El Reno’s Mayor Matt White, who many of you know, is again serving his hometown as the city manager. Matt will again get to make the important decisions for our Canadian County seat community of El Reno due to the current City Manager Jeremy Frazier’s contract not being renewed at the Jan. 14 city council meeting. (executive session)
Frazier has been working on the job in El Reno, for just more than a year and has seen his fair share of problems, most recently the departure of Haliburton that could very well cripple the town due to the loss of sales tax and the downturn in the oil and gas industry revenue that is the primary source of funding for municipal budgets.
The council voted 5-0 to pay Frazier about $12,500 in severance pay and voted 4-1 to name Matt as the acting city manager (a job he is very familiar with doing).
Frazier is a good friend of Piedmont City Manager Jason Orr. Both worked as CM’s in Newkirk and both are very familiar with working with tribes and the politics of small towns.
I thought Frazier was a good fit for El Reno and would be there quite a while. I guess I was wrong.
Anyway. I think Matt White should set his sights set on Piedmont and try to get Jason Orr to move to El Reno to take the city manager job. Jason Orr is ready for the challenges that face El Reno and he is the type of person that could get along very well with Matt White. After all, it is Matt’s town and if you don’t believe me, ask Governor Stitt. That tornado that rocked El Reno last May brought out the best in Matt White. He was incredibly emotional and passionate about the recovery of his hometown and he represented El Reno with a lot of class.
Jason Orr and Matt White could come together very nicely and develop a recovery plan for the community after losing Haliburton. Governor Stitt praised Matt several times about the way he kept everything together for everyone.
The City of Piedmont is not going to ever have any substantive retail growth or approve any plan to fix their dilapidated streets and roads. It didn’t happen in the 70’s. It didn’t happen in the 80’s. It didn’t happen in the 90’s. It didn’t happen in the first two decades of the 2000’s and they are floundering again in the 20’s.
Jason Orr has a lot of good ideas, but he will never get to use them in Piedmont. It is not going to happen….at least until Piedmont has a few more funerals.
Matt White is going to sink ORR swim. He needs to make today his Friday the 13th and call Jason.
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Back in 2005, I was spending my time working for Ingersoll Rand as an air compression systems technician. I was nowhere close to being qualified for this mechanical engineering job, but they liked the way I sold stuff so they hired me. I was told to “get us in the door Anderson” we will bring in the engineers to do the rest! So that is just what I did. I sold the Eskimo Joes T-shirt factory in Stillwater; I sold the Bar-S hot dog factory in Altus; I sold the Chef’s Requested Foods meat processing company (behind Cattleman’s) and I sold the Bedre Chocolate factory in Pauls Valley.
Every one of these plants did not realize how badly they needed to own a brand-new air compression system in their facilities, but after they met me they did! This brings me to my latest idea that I am going to see if I can make happen. Chickasaw Tribal Chief Anaotubby loves his Bedre’ chocolate factory. He loves seeing those Pringles coming down the conveyer belt and being covered in dark, milk and white chocolate. I love that his system is powered by an Ingersoll Rand air compression system that I sold him!
I am going to do my best to see if Chief will let us set-up a mini conveyor belt system at our annual Yukon Chocolate Festival. I want to let all our visitors sample these delicious chocolate-covered Pringles potato chips. We will just call them PROGRESS PRINGLES…if I can talk the Chief into it!! (which I can!)
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My friends in Kingfisher will soon be making the old T.G.&Y. exhibit a permanent museum. How many of you fine readers know in your hearts that you have spent $1 million at T.G.&Y. during your lifetime? I shopped at the big store at S.W. 74th and Pennsylvania for many years. I remember when our Yukon store closed in the early 90’s. It was the end of an era.
I talked this week with the Kingfisher T.G.&Y. museum curator about possibly allowing us to display all their artifacts here in Yukon at the Yukon stores original location. I will keep you updated!
Thanks so much for reading. I will see you next Saturday. Would you like a Progress?
