan Road intersection, and South Sheridan Road, East 81 st Street to East 91 st Street.
• Some non-street projects completed include the new Lost Kingdom exhibit at Tulsa Zoo, new playgrounds at Lacy Park and Hunter Park, and the new McClure Park pool.
Tulsans can also provide feedback about Improve Our Tulsa by responding to survey questions on Feedback Tulsa – www.feedbacktulsa.org Leading up to the town hall meetings, citizens can get more information about Improve Our Tulsa and the upcoming meetings at www.improveourtulsa.com
