News, Updates & Coming Events
From the Executive Director

Greetings!

Fall is my favorite time of the year. It seems that as soon as November rolls around, the world takes on a different attitude. People seem a little more generous and a little more in tune with the important things in life. This is the season of Thanksgiving…and every day that I live in Enid, Oklahoma, I am thankful. I am fortunate enough to have lived and worked internationally and I still travel regularly with my job, and that helps me to remember the reasons I love living in Enid, OK.

I am thankful for a short commute to work.

I am thankful that because of my short commute, I can take my kids to school everyday.

I am grateful that I have a historical connection to this place – that my family was here before the land run and is still here today.

I’m proud of the fierce, passionate, determined, independent attitude of the people in northwest Oklahoma.

I’m thankful everyday that I work with hundreds of people in our community and across the state that are working tirelessly to improve the quality of life for all of us.

I am grateful that I can attend the Symphony, the Theater, or a ZZ Top concert all within 10 minutes of my house.

I’m thankful for my job that allows me to work on behalf of our community to improve our quality of life.

I am thankful for the warm, generous heart of the people and non-profits who support the under privileged and under served populations in our community.

Take some time this month to be thankful for what you have. As they say, the grass is always greener…but take a second look at the quality of life we enjoy that allows us to put the most important things first. I promise, it’s of far higher value than living with 5 million strangers spending most of your day in the car driving from place to place…

Thousands of people are looking for what we have. Our mission is to share the news of the abundant life available in Enid with those who are looking for more. We want passionate, engaged, generous people to move to Enid, to help our businesses grow, to support our non-profits, and to enjoy our quality of life. 

Thank you for all you do to make our community a great place. Happy Thanksgiving!

Sincerely,
Lisa Powell
Executive Director

COMING EVENTS

November 20th at 12 pm
EYP Monthly Board Meeting
Callahan's

November 21st at 5:30 pm
Network at Nite
El Patio

November 20th at 12pm
Advisory Committee Meeting
Strate Center Boardroom


December 12th at 10:00 am
ERDA Board of Directors Meeting

January 21st at 11:30 am
Quarterly Luncheon
Oakwood Country Club
Details and registration link coming soon!


January 28, 2020
Quarterly Luncheon
Details and registration link coming soon!

Click on the link provided to get more information about an event or the professional organization! If you have questions about an event, call the ERDA office at (580) 233-4232.

Census Count Important to Enid and State of Oklahoma
Community leaders, organizers and stakeholders met Wednesday afternoon to discuss the importance of the 2020 census and to brainstorm to get every person in the county counted. Enid Regional Development Alliance Executive Director Lisa Powell welcomed those in the attendance and thanked them to taking to to discuss such an important topic. “It’s maybe not the most exciting topic,” she said, “until we understand why it’s so important.” Powell said in the last census, Enid was about 200 people shy of a population of 50,000. She said that threshold is important for businesses who sometimes base decisions to locate in a community on that number. “For all of you from Enid who want Panera Bread or a Target, those retailers determine whether or not they want to locate here based on that count,” she said. Read more...
New Apartments Planned Near NOC and NWOSU-Enid
Eli Berry envisions an apartment complex that isn’t quite like anything else available in Enid. Plans may not be drawn up yet, but they are in motion. “There’s not a similar project right now,” the Enid-based developer and apartment manager said. “There’s not one that’s been developed like it, there’s not one to my knowledge that’s in conception similar to what I would like to see.” Berry recently earned approval to rezone a pair of properties adjacent to 30th and Oklahoma, near Northern Oklahoma College Enid and Northwestern Oklahoma State University-Enid, allowing for construction of apartments. Read more...
LeapFrog Awards ‘A’ for Patient Safety to St. Mary’s and Integris Bass
Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades awarded ‘A’ grades to both St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center and Integris Bass Baptist Health Center in its Fall 2019 Hospital Safety Grade report. The safety grades are assigned to more than 2,600 general acute-care hospitals across the nation twice annually, and use national performance measures from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the Leapfrog Hospital Sur­vey and other supplemental data sources, according to the group’s website. Read more...
NWOSU On ‘Cutting Edge’ with New Virtual Reality Lab
Empathy comes from experience, and in a field like social work, there are few qualities more necessary, according to Jennifer Pribble. As director of field experience for Northwestern Oklahoma State University-Enid’s social work department, it’s Pribble’s responsibility to see students put what they’ve learned into practice, and that they learn from practice what can’t be taught in a classroom. But with the addition of a brand new virtual reality lab opened Friday, Pribble sees a way for students to ease into the experiences they’ll come to face. Read more...
NextEra’s ‘Largest-Of-Its-Kind’ Energy Project Still in Talks with Vance AFB
The Skeleton Creek wind farm project, initially planned to be up and running by the end of 2019, has been pushed back by a year as talks over air space between NextEra Energy Resources and Vance Air Force Base continue. “There’s a number of factors … and certainly our interactions with the Air Force base are very important and a big part of that,” NextEra spokesman Bryan Garner said, adding that “other considerations” also contributed to the revised timetable. The wind farm is now expected to complete sometime late 2020, while the solar farm and energy storage facility, the two other pieces of the three-part Skeleton Creek project, are still on schedule for 2023. Read more...
Classes Begin at Fowler Center
Less than a year after ground was broken on Fowler Early Childhood Learning Center, construction of the $2.1 million facility is complete.
A joint project between Enid Public Schools and Northwestern Oklahoma State University, the center is equipped to educate both pre-K children and college students. The first-ever semester of classes at the center kicked off Monday, with the first student led through the front door by the center’s namesake, Willa Jo Fowler. “I wish you could’ve seen the faces of all the children as they came in and saw their new school for the first time. They were all so wide-eyed,” she said. Read more...