Vision 2025 projects update

It's been almost two years since Tulsa County voters approved the <b><a class="headlinelink" href="http://www.kotv.com/main/home/searchKOTV.asp?mainSearch=Vision 2025">Vision 2025</a></b> tax plan.

Monday, August 22nd 2005, 10:11 am

By: News On 6

It's been almost two years since Tulsa County voters approved the Vision 2025 tax plan. It's still early in the collection of the tax, which will last 13 years, and early in the construction too, but things are happening.

News on 6 reporter Emory Bryan says the downtown arena gets a lot of attention because it's by far the biggest project, but other Vision 2025 buildings are going up too.

A crane is in the air at the University of Oklahoma Schusterman Center at 41st and Yale. The university is building a Medical Clinic and parking garage with $30-million from the Vision 2025 sales tax. Steve Ludwig with Manhattan Construction: "500 car parking garage, 3 stories tall and the medical clinic sits over here just to the north, 100,000 square foot medical clinic." Only rain has slowed down the project and just for a few days. The parking garage should be done by next March and the health clinic by December 2006. "Everything is on schedule and on track here."

The projects that are moving fastest are the ones that were on the drawing board before the Vision 2025 plan. The Morton Health Center at 1400 North Lansing was planning on moving, the Vision plan gave them the money to make it happen. That was $14-million for Morton, enough to plan and build a 60,000 square foot medical clinic just north of downtown. It's two thirds of the way complete.

Kim Jones with the Air and Space Center: "And we'll be able to get school kids in here, we have about 110 seats." The curator of the Air and Space Museum reports progress there too. The money for its biggest building was raised privately, outside of the Vision package. It's almost done. The Vision plan is paying for the $2-million planetarium at 3624 North 74th East Avenue. The walls for it were started last week. "It's not only a planetarium, it's also a space exploration theater so we can show what it's like to be on a mission to mars for instance."

There are also major buildings under construction on the Broken Arrow campus of NSU and on the southeast campus of TCC, and a new city hall and fire station in Collinsville, all in the first phase of construction projects from the Vision 2025 plan.

To find out more about Vision 2025, check out their web site.