rob mcclendon: here's what's coming up onyour "horizon." so when life gives you lemons, the folks in enid, oklahoma, know how to makelemonade. this week, we travel to north central oklahoma to see how through good times andbad, enid, oklahoma, continues to innovate. martie oyler: when everyone does well, thenthe whole community prospers. rob: we'll see how partnerships between industryand education is helping grow their economy. brady mccullough: we have a tremendous impacton the economy. not only are we a big employer impacting economy itself, but supplying theworkforce. rob: from agriculture to health care and aerospace,we'll look at innovative enid on "oklahoma horizon."female announcer: "oklahoma horizon" is made
possible by careertech - a job for every oklahomanand a workforce for every company -- with additional support from the oklahoma departmentof agriculture, food and forestry. rob mcclendon: hello, everyone. thanks forjoining us here on "horizon." i'm rob mcclendon. well, enid, oklahoma, has seen its share ofsetbacks - everything from the loss of a major employer to the ups and downs of agricultureand energy. but through it all, this town of 50,000 in north central oklahoma has showna remarkable resiliency thanks to a heaping helping of innovation. today, we're gonnafocus on some of the lessons that can be learned from enid, oklahoma, and with that here'sour courtney maye. courtney maye: enid, oklahoma. it's a growingcity where mom and pop businesses are strong,
yet so are large corporations. so what isthe secret to enid's successful economy? brent kisling: we've done a number of public/privatepartnerships. and we've also tried to make sure our infrastructure is strong.courtney: brent kisling is the executive director of the enid regional development alliance,an organization that plays a key role in making decisions about economic development and cityexpansion. kisling: as you step back and you try to marketvance air force base and the land run and entrepreneurship and wildcatting out in theoilfield, it really all came back to the word "adventurous." if you're a pilot going mach1, that's adventurous. if you're somebody in the land run riding a horse with your hairon fire to stake your claim, that's, uh, that's
adventurous. if you're the wildcatter or theentrepreneur that has bet everything on that next hole or that next business, that's adventurousas well. so now all of our marketing strategy revolves around that word "adventurous." andwe've added to that the fact that there are boundless opportunities here, that we're avery original group of folks here in town, and we have a very vibrant economy and citizenryhere. courtney: and one local business owner reapingthe benefits is jimmy stallings, chairman for a local environment engineering companycalled envirotech. and he says enid's support of new businesses contributes to the successof the city's economy. jimmy stallings: we have a very inviting businessclimate, and what i mean by that is from our
economic development groups through our citycouncil and all the way through city staff and then you have, um, we're very pro-business.and while with any municipality we have regulations and rules, we also have some very helpfulpeople that'll help you, help guide new businesses through some the hurdles. and then on theculture of the business community, we have a group of businesses that recognize if onebusiness succeeds it's good for everybody. courtney: and helping fill the skills gapin enid is autry technology center. autry partners with more than 500 businesses toensure students in its program are trained for the jobs needed to be filled. autry superintendentbrady mccullough. brady mccullough: i think we have a tremendousimpact on the economy, not only are we a big
employer impacting the economy itself butsupplying the workforce for those businesses that we have here. we have a lot of customizedtraining programs as well as our full-time programs that open up that pipeline of a skilledworkforce to many, many companies here in the enid and northwest oklahoma area. anotherway that we try to stay on the edge of that is with our executive leadership council.we actually meet with over 20 of the largest employers in this area on a monthly basis.during those meetings we talk about issues that those employers face in this area.courtney: martie oyler is also heavily involved with executive leadership council, and shesays it's the diversity of the companies in enid that contribute to the city's continuousexpansion.
