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Weekly Update
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TWO Very Important Articles!  ⬇️⬇️⬇️

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Randy's Monday Update
Check Out Our New *30 FOOT* Banner, conveniently hung across the street from a Stitt fundraiser from 4-8pm today! 😉

Huge thanks to Statewide TLC Tree, Landscape, & Crane for donating the crane service, and Mappes Trucking (Gravel, Dirt, Sand) for providing the space for us!
Oklahoma's 2022 legislative session ended Friday, May 27th.  Our efforts will be shifting focus from the Capitol to our legal strategy and public outreach.  Please consider making a monthly contribution or a one time donation to help us STOP the OTA.  Every little bit helps.  Even a small donation, if made by enough people, will make a huge impact.  
I want to contribute to STOPPING OTA monthly!
I'd like to just make a one-time donation.
🛑 TWO Articles Worth Reading 🛑

What You Need to Know Before Heading to The Polls...

Written By: Dr. Amy Cerato, Ph.D., P.E.
 

On Tuesday, June 28th, 2022, Oklahomans will have one of the most important primary elections in recent history. Early voting will be at county election board offices from 8:00 AM-6:00 PM Thursday, June 23 and Friday, June 24 and 8:00 AM-2:00 PM Saturday, June 25.
Sample ballots for the 2022 Oklahoma Primary Election are available at county election board offices during regular business hours or on demand from the OK Voter Portal found HERE. All Oklahomans registered to vote can type in their name and birthdate and find their current affiliation, polling location, sample ballots, voting history and voting districts, among other information. 
We need all registered voters to research the candidates and come out and VOTE. 
 
If you live in Cleveland County, please be aware that Cleveland County has recently changed their precinct maps and polling locations. Do you know where your voting location is? Click HERE
 
Do you live in Cleveland County and want to know what your primary ballot looks like and who you will vote for? Click HERE.
 
Please know how the candidates stand on issues important to you. Please look at their background and how they have acted in the past to attempt to predict how they may act in the future. Please look at how long they have been in public office and how many different tax-payer funded jobs they have held – and STOP career politicians. 
 
This is a much bigger election than simply choosing local representation. This crucial Primary Election will decide many state and national offices that will impact all of Oklahomans. Unfortunately, we have too many professional politicians and bureaucrats running and we have candidates running that have voted against transparence and accountability in government. 
 
For example, can you find the candidate on the Republican Primary ballot that voted against bringing HCR 1021 to the Senate Floor? Hint: This person was a Senator and is now running for Corporation Commissioner. This person obviously didn’t want the OTA to be audited, and yet they want your vote to be the person in charge of regulatory control on Fuel, Oil, Gas, Public Utilities and Transportation Industries? Vote for those who will put the best interests of Oklahoma Citizens first; not those that who have been in public office for decades and who continue to protect big government and special interests. 
 
Do you want to know how these candidates feel about turnpikes and infrastructure in our state? We’ve made it easy for you!  Please check out the PIKE OFF OTA’s voter guide HERE
 
Please do your research and VOTE in the Primary Elections, Tuesday, June 28, 2022.
 

 

Grooming the Public, the OTA Playbook

Written By: Whitney Mullica


Rhetoric shapes our alliances with others. Powerful people control narrative to create cooperation with their envisionment of reality.  The more benign and common sense a narrative may seem, the easier it is for powerful people to keep others cooperating with the status quo.  

The Oklahoma Turnpike Authority may portray themselves as benevolent, but they do so from a place of power. When dealing with OTA, truth is not enough.  OTA has repeatedly led and persuaded Oklahomans to believe facts are contentions of perspective.     

The OTA misleads the people to believe there is public input.  They claim to rely on traffic models, ensure the need for progress, and promise federal and state regulations are followed, while promoting the new Plate Pay system.    

The truth is there is no public input with the OTA.  The community meetings they hold do not give citizens the opportunity to be heard.  In fact, to speak at an OTA Board Meeting, you sign up a week in advance.    

The traffic models are consistently wrong due to a variety of errors, such as axle-spacing overlap between different classes that result in consistently inaccurate numbers by misclassification and outright false negatives in AVC sites, and WIM sites have been found to be completely inaccurate due to miscalibrations and thus unusable in studies [1,2].  Whether the mistakes are legitimate or due to intentional negligence, the end-result is a pattern of multi-billion dollar projects constructed on false pretenses.  Average toll revenues were less than 63% of the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority’s projections on recent projects.  For example, the Kilpatrick was projected to bring in almost $46 million in toll revenue during its first 5 years yet only managed $13.1 million, less than 29% of its projection equating to a whopping $33 million dollar difference [3]. 

Most people don’t know the people who build turnpikes, and develop properties, are heavily contributing to politicians who give them power to do so.   Visit the state’s ethics commission website and look for yourself.  

Open Records show Federal and State regulatory instruments, like the EPA, FEMA, DEQ, and the Oklahoma Water Board have no enforcement mechanisms against the OTA.  They avoid water permits through memorandums of agreement between ODOT, OTA, and OWRB, ignore guidelines on flooding (so long as economic losses are at stake, not human life), and get slapped on the wrist anytime they are cited for polluting water sources.  [4] 

The seemingly benevolent “plate pay” is requiring the removal of toll booths and installation of plate scanning technology, both of those things cost money and strengthen the power of the OTA.  

