Voters face choices Tuesday

James Coburn
The Edmond Sun

EDMOND May 10, 2008 11:11 pm

— The volume of official Oklahoma County records grows while precariously retained near water, sewer pipes and clutter. Difficult areas to access create problems for archiving the materials dating back to the late 1800s. Documents range from tax filings, property deeds, marriage licenses, financial statements and criminal files.
Oklahoma County voters will have an opportunity Tuesday to approve the $5.75 million County Record Retention proposal. The bond is part of a package of five bond items amounting to $84.5 million that is up for voter consideration in Oklahoma County. Each bond initiative is a separate voting item.
Four of the five proposed bonds have been endorsed by the Edmond Area Chamber of Commerce. The County Record Retention bond does not have the chamber’s endorsement, said Ken Moore, chamber president and CEO.
The chamber urges its members to vote in favor of the $55 million GM plant purchase for Tinker Air Force Base, $10.5 million Oklahoma County Courthouse Renovation, $6 million Natural Hazard Mitigation and Flood Relief and the $7.25 million Oklahoma County Cooperative Extension Service.
Voter approval for the County Record Retention would allow the county to expand into necessary storage space when needed. A comprehensive management program would improve record security, file access and safekeeping, said Ray Vaughn, Oklahoma County commissioner.
File boxes placed under “air-conditioning vents and ducts is not a good way to organize or protect records in those boxes,” he said. Although digital imaging has reduced the volume of hard copy documents, the county continues to have no choice but to store these documents in several problematic locations in downtown Oklahoma City, Vaughn said.
Moore told The Edmond Sun that the chamber fully supports the preservation of county records, but the private sector may offer better cost-effective solutions.
“It certainly is done by state government,” Moore said. “It’s done by city government, and why couldn’t the county go ahead and do the very same thing?”
Vaughn said there are no official plans to build a storage facility on county owned property. But there’s enough spare county-owned property on north Lincoln Boulevard beside the Oklahoma County Election Board to construct a facility, if needed, Vaughn said. Fifty-thousand square feet of storage space would be needed for the county record retention.
He’s met twice with chamber member Randy Allen to look at a facility in the old Federal Reserve Building owned by Allen. A request for proposals to study this building and any other private-sector option will be conducted before any of the bond money is spent, Vaughn said.
“There’s no point in getting the cart before the horse,” he said.
The 15-year general obligation bond would be funded by an increase in ad valorem taxes. Approval for all of the bond items would increase taxes on a $100,000 home by $15 a year, Vaughn said. The County Record Retention ad valorem tax portion of the bond issues would be 9 cents a month for a $100,000 home.
Another bond issue, the Oklahoma County Cooperative Extension service would cost Oklahoma County homeowners 22 cents a month in ad valorem taxes for a $200,000 home.
“Congress passed a law that all land grant universities have to make their educational classes available through the states, and the states have an obligation to work with them to do that,” Vaughn said. “The state then has passed that duty down to the county, so that each county has to provide space and utilities for their cooperative extension center.”
The chamber also encourages voters to approve the $10.5 million renovation bond for the Oklahoma County Courthouse. Approving this bond issue would be 16 cents a month for homeowners of a $100,000 home.
“It looks good from the outside. It’s even been remodeled inside not long ago, but all the utility systems, the plumbing, the heating, the air-conditioning, the sewer — everything is 1937 vintage,” Vaughn said. “What we’d like to do is replace the mechanical equipment in it and install a sprinkler system.”
Vaughn said the good thing about the Natural Hazard and Flood Relief bond is the federal government will invest $3 in FEMA grants for every $1 to assist with those flooding prevention projects. Deer Creek residents expect flooded roads on a yearly basis. And firefighters have rescued 15 Deer Creek motorists this year due to floods.
The proposed ad valorem tax on a $100,000 house for the flood relief portion of the bond would cost homeowners 9 cents a month for 15 years.
The largest item on the bond election ballot would be the purchase of the former General Motors plant for use by Tinker Air Force Base. The facility would be called the Tinker Aerospace Complex. And the Tinker ad valorem bond issues would be 82 cents a month on a $100,000 home.
“The Tinker initiative that relates to the purchase of the General Motors facility is very important from an economic development perspective,” Moore said. “This is a way to take advantage of a large facility, utilize it in a really positive way, a way that also impacts the state’s largest employer.”
With more than 1,000 Tinker employees living in Edmond, the city has enjoyed a mutually beneficial relationship with Tinker, said Peggy Geib, board chairwoman of the Edmond Area Chamber of Commerce.
“We want to be sure we support that initiative,” she said.

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