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Government Awards
Beautification & Landscaping
OKLAHOMA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION HIGHWAY ART
Travel in Oklahoma City to Northwest 23rd Street and the I-235 exit ramp and you can see “Where the Buffalo Roam,” courtesy of the Oklahoma Department of Transportation, the University of Oklahoma’s School of Art sculpture program and a host of other sponsors. “Where the Buffalo Roam” is a one-and-a-quarter-sized bronze buffalo and calf that represent ODOT’s first venture into what is called highway art.
Director of the ODOT Beautification Office, Joanne Orr, accepts for the Highway Art buffalo sculpture project.
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This proud nod to our prairie heritage took three years to bring from an idea to its artistic debut last October. In between was the creation of the sculpture model by OU grad student Kim Walker Ray and more than $100,000 in fundraising, largely through the sale of small replicas.
The judges said “Although not a ‘natural’ improvement to roadside beauty, it is a very clever, dramatic and tasteful way to incorporate Oklahoma heritage into scenic beauty.” THE PARTNERSHIP OF THE OKLAHOMA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION WITH THE ART WORLD IS GOOD NEWS FOR OKLAHOMA’S ROADSIDES!
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Government/Education & Promotion
TULSA COUNTY BLUE THUMB
Tulsa County Blue Thumb is a water quality education program that not only left its impressive print on 832 storm drains and more than 14,000 Tulsa County residents last year, it also has inspired 16 similar Blue Thumb programs across the state.
Blue Thumb volunteers go through 40-hours of training on how to scientifically monitor Tulsa area creeks and they learn about the many facets of water quality.
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Tulsa County Blue Thumb project assistant Kristi Taylor accepted the KOB award of excellence.
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A stream biology class at Mill Creek School is shown at McClure Park in Tulsa where they are learning about macroinvertebrates that exist in the water.
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The volunteers are equipped with “Storm Sewer in a Suitcase,” a hands-on tool that shows how nonpoint source pollution is created.
Two years ago, the program earned the National Earth Team Volunteer Award and our judges lauded it as “An important environmental message delivered in an imaginative, yet tangible way.”
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FOR SERVING SO EFFECTIVELY AS BOTH AN OUTREACH PROGRAM AND A MODEL FOR OTHER COMMUNITIES, TULSA COUNTY BLUE THUMB IS GOOD NEWS FOR OKLAHOMA’S WATERSHEDS!
Environmental Improvement
CITY OF STILLWATER
What started only five years ago in Stillwater as an aggressive poster campaign on pesticide education, now has become a major annual collection event for household hazardous waste that has diverted about 40 tons of household pollutants so far.
Last year’s one-day collection event netted 12 tons of pollutants and 448 tires while also providing the public with a paint swap area. It all adds up to safer landfills, better water quality, and homes less likely to have dangerous fumes or explosion hazards.
Doug Gable (left), Industrial Pre-treatment Coordinator for the city and Stillwater Mayor Larry Brown, headed up the large crowd that accepted the KOB award of excellence for the city's successful household hazardous waste collection projects.
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Bio-monitoring failures, caused by pesticide toxicity at the Stillwater Wastewater Treatment Facilities, have dropped from four failures in a single year to just one failure each of the past three years. A judge called it “A difficult problem addressed well with impressive results.”
THE CITY OF STILLWATER’S ANNUAL HOUSEHOLD HAZARDOUS WASTE COLLECTION EVENTS ARE GOOD NEWS FOR OKLAHOMA’S ENVIRONMENT!
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