If You're Looking for Old News

Not the freshest biscuit in the pan, but perhaps still usable as a hockey puck or for special purposes of your own, here's news from bygone days on OKCareerPlanner.com.

2010

Pilot Nano Camps Take on Invisible Technology

Some lucky 8th, 9th and 10th graders are at Nano Camp this month, learning about the emerging world of building things too small to see.

"I compare it to electricity 100 years ago," says Jimmy Bollman, who teaches a Nano Camp at Francis Tuttle Technology Center in Oklahoma City. "They had the light bulb and a few other things, but Thomas Edison had no idea where electricity was going. There was no electric rail, no TV, no microwave, no cell phone. And now we're at exactly the same place with nano."

The week-long camps are at Francis Tuttle, Meridian Technology Center in Stillwater, Tulsa Technology Center in Tulsa, and the OSU Institute of Technology at Okmulgee. Plans call for Nano Camps across the state next summer.

A few spaces remain for the June 21-25 camp at Francis Tuttle. Contact Jimmy Bollman at 405-717-7799 or jbollman@francistuttle.edu. For more information, see the Oklahoma Nanotechnology Initiative and Nanotechnology under Advanced Manufacturing occupations.

Tulsa Young Pros Turn 5,
Build New Business Incubator

TYPros, Tulsa’s Young Professionals, are hard at work turning a downtown site into a new business incubator especially for young professionals.

TYPros, which is celebrating its fifth birthday as an organization, is one of the nation’s largest young professionals organizations with 6,500 members.

A grand opening is targeted for May 20 at the 206 S. Cheyenne building. The Forge business development center will feature attractive rental rates, a business café, professional mentoring, and access to business, education, and other volunteers, according to a Tulsa World news story.

Pelco Distribution Deal May Add 50 Claremore Jobs

Feb. 26, 2010 — Pelco Structural LLC may be adding 50 employees at its Claremore pole manufacturing plant thanks to a new distribution deal with the leading equipment supplier to electric utilities in the U.S. and Canada. 

The agreement with HD Supply could double Pelco’s business over the next 18 months, said Pelco president Phil Albert. The company, in operation only since 2005, makes custom steel poles for electrical transmission, stop lights and other applications. 

Fifty new employees would represent a 50 percent increase from the 98 who work there now.

Hitachi Using New Incentive to Expand in Norman

Hitachi Computer Products America Inc. is adding a new distribution center that will bring 75 jobs to Norman once it's completed this fall. The company plans to begin hiring in June.

The 200,000-square-foot building is going up north of Hitachi's 162,000-square-foot plant. The expansion is the first to use bond financing under Oklahoma's new Pooled Finance Act, which was effective in November and offers up to $200 million in bond proceeds for local economic development projects.

Hitachi is consolidating its U.S. distribution operations, relocating all North American and South American functions from Indianapolis to Norman.

Oklahoma Pulling in Transplants 

Oklahoma is attracting transplants, according to an annual study by Atlas Van Lines. 

Atlas recorded 877 moves into Oklahoma and 652 out in 2009. It was the state’s second straight year with more inbound than outbound moves, but it was the first with enough difference to place Oklahoma in the inbound category. In the early 2000s, outbound moves predominated. 

Southwestern states Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico, along with New Hampshire, Vermont, Alaska and a few Mid-Atlantic states were the popular destinations. A swath of Midwestern Rust Belt states, New York, New Jersey and scattered other states were the losers in the Atlas Migration Patterns study.

2009

OKC Adding Whitewater, Other Public Perks

Oklahoma City is preparing to build a whitewater kayaking facility with a rowing racecourse that aims to be the world’s finest as part of a $777 million quality-of-life improvement program across the city.

The MAPS 3 package, approved by voters in December, also includes a 70-acre park linking the downtown core to the Oklahoma River, rail-based streetcars, a new convention center, 57 miles of bike and walking trails, and other projects.

"Oklahoma City's golden age continues," Mayor Mick Cornett told The Oklahoman. "We're creating a city our kids and our grandkids are going to be proud of for generations to come."  Read more.

OK Cities among Nation's Strongest

Where are the nation’s strongest economies in this recession? Business Week and the Brookings Institution found two of them in Oklahoma.

Oklahoma City ranked No. 3 with home prices rising 2.1 percent in a year and gross metropolitan product down just 0.8 percent from its 2008 peak. Tulsa came in at No. 7 with home prices up 2.5 percent and a gross metro product down 2.8 percent from a 2008 peak.

