July 4, 1776, and Sept. 11, 2001, are both dates that have shaped the history of the United States of America.
While both those dates are important to Brent Kisling, there are other dates that are significant to the executive director of Enid Regional Development Alliance.
“I think one of those dates is May 1st of 2009,” Kisling said. “That was the date that the city’s vision to put more resources into the development alliance actually came to fruition. It was the day we opened the offices at the (James W. Strate Center for Business Development) at Autry Tech.”
Kisling, giving his executive director report at Enid Regional Development Alliance’s annual meeting Thursday at Oakwood Country Club, said he wanted to highlight some dates he wanted people in attendance to remember for a long time.
Since the alliance got its start in the business development center last year, Kisling said he, Business Manager Lisa Powell and the board of directors have been hard at work, distributing marketing material and attending conferences and trade shows.
Kisling also highlighted efforts to bring more retail businesses to Enid. That work has been led by the alliance and Rickey Hayes, who was hired by the city to do a retail study.
Kisling also talked about other recent dates in Enid’s history.
One of those dates was July 1, 2009, when film crews were in town to film “The Killer Inside Me,” a movie that has been nationally recognized.
When some members of the cast were in town, Kisling said he got to have a chat with Casey Affleck, who told him, “You know, Enid is kind of a big deal.”
Kisling said that gave the development alliance a kind of slogan to run with the rest of the year.
“We want to publicize that Enid really is kind of a big deal,” he said.
Another date Kisling recognized was Feb. 9, 2010, when voters passed a $99.45 million bond issue for Enid Public Schools to make improvements to structures and build new schools.
“(It was) proof we are ready to invest in ourselves and move to the next level,” he said.