9 minute read
Another Great Day in Ponca City
The longest-serving mayor of Ponca City reflects on successes, failures, his signature catchphrase, and his thoughts on the future of this great city.
Interview by: Kelsey Wagner
Ponca City is a unique and beautiful town. In the last 20 years, Ponca City has grown and changed in so many ways. Downtown is thriving, our business and industry sectors are more diverse than ever, and a host of new retail stores have opened in the last few years. This growth and change, or the last 14 years of it, has all been under the watchful eye of Mayor Homer Nicholson. Mayor Nicholson now holds the title of the longest-serving Mayor in Ponca City's history and is currently in his fifth term.
Mayor Nicholson's office is located in City Hall on the second floor in the City Administration Wing. Walking into his office, you immediately see a solid wall of plaques representing his long history of mayoral boards, prestigious awards and his place in the Municipal Hall of Fame. With his plethora of awards and impressive list of Ponca City project successes, it's hard to believe that this E9 Army Reserve Command Sergeant Major and retired Conoco employee turned auctioneer, never planned to serve in politics. In fact, he's never held any political office other than his office as Mayor.
I sat down with Mayor Homer Nicholson to ask his perspective on where Ponca City is at as a city, what has changed in the past 20 years and where he sees Ponca City going in the future.
Where did you grow up?
I grew up west of Braman, north of Deer Creek on a farm and went to a one-room grade school, 1 through 8, and went to high school at Deer Creek. I didn't have the money to go to college, so I went to the Army. After the Army, I attended college, and then I began working for Conoco
In his spare time, the Mayor is also a licensed pilot and enjoys flying whenever he gets a chance.
in Ponca City in November of 1964. I worked at Conoco for 38 years - Geophysics for 27 years and Facility Management for 11 years. I had a great, textbook career there, it was just awesome. In 1992-93 during a "corporate realignment," I changed from Geophysics to Facility Management.
While still at Conoco I attended auction school and real estate school, and we were soon doing upwards of 60 auctions per year with Nicholson Real Estate and Auction. I've been doing auctions now for over 28 years and completed over 1100 auctions.
Tell us a fun fact that people don't know about you.
Well, people don't believe me when I tell them this - but I drove a 1928 Model A Ford to grade school every day in the sixth, seventh, and eighth grade to our one-room schoolhouse. Our road wasn't rock or gravel, it was field dirt, so when it rained, that car was the only thing that could get up and down the road. Some days the 12 kids in our one mile would walk, or ride bikes, but sometimes we would ride a horse or drive the model A.
What was your experience in politics before becoming Mayor?
Well, running for Mayor was my first experience, and that was only after I was asked repeatedly on several different occasions by some local businessmen to run. In fact, Gary Martin, Carl Renfro, Dick Stone and several others had asked me to run for Mayor about 10 years before I retired from Conoco, but my job at that time was just too demanding. When I retired from Conoco, the mayor position just happened to be open again. I left Conoco and actually started working for Jack Bowker as Property Manager, which at that time, Bowker had a very strict rule that none of his employees were allowed to be in politics. So, again, I chose the job over politics. After a few years at Bowker, I was finally ready to officially retire. But again, I had many people asking me to run for Mayor. I don't know why they picked me. I have no idea.
But I thought, "well, I'm retired," so I ran for Mayor and was elected with 85% of the vote, and my first term began in 2007.
Since then, no mayor in Ponca City has ever served beyond two terms, and I'm in my fifth term. I've been opposed two of those five terms in elections. If you look back over the last 14 years at Ponca City, all the things that we have accomplished together are amazing.
How has Ponca City changed in the past 20 years?
Starting in 1985, Conoco began to see a gradual decline in Ponca City operations with people retiring and leaving, but then, of course, we had the big merger with Phillips 66 in 2002. During those years, we also had other businesses shutting down as well, but our whole business culture has really shifted. At the time, I became Mayor, the city was very divided. There was a very divisive election with two big issues, including placing a median down grand and a vote that had to do with the Poncan Theatre. So, I became Mayor at a very pivotal time. When I came into office, my first priority was to bring those people together and encourage them we needed to work together. Since that time, it has worked very well. We haven't had a sales tax or bond issue fail during my tenure.