The oil and natural gas industry was cited in both cases and has helped the cities remain stable in a recessionary economy. Rankings were based on employment change, unemployment change, gross metropolitan product, and home price change. Read more.

OK College Enrollment Surges

Enrollment was up 5.8 percent at Oklahoma’s public colleges and universities in 2009. That’s 10,291 more students than the previous fall. Community colleges gained the most, up 10 percent. And the number of first-time freshmen was up 12.3 percent.

Even high school students are getting into the act with 6.5 percent more of them enrolling in concurrent college classes. A new state law ensures that any college courses they take will also earn them high school credit for corresponding high school courses.

“Increasing enrollment numbers clearly reflect the value Oklahomans place on higher education during troubling economic times,” said Chancellor Glen D. Johnson. Read more.

TCC Is State’s Third Largest College

With 19,198 students this fall, Tulsa Community College is the state’s third-largest school behind the University of Oklahoma (26,103) and Oklahoma State University (22,516).

TCC also reports having the state’s largest class of first-time freshmen, 3,786 of them. The Tulsa Achieves program, which provides free tuition and fees for any qualifying Tulsa County high school grad, accounted for a relatively small part of the increase. Of the 698 additional first-time freshmen, only 100 were Tulsa Achieves scholars. Read more.

Oklahoma City Ranked #1 for Small Business Startups;
Tulsa #19 among Midsize Metros

Fortune magazine and CNNMoney.com have ranked Oklahoma City No. 1 among large metro areas for small business startups, while Tulsa ranked No. 19 among midsize metro areas. The publications describe Oklahoma City as "stable and affordable," boasting the second lowest foreclosure rate among large U.S. metro areas, the second lowest median rent, and a high concentration of deep-pocketed local investors.

Oklahoma's tax structure, tax incentives, low startup costs, and friendly citizens were credited with encouraging businesses to launch and grow in the state. Read more.

Class in Session at OKC 'School of Rock'

The Academy of Contemporary Music at the University of Central Oklahoma is rockin' in Bricktown with its first 160 students in performance and production classes this fall.

ACM@UCO, a new branch of the prestigious ACM in London, offers two-year degree programs in performance studies (guitar, bass, drums and vocal) and music production. Teachers include Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne, Lips multi-instrumentalist Steven Drozd, Lily Allen producer Greg Kurstin, and Warner Bros. Records general manager Tom Biery.

Oklahoma City And Tulsa Prove Recession Resistant

Oklahoma City ranks No. 2 and Tulsa No. 9 in a new study of the recession's effects on the nation's 100 largest metro areas by the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution.

Both cities have benefitted from the energy industry and have experienced relatively low job loss along with modest home price increases. Tulsa's 2.6% wage increase over the last two quarters ranked No. 2 in the U.S. For housing prices, the report ranks Tulsa No. 6 with a 3 percent increase for the two quarters. Oklahoma City ranked eighth with a 2.8 percent increase.

Tulsa, Oklahoma City Get High Marks
as 'Cities of the Future'

Tulsa ranked No. 8 in the North America City of the Future 2009/10 tabulations for small cities by London-based fDi Magazine. Among large cities, Oklahoma City was cited as the most cost-effective city in the U.S. and the third most cost-effective city in North America. The business globalization publication judged cities on dozens of employment, education, cost, infrastructure, technology, and global investment criteria. Small cities were defined as those with populations between 100,000 and 500,000. Large cities had populations between 500,000 and 1 million. Read more.

New Law Targets High-Paying Jobs
in Key Oklahoma Industries

Bolstering efforts by the Oklahoma Department of Commerce to build a knowledge-based economy in the state, Governor Brad Henry recently signed legislation designed to create high quality jobs, some expected to pay triple the average Oklahoma wage.

Senate Bills 909 and 938 expand the state's Quality Jobs Program and give Commerce — the state's lead economic development agency — a set of critical tools for recruiting companies involved with advanced manufacturing, aerospace, biotechnology, business services, and traditional and renewable energy. Read more.

Study Says Manufacturing
Is Vital to Oklahoma’s Economy

January 29, 2009 — A new report compiled by Southwestern Oklahoma State University and the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission shows the manufacturing sector is a vital component of Oklahoma's economy.

The report's findings include:

• Oklahoma is home to about 4,700 manufacturers that employed 151,012 people in 2007;
• Manufacturing contributed $15.5 billion, or 11.1%, to Oklahoma's gross state product in 2007;
• Manufacturing jobs pay better than those in other sectors, and support more than secondary jobs in the wider economy.

Read more.