The Ponca City Chamber of Commerce Business Council held their regular monthly meeting on Tuesday, May 2 at 8 am.

Ben Evans called the meeting to order.

June’s Cash Mob will be held on Thursday, June 1 at 11:30 am at Old West Liquors.

Zach Trantham provided his Chamber Report.

Shelley Arrott, Tiffany Hermann and Kelly Cross are currently attending the MAKO Conference in Branson, Missouri.

A ribbon cutting will be held on Thursday, May 4 at 9 am for the grand opening of Goodwill Industries at 2808 N. 14th.

A Cash Mob will be held on Thursday, May 4 at 11:30 am at Schlotzsky’s.

Education and Workforce will meet at 4 pm on Thursday, May 4.

The 36th Ponca City Leadership Class will have their graduation ceremony on Thursday, May 4 at 6 pm at the Ponca City Country Club. The cost is $40.

A ribbon cutting will be held on Friday, May 5 at 10 am for US Cellular at their new store location at 2412 N. 14th.

Another ribbon cutting will be held on Friday, May 5 at 2 pm for The Doodle Academy’s five year anniversary at 103 E. Grand Avenue.

A ribbon cutting will be held for the US Army Core of Engineers new restroom facility at Coon Creek Boat Ramp on Monday, May 8.

A PIE partner wrap-up meeting will be held on Thursday, May 11 at 4 pm at the Administration Building.

Ponce Young Employees (PYE) will hold their annual Cornhole Tournament on Saturday, May 13 at Ody’s. Registration begins at 1 pm.

A ribbon cutting will be held for KR Automation on Tuesday, May 16 at 11 am.

The next Party at the Palace auction meeting will be held on Wednesday, May 17 at 4 pm at the Rusty Barrell Supper Club.

Chamber members then went around the room to provide various updates.

Jamie Philips with Grand Mental Health provided an update.

Grand Mental Health had 130 new walk-ins and are working on a camp for the summer for children to build skills and learn social skills.

Zac Kirby and Matthew Schatz with ZK Enterprises shared an update.

They will have their fox statues soon at the Plaza.

One of their businesses, Juicy’s Vapor Lounge, will be celebrating its 10th anniversary in July.

Angela Spicer with Hospice of North Central Oklahoma shared an update.

Taco Fest will be on Saturday, May 6 from 9 am to 7 pm.

E.W. Marland’s 149th birthday celebrations will be held at the Marland Grand Home from 10 am to 3 pm on Saturday, May 6.

United Way will have their Resource Fair on Saturday, May 13 from 10 am to 2 pm.

The Seasons of Aging will be on Saturday, May 20 at the Carolyn Renfro Center.

The final presentation with Rachel Voelkers on dementia will be held on Thursday, May 25 from 12 pm to 1 pm in the Carolyn Renfro Center.

The 28th Annual Hospice Golf Tournament will be held on Friday, May 26.

Kerri Bowman shared that on Thursday, May 11, there will be a Spring Mixer for Ponca City Main Street (PCMS).

Jessica Field with Stolhand- Wells Group shared that they are anticipating to move into the bowling alley location on July 1.

Brooke Jones with Redlands Office Solutions shared that things are busy as they have many furniture and copier jobs.

Jones also shared that Business on the Balcony will be held at City Central at 7 am on Tuesday, May 9.

Mayor Homer Nicholson provided an update for the City of Ponca City.

The City Commissioners met on April 17 and April 18 for budget hearings. The Commissioners approved the staff recommendation for the new 2023-2024 budget of $132,766,000. This is about a 6% increase.

Philips 66 is having a huge turnaround this year with Sept. 8 being the biggest ramp up with about 2000 contractors in town.

The Pioneer Apartments north of the Pioneer Woman are moving along and will be “Class A” housing.

The city is getting ready to do mill and overlay in several places around town, one of those being Mockingbird, east of Pecan. 1st Street from Highland to 1st is expected to be milled and overlaid sometime this year.

Congressman Lucas has given the city $2 million to rework and restore the transportation depot. Additionally, the city has acquired another $1 million for the restoration. This is part of a contribution to restore passenger rail.

The area where Ground Round is located has been sold and will become Tidal Wave Auto Spa.

The Ponca City Senior Citizens Center is now operational following 10 months of remodeling.

The Public Safety Center is projected to be completed this summer, after missing the previous goal of a September 2022 opening.

Sunset Villas at 5th and Bradley will be composed of about 90 units, with the first 70 in a gated community.

The City Commissioners voted to order a new packer machine for use at the Ponca City Landfill on Monday, April 24.

The Smith Building will now be owned by Century Products.

The old Conoco hangar at the Ponca City Airport has a new tenant called NextGen that performs MRO (maintenance, repair, and overall) and will perform jet engine repairs on private jets.

Ben Evans with Pioneer Technology Center (PTC) provided an update.

Evans shared that the PTC cafeteria will be open during the summer.

1 Million Cups was held on Wednesday, May 3 with Grand Mental Health as a speaker.

DISC assessment will be on Tuesday, May 9 from 9 am to 11 am. The cost is $75.

The Business and Industry Services will hold their “Barbecue with Biz” will be on Friday, May 12 from 11 am to 1 pm. The lunch is free.

Mindful Leadership will be held on Tuesday, May 23 from 10 am to 12 pm. This is an HR series and will cost $50.

The Hero Effect with motivational speaker Kevin Brown will be held on Wednesday, May 24 from 11 am to 1 pm at PTC. Contact PTC to RSVP.

Mental Health in the Workplace will be held on Wednesday, May 31 from 12 pm to 1 pm.

Basic Peace Officer Certification graduations are also scheduled this week.

The next meeting will be held on Tuesday, June 6.