City of Enid Commission session delights us with brief moment of bad lip reading

In the last episode of the Enid Follies soap opera where a gang of 3 Commissioners conspired to do in local talent Jerald Gilbert as City Manager knowing that one Commissioner and the Mayor were going to be out of state.  This month is when the proper performance review of the City Manger's performance is supposed to happen, so let's take a look at the quality of judgment of the judges.  Yes, the result is an instance of bad lip reading.  Take a look:

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Writing this as I just get back from KNID's Agrifest, which I'm sure would amaze the City's Assistant Manager who thinks spacious parking lots nowhere near enough businesses to warrant so much unproductive space is a good thing.  That's because the spacious parking lot at the Chisholm Expo Center was freakin' PACKED all the way from the facilities' front door to the roadways.  The only time there are packed spacious parking lots downtown is when there are special events, not for retail business, and Agrifest is both a special event AND retail business.  The Agrifest booklet mapped out vendor booths and which vendor was in what booth, but it didn't show where the vendors came in from...and so I started collecting business cards (and in the absence of business cards, collected promotional items that showed that information).

I got a free tote back from Mystik Lubricants to put all the stuff into, too...and Mystik was represented by Jim Johnson Oil Co. of El Reno, Oklahoma.  So naturally I said to the vendor, "Welcome to Enid!"

What I will do at a later date is update this blog entry with an analysis of all the business cards & info I picked up and post who was from out of town, from out of state, and where applicable, the size of the large machinery on sale for this event.  Somebody is just going to have to take this  info to the City Commission to show that whatever the hell they think they're doing with the downtown area for city folk, the entire county that it's the seat of has that retail business beat to a whisper several times over.

Stay tuned.
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I've got quite a stack of business cards to scan, and here's where I kick off the scan-fest over here. What's interesting is that the stack of out-of-town cards is immensely taller than the stack of in-town cards, which should tell the Economic Development crew all it needs to know about what businesses there should be in Enid but aren't.  Here's the first batch, all in Oklahoma, but there are quite a few out of state businesses showing up here, from Minnesota to Texas, and yeah--Benson MO was represented by 2 different vendors--but--actual ag businesses from Illinois were present.

What the Enid City Commission repeatedly fails to realize is that other cities solicit Enid hunters and fishermen to spend their sports money in their communities instead of Enid's. Enid just hasn't got anything that will attract such people outside of the annual quail hunt. Enid Economic Development my ass. If you're offended by "salty language" like this, then you haven't talked to a farmer, rancher, or military person.