The Tulsa Forum by TulsaNow

Meetings Planned On Arkansas River Master Plan
Posted: Sep 15, 2009 9:02 PM Updated: Sep 16, 2009 6:17 AM
TULSA, OK -- You have a chance to weigh in on the master plan for the Arkansas River.

Tulsa County Commissioners will hold three meetings over the next couple of days to talk about the plan, including low water dam construction, ecosystem restoration and recreational uses.

This part of the master plan is being paid for by Vision 2025 funds and federal money.

The first meeting will be on Wednesday afternoon at 5:30 at the Jenks City Council Meeting Room.  Thursday, there will be a meeting at the Tulsa Central Library at 1:30 p.m. and at 5:30 p.m. at the Case Community Center in Sand Springs.

Not too convenient for midtowners who have a job. Wednesday at 1:30? Or I could drive to Jenks or Sand Springs at 5:30. No thanks.

I'm having deja vu all over again...

Didn't we do an Arkansas River Master Plan--complete with public meetings and input--a couple years ago?

I thought so too, what are they planning to do now? 

Please make an effort and attend a meeiting.  There is a specific desire and need for public comment.

The meetings have specific goals which include:

Confirmation of what is included in the plan and budget and what is not, there has been much confusion in this area.
Identify for the public where we are in the process, again there has been much confusion here.
Present concepts for many of the options we have heard that areas are interested in having that must be studied for cumulative effects during the likely EIS process.
Begin to introduce the community to the EIS process with these presentations.

Sorry if the times and locations are inconvenient to some but this pretty much follows the methodology utilized in development of the master plan... some day, some evening, multiple locations... except that here all three meetings are the same.

Our intent is to have periodic meetings and presentation, if you miss these there will be more in the future and all of the presentation materials will be available via the web following shortly.

Not a fan of damming the river. Yes I do use it. Yes I want to be able to put in at Keystone/Swift and go all the way to where ever I could. The river is alive as it is today.
IF IF these low water dams are built they absolutly must be able to be portaged around easily!
My.02

Not a fan of damming the river. Yes I do use it. Yes I want to be able to put in at Keystone/Swift and go all the way to where ever I could. The river is alive as it is today.
IF IF these low water dams are built they absolutly must be able to be portaged around easily!
My.02

TULSA, OKLAHOMA -- Officials from Tulsa County, the city of Tulsa and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will meet Wednesday morning for the formal signing of a cost sharing agreement concerning the Arkansas River Corridor Master Plan.

The document signing ceremony will be held at 10:00 a.m. at the Tulsa County Administration Building in downtown Tulsa.

"No one wants to see progress on the river more than I do," said Tulsa County Commissioner Karen Keith. "While the Corps has helped us along the way, signing this agreement really sets us in motion by engaging the Army Corps to get more involved in the project and move toward implementing the master plan."

The Arkansas River Corridor Master Plan calls for appropriate development of the 42 mile Arkansas River corridor in Tulsa County.

Phase I and II concern the study of using additional low water dams along the river and river oriented development.

For more information about the plan, visit INCOG's web site.

My ashes will be settling to the bottom of that river before they start pouring concrete for "development". That's fine with me.

OKLAHOMA CITY - State funding for a series of dams along the Arkansas River in the Tulsa area is again in doubt after a state board insisted last week that bond plans for the project be approved by the Legislature again.

The Legislature has approved $25 million in bonds for the project twice, and twice more has approved appropriations for the project, but the Oklahoma Council of Bond Oversight voted to approve the bond sale only if the Legislature passes a concurrent resolution acknowledging that not all the dam projects will be completed with the state money and that expected federal funding for the project wouldn't be forthcoming, State Bond Advisor Jim Joseph said.

Both of those points are challenged by dam supporters.

"The project has been endorsed by the Legislature on four occasions, and the projects never changed," River Parks Authority Chairman Ken Levit said.

Under pressure from the Oklahoma Capitol Improvement Authority - the group that would actually issue the bonds - the oversight council is set to reconsider its stipulations Feb. 9.

Enid attorney Cliff Elliott, chairman of the council, said the members had incomplete information about the project when they voted.

"It was kind of an odd set of circumstances," he said. "We only had a very, very short amount of time to review our materials, and they were, frankly, not all complete."

Now that additional information on the project is available, Elliott said it is appropriate for the council to reconsider its requirements for the bond sales to move forward.

"I'm not going to say that the decision wasn't proper or inappropriate, but just out of fairness we were working with limited information," he said.

Elliott said he is looking forward to seeing the additional information to be presented at the Feb. 9 meeting.

"I want to be satisfied on those issues that whatever we do meets the test of what we're required to do," he said.

The council doesn't and shouldn't consider the merits of projects - that's the decision of the Legislature, Elliott said.

"What I don't want to do is revisit every political decision on everything that comes in front of us but just satisfy ourselves that the decisions have been properly made."

One legislator reacted to the council's decision by strongly endorsing the idea of another legislative vote on the issue.

"My fellow members and I were asked to approve a $25 million bond package back in 2009 that was to be used not only for the Zink Dam improvements but several other infrastructure projects along the Arkansas River in Tulsa County," said Sen. Patrick Anderson, R-Enid. "Now the River Parks Authority is seeking to have all those funds spent on one single project. We absolutely need to take another look at this before obligating the taxpayers of Oklahoma for those bonds."

Matt Meyer, executive director of River Parks Authority, said the Arkansas River project has always been described as a phased project and that the state bond money is going to be used on the first phase, improving the Zink Lake dam near 31st Street.

The authority plans to raise the dam level from 7 feet to 10 feet while redesigning the structure into a cascade, which will improve water safety in the area. It also plans to install gates to allow sand to flow through the dam and add a small recreation area that includes white water.

The Zink Dam project, which is scheduled to begin in the summer of 2013, would be funded with the state bond money and $4.5 million in local tax money, said Kirby Crowe of Program Management Group LLC, the project manager.

Meyer said two other planned low-water dams - one in Sand Springs and another near 106th Street - would be paid for with federal funding that has been authorized by Congress but not yet appropriated.

Crowe said the Army Corps of Engineers' local office has gotten some small appropriations for environmental studies for the dams but most of the money hasn't been appropriated.

Meyer said when he has talked to members of the state's congressional delegation, he hasn't gotten much encouragement that the federal funding will be available soon. However, the authority remains committed to the projects when the money is available, he said.

State Finance Secretary Preston Doerflinger, a member of the Bond Oversight Council and the Capitol Improvement Authority, said that with additional information he thinks the council will clear the bonds for sale without further legislative consideration.

"I think it'll be approved with the normal conditions that the state bond adviser would attach," Doerflinger said. "I'm highly confident."

Read more from this Tulsa World article at http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=336&articleid=20120202_16_A1_CUTLIN759866

I read the article too. I want to believe that the board chairman from Enid is truly interested in full disclosure of the facts concerning the bond funding. But, I just can't. This planning hasn't changed. It will likely pass even if the legislature has to vote again. (I hope)

At best they probably want to make sure that the public is aware that the low water dams are not part of this funding and are not going to be funded until Congress makes an appropriation. The mood of Congress makes that difficult to see happening soon.

If we get the funding to raise the dam height and put in the water park below it, Tulsa will have salvaged something really good out of the process. 2013 is only a year away.

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=11&articleid=20120209_11_0_OKLAHO273654

Panel approves sale of bonds for Arkansas River

By WAYNE GREEN World Senior Writer
Published: 2/9/2012  11:05 AM
Last Modified: 2/9/2012  11:05 AM

OKLAHOMA CITY -- The Oklahoma Council on Bond Oversight approved the sale of $26 million in bonds to finance Arkansas River improvements in the Tulsa area.


The council had previously required that the bonds be approved again by the Legislature before they could be sold.

That requirement could have slowed or killed the bond project.

The requirement was sparked by concerns that $50 million in federal funding for the project was on doubt and all of the elements of the river project might not be done as promised to legislators.

Former Speaker of the House Chris Benge, a lobbyist for the Tulsa Metro Chamber, told the council that the federal funding has always been contingent on congressional appropriation.

But he said the money is authorized and is still expected.

State Rep. Mike Reynolds, R-Oklahoma City, spoke in opposition of bond sale, but the council voted 5-0 to approve it.

Am I hallucinating?  What's that wet stuff in Zink Lake?