Oklahoma Marinas | amazing opportunity
We were talking in the last segment about the constraints now on on government spending which are are not going to. Receive. Certainly in my lifetime and probably not in my kids lifetime as we all know we have we have generated so much debt that I believe the number is. Almost staggering. I want to say it’s somewhere around 55 or 60 thousand dollars for every individual that’s how great our federal debt is sadly. Oklahoma Marinas. And frighteningly we’re saying that the debt is equally great on a relative basis at the state levels. Now in Oklahoma Fortunately they have to balance the budget just like it or Oklahoma marina. We have to balance our budget. And most businesses have to balance their budget not only balance you’d better be making a profit that just a sign at the federal level we have been on the drunken spending spree and what it’s doing is it’s touching all areas of our lives including very much recreation as we know our Oklahoma marina at Keystone harbor and our Oklahoma marina at Cross Timbers costumer’s Harbor. On. To gleich. Oklahoma Marinas. Both both of those marinas are sitting in a location that that it’s essential that we provide public services. That was the whole basis of our lease. And that’s what’s particularly incumbent upon us to do that is getting more and more important as we’re seeing these huge deficits spiraling. We’re seeing deficits not just on the annual budgets but we’re seeing him in teacher retirement plans and other pension programs that again are frightening for people that gave honest good service for 30 or 35 years and now they’re worried that their pensions are even going to be funded so it’s going to play a real role in coming years as far as recreational development which is an important aspect of people’s lives family memories are often the deepest and the greatest experiences that that we had as children and young people recreating with our parents and our grandparents and our friends on likes. Oklahoma Marinas. They they make some of the deepest memories just as water has such an impact on us. It has a huge impact on our memory. And so it is sad that we see so many campsites and campgrounds being closed now by the by the state. Some even at the local level can’t maintain services and certainly at the federal level there’s a real question as to why the federal government ever got into the camping and Lake recreation business to begin with. But they did and they’ve spent a lot of money opening a lot of sites. And for those that use those sites in many cases they are very very tired and not what you would want for your family or your friends to have to experience much less yourself. So we are at a real crossroads and we see our Oklahoma Marina project at Keystone harbor and our Oklahoma Marina project at Sky to like. Really in the cross hairs of change. And we have been real advocates and really respect Senator Inhofe who’s had the vision from the beginning to see these deficits coming and saying that we needed legislation to encourage the Corps of Engineers now to. Begin to realize that they need to be true partners and partners in the sense that they communicate that they act consistently. Often you’ll see a culture that’s emerged within a district Corps office that is not appropriate to private development. And accordingly that kind of non communicative almost threatening relationship has meant that there are no applicants that come forward to add more services at a time that more services are needed. As relates to like recreation. So Senator Inhofe through Section 31 34 of the word a 2007 Bill stated that we needed to have the Corps have more demo likes and you’ll remember the demo like is the selected process that we ended up getting our Oklahoma Marina Lee set sky to. Initially he wanted to see more of those and so he declared in Section 31 34 of the Water Resource Development Act known as Warda 2007. That more partnerships needed to be created with the private sector. Now Senator Inhofe had that vision in 2007 near the tail end of the Bush administration and sadly as we see with Republicans and Democrats they both run up big deficits. The deficits we’re already beginning to spiral not as dramatically as they have now that we’ve gone to almost 20 trillion. But they were up at 6 and 7 trillion already. And Senator Inhofe could say you have got to be a private partner. Now Senator Inhofe has a long history of partnerships when he was mayor of Tulsa back in the nineteen eighties and late 70s he was known as by Ronald Reagan as one of the best mayors in the United States because it was thanks to Senator Inhofe working with the private sector that we got the first low water dam on the Arkansas River a major tributary that runs through the city of Tulsa. He it was known at that time as being the largest public project that was entirely funded with private dollars that that required Senator Inhofe then Mayor Inhofe to really get the confidence of the private sector to make that bonded investment and he did that. You don’t do that by being arbitrary you don’t do that by not communicating. You don’t do that by creating battles and holding grudges and all the rest. You do that by saying hey we’re in this together let’s figure out how together we can use your private money for a public benefit and a public use. And that’s what he did with the low water dam. He also had the vision as mayor to go and get the trash to energy plant. Bill known as terror. And so that literally takes trash and generates energy in the incineration of that trash. And that’s been a big. If you will pardon the pun fuel to the economy. That was then Mayor Inhofe reaching out to the private sector to get them to come and make that risk investment. Often the Corps and other public employees forget that they think oh well you know you’re you’re wealthy and live sleazy and they don’t appreciate how much sleepless nights you have how much risk you take. Whenever you do a project like an Oklahoma Marina or like a trash to energy plant or like a low water dam. Oklahoma Marinas. So Senator Inhofe having come from the private sector then Mayor Inhofe realized those pressures realize those risks and put himself in the place of the people that he was asking to make those investments that made all the difference. He also privatized the trash collection service that used to be collected by city employees. Now it’s done by contract that’s gone on for 30 to 35 years now since he was mayor. So quite a record of a vision for we when something is needed by the public how to enlist and engage the private sector in making that happen. He certainly was an advocate of the project that initially was the 12 corps likes that were the initial demonstration like partners back in 2000 2001. He caught that spirit. He and his staff have been actively engaged in making more of those projects happen on you Falah at Texoma. Oklahoma Marinas. Obviously at Sky two our Oklahoma Marina project Keystone Harbor he’s always there with his staff as an advocate for let’s get the private sector to build this. It’ll be finer. It’ll be better. It will be market based. And so he’s he’s had that vision and it was well demonstrated when he made all Oklahoma likes demonstration public private partner likes in his legislation and the word Bill 2007. And then he very thoughtfully in the most recent bill which I can’t remember the the name of the acronym that it’s known as when I’m in it it replace the water resource development act in the windmill of 2016. Senator Inhofe as then chairman of environment and public works committee thoughtfully got the sunset provision which had been 10 years for all Oklahoma corps likes to be demo projects. He got that stricken. So now they will permanently be partner likes lakes where the Civil Service protected folks at the Tulsa district or the corps need to be thinking hard and working hard to truly partner improve communications and outreach with the private sector and again with a 20 trillion dollar debt. And with the state announcing the closing of many campgrounds. Potentially with their deficit. Many of those campgrounds are on Corps of Engineers like it were it a real crossroads of needing this kind of leadership as shown by Senator Inhofe in getting more and more of these public private partnership programs going across the state of Oklahoma. If you look at taxes and you look at Oklahoma we’re falling behind. That is a huge economic opportunity for us. Because of all these alikes we have got to partner better. Oklahoma Marinas