A movement of community spirit has developed in northwest Oklahoma among development groups, municipal and country governments, businesses and chambers of commerce.
The Northwest Oklahoma Alliance represents interests in a wide area extending to the western end of the Panhandle.
“The alliance was formed for a united effort to promote northwest Oklahoma,” said Matt Gard, president of the alliance. “Having everyone working for themselves was not doing what it should have been doing.”
Gard is not the typical economic development official. He operates a farm at Fairview.
“I live on a Centennial farm my great-grandfather homesteaded,” he said.
While not an urban area, northwest Oklahoma has a lot to offer businesses and manufacturers, Gard said.
“Some of the obstacles are perceptions – people feel they have to locate in Tulsa or Oklahoma City,” he said. “But many of our cities – Alva, Woodward, Enid – can offer anything the urban cities can offer.”
State programs and incentives are part of the recruitment program.
Tools include the Oklahoma Department of Commerce’s Site Ready Program.
Enid has three of the 34 certified site-ready locations in 23 communities statewide, said Dave Lopez, Oklahoma secretary of commerce and tourism, who was in Enid recently for the announcement of the third site.
The state program was created in 2006 to validate for businesses seeking sites that a site is ready for construction, to minimize risk for companies and speed development.
“We can find ways to make the incentives and tax breaks work if they just give us the chance to put some creativity to it,” Gard said.
Gard has been president of the Northwest Oklahoma Alliance for two years. Other board members are Alex Mantz, representing the city of Alva and the Alva Chamber of Commerce; Brent Kisling, Enid Regional Development Alliance; Vicki McCune, Panhandle Regional Economic Development Coalition, Guymon; Con Pekrul, Plain View Winery, Lahoma; Melissa Washmon, Northwestern Electric Cooperative, Woodward; and Toni Pickle, Pioneer Telephone, Kingfisher.
Traditionally, northwest Oklahoma’s economy has been based on agriculture and energy. Currently the area is a hot spot for both natural gas drilling and wind farms.
“North and east of Alva the oil field is cooking,” Gard said. “Near Geary there is a lot of drilling. Horizontal drilling is opening up some new areas.”
Industry areas the alliance targets include agriculture, tourism, business and industry, education, health care, transportation and utilities.
Every company is not a proper fit.
“The industries have to fit our communities and what we are able to provide,” Gard said. “There are many industries that could come to our area and fit perfectly.”
Selling points include transportation, both highways and railroads; education, including technology centers; utilities; and water.
“We have some of the cleanest groundwater available,” he said. “You tie the roads, electricity and rural water and you have a community.”
The combination of transportation and technology is important.
“It is so important for rural Oklahoma to get from Point A to Point B, whether it is on the Internet or the highway,” Gard said.
Quality broadband service is important to retaining and recruiting businesses, said Pickle, who represents Pioneer Telephone on the alliance board.
“Nothing gets done without the telecommunications infrastructure,” Pickle said. Pioneer works with rural communities to provide telecommunications infrastructure, she said.
Tourism is both a recruitment target and a selling point. “We have some great tourist attractions,” Gard said. “There is room for growth in the tourism industry.”
Potential tourism growth areas include bed and breakfast lodging, trail drives and hunting, Gard said.
“Hunting is always a draw,” he said. “It is always good to get our city cousins out to see us.”
One of the primary goals is to attract people to the communities in northwest Oklahoma.
“You have to have people to keep the necessities of life going – the fire departments, the police departments,” Gard said.
People are returning to the area.
“We are finding that a lot of people are coming back to northwest Oklahoma after they have their education and have gone to the big city,” he said. “They are coming back for our small communities and the life style.”
The Northwest Oklahoma Alliance plans to combine efforts of its members to promote the entire area and its assets.
“Northwest Oklahoma has so much more to offer than cows and rattlesnakes,” he said.