When you became Mayor, what was one of the first things you wanted to accomplish?
The first thing that I did after becoming Mayor was to get a price to paint the grain elevator. However, at that time, I didn't have the $210,000, and I couldn't raise the money to accomplish that. Now that Main Street has picked that project up and brought it to fruition, it's great. It's completing my first goal as Mayor.
Other broad goals as Mayor were to grow our retail sector, which we have done, and to provide more affordable housing. We put a program together to help tackle the affordable housing problem. The program we piloted became so popular that many other towns across the state picked up that program and tried to replicate its success.
Another great project I did, was to get all the mayors in Kay County together, and each city takes turn hosting. When it began, I thought we might get together once a year, but no, the mayors wanted to get together every month. So, for the last 13 years, all the Mayors of Kay County come together each month to collaborate and discuss issues. The Kay County Mayor group is called "KCMRT" Kay County Mayor's Roundtable.
I'm probably more sensitive to my actions now than I've ever been. I just know that with everything I say and do, I am accountable, so I try to be a good example and a good citizen. I'm very conscious of that. I also know I'm always going to have critics, there are always going to be those people who don't approve of everything I do… what I say, even how I drive [laughing]. But I've just become more acutely aware of everything I say and do.
You've become known for your saying, "It's another great day in Ponca City." How did that come about, and what do you think of it?
Well, it just came about organically…just unconsciously actually. I was in some meeting somewhere, and I just must have been speaking. It was years ago, and I just said, "It's another great day in Ponca City," and everybody cheered, so I've just kept that tagline, and people know it now and actually expect it. If I'm speaking somewhere and forget to say it. I'm reminded that I forgot to say it [laughing].
What do you see as the biggest challenges facing Ponca City for the next 20 years?
Well, our infrastructure is in good condition. Our water, wastewater, and electric infrastructures are all in good condition, but we have to keep it upgraded and maintained to have it stay in that condition. I think some of the challenges that we have are that things are changing really fast concerning technology. We have got to stay abreast of technology. Which again, Ponca City is on the world map with our Wi-Fi system. Ponca City has been featured in 20 or 30 different magazines with our award-winning front line WIFI. Now that we're doing fiber-to-the-home, again, that is groundbreaking. Ponca City is very progressive, and we set the bar in most areas when it comes to introducing new technology to our city.
The electric market is changing fast. We've had our own electric company since 1912. We're being surrounded by wind turbines, but there is also solar that is rapidly changing. We have customers pushing us to go fossil-free and renewable. We already purchase power from wind, hydro, natural gas, coal, lignite and other sources. Our power provider OMPA currently has a Request for Proposal out for solar power.
In your words, what makes Ponca City special?
The Mayor served in the Army Reserve for 35 years and retired as a Command Sergeant Major. He’s seen here in his full Army uniform at the opening of the Veteran’s Plaza in downtown Ponca City.
is “a big little town” and “a little big town”. We are geographically located in a perfect situation. We are close to three large metropolitan areas, but far enough away from those metros that we have full control of ourselves. We're big enough that we can do what we need to do while maintaining the autonomy that we need to operate as a community of 26,000. Our primary goal as a community through the PCDA and the Chamber is to continue to diversify our economy and to encourage business growth. But that goal is a continuous, on-going challenge. After the downsizing of Conoco, we knew that had to be a primary goal.
What message would you like to relay to the future leaders of Ponca City?
We have to continue working together. We have to keep working with all the cities in the region, but most importantly, we, as citizens, have got to keep working together. You just get more done working together. As a community, all the citizens, the business people, everyone, has got to adopt the philosophy to work together. I don't care what the project is, we have got to have that buy-in and work together if we want Ponca City to continue to grow and thrive.
