1-12-2012 meeting of the Rotary Club of Chickasha

The Jan. 12, 2012 meeting of the Rotary Club of Chickasha opened with a prayer, pledge and song.

Guests included Gerron Smith and Mike Keester of Duncan, Rotary District Assistant Governor.

President Michael Oberlender reminded Rotarians that while help is needed each Friday during the school year greeting freshmen students at CHS, there will be no school on Friday, Jan. 13.

Our speaker was District 2 Grady County Commissioner Mike Lennier.

Lennier explained how the county gets money to fund road improvements and that none of it comes from ad valorem (property) tax.

He also talked about the deciding vote he recently cast that altered the ratio of how road funds are distributed in the county. Although District 1 Commissioner Windle Hardy of Tuttle has more people in his district he fewer miles of road as does District 3 Commissioner Jack Porter. The money is now divided 40-30-30 after Lennier's vote.

The commissioner said there are about 1,500 miles of roads in Grady Coutny. He said the county no long agrees to be responsible for streets and roads in new additions in the county. 

He said the state will be giving the counties support beams from the old infrastructure of I-40 crosstown, once both direction on the new span of interstate is open. 

He said the beams can be requested to help with county bridge construction and repairs. The beams will be stored at 12 sites in the state but the process of how they will be doled out has yet to be determined.

Lennier said the commissioner form of government dates back to the creation of the state charter and thinks it works pretty well. He also said he was not in favor of any county-wide planning commission with a set of county codes because that's why a lot people move outside city limits.

The meeting adjourned after recitation of the Rotary 4-Way Test.