Letter: Important road projects affected timing

The article about my resigning, which resulted from a telephone conversation between Charles Biggs and myself shortly before his deadline, was accurate but there is more to tell.

I wanted Beacon readers to know that another reason for my giving five months notice before resigning (in addition to reasons in the article) is the desire to see some important road projects completed or at least begun. They are:

(1) The widening of Yale between 61st and 71st, which is in progress now. This is a cooperative project with the Tulsa county construction crew doing the actual labor with county equipment and the City of Tulsa providing the engineering and materials. The county primarily does projects in the unincorporated part of the county and only does projects inside the city limits of towns or cities on an exception basis. At the time, the city didn’t have the money for the construction so I agreed do it, with the agreement of the other commissioners, due to the high traffic in that area  and the difficulty in getting ambulances to the St. Francis Hospital emergency entrance at rush hour.

(2) Widening of Mingo Road near the Bixby Middle School

(3) Widening of 131st Street near the new school being constructed in Broken Arrow

(4) Beginning of the widening of Garnett Road between 81st and 101st streets.

If you didn’t see the article in the February 14 edition of The Beacon, the reasons that were in that just before deadline article had to do with allowing the special election to take place at the same time the City of Tulsa Mayor’s election was in progress, therefore minimizing the cost of the special election, and my desire to finish the tennis facility upgrades at LaFortune Park. We have put in 18 new courts under my watch but we are raising private funds to do a new clubhouse and three indoor courts. There are benefits of this project to not only tennis players but to all the citizens in terms of economic development and other benefits. However, I wanted the Beacon’s readers to know about the road projects also.