This comes from a flier posted around Turley now:
Progressive Rehabilitation Services and Cornerstone Freewill Baptist Church have filed an appeal in district court to overturn the County Board of Adjustment's denial to place the Cornerstone Halfway House in Turley at the site of the former church, 1821 E. 66th St. N. There will be a public meeting organized by the Turley Community Association and area residents to be held Monday, Aug. 13 at 7 p.m. at the site, now used by New Heights Christian Center, to give an update on the action and the protest response.
You can read the Tulsa World article and comments on the article at the following link:
http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?articleID=070724_1_A15_IELDW74441
See my comment below and the posts below for comments on the earlier action.
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1 comment:
Here is the comment I left at the Tulsa World site:
I live in Turley near the Turley Correctional Center and don't mind it, or don't mind halfway houses, and wouldn't even mind my family living near one for sex offenders (that issue certainly needs addressing and thanks to the World and local media for keeping it before the public.) I like the work that halfway houses do in people's lives. So my opposition is not NIMBY. It is that Turley itself is like a halfway house, a vulnerable area on the road to recovery, and so needs a different kind of moral investment made. Perhaps in the future, after we have adequate services and facilities in our area, we could handle another halfway house of this magnitude.
Those that would be handling smaller numbers would even be okay now, but this one is too intense for an area already suffering. This kind of project needs to go into an area where it is more visible and in the public's eye, not out of sight out of mind to the wider Tulsa community; it needs to go in the downtown area (such as is the case with the halfway house in OKC which the Progressive company brought in as their role model since they haven't done one before) or it needs to go in a growing suburban area like Owasso or Broken Arrow or Jenks or Bixby. See what happens if they try to go in there.
Also, the lack of community connection and relationship building with the local area and leaders that went on and continues shows a lack of respect and responsibiity for the area. County