Mixed feelings following Norman mayor’s turnpike town hall
NORMAN, Okla. (KFOR) — Norman-area residents, who oppose the construction of several proposed turnpikes near their homes, say they left a town hall meeting Monday night with mixed feelings about whether Norman’s mayor fully supports their fight.
The group PikeOff OTA hosted a town hall with Norman Mayor Larry Heikkila at Lakeview Baptist Church’s north campus Monday evening.
The group’s leaders told News 4 the goal of the event was to help opponents of the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority’s ‘Access Oklahoma’ plan understand where Heikkila stands on the plan.
The Access Oklahoma plan calls for several new turnpikes to be built along Norman’s north and east sides.
The plan could require the OTA to demolish upwards of 600 homes, in order to build the Turnpikes.
Around 100 or more people showed up to PikeOff’s town hall Monday evening.
“We're hopeful that mayor will be able to help with our cause and do what we can to stop this,” PikeOff OTA leader Randy Carter Told News 4 before the meeting began. “I hope that we will be able to agree the mayor and our group will be able to agree to work together, to do what we can to stop this this devastation.”
When the event began, Heikkila told the crowd he wanted to hear their feedback on things they’d like him and the City of Norman to require of the Turnpike Authority to lessen the turnpikes’ impact on the community when they are built.
Heikkila suggested the city could require the Turnpike Authority to build the roads around historic buildings in order to preserve them. He also asked the crowd if they would like him to require the OTA to build access roads along the routes of the new turnpikes.
As the mayor took questions from the crowd, many attendees told the mayor they wanted to hear his plans to help them fight the roads from being constructed altogether, not simply minimize their impact.
“The previous mayor very unambiguously showed great moral clarity on this issue,” PikeOff OTA member Tassie Hirschfeld told News 4 after the event ended. “And I think this mayor seems to think that he can really sort of negotiate with the Turnpike Authority or he wants to work with them.”
Hirschfeld said she left the meeting unsure if the mayor backs their fight to prevent the roads from being constructed.
“The message I got from the mayor is like, ‘oh, gosh, it's just too bad that this terrible thing is happening, we'll just see what we can do to make it less,’” Hirschfeld said. “I would have liked to hear him say, What can I do to help? Because I have never heard that from him. I would like to hear him say, we need to preserve the beauty and the agricultural infrastructure.”
News 4 asked Heikkila point blank: are you against the construction of the proposed turnpikes?
“Yes,” he responded.
Heikkila told News 4 the evening was a learning opportunity for him to get an understanding of where his energy could best be used.
“We know that this is a very contentious problem in our Norman and we're trying to make sure that what we're doing is trying to do the majority of the will of the people,” Heikkila said. “It’s hard because there’s a lot of laws, all kind of other things set up on us. There are some ways around it. A lot of people are willing to keep up the ideas.”
Last year, the Oklahoma Supreme Court gave the OTA the green light to move forward with Access Oklahoma after a contentious legal battle.
Currently, the OTA does not have a timeline for when construction may begin on the proposed Norman-area turnpikes.