Corruption may seem like mere speculation by folks threatened to lose their homes.  The OTA softens the situation with fake sincerity and references to future needs.  By reframing rhetoric to make it appear unimportant to the average person, Oklahomans are led to believe this is someone else’s problem, which is simply not true.  The roads can be paid off and the tolls removed.  

The OTA consistently distances from powerless citizens by discussing the needs of the future, rather than acknowledging that in fact there is no real public input, the traffic models are consistently wrong, the stakeholders who will financially benefit from new turnpikes are heavily influencing politicians, there is no real enforcement of federal and state regulations, and plate pay is one more way to spend the public's money and make the powerful rich.    

Oklahoma Christians seem to be experiencing amnesia.  Humans are divine ordained stewards of the earth.  Polluting water, disrupting wildlife, and paving the way into the future is not how to be a good steward.  The OTA is in a position of power, so whatever they decide is viewed by the public as benevolent.  When in fact, the OTA actions are powered by greed and malevolence.  

Despite what Tim Gatz and the OTA may say, and hope Oklahomans will believe, the truth is transportation problems in Oklahoma will not be solved by the same corporatist behavior that created them. 
 

[1]  H. Refai, N. Bitar, J. Schettler and O. Al Kalaa, "THE STUDY OF VEHICLE CLASSIFICATION EQUIPMENT WITH SOLUTIONS TO IMPROVE ACCURACY IN OKLAHOMA", Implementation of Research for Transportation Excellence, Oklahoma 

[2] M. O. Al Kalaa, S. Rajab, H. Refai and D. Johnson,  "Vehicle Classification Accuracy of AVC and WIM Sites in Oklahoma,"  in Conference: 2014 IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium (IV), June 2014.

[3] R. Ellis, "Oklahoma Turnpike Authority has history of inflated projections,"  THE OKLAHOMAN, May 2nd, 2016, accessed 6/17/2022 https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news/columns/2016/05/01/oklahoma-turnpike-authority-has-history-of-inflated-projections/60676701007/

[4] TITLE 785. OKLAHOMA WATER RESOURCES BOARD; CHAPTER 55. DEVELOPMENT ON STATE OWNED OR OPERATED PROPERTY

 WITHIN FLOODPLAINS AND FLOODPLAIN ADMINISTRATOR ACCREDITATION

https://www.owrb.ok.gov/rules/pdf/current/Ch55.pdf?fbclid=IwAR2d_azPTF3n7jgTxSPWw8C97VitLpukTLUPRHSAC9imQSHPJjC50weKEKY

LAST WEEK TO ENTER OUR CONTEST! 🎉🎉🎉
 
Grab some posterboard and a marker, and help us spread the news! 
Share your homemade yard/sidewalk signs in the comments HERE!
If you don't have facebook, you can alternatively submit photos to admin@pikeoffota.com, which will be shared on your behalf.

 
TWO PRIZES TO BE GIVEN AWAY: 
Kids sign (12 & Under) with the most likes will win a summer fun basket valued at $25! 🏊‍♂️🧜‍♀️🌈🍉
Adult sign with the most likes will win a $25 gift card! 💸💸💸

 
Share this post and invite your friends to vote!

Sign made by Kathy P, shared by Clare Boggs.
THEY'RE HERE! Car Flags Now Available! 🚩

Buy Merch, Save Homes 🏠: https://www.pikeoffota.com/merchandise
"Rooftop" of the Week: Randy Carter & Family

The Carter Family

Every American has the dream of paying their mortgage off! Imagine finally making that dream come true, only to find out that the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority will be running a turnpike through your home.
 
Meet the Carter Family….
In 1979 I bought a little piece of unimproved land way out in the country on East Lindsey and even though it’s in Norman City Limits it’s a little piece of country heaven. Now the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority is proposing to condemn, destroy and demolish my family’s way of life.
 
On this little corner we’ve built two homes. The first home, in which we raised five kids (who are all fine, upstanding citizens), we built ourselves. We dug every footing, poured all the concrete, drove every nail, wired every wire, and plumbed every pipe ourselves. And it’s still standing! Two of my kids were born right here on the property. We laughed, we cried, and we prospered on this little hunk of dirt and now the OTA wants to bulldoze our heritage.
 
The second home, which we occupy with our 6th child, is next door to the first and even though we didn’t do all the construction work ourselves we did serve as general contractors for its construction, doing much of the work ourselves. To say we are attached might be redundant. I now have regular recurring nightmares of a backhoe claw crashing through the roof as we sleep.
 
The truly sad thing is that if indeed the OTA destroys our homes, I’ll have to clean out all the crap I’ve collected over the years myself instead of my kids getting to do it after I’m gone. That just deprives them of many trips to the dump.
 
Seriously though this is an extremely sad predicament to be in and causes us much consternation and sadness… just so travelers can save 10 minutes while driving around the OKC metro all the while paying extra for the ride. It just doesn’t seem right.

See more families and read their stories at Stop The Toll OK.
***SHARE YOUR STORY! If you would like to be featured as our "Rooftop" of the Week, please email photos and a bit about your home/family to admin@pikeoffota.com.
Urgent Needs

Pike Off OTA, Inc. is seeking volunteers to help with coordinating fundraisers, graphic design, and social media (specifically TikTok). 

If you know of anyone with these qualifications, please have them email us at admin@pikeoffota.com!
 
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Our mailing address is:

PO Box 2091

Noble, OK 73068

admin@pikeoffota.com



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