martie oyler: enid is fortunate in that ourgrowth has been constant and steady, and it's diverse. we don't have everything in one area,you know. we have a lot of oil and gas, we have a lot of manufacturing, education, there'sso many, retail is big, you know. enid is the hub, the retail hub of northwest oklahoma.we support each other. we play well together, and i think that has certainly been a bigpart of the success of this community. courtney: and helping this city continue tobe the hub of northwest oklahoma. oyler: when everyone does well, then the wholecommunity prospers. so if we see the retail area growth, then we know that that has tobe supported with business and industry, and we are very, very fortunate to have a chamberof commerce, a city manager, and we also have
great educational support here in enid. andall of that comes together to support the success that we have seen in our community.rob: now, such innovation is nothing new for the town of enid; in fact, it goes back wellbefore statehood. what began as a family store has grown over the years into the largestprivately owned grain company in the state. with five generations of experience, w.b.johnston enterprises has expanded to over 20 locations in texas and oklahoma. now, ifyou'd like to learn more about these agricultural entrepreneurs, i was able to sit down withthat family's patriarch a few years back, and i have that story streaming on our websiteunder our value added section at okhorizon.com. female announcer: you're watching "oklahomahorizon" with rob mcclendon - weekly insight
into your changing world.rob mcclendon: well, few towns have probably grown faster than enid, oklahoma. in a singleday, enid went from a population of zero to 10,000 thanks to the oklahoma land run, whichis chronicled in smithsonian-style quality at the cherokee strip regional heritage centerin downtown enid, which is also home to one of the most misspelled streets in the nation.after the sinking of the battleship maine in the spanish american war, the enid citycouncil changed the name of d street to maine, and that is maine with an e like the statethe ship was named for, undoubtedly confusing postmasters nationwide. well, located in northcentral oklahoma, enid is classified as a micropolitan hub, which means it serves peoplewell outside the city limits with everything
from retail to health care, something thathas developed into a key component of enid's economic success. and that is where blanesingletary picks up our story. blane singletary: st. mary's regional medicalcenter may be based in enid, but the scope of their services go so much further.stan tatum: we serve not only enid and garfield county as our primary service area, but reallythe nine counties that surround garfield county. blane: stan tatum is the ceo of the hospital.he's proud to head one of two major hospitals in enid that also serve rural communitieslike fairview, okeene and cheyenne. tatum: so we actually have a service areathat's about 200,000 in terms of population. blane: for just over 100 years, st. mary'shas helped the town of enid become an important
hub city for health care in northwestern oklahoma.while many of these communities have smaller, critical access hospitals, quite often theydon't have the staff or facilities to get the job done.tatum: anytime any of those patients need a specialist, they have to refer those toa provider that can provide a higher level of care, which is typically enid.blane: that means when any of those 200,000 oklahomans need a routine medical procedureor the unthinkable happens, the patient and their loved ones will be able to receive substantialtreatment in a timely manner without having to go too far away.tatum: it's very important for families to have their loved ones when they're admittedto a hospital close, so that they can either
stay with them or visit them multiple timesa day. if we were not here, that would be another hour and a half for them to have todrive to oklahoma city, and so it's very important that we have these services that are closeto their home so that they can, you know, see their loved ones on a regular basis.blane: and they give personal attention to each and every one of those 200,000 wheneverthey walk through the door or even the parking lot, with rides being given by the "saintmobiles." and everyone up to the ceo takes part in making sure their patients are gettingthe most of their care. tatum: the benefit of that is that there'sa lot fewer needs to hit the call button. so the nurses are trying to anticipate thepatient's need as opposed to react to 'em.
blane: st. mary's also boasts an inpatientrehabilitation institute. one-of-a-kind for this area, it gives some important treatmentsto people with debilitating illnesses. lori mcmillin is the director.lori mcmillin: we have patients that come up here that have had strokes and brain injuries,a variety of other kinds of medical illnesses, so the emphasis is really on physical, occupational,speech therapy, trying to get those people back home after they've been ill.blane: a facility like this one is not only good for their patients, but for those whoare training and budding as medical professionals. mcmillin: we actually attract students fromoutside areas as well as students from the enid area to fill these positions.blane: and that touches on another big way
regional hospitals benefit the enid community- the economy. mcmillin: you're bringing people in who maybewouldn't have lived in enid before but they've become consumers who have dollars to spendin the community. so, you know, that's a big contributor, i think, to our economy.blane: with st. mary's and nearby integris hospital ranking in the top five employersin enid, stan tatum agrees. tatum: because when people look to locatetheir business in a particular community, the two predominant things they look at isthe education system for the kids and the health care providers you have in town. andif you don't have those, it's a major deterrent for new business coming to enid.blane: these kinds of hospitals bring a slice
