Not Again!

When will this exodus stop?
When have you had enough?
Do you care one iota about Tulsa?
What are you willing to do?

Where Did the Funds Go to Fix Our Streets?

With all the plans swirling around about fixing our streets and all the new taxes that will be required, I was wondering, where did the existing money go for fixing our streets?

As I blogged before, in a public meeting last fall Randi Miller stated to a group of about 30 business people that currently there were funds in excess of $200 million available to fix the Tulsa streets (she was referring to the City of Tulsa and not Tulsa County).

She said the problem was finding the contractors to do the job. With all the road construction downtown and on the myriad of other public projects in Tulsa, the labor to accomplish this is rather thin. And $200 million is quite a bit of money and would involve numerous projects that would keep contractors busy for years.

Perhaps our long term needs are in excess of $1 billion, but isn't that the infrastructure that was envisioned in the 3rd Penney sales tax? I suspect over the years that those funds have been siphoned off for other priorities.

Who can shed some light on this?

Invest In The Future and Plant a Tree

The December ice storm and resulting damage to Tulsa's urban forest is an event that we will all remember for the rest of our lives. Now that the clean-up is well under way, and things are getting back to normal, we can now more clearly see the extent of the damage.

How sad it is to see the magnitude of the tree damage! Lot's of trees will struggle to get back to health, but many are far too gone. This would be a good time to consider pesticide spraying to give your trees a chance to fight off the critters.

And this year consider planting a new tree or two in your yard. Fall is the best time to plant a tree, since our summers are so hot and dry, the root system needs time to get a good start. Planting a tree takes some faith, and is certainly an investment in the future. It takes a long, long time to see a shade tree reach its majestic maturity.

Plant one as a young person and sit under it's shade as a senior citizen. In the meantime, you can enjoy the beauty that is a tree.