Published: August 30, 2008 08:08 am      

City receives $1 million grant for conference center

“It’s another dream come true for Woodward.”

Over the past 20 years, city leaders have dreamed of building a new conference center in Woodward, Mayor Bill Fanning said, noting that the Woodward Industrial Foundation’s “hard work and dedication has helped make Woodward’s dreams a reality.”

The new conference center came one step closer to becoming a reality Friday morning when Fanning was presented an investment check worth $1 million from the U. S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) during a special ceremony held at the site of the future conference center. The center is planned as part of a Community Campus Project in conjunction with the Northwestern Oklahoma State University-Woodward campus along 34th Street in Woodward.

The big check was the result of a lengthy grant application process in which the Woodward Industrial Foundation (WIF) on behalf of the city requested financial assistance from the EDA since the conference center will be an important asset for continued community and economic development in Woodward, said WIF President LaVern Phillips.

“These are the things we have to do to become a community that will attract young people and professional people,” Phillips said. “To have people move into our community for growth and development we’ve got to continue to build facilities like this.”

The money will be used to fund infrastructure development for the new conference center as well as the adjacent NWOSU-Woodward campus, according to WIF Chairman Hugh Jones. These infrastructure developments include “streets and parking lots, erosion control, landscaping and additional water and sewer (lines),” he said.

U. S. Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Oklahoma, and Patty Sheetz, EDA director of legislative and intergovernment affairs, were both on hand Friday to present the check to Jones and Fanning.

Having been on the Environment Public Works Committee which oversees the EDA, Inhofe was appreciative of the part he was able to play in granting the funds to Woodward.

“This is what government is supposed to be doing,” the senator said, noting that “this type of seed money . . . is going to end up in jobs” and other economic benefits.

Sheetz agreed, saying that “at build out this center is expected to create 192 jobs and generate $1.6 million in private investments.”

“Economic development is a process that works best when it’s locally driven, local people coming together to take control of their economic destiny,” Sheetz said, noting that is what the EDA strives to support and why the administration invests millions of dollars in communities like Woodward.

“It’s the right thing and it’s the right time,” Inhofe said, voicing an eagerness to get the project started. “Let’s get the dirt moving.”