News Updates

City council selects Vision2 projects. A unanimous vote capped the Tulsa City Council's review of Vision2 proposals, with 15 projects set to receive funding if voters on Nov. 6 approve the continuation of a sales tax hike through 2029.

The council on Sept. 27 approved the following projects to receive the anticipated $157.92 million in funding for what proponents describe as "quality-of-life" projects.

Voters throughout Tulsa County will vote on this proposition, with other cities developing their own project lists for how to spend their share of Vision2 funds. Nine other communities as well as the county itself in addition to the city of Tulsa would receive some Vision2 funds.

Here is the breakdown of the Tulsa projects:

--Arkansas River low-water dams, $71 million.

--Tulsa Zoo and Living Museum improvements, $20 million

--Projects related to Tulsa Parks & Recreation, $14 million

--Establishment of Tulsa Children's Museum, $10 million

--Tulsa City-County Library, $10 million

--Tulsa Community College collaboration with Tulsa Fire Department on new training center, $7 million

--Extension of Gilcrease Expressway, $5 million

--Neighborhood improvements, $4.5 million

--Money to assist in construction of medical school downtown, $4.3 million

--Money to for new academic center at Oklahoma State University-Tulsa campus, $4.3 million

--Money for Langston University's nursing school, $4.3 million

--Assistance for OSU Medical Center birthing center, $2.1 million

--Route 66 Village improvements, $549,000

--Brownfield site cleanup, $471,000

--Money to purchase generator for Morton Comprehensive Health Services, $400,000

These projects are including in one part of the Vision2 proposal. Voters will also decide on a separate proposition that would fund up to $254 million in facility upgrades to the airport industrial complex and create a general business infrastructure fund of approximately $50 million.

"East Meets West" now under installation. A decorative plaza finished in 2008 was part of an effort to revitalize Route 66 in Tulsa through the use of Vision 2025 sales tax dollars.

But something was missing from the Cyrus Avery Centennial Plaza, located at Southwest Boulevard and Riverside Drive. A bronze sculpture had been commissioned, but not completed.

Now, it's here, or at least portions of it. When completely installed, the sculpture will depict Avery in an early automobile encountering a horse drawn buggy, the horses rearing back at the apparently unexpected encounter.

Built larger than actual life size, the cast sculpture is the work of Texas artist Robert Summers.

Avery, known as "The Father of Good Roads in Tulsa County," according to the Oklahoma Historical Society, played a vital role in establishing the Ozark Trail Highway, the forerunner to U.S. 66. The so-called "Mother Road," established in the 1920s, linked Chicago to Los Angeles and allowed for westward migration during the Dust Bowl days.