Last Updated on February 5, 2024, 9:19 PM | Published: February 5, 2024
We received this letter to the editor from Gina Standridge, member of the Board of Education for Mid-Del School District:
Dear Editor,
Since September, I have attended several Oklahoma County Commissioner meetings opposing the jail site at 1901 Grand. I have listened to my community oppose the site and give valid reasons why this location is not a suitable one.
The location at 1901 Grand has come off the list and gone back on the list three to four separate times.
I have watched five to eight sites come off the list with little fight and at least two sites come off the list because of the negative impacts to the community around it; there is a different criterion for the impacts to Del City.
This location is 500–600 feet from the Del City boundary. It will be right across the street from our Epperly Heights neighborhood that has about one thousand homes. Epperly Heights Elementary will be one mile from the site and has 660 students, where many walk to and from school. Many Mid-Del students live right across the street from the site. The Del City area has five schools within two miles and minutes from the jail site.
If you look at the blueprint around the proposed jail site and look at a one-mile radius around that site, it includes half of Del City. It will be remarkably close to schools, parks, daycares, special-needs living centers, businesses, and houses where people and families live their daily lives. This is a safety issue. There are no resources in that area to support the jail or people who will be released from the facility daily.
At least one commissioner is wasting valuable time and energy making deals to get this site approved when he should be looking for a site that will not negatively impact the communities around the site.
With the reports that have come out over the last couple of days and weeks, my question is why are things happening behind the scenes? With the number of contingencies being promised to Crooked Oak Public Schools, it seems like more than one discussion has happened. Why are conversations and deals happening behind the scenes?
I believe that a good many of the promises being made to Crooked Oak will never be upheld.
Who is going to end up footing the bill for these promises? Where is the money coming from to make these promises? Who has the authority to make these deals that have not been presented and voted on with the public as witness? Who made the decision to help one district and crush another one?
In the end, the jail will still be at 1901 Grand and have an impact on the communities around the site.
I am happy that Crooked Oak will get a different location for the sports complex and improvements, but we all should worry about students and community after school hours and activities as well.
A new sports complex being built from the ground up will most likely cost more than the twenty-six million in bond money will cover. A good many of the students live in the community and their families will have to deal with the impacts before, during, and after school hours. The cost to build the jail at 1901 Grand just keeps increasing. The land for this site is 5.4 million; what will it be with the added contingencies to Crooked Oak?
Building this jail on the backs of children is not the answer. Children are already going to bear the burden of the government mistakes, and we should not add another burden. The issues about any proposed site should be in a public forum.
Gina Standridge
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