By Conrad Dudderar
Staff Writer
A Canadian County developer has contributed significant funds to pave a road in a new housing development northwest of Yukon.
Craig Brothers Development, LLC agreed to give $55,790.04 to Canadian County District 1 to cover the cost of road oil and chip rock for the project in the Richland community.
Canadian County Commissioners approved a resolution at their Oct. 31st meeting allowing District 1 to accept the donation.
“This is for parts of Schien Road,” District 1 Commissioner Marc Hader said.
Craig Brothers Development bought the 160-acre Richland-area property with plans to build 13 houses on five- and 10-acre tracts on the front half of the site.
“They want to develop this, and said they’d help with paying for oil and chip to make it a better paved road,” Hader explained.
“They’re really done a nice job with it. … It’s where Richland ‘dead ends’.”
District 3 Commissioner Jack Stewart was impressed by the developers’ generosity.
“That’s a pretty substantial contribution,” Stewart said.
The property is just west of Oklahoma City limits.
Four parcels of land, 33 feet wide, were deeded to Canadian County in the 1920s after a bridge collapsed on what is now Richland Road between Memorial Road and 122nd Street.
“They didn’t want to replace it, so property owners sold small pieces of land that constitute an ‘alternate route’ half a mile to the west,” Hader shared.
The Craig brothers, in October 2021, told commissioners they had no plans to widen the drive – except along their section of land.
They said they would doze the entire west side of their property to raise the roadbed six to eight feet and install a bar ditch for drainage.
Canadian County Commissioners previously approved a petition to annex the unincorporated land into the Green Valley Rural Water District to provide water to the new development.
FIRST OF FOUR
Craig Brothers’ $55,790.04 contribution to District 1 was the first of four donations that Canadian County Commissioners accepted at their weekly meeting Oct. 31. The others were:
- $2,500 from anonymous donors to the Canadian County Sheriff’s Office to purchase and erect a memorial monument remembering and honoring Canadian County sheriff’s deputies who died working for the Sheriff’s Office. This gift came from two “very humble people” who asked that their names not even be listed on the monument, Undersheriff Kevin Ward explained.
- $1,100 from Ralph A. Swartz to Canadian County District 3 to install a pipe.
- $1,000 from Marathon Oil Co. to the Canadian County Sheriff’s Office for day-to-day law enforcement activities.
Meanwhile, Commissioner Stewart shared news about the recent death of longtime Canadian County Floodplain Board member Carl Richey. Stewart called Richey a “great asset” to Yukon and Canadian County.
