Your Monthly News & Updates
FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR...
 
To Grow We Must Keep Our Promises
 
Let's suppose for a moment that you were about to purchase your first home.  You found the perfect house that you intend to live in for the rest of your life.
 
But like most new home buyers, you don't have enough cash to purchase the home so you start shopping around to find a bank to loan you the money.  Each bank carefully competes to get your business.  Some offer you a 5% interest rate and others offer you less.  Let's suppose that after careful consideration you decide to go with the bank that offers you a 3% fixed rate loan for 10 years.  You move out of your apartment and start living your life in this new home.
 
Now let's suppose that after a few years, even though you have kept your side of the bargain and paid your loan payment every month, that the bank sends you a notice that they are changing your interest rate to 5%.  You would be livid and you would never do business with that bank ever again...right?
 
Oklahoma is attempting to do the same thing right now with the wind industry.
 
About 15 years ago we made a conscious decision to diversify our economy and "compete" with other states by incentivizing the wind industry to come to our state.  It worked!  But, except for college football, we aren't used to being this successful at something.  We went from almost zero wind investment to over $9 billion. 
 
Now our State Legislature is saying that since we already have their investment and they can't really move the wind farms elsewhere, let's change the rules and cap the incentive each year that we promised them.  Just like the bank changing the rules on your loan, if we go through with this, we will never be able to make a promise to a company ever again...in the wind industry...or any other.
 
In Garfield County, the wind industry has been revolutionary for us.
 
We have had $500 million in investment in our county alone.  These farms have a 20 year contract to operate in our area.  Over that 20 year span, these wind farm owners will pay out approximately $100 million in property taxes (about half of which goes to K-12 public schools).  They will also pay about $4.8 million per year in landowner payments.  This is the equivalent of a new employer hiring 133 people at our county average wage and then promising to invest in that payroll every year for 20 years.  We would fall all over ourselves to see an investment like that, but instead, we are considering changing the rules mid-game.
 
Oklahoma now has the 3rd most installed wind energy capacity in the country and it is becoming a mature industry in our state.  Enid and other communities are now starting to work with manufacturing facilities that want to be close to the farms in our area.  Please Oklahoma, keep your promises so they will continue to want to do business with us.
 
Brent Kisling
Executive Director
UPCOMING EVENTS

NORTHWEST OKLAHOMA LEGISLATIVE RECEPTION
March 27, 2017  -   5:00 - 7:00 PM
Oklahoma History Center
800 Nazih Zuhdi Drive,  Oklahoma City, OK 

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FUTURE OF FOOD FORUM 
April 13, 2017  -  9:00  AM - 1:30 PM
CNB Center, 301 S. INDEPENDENCE,  ENID, OK
Registration is required and is $15 for non-ERDA members payable at the door.