of big city health care in a small town sentiment.this closely knit community and team know how to keep moving forward, addressing anyobstacle in their way. tatum: we have a meeting every monday morningto talk about the challenges and issues that we face, and we strategize with our boardand our medical executive committee about things that we need to do to be successful.and it's a new crisis every day it seems like that we have to address, and i'd like to thinkit's that group decision that has made us successful.female announcer: still to come on "oklahoma horizon," we meet an oklahoman whose careerhas a second verse, but first, a high flying industry.austin moore: there is a shop here in oklahoma
that services the world.rob mcclendon: well, enid, oklahoma, has long had its eye on the sky. clyde cessna, founderof cessna aircraft was born in enid and test flew his first airplanes over the great saltplains. enid native astronaut owen k. garriot spent two months orbiting the earth duringthe skylab three mission in 1973, while today, one-third of all the air force pilots gettheir training at enid's vance air force base, which is also a major employer for the area.and it's an aviation legacy that extends to industry. austin moore takes us inside aircraftstructures international. austin moore: accidents happen [car crashsounds], and when they do, we find the nearest body shop. that's all well and good if youdrive a chevy or a ford, but when your vehicle
of choice is a cessna caravan, there is ashop here in oklahoma that services the world. scott bengtson: the one we're standing infront of what was originally an airplane in colombia in the military. the other one behindus over here was from indonesia; it crashed on the side of a mountain, and we had a crewthat we sent over, and it literally was helicoptered off the side of the mountain. they had torecover it that way because there was no roads to where this airplane was from.austin: scott bengtson manages aircraft structures international, an enid company where theyspecialize in rebuilding this aviation workhorse. bengtson: we're one of the unique places inthe world. the factory builds them up in wichita, they've the tooling, but we're about the onlyother place in the world that you can get
this kind of level of work done.austin: owner mickey stowers says his company has found a niche in the aircraft industry.mickey stowers: we deal exclusively with that one airplane. the first one came out in 1985,and they're still in production today. there's roughly 3,000 of 'em. they produce about 100a year. and we do everything with this aircraft. you give us a data plate and we can buildan airplane. austin: that ability means even during a recession,this company stays aloft. bengtson: airplanes are workhorses, so they'renot parking them when the financial crunch hits. they just keep working. so we founda niche, and we're sticking with it. austin: but that steady supply of work demandsa steady workforce.
kyle hockmeyer: enid is a great town, butunless you have been here and know a lot about it, from the outside looking in, the perceptionis its small town america. austin: posing a challenge to finding andkeeping skilled employees. stowers: we've found in the past, when webring somebody in and they're not local, they might stay here, and they find a better opportunitysomewhere else, and they're gone. if they're local, they don't want to go anywhere; theystay here. so it's a stable workforce. austin: yet the work done here is unique andrequires special skills. so the company approached autry technology center. partnering with mid-deltech, they built a program to homegrow workers for this homegrown company. autry technologycenter's kyle hockmeyer.
hockmeyer: giving them a trade or a skilland not only just giving them that skill but actually helping them be placed into the job,which helps the company expand. so it's full circle of what we're trying to do, and itall comes together in this one program. austin: instructor bill hersey takes his studentsthrough every rivet of the aircraft. bill hersey: they know where it goes and why,not just, well, just do it that way because i told you to do it. this way they actuallysee where it fits on. the product they're making, they're gonna install it also.stowers: we've furnished an airframe which will never fly again, and they're drillingit apart and putting it back together several times so that when these, they finish withtheir course, hopefully we can put 'em right
to work here.austin: student devon grubb appreciates the security of this program.devon grubb: there is good benefits and good people. they've got good staff here so everyone'spretty friendly even though we're just new people.austin: that's a point of pride for co-owner kay stowers.kay stowers: there's opportunities for people here. that they, you know, they need the opportunityto have a good career and not just a job. and that's what we work really hard to makesure that they have a good career. austin: a partnership looking to help students,an employer and the local economy all take flight.rob mcclendon: well, enid is also home to
woodring regional airport that was named afterlt. irvin a. "bert" woodring, an enid native who was one of the army's most famous earlytest pilots. now, enid was also home to a world war ii pilot who witnessed probablythe most significant event of the last century. while most enid residents knew walter scheffeas their friendly neighborhood pharmacist, the late mr. scheffe was also the pilot ofthe yokohama yo-yo, whose crew photographed the first atomic bomb and its aftermath justmoments after it exploded. walter scheffe: people have asked me wellwhat did you think when you saw the bomb, the results of the bomb? i really only thoughtof one thing - the war was over and i'm going to get to go home.rob: now, mr. scheffe's story is one of my
