The Ponca City Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors Committee held their regular monthly meeting on Tuesday, April 25.

Rick Hancock called the meeting to order.

At the top of the meeting, Hancock shared two of the seventeen success principles with the Board. The first of these was teamwork, and with the Chamber’s Party at the Palace Auction later this year, Hancock has asked members to step up and help the event.

The second principle is to “control the tension” or “organized mind power.” It is the ability to stay focused on an objective until it is achieved. Hancock challenged Board members to think about three individuals or business to Party at the Palace and/or three auction items to bring.

Third and final forum for the current legislative session will be on Friday, April 28 from noon to 1 pm at the Commission Chambers at City Hall.

Interim Chamber CEO Tiffany Hermann then provided her staff report.

The 36th Leadership Ponca City Class held their last session at Camp Horizon on Wednesday, April 26.

Business After Hours is on Thursday, April 27 at the Ponca City Country Club and is hosted by Titan Title and Closing from 5 pm to 7 pm.

Shelley Arrott, Tiffany Hermann and Kelly Cross will be attending the MAKO Conference in Branson, Missouri from May 1 to May 3.

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

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

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

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

Austin Wilkins provided an update for Ponca Young Employees (PYE).

PYE held a wine tasting Tab into the Arts event in the John McNeese Gallery at City Central for the benefit of the City Arts Association and donated approximately $600.

PYE has already planned the details for their next four events.

Mayor Homer Nicholson then 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.

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

The legislature is in session and municipalities are keeping an eye on bills that would have adverse effects on them.

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

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

Freedom Homes on Turner will be for residents 55 and older and will be breaking ground soon.

The Ponca City Senior Center reopened on Monday, April 17 following 10-month remodel.

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.

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.

Kay County District Attorney Brian Hermanson provided an update.

Construction continues at the Kay County Courthouse, as such, they continue to operate out of the old DHS building in Newkirk. The latest estimate completion date is in September.

An election was held earlier this month and Jeff Kreger is now the Kay County District #3 Commissioner.

Shelley Arrott, Superintendent of Ponca City Public Schools (PCPS), provided an update.

The Oklahoma House of Representatives came out with a plan for teacher pay raises and money pumped outside of the formula for students, and a cap for the top 42 highest schools at $2 million. For reference, Oklahoma City students would get $32 per student, whereas the smallest school in Oklahoma would get $468 per student.

The bill passed with $2500 across the board for classroom teachers, and it was expected to pass through the Oklahoma Senate. However, the Senate had their own plan with a tiered plan for teacher raises, and they are also pumping money through the formula because they believe they are funding students equitably.

This gridlock has result in a lack of a common education plan for Oklahoma at this time.

Governor Kevin Stitt offered up his own plan to split the difference, but the Senate is dug in with their plan to fund all students equally.

Construction on Concert Hall classrooms has started and are anticipated to be completed by August for fine arts classes.

STEM academy is ongoing with a plan to open in spring. PCPS has hired a STEM director that is developing curriculum.

Liberty Elementary is having an office remodel and expanding on their library starting on May 8 after state testing.

PCPS has Business Professionals of America (BPA) students in Anaheim, California, as well as a top 10 finalist for the Virtual Multimedia and Promotion team, and a DECA group at the International DECA Conference.

Traci Thorpe, Superintendent of Pioneer Technology Center (PTC), provided an update.

PTC has several end of the year wrap up events going on including a health fair on April 19, and a practical nursing pinning ceremony where 14 nurses graduated.

PTC is gearing up for their third grade day on May 5 that will see area third graders visit the campus.

The second Basic Peace Officer Academy will be graduating soon.

The annual Weld for Work competition will be coming up on May 10.

PTC will have a consolidated graduation of all of their programs on Thursday, May 18.

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

PTC is also gearing up for summer camp activities and summer academies throughout June and July.

PTC is sponsoring a class for 18-year olds to participate in truck driver training.

Kevin Schmitt with Philips 66 provided an update.

The refinery hosted the CEO and other executives this month.

Employee resource groups have been out performing volunteer work.

Melissa Cecena provided an update for AllianceHealth Ponca City.

A 2022 community benefit report for the hospital was provided and it was shared that the hospital had 17,600 ER visits, 1900 in-patient admissions, 300 births, 3300 surgeries, 87,000 out-patient visits, and a total patient encounter at 9,900. The overall community benefit was $52.2 million last year, this number is expected to go up.

Cecena also shared that Highway 60 Tire is hosting a customer appreciation day on Wednesday, May 3 from 11 am to 2 pm.

The next meeting will be on Tuesday, May 23 at 11 am.