Happy Mothers Day!
Women of Excellence Stacy McDaniel, founder of Cleats 4 Kids, and Becky Switzer, Ground Zero founder, were among the OCU Women of Excellence Award recipients. Page B1
Gifts for Mom, plus photos from our readers. Page 9
OKC FRIDAY Vol. 52 No. 52 • Two Sections • 18 Pages May 3, 2019
www.okcfriday.com facebook.com/okcfriday OKC’s only locally-owned newspaper with all local news Serving Oklahoma City, Nichols Hills, The Village, Quail Creek, The Greens and Gaillardia for 45 years
The Village sales-tax hike produces $757K By Mike W. Ray Staff Writer
- Photo By Fran Kozakowski
Senior Follies returns to OCU, Bill Lance is king The Senior Follies returns to the Kirkpatrick Auditorium June 1 and 2. Chickasaw Nation’s Bill Lance is the 2019 King. Beauties are, clockwise from bottom right, philanthropist Ann Lacey, Commissioner Kitti Asberry, AT&T’s Jan Moran, singer Kay Manning, community volunteer Patti Mellow and epidemiologist Mary Jane Calvey.
The half-penny increase in sales tax that went into effect 12 months ago in The Village has produced three-quarters of a million dollars in new revenue for the municipality, ledgers show. Residents in The Village voted almost 4-to-1 on Jan. 9, 2018, to raise the city sales tax rate from 4 percent to 4.5 percent and to earmark the extra proceeds exclusively for the city’s Capital Improvement Fund. It was the first increase in the town’s sales tax rate in 16 years. The Village received a little over $6.8 million in sales tax and use tax receipts between May 2018 and April 2019, according to records of the Oklahoma Tax Commission. One-ninth of that total – $757,415 – can be attributed to the sales-tax hike. The sales tax pumped $5.84 million into city coffers over the past 12 months; the extra halfpenny accounted for $649,371 of that amount and was earmarked for the Capital Improvement Fund. (Prior to
TEEM to honor Pat Rooney during luncheon By Rose Lane Editor The Education and Employment Ministry (TEEM) Chairman Pat Rooney will be honored for 20-plus years of outstanding leadership and service during the organization’s Community Luncheon. The event is set for 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., May 15, at the Oklahoma City Golf and Country Club. The luncheon is a fundraiser for TEEM’s Capitol Campaign. TEEM is a nonprofit dedicated to breaking the cycles of incarceration and poverty through education, personal
The new TEEM facility bears the name of Love’s Founder Tom Love’s late mother Margaret.
development and work readiness training. In July 2016, TEEM moved to a new location in Oklahoma City to better meets the needs of participants. While the move allowed for
immense opportunity for growth, capital improvements are needed to optimize the service to the community. To date, 74 percent of the capital campaign goal has been raised. The TEEM campus could be completely transformed with $1,010,000. Rooney is First National Bank’s chairman and controlling shareholder. He also serves as a trustee of the Inasmuch Foundation, St. Anthony Hospital Foundation and Oklahoma City University. For more information or to RSVP, visit www.teem.org/luncheon or call Mandy Dorman at 601-6651.
FRIDAY’s
Baby of the Week Sterling Elise Cowan was born Feb. 5, 2018, the daughter of Trevor and Emily Cowan, of Edmond. Her grandparents are Sonny and Tammie Brown, Edmond; Mark Cowan, Mustang; and Mary Neal, Yukon. Her great-grandparents are Truman and Mary Talley, OKC. Email Dog of the Week, Baby of the Week and Cat of the Week submissions to rose@okcfriday.com.
Sponsored by Paulette and Leo Kingston of WePayFast.com
the election, city officials estimated that the new half-penny tax would generate approximately $600,000 to $645,000 extra annually for the Capital Improvement Fund.) Similarly, the use tax produced $972,395 in that same 12-month period, of which $108,044 came from the extra half-penny. The use tax is a compensating “in lieu of” levy which is assessed on purchases that are made outside the taxing jurisdiction and not subject to the sales tax, but used within the municipality. All of the use-tax receipts, plus the lion’s share of the sales tax receipts, were deposited in the city’s General Fund to help finance municipal operations, City Manager Bruce Stone said. “We are now getting use tax on online sales,” he said. In addition, “materials, equipment, and furnishings shipped to The Village from out-of-state are subject to the use tax.” Year-over-year, May-April 2018-19 compared to 2017-18, The Village sales tax receipts grew by 15.56 percent ($787,172) See VILLAGE, Page 2
QCE principal to ring her final bell By Mike W. Ray Staff Writer Dr. Janice Matthews, principal at Quail Creek Elementary School, intends to retire after the school year ends May 24, closing out a career that has spanned more than four decades. “I’ll enjoy the summer and then in about September I’ll decide what I’d like to do,” she said. See MATHEWS, Page 3
MATTHEWS
SPEARS
NHills upcycling recycling By Mike W. Ray Staff Writer Another attempt is being made to resuscitate a recycling program in Nichols Hills. The City of Nichols Hills established a drop-off recycling center at its Public Works facility several years ago, but the operation was shut down because non-residents from the surrounding vicinity repeatedly dumped their garbage into the fenced area that was reserved for recyclables. Republic Services, which col-
lects commercial waste in Nichols Hills, approached city officials in the summer of 2017 about starting a mandatory recycling program that would cost $25 per household per month plus a $2.50 administrative fee. However, an informal survey indicated residents overwhelmingly opposed the proposal, primarily because it would have been compulsory rather than voluntary. The latest effort is by Fertile Ground Cooperative. They were See NHILLS, Page 2