OTA Moving Forward With Turnpike Expansion
The Oklahoma Turnpike Authority is preparing to start major expansions and improvements.
The Oklahoma Turnpike Authority’s oversight board gave the green light to the first project to be built as part of the agency’s 15-year, $5 billion toll road expansion and improvement effort: ACCESS Oklahoma.
Nonprofit news outlet The Oklahoma Voice reports that Turnpike Authority officials have previously said widening the entire turnpike to six lanes between Oklahoma City and Bristow will be done in several phases over 14 years.
This marks the first concrete step forward for the Turnpike Authority’s keystone project.
The improvements aim to increase safety, modernize rural roadways with new access points, and alleviate congestion in the Oklahoma City metro area.
New interchanges are planned along the H.E. Bailey, Indian Nation, Will Rogers, Cimarron and Creek toll roads.
American Airlines Gets State Funding For Tulsa Expansion
The state of Oklahoma is giving American Airlines $22 million to expand its operations in Tulsa.
When an American Airlines plane needs work on its engine or airframe, it often goes to Tulsa. That’s where the company’s Tech Ops facility is, on the grounds of the Tulsa International Airport.
Now, American Airlines is looking to expand that location, and the state is providing funds to support it.
The Oklahoma Department of Commerce announced it’s giving $22 million to the airline as part of the state’s Business Expansion Incentive Program.
Those funds will go towards $400 million in improvements planned for the facility over the next three years. The company says the expansion will add 300 jobs.
American Airlines is one of five Business Expansion Incentive Program recipients announced Wednesday. The others are a manufacturing company in McAlester, a new hospital in Fredrick, an aerospace complex in Lawton and an industrial coating facility in Seminole.
Soil Heath Improvement Project
The Oklahoma Conservation Commission is working to improve soil health around the state by providing funding to all kinds of farmers.
The conservation commission will give farmers up to $40,000 over a three year period to put healthy soil practices into place.
That could look like planting no-till crops or shifting where and when animals graze.
The commission's soil health director, Greg Kloxin, said the goal is to emulate the natural landscape.
“And at the end of the day soil health, I’ll just say generally from a 30,000-foot perspective, it’s really looking at agriculture from a natural systems perspective,” Kloxin said.
The program will also collect information to improve the state’s soil health database and conduct educational outreach.
Producers can apply for the project early next year.
OKC’s Baseball Team Is Not The “Dodgers” Anymore
Oklahoma City’s minor league baseball team is rebranding… again.
The team announced Thursday that it is no longer using “Dodgers” and instead will use the temporary nickname “Oklahoma City Baseball Club” for 2024.
The Triple-A squad had used the Dodgers nickname for nine years.
The team says it will spend a year with the generic moniker before identifying a new “permanent” identity beginning with the 2025 season.
The team will continue its affiliation with Major League Baseball’s L-A Dodgers. But in its announcement of the move, the franchise explained that the MLB squad no longer has an ownership stake in the OKC team.
The team has had other nicknames over the years including the Redhawks and Eighty-Niners.
The Baseball Club will begin its season in April with games at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark.
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