Leadership Rogers County spent the day touring Tulsa’s Port of Catoosa and two manufacturing facilities, Steel and Pipe Supply located at the Port of Catoosa, and Pryer Aerospace located in the Claremore Industrial Park. The group also received insight from a panel of local Economic Development experts: John Feary, Executive Director, Claremore Industrial & Economic Development Authority; Jill Ferenc, City Planner, City of Claremore; and Jessica Jackson, Executive Director, Claremore Main Street.

The day began with an overview of Tulsa’s Port of Catoosa provided by Sheila Shook. Shook stated, “The McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System is a 445 river mile system running from Catoosa to the Mississippi River.” Further, Shook told Leadership Rogers County, “Catoosa is 420 feet high in elevation than the Mississippi River.” Locks and dams are needed for barges to navigate. The locks and dams act as elevators to raise or lower vessels. Shook told the group, “There are 18 locks on the navigational system with five in Oklahoma and 13 in Arkansas.” The Port provides an efficient way to ship raw materials, such as rolls of steel, to Oklahoma, which are then transported to manufacturing facilities to create finished goods. The Tulsa Port also provides a way for grains to be shipped to and from Oklahoma.


Leadership Rogers County toured Steel and Pipe Supply, where Kelly Marsh explained how rolls of steel shipped on the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation system are processed for manufactures in the area. Marsh stated, “The large rolls of steel are unrolled and cut to the dimensions each specific manufacturer needs.”  The steel is stacked on pallets and trucked to various manufacturers in the area.

Leadership Rogers County was treated to lunch with three local economic development experts. John Feary stated, “Many jobs have been added in the Claremore Industrial Park over the last few years. Motor Sports of Tulsa is the most recent addition, who projects adding 100 new jobs over the next year.” Motor Sports of Tulsa is licensed to manufacture aerospace parts, which provides some diversity in the manufacturing sector of our local economy.

John Feary discussed the new Country Club Road initiative. “The new road will open up land for development opportunities,” said John Feary. Jill Ferenc talked about the Plaza area and Opportunity Zones. Jill stated, “Real estate investors are still interested in the Plaza and the Plaza is now in the Opportunity Zone.” Opportunity Zones are part of the 2016 Tax Reform. Jill told the group, “Opportunity Zones create a tax incentive for developers to invest capital in a particular area.” Claremore’s Opportunity Zone includes the downtown. Jessica Jackson stated, “The Main Street Program provides grants to help with redevelopment of historic main streets.”

Following lunch, Leadership Rogers County toured Pryer Aerospace with Douglas Brehm, Director of Safety & Production Readiness. Brehm stated, “Pryer has experienced significant growth and plans to expand in the near future.” Pryer Aerospace has two locations, one in Tulsa with about 100 em
ployees and the Claremore Industrial Park location with 30 employees. Brehm said, “Pryer has several large contracts and needs work ready employees to meet the demand.”

Leadership Rogers County learned the local economy is strong and diverse. Rogers County has opportunities for employment in manufacturing. Retail continues to grow. The opening of Country Club Road and Highway 20 expansion will open up additional economic growth opportunities. Tulsa’s Port of Catoosa is a great asset for Rogers County and all of Northeastern Oklahoma with the ability to ship products and raw material all over the world.
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For more information about Leadership Rogers County, please click HERE! ​

December’s Leadership Rogers County meeting was centered on health, both in the community and on a personal level.
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The meeting began with a presentation and discussion with Jeff Campbell from the Rogers County Health Department. Jeff’s responsibilities include inspection of restaurants, hotels and pools in and around the Rogers County area.

Jeff was asked what the biggest concern for local restaurant patrons should be, to which he answered, “Hand washing. 92% of food-borne illness can be prevented by proper hand washing.”

The next visit was to the Hillcrest-Claremore hospital. Hillcrest-Claremore is an 89-bed facility and employs over 300 people. They are rated in the top 10% in the nation for safety and recently received an A rating from Leapfrog, an independent rating system for hospital services.

The hospital tour included stops in the Cath Lab where they do lifesaving heart procedures; the Emergency Room that can see over 70 patients per day during flu season; Radiology that does over 3200 mammograms per year; Labor & Delivery which delivers over 700 babies a year and the 6 bed Intensive Care Unit.

Lunch was provided by A Perfect Pair, a healthy meal delivery and catering service based out of Pryor. A Perfect Pair provides healthy, pre-made meals and snacks to those looking for gluten-free, Paleo, Ketogenic, and Whole 30 options. The menu is posted a week in advance and orders are due by Thursday. Meals are then delivered to multiple locations in Claremore, Pryor and Miami.

After lunch, the group visited the Claremore Indian Hospital for a discussion and tour provided by Chief Executive Officer George Valliere. The Claremore Indian Hospital serves all federally recognized tribes, 29 of which can be found in Oklahoma.

The Claremore Indian Hospital is a 46-bed facility offering family medicine, emergency medicine, surgery, pharmacy and labor and delivery. Claremore Indian Hospital currently has 110,000 active patients and runs off of a funding plan started in 1970 which was based on just 30,000 patients.
Chief Executive Officer George Valliere stated “Our goal is to provide the best primary care we can. We do what we can and we do it well.”

The next stop was the Claremore Recreation Center. The Claremore Recreation Center offers those in and around the Claremore area a great place to exercise and take steps toward a healthy lifestyle. They have everything from cardio equipment, a junior Olympic-sized swimming pool, fitness classes for every skill level and a large gym and full-size tennis courts.

The day ended with a discussion with Jody Reiss, Program Director of the TSET Healthy Living Program. Jody explained that healthy living is a sum of small changes made throughout your day. Moving just a little more each day helps to promote healthy habits. Jody had the group stand and do some low impact exercises to demonstrate the difference just moving a little throughout the day could make.