The Ponca City Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors held their monthly meeting on Tuesday, March 22. Chamber Chair Wendy Stobbe called the meeting to order.

Stobbe then gave her chair report.

A Kindness Campaign meeting was held at 4 pm on Thursday, March 17 at the Ponca City Country Club. The meeting focused on action items to show kindness toward schools.

Stickers for the Kindness Campaign are available at the Chamber Office, and t-shirts are available at Village Screen Print. The next Kindness Campaign meeting will be on Tuesday, April 19 at the Rusty Barrell Supper Club.

Rick Hancock provided several updates for committees in town.

The Ambassador’s Committee met on Tuesday, March 8 and gave assignments to reach out to new 2022 Chamber members including Beaver Creek Properties, Vibe Salon, Ron and Natalie Prather, and Rocky’s Hot Mess Express.

Business After Hours is on Thursday, March 24 at Philips 66 in the Atrium from 5 pm to 7 pm.

The Chamber will have a school board candidate forum on Wednesday, March 30 from noon to 1 pm at City Hall. All four candidates that are running for school board will be in attendance. This forum was set up to help the community become introduced to the candidates and be informed when they go to vote. Additionally, you don’t have to live in the ward being voted on, anyone living in the Ponca City School District is an eligible voter.

A ribbon cutting will be held for Frazier’s restaurant on Thursday, March 24 at 11 am. There will also be a ribbon cutting for The Doodle Academy expansion on Tuesday, March 29 at 9 am.

Ponca Politics will be on Friday, March 25 at noon at the City Commission chambers with Senator Bill Coleman, and Representatives Ken Luttrell and John Pfieffer. It will also be streamed on the Chamber’s Facebook page.

Kelsey Wagner provided several committee updates including those from the Community Development, Business Council, and Education and Workforce Development committees.

The 35th Leadership Ponca City will a fundraiser dinner to raise money for an “in-kind” gift called Leaders Night Out. This money will help an adult wishing to go back to school, and doesn’t have the money to go to PTC or the University Center. That will be on Saturday, April 9 at Osage Casino. Tickets are $50, there will also be a silent auction, and the Mike Seals Jazz Trio.

95.5 Bob FM has received positive feedback from the community about the station. WBBZ will feature the St. Louis Cardinals games; and KSOK will cover Kansas City Royals games.

Ponca City Rotary had their Service Mob on Thursday, March 17 to help clean at the Poncan Theatre. Service Mobs are held on the third Thursday of every month for another non-profit to help provide them with any cleaning/upkeep they need. Ponca City Rotary meets every Monday at noon.

The Cash Mob for April will be at Taco Stop on Thursday, April 7 at 11:30 am.

On Feb. 14, a stipend was approved by Ponca City Public Schools (PCPS) and every single public school employee got $1000.

PCPS was able to approve their calendar and were able to reduce their contract to 175 days.

The Teacher of the Year reception will be held on March 24, followed by a celebration at the Ponca City Concert Hall.

The Northern Oklahoma Humane Society (NOKHS) will be trying to set up some education to teach children the importance of approaching animals correctly.

MyMediaMatters will be doing another internship this summer for a college student.

Chamber President Rich Cantillon provided his staff report.

The Chamber Celebration will be Thursday, April 21. The reception will be hosted by RCB Bank at the Marland Mansion from 4 pm to 6 pm, a ticket is required to attend the reception. Following the reception, the awards will be presented at the Ponca City High School Concert Hall at 6:30 pm.

The 35th Leadership Class will have their County Government Day on April 6 to tour the Kay County Annex. The City Government Day will be April 13.

Graduation for Leadership Class is Thursday, May 5 at the Carolyn Renfro Event Center at 6:30 pm. Tickets will go on sale soon.

The Chamber will be doing a customer service training on Friday, April 29 from 11:30 am to 1:30 pm.

The Support Staff Reception will be making a comeback, this event allows all the school support staff to come to the Chamber from 10 am to 2 pm on Wednesday, May 11 for refreshments.

Cantillon also provided the tourism report.

Ponca City has received visitors from Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Washington, and those from within the state of Oklahoma as well.

The video “What’s Happening Ponca City?” currently has 8000 views this month.

Ponca City has four nominations for the Red Bud State Tourism Award.

The nominations include the following:

- The Ponca City tourism website designed by Kelsey Wagner and her team for Best Website

- The Grand Cigar and Lounge for Outstanding New State Attraction

- What’s Happening Ponca City for Best Social Media Campaign

- Ponca City Chamber of Commerce for Outstanding Tourism Entity

They are currently working with tour operators to come through Ponca City in the fall.

Zach Trantham attended the State Tourism Meeting last week, international tourism partners will be coming to Oklahoma to tour the state and plan itineraries for visitors from the UK, Germany, and Australia.

Following COVID-19, the roadshows have returned with the first at QuikTrip headquarters in Tulsa on May 10.

Trantham will be attending Comic Con in Kansas City, and Chamber Vice President Tiffany Hermann will be working the Wichita Women’s Show that same weekend.

Ally Broome with Ponca Young Employees (PYE) provided an update.

PYE held a lunch and learn on personal finance at the Ponca City Country Club on Wednesday, March 23.