Register Here!
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ENID SELECTED FOR WIND FARM STAGING FACILITY    
Billy Brenton chose a less-than-ideal spot for his wind farm logistics company when he selected Enid. Economic development staff members and city, county and state officials helped make the decision easy, said the vice president of Transportation Partners & Logistics Management Solutions. Officials helped expedite permits and surveys needed to complete the transaction, and offered $2.5 million to upgrade the access road to his site. "Their willingness to bring me here changed everything," Brenton said. His $7 million facility on the edge of the city is a staging area for the blades, towers, nacelles and other components needed to build a wind farm. Read more...
DOWNTOWN HOTEL APPROVED   
Changes are expected in downtown Enid with agreements for a hotel and for the purchase of the Family Dollar property approved Thursday by Enid City Commission. The commission approved, 6-0, appointing ENIDBWP LLC - Aston Management and Dr. Atul Patel - as developer of the hotel and ratifying the master development agreement between Enid Economic Development Authority and ENIDBWP LLC. Also during the meeting, EEDA - made up of the commissioners - approved, 6-0, a master development agreement. Through the agreement, a Best Western GLō hotel will be constructed on property located on Maine, between Independence and Grand, near Central National Bank Center.  Read more... 
ENID HUB FOR WIND ACTIVITY
Transportation Partners and Logistics started laying ground in Enid early last year. The Wyoming-based company operates a transloading facility for wind turbine equipment on the northeast corner of 66th and Chestnut. The company only operates in parts for turbines in Oklahoma - not building wind turbines - and transporting and storing the eight components needed to build on, said Billy Brenton, vice president of the company.  "This facility will be a busy yard for four years just based on one customer," he said at a meeting in January. "At the height of last summer, we had 132 people out there working and of that a good portion were trucking, which means they were eating in restaurants, staying in hotels and spending money here."  Brent Kisling, Enid Regional Development Alliance executive director, said since TP&L came to Enid the area has been a hub for wind energy and further development.    Read more... 
ENID SALES TAX REVENUE HIGHER 
THAN  PRE OIL BOOM DAYS
Retail sales in Enid were down in February, and in all but six months over the past two calendar years.  Despite the decrease in retail sales, and the subsequent drops in sales tax revenue for the city, numbers are still be higher than pre-oil boom levels.  Furthermore, this fiscal year is actually projected to be the fifth highest for sales tax collections the city has ever had, Chief Financial Officer Erin Crawford said.  "Which even though we're down, that's still not bad," City Manager Jerald Gilbert said.  Read more... 
NWOSU-ENID BRINGS TOGETHER STUDENTS AND COMMUNITY LEADERS
For 11 years, Northwestern Oklahoma State University has played host to an annual entrepreneurship seminar, bringing together students and community under the university's educational mission.  "The Entrepreneur: Resiliency in Leadership," Feb. 23-24, at NWOSU-Enid, attracted students, community and 11 entrepreneurs.  The seminar, a collaboration between Northwestern, Northern Oklahoma College and Autry Technology Center, also acts as a course for upper level - junior and senior - students.   Read more...
10TH ANNUAL ENID DAY AT THE CAPITOL
Some 40 business and academic leaders hosted state legislators Tuesday morning during the 10th annual Enid Day at the Capitol.  The event featured a waffle breakfast and informal networking session.  Representatives from Greater Enid Chamber of Commerce, Enid Regional Development Alliance and Main Street Enid hosted the event along with those from Autry Technology Center, Northern Oklahoma College Enid and Northwestern Oklahoma State University-Enid. Also attending were members of Leadership Greater Enid class 26.  Speakers included state Rep. Chad Caldwell, state Sen. Roland Pederson and Lt. Gov. Todd Lamb.   Read more...
OBSERVATORY DEDICATED TO ASTRONAUT 
Dedication of the Dr. Nancy Currie-Gregg Observatory at Enid High School comes with a campaign to fund improvements at the facility.  Enid High School graduate Tim Gregg - who took astronomy at the school in 1974 - is married to NASA astronaut Dr. Nancy Currie-Gregg and wanted to get the observatory named in her honor.  "The reason why this project is so near and dear to my heart is, quite frankly, I wouldn't be standing here today, I wouldn't have the career that I did, if it hadn't been for the teachers in my life, especially in high school," Currie-Gregg said, during a celebration in Enid Tuesday.  Read more...
JOHNSTON SEED RETURNS TO ITS ROOTS  
Johnston Seed Co. has, literally and figuratively, returned to its roots. Until recent years, Johnston Seed was part of Johnston Enterprises, which included W.B. Johnston Grain Co., the oldest and largest privately owned grain company in Oklahoma. In 2014, Johnston Enterprises agreed to sell the bulk of its operations, including W.B. Johnston Grain Co. and Port 33, a shipping terminal in eastern Oklahoma, to New Orleans-based CGB Enterprises, which maintains elevators in various Northwest Oklahoma communities, including Enid. The transaction was finalized early last year, and since then Johnston Seed has returned to the company's focus when it was opened by Willis B. Johnston in 1893, supplying seed.  Read more...
ENVIROTECH CELEBRATES 25 YEARS  
What began in 1992 as a two-man local partnership has expanded to a 30-person business serving clients throughout the United States. Envirotech Engineering and Consulting Inc. has grown considerably since the days Robert Stallings and Blaine Reely first went into business together. As it celebrates its 25th anniversary, Envirotech's services, and its reach, have broadened considerably.  Read more...
KOCH FERTILIZER EXPANSION CONTINUES  
An expansion project at Koch Fertilizer is continuing to progress well, according to officials. Koch Fertilizer and KBR, the Enid fertilizer plant expansion project construction management contractor, report the plant is in the process of commissioning several upgrades and new facilities, including a tertiary water treatment facility. The plant was able to utilize more than 70 million gallons of tertiary water in January, which greatly reduced its use of the city's potable water resources. 'Equivalent of two Devon Towers'
In January, the team hit a "major milestone" with more than 1 million man-hours of work without a recordable injury, according to a statement from Rob Carlton, director of business communications.   Read more...
ERDA WORKS TO BRING EMPLOYERS   
Enid Regional Development Alliance officials are working to be more aggressive in finding new employers to move to the area. Every August, the ERDA board has a planning session, said Brent Kisling, executive director. Input is refined throughout the fall and prepared as a set of priorities for the next year. The organization, historically, has done a good job of being responsive to the needs of businesses in the community and those looking to move here, he said. "One area we wanted to improve is being more aggressive in finding new employers to move to our area that fit within the wealth-creating industry clusters that we already have here," Kisling said.   Read more...
OK FREEWHEEL TO BRING 2017 RIDE THROUGH ENID    
Using the theme, "Celebrating the 150th Anniversary of the Chisholm Trail," the 2017 Oklahoma Freewheel tour will have an overnight stay in Enid this June. OK Freewheel is a week long bicycle tour across Oklahoma. Executive Director Trevor Steward announced the 2017 tour begins in Wichita Falls, Texas on June 11, will stop in Enid on June 15 and end in South Haven, Kan. on June 17.  Read more...