Mayor says yes to Tinker, other bond issues

Dan O'Neil
The Edmond Sun

EDMOND May 10, 2008 09:40 pm

— As a former U.S. Army captain and Vietnam War veteran, I know first-hand the commitment the men and women of our armed forces have to serving and protecting our country. During my 34 years as a civilian employee working in the Civilian Personnel Office at Tinker Air Force Base, I also saw first-hand how important the Tinker maintenance facility is to supporting those men and women who fight to protect our nation.
As mayor of Edmond, I can tell you that the Tuesday bond election to acquire the former General Motors plant for use by Tinker is as important to our own community as it is to the people on base. Tinker is Oklahoma’s largest single-site employer, generating $3.4 billion annually for our economy and employing 27,000 military and civilian workers. More than a thousand of those Tinker employees live in the City of Edmond.
Voting yes on Tuesday will allow Tinker to convert the idle GM plant into the Tinker Aerospace Complex, a 3.8 million-square-foot facility that will not only improve the operations and efficiency of the work at Tinker, but also will create the potential for thousands of new jobs that our community will benefit from.
Creation of the Tinker Aerospace Complex would allow Tinker to mothball, and eventually demolish 2.2 million square feet of substandard buildings, reducing taxpayer cost for facilities maintenance, and that will be important during the next BRAC exercise. We need to remove these substandard buildings and help make Tinker more competitive.
The other bond issues also are important to Edmond. We need to help control the repeated flooding just north of Edmond. There are serious structural improvements needed at the county courthouse and we need to provide new storage space to retain and protect public records. Moving the OSU Cooperation Extension Service to a new location will allow OSU Technology Center to expand its facility in northwest Oklahoma City. Oklahoma County Commissioner Ray Vaughn is doing a great job and we need to support these limited programs.
The partnership between the residents of Edmond and Tinker is a strong one, and I encourage you to join me in showing our support once more by voting yes on Tuesday.

DAN O’NEIL is mayor of Edmond.