PYE will have two events in April, the first of which will be Tap into the Arts.

Tap into the Arts will be on April 12 from 6 pm to 7 pm and is in partnership with City Arts to check out their gallery space and hear about the organization.

On April 30, PYE will have a downtown bar crawl to collect donations for the PYE scholarship fund at the University Center. A $5 donation will get you a stamp card to be filled out at participating bars and at the end of the night there will be drawing for merchandise, gift cards and Chamber Bucks.

Broome also provided an update for Marland’s Place.

Cocktails for a Cause will be held on Friday, April 8 at Osage Casino with dueling pianos for entertainment. Tickets are $75 a piece and available online at marlandsplace.com.

Lori Henderson with Ponca City Development Authority (PCDA) shared an update.

PCDA has nine new leads in March. At the end of December, the unemployment rate in the Ponca City labor market was 1.9%. The lowest it has every been.

Businesses are still looking to come into Ponca City, but buildings will be needed for them, to this end PCDA is working on a spec building that will go to bid soon.

The Business Pitch-Off was held recently with the winner being Nena Tacos, a food truck. Nena Tacos will be parking at Vortex Alley Brewing on Thursday nights. Nena Tacos shared their winnings with Central Cafe, which will be starting in City Central on April 4.

PCDA is partnering with the City of Ponca City to do small business and non-profit grants with American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) money the city has received. Those applications will should open April 1. Small businesses can get between $2500 to $10,000; while non-profits can get $5000 to $10,000 with that money. A small business/non-profit must meet all the requirements to qualify, money is not guaranteed as there are a limited amount of funds.

Mayor Homer Nicholson provided an update for the City of Ponca City.

It is budget time for the city so staff are working on their budget plans to have those finished by April or May.

There are three proposed housing projects underway in Ponca City.

The city is working on ARPA money that is being distributed to non-profits and other organizations in town.

The broadband project is complete west of 14th Street, they are now working east of 14th. Materials have been ordered to try and complete the project because of supply chain delays, and to have the supplies on hand.

There are six new white garbage trucks around town, and a new bucket truck.

The Third Street sidewalk south of Grand Avenue is being replaced soon.

The Ponca City Aviation Foundation Fly-in Breakfast will be restarting on Saturday, April 2.

The transportation depot that city has been working on is making progress. Congressman Frank Lucas has a line item budget for $2 million for Ponca City’s depot. It is hoped that this will become a transportation hub and help to restore passenger rail.

PCPS Superintendent Shelley Arrott provided her report.

In March, the Ponca City Board of Education approved a significant support employee raise. For the first time ever, PCPS will be doing a career fair for support employees in June.

The school board election is on Tuesday, April 5. Candidates for Ward 2 are Nancy Zimmerschied and Tracy Davis McCloud; candidates for Ward 4 are Anna Roland and Amanda Porter-Cain. You do not have to live in the ward to vote, you are eligible to vote as long as you live in the PCPS district. You can go to https://okvoterportal. okelections.us/ to see if you are eligible to vote for this election.

A big bill for public schools this session is SB 1647 which will divert public funds to private schools for education funding.

The Po-Hi Hall of Fame Banquet will be on Thursday, March 31 at 7 pm at the Carolyn Renfro Event Center, the banquet was delayed initially due to COVID-19. The inductees are James McNeese (Class of 1936), Forest Mertz (Class of 1942), Don Mertz (Class of 1944), Carole Suggs Bender (Class of 1970), Debra Harden Rue (Class of 1971), and Patty McGraw Coatney (Class of 1978).

Dr. Clark Harris provided an update for Northern Oklahoma College (NOC)

NOC have finished up a grant, and have another that will allow them to retrofit their process technology building with a new classroom and labs.

The Distinguished Alumni Recognition Banquet will be on Saturday, March 26.

The Roustabouts Benefit Concert is Saturday, April 2 with tickets on sale Monday, March 28.

Bedlam Softball will be on Tuesday, April 5.

NOC held an all campus meeting and came away with 45 pages of input for improvement of NOC’s public image and recruitment.

Robyn Armstrong provided an update for University Center (UC).

UC sent out letters to high school students and their parents letting them know about concurrent enrollment.

Enrollment started on Monday, March 21 and on Tuesday, March 22.

Traci Thorpe provided an update for Pioneer Technology Center (PTC).

PTC is trying to wrap up their building project and to start moving people into their new locations in April. PTC will have to postpone the Foundation Banquet because they haven’t moved into the new facility yet.

PTC has truck driver training underway and is gearing up for evening CDL Class B training.

They have also worked on ARPA proposals for practical nursing workforce development.

PTC will be hosting a Health Career Fair on Wednesday, April 20.

Maci Heppel, Ponca City Main Street (PCMS) Executive Director, shared her update.

PCMS is planning a big announcement for Thursday, March 24 the details of which they plan to reveal on their social media platforms.

Social Media Takeovers are ongoing right now and will featuring The Axe Hole on March 31 at 5 pm. They will be featuring a different business every month.

April 5 is Main Street Day at the capitol and PCMS will be attending to represent Ponca City.

May 12 will be the Spring Mixer, this is a networking opportunity with food and drinks. A location will be announced.

The next meeting will be on Thursday, April 21.