personal favorites, and if you'd like to seethe entire piece, i have it streaming on our website under our value added section.female announcer: "horizon" is at your fingertips - join us on facebook, twitter and youtubeto catch the segments you may have missed and our latest new content as it happens.rob mcclendon: well, here's a little more enid trivia you may not know. the town ofenid produces more philly cheesesteak sandwiches than any other town in the world - even philadelphia,thanks to workers at advance pierre food company. advance pierre is also the largest producerof school lunch food in the entire united states. well, enid is also home to the state'slongest-running symphony. the enid symphony orchestra has played each year since 1905,two years before oklahoma statehood, which
is where we met a gentleman by the name ofmike misner - an accomplished musician whose life has taken on a different note.andy barth: from the outside of this building, you can hear the enid symphony orchestra - atypical concert warmup. but for one man, it is his life's passion.mike misner: music started clear back when i was about 5 years old.andy: mike misner plays french horn in the enid symphony orchestra and has quite a musicalhistory. but the road to today's symphony wasn't always a sweet melody.misner: i was offered a full four-year scholarship to southwestern oklahoma state universityin weatherford. and that was to be a music major to pursue a bachelor's in music education.so i went to southwestern and had a really
good education there. and then after two yearsi decided, well, i want to get more into the, uh, into the orchestral side of playing.andy: misner auditioned at indiana university, the top music school in the world, and wasaccepted. misner: but due to financial constraints,you know, and paying out-of-state tuition and all that, i couldn't afford to go. soi then transferred to oklahoma state and finished out my degree there. had a really great time,really great education, wonderful people to work with. and then it came time for graduateschool because what i wanted to do more than anything was to be a full-time college musicprofessor. andy: a profession that demands a lot timeand money just to get started.
misner: i ended up going to the universityof texas. i received my master's degree in 1993. and when you apply for college jobsand what not, they say master's required, but doctorate strongly preferred. so i endedup staying there at the university of texas for my doctorate in musical arts and was agrad assistant there for a total of five years. and then in 2001, i did finally finish thedegree. and then i thought, ok, i'm all set here, you know, and now i've got all the degrees,i've got all the armament, now let's go out and get that job.andy: but after more than eight years of either no responses, or only part-time positions,misner says his tune needed changing. misner: i was up here in enid, this is myhometown. i just happened to look down there,
and this was in the automotive waiting room,i just happened to look down there where they have the magazines and whatnot, and therewas an autry tech catalog. and i saw where there was a network administration program.and so i just made the decision that, ok, i was going to come here and learn a new career.and so that's what i did. i went back to austin, i said goodbye to everybody, and two weekslater i was up here in enid. andy: back at home and back in school. misnerbegan to learn the ins and outs of computers, and it systems, and once completed with histraining, this time the job search was much different because the offers kept rollingin. an agency placed misner with his current employer, integris baptist health.misner: i'm getting more and more responsibilities
every day. i'm now on the employee advisorycouncil. andy: but what about his passion for music?misner: i still have it; i still have it. when i arrived back in enid, i called dougnewell, who is the conductor of the enid symphony. and i have known doug for years and years,and i said, "hey." i said, "are you still needing a horn player for the symphony?" andhe just said, "sure." he said, "your third horn chair is waiting for you," just likewhen i left. so there it was sitting for me, and i have been playing with them ever sinceand still am, still there. andy: and it is here where his heart, hispassion and his music have come together. mike misner is back in his hometown, makinga good living while playing his heart out
and still living his musical dream.female announcer: want to see more stories like this? all our segments are streamingon our youtube channel at oklahomahorizontv. rob mcclendon: next time on "oklahoma horizon,"we'll examine what current belt tightening at the capitol could mean for state services.we've got a long haul ahead of us, but we've known that for months.we basically have pitted core functions of government against each other.rob: plus, we'll see how some work this summer could keep you warm this winter. that andmore on oklahoma's show for the heartland, "oklahoma horizon."rob mcclendon: well, that is gonna wrap us up for today, but you can see more of anyof our stories on our website at okhorizon.com.
you can follow us throughout the week on twitterat okhorizontv or just become a "horizon" fan on facebook. i'm rob mcclendon. thanksfor including us in your day. hope to see you back here next week.female announcer: "oklahoma horizon" is made possible by the oklahoma department of careerand technology education. female announcer: oklahoma's careertech providesnationally recognized technical education. careertech elevates the economy - helpingoklahomans get great jobs. careertech connects thousands of qualified graduates with thrivingoklahoma businesses. careertech also gives oklahoma companies training and services thathelp them become even more profitable. oklahoma's careertech - a job for every oklahoman anda workforce for every company.
female announcer: and the oklahoma departmentof agriculture, food and forestry.
0 Komentar untuk "winter forecast"