What Could Have Been

Random. I attended the Wild and Scenic Film Festival this weekend that was held at the Circle Cinema in Tulsa, OK. After hauling bags packed with LEAD Agency schmuck in from the rain I quickly began laying information out on the last available table. Handouts, flyers, a box of PINS, newsletters and the print we are selling chances on for Gary & Kimie Calcagno who lost their home in Stillwater to the fire recently. The first person to stop as I was laying things out looked at the map, caught the words Tar Creek and said he had worked up there. He wandered off, while I kept arranging and when I found the set of 3 booklets Ed Keheley had provided information for us to print, took the set over to the gentleman. I sat down at his round table to explain what I had brought and who had provided the research and how each booklet was different.

And then this random meeting became much more significant when he told me where he had worked and why he knew about Tar Creek. And how what he had been doing could have changed the lives of many people in Ottawa County and made the government the Hero to a story that ended up quite the other way.

It was raining that day and as I write this reflection, it is still raining. I learned this morning a number of people drowned in the night having attempting to drive through high water.

There are a lot of tragedies and very few happy endings. But we could have had a happy ending. I hadn’t known to advocate for the possibility, as I learned of it only that afternoon. Years too late, long after the twist came in this story.

The Army Corps of Engineers can do big things. They can move dirt. Lots of dirt. But before doing any of the work, they have ENGINEERS who study and produce designs that can be implemented, with funding from Congress. The key: “funding from Congress.”

Now, Congress is full of elected officially, though in that body there are not very many engineers. So, when the US Army Corps brings a project designed by their engineers to Congress, they also attach the projected cost. Those non-engineer Congressmen/women look at both the design and the cost. At that point, they either approve as is and the project goes forward or they offer up their best non-engineer-based suggestions for change to cut costs or appeal to their interpretations of what’s the better way to do the thing.

For example. New Orleans and the levees constructed to protect it way into the future. The Army Corps design was deemed too expensive at that time, and the design was altered. Why build it THAT high, when building it lower would save TAX-PAYER money? Problem? Not high enough, the cheap fix wasn’t adequate to protect New Orleans from Katrina’s flooding.

The other example I learned about from the random man who stopped by our table was the efforts the Army Corps of Engineer’s Reality Office had done in Ottawa County. Their officers had completed appraisals for every property in Picher and Carden. Some homes would require building replacement homes. They had done the same for the school, the fire station and any other essential facility. They had priced land. They presented the cost to our Congressional delegation. It was deemed too high.

What could have happened could have been a brand-new Picher and Cardin. Families and neighbors going together to their new town. Respectfully. Moved as the Army Corps had done when they moved New Prue and New Mannford when the Keystone Lake was created in the 1960’s.

LEAD Agency has an oral history research project called, Air, Water and Work in Ottawa and Delaware Counties we are conducting with Oklahoma University. We are slowly conducting interviews. Over 400 people responded to our recent door-to-door flood survey and 140+ answered YES to one of the last questions, would they want to participate in the Oral History project and allow us to interview them about their flood experience.

You all have lived the history that has made Ottawa County the way it is. You all have stories to share. Please call us and get on our list for the chance to save your incredible piece of the history of this place.

The random former Army Corps of Engineers Real Estate officer said yes, so we will have the details on how we lost out on the New Picher and New Cardin that could be on the map, filled with people living their lives as residents in their very own hometowns and kids still graduating as Picher/Cardin Gorillas.

The US Army Corps motto: Through deeds, not words, we are BUILDING STRONG. I would have to add when funding is approved by Congress.

Respectfully Submitted,

Rebecca Jim