The Enid News and Eagle, Enid, OK

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Discussion

November 5, 2009

Business development alliance head makes prediction Enid on verge of great things

By Robert Barron, Staff Writer

Enid has not grown much in the past 20 years or so and recently was passed by Stillwater in terms of population.

However, Brent Kisling, executive director of Enid/Garfield County Development Alli-ance, thinks the community is on the verge of doing great things. Kisling was featured speaker at the Business and Industry Forum Thursday at Autry Technology Center.

Surveys show there are 129,000 people who consider Enid their primary shopping area, and they could just as easily think of it as home, he said. Kisling wants to capitalize on Enid’s assets, including energy and agriculture.

One of the good things Enid has done is develop its own entrepreneurs, he said.

“We haven’t had a lot of Goodyear’s come here and settle, we have started our own businesses,” he said.

As example he listed Groendyke Transport, Advance Food and Brueggeman Manufactur-ing, which is 80 years old. When talking to Enid business and industry leaders, Kisling said the main concern they express is helping the local education system.

“We haven’t invested in ourselves as well as some other communities have,” he said.

Kisling said Enid can solicit new business. He said some cities are bigger than others because they know what their assets are and have capitalized on them. Enid’s advantages are oil and agriculture. Enid is in the heart of natural gas drilling and in the heart of wheat and cattle country, where other crops also are easily grown, he said. He said Enid could use some of the grain it sends out and make some value-added products. One community, he said, makes dog biscuits from hard red winter wheat and exports them mostly to Russia.

Another Enid asset is aviation. New types of aircraft, specifically light, two-seat sport aircraft, are increasing in popularity with pilots around the country, Kisling said, and do not take as much training to fly as regular aircraft. He said Enid could be the center of training a new generation of pilots for those planes.

Wind is another asset Enid has. Kisling called it a competitive advantage because there are plans to cross the nation with electric lines from Woodward to the Tennessee Valley Authority in Memphis. New renewable energy standards may find the TVA needing additional energy sources, he said.

There are 110,000 acres in Garfield County under contract by wind energy companies, he said, but there are no turbines built yet because there are no power lines in the area.

Those turbines also have 8,000 machine parts, and Kisling said Enid could become a manufacturing center for parts.

Retail business is another Enid asset, and Kisling said the retail consultant hired by the city of Enid, Ricky Hayes, has identified a number of areas of “retail leakage” where Enid residents go to other towns to purchase items they cannot obtain here.

“We need to make sure the Enid environment is one where businesses can grow,” he said.

Using a football metaphor Kisling said, “It’s time Enid put on the shoulder pads and started hitting people.”

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