Norman Transcript: By Peggy Laizure
August 22, 2009 01:15 am
—
District 1 Cleveland County Commissioner Rod Cleveland recently
held a legislators appreciation cookout at the District 1 warehouse.
Rusty
Sullivan, District 3 commissioner, attended along with Cleveland County
Assistant District Attorney David Batton. Reps. Paul Wesselhoft, House
District 54, Lisa Billy, District 42, and Gary W. Banz, District 101,
attended the cookout. Sen. John Sparks, District 16, also attended.
Cleveland
thanked the legislators for working with the county and cities in
Cleveland County. He also thanked Moore City Assistant Manager Stan
Drake.
Drake said the county is a "big asset to the City of Moore."
Cleveland also said the Indian tribes are working with the county to improve roads and bridges.
Randy
Robinson with the State Circuit Engineering Board addressed the crowd,
thanking the legislators, city officials and the county commissioners
for their cooperation.
The Association of Central Oklahoma
Governments did a random survey asking how transportation dollars
should be spent. The question asked was, "If you had $100 how should
the money be split?" Seventeen hundred people responded.
The results
were $26.54 to maintain current roads and bridges, $21.67 for passenger
rail system and $11.05 for bus transit services, Cleveland said.
"We have to take care of the current needs before we start spending on other transportation needs," he said.
After thanking the officials, Cleveland told them what the county does for the area.
He
said the county maintains 14.88 miles of roads in the town of
Lexington, 46.96 miles in Slaughterville and 51.87 miles in Etowah. The
county also maintains 109 miles of gravel roads and 218 miles of
asphalt and chip roads.
There are 81 bridges in Cleveland County. Of
those, 29 are structurally deficient and five are functionally
obsolete. He said $7.9 million is needed to repair or rebuild the
bridges.
District 1 -- Cleveland's district -- has prepared the site
for the detention center on 24th Avenue NW in Norman. District 1
maintains 84 miles of county roads that fall within a municipality and
provides right-of-way mowing at the request of city maintenance.
In
Norman, District 1 crews have helped with the Rock Creek Road
reconstruction, Indian Hills and Westminster. They built an irrigation
pond of 7.5 acres with more than 45,000 cubic yards of dirt and 65
million gallons, and have provided disaster relief.
Two football
fields have been built by District 1 in Moore. The crews also have
rebuilt a 3 acre pond at Buck Thomas Park and have helped with numerous
street projects and disaster relief.
District 1 chipped and sealed
17.5 miles that cost south Oklahoma City around $250,000 which saved
the city nearly $300,000 if they would have bid out the work.
"I
have been working on several other road projects that are 'Big Ideas'
however; we have to work on them for the future," Cleveland said. "I
believe that transportation is the key to economic growth for Cleveland
County and Oklahoma. With proper transportation planning, Cleveland
County is be a leader economic and lifestyle growth in Oklahoma."
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Posted on
Tue, August 25, 2009
by Crystal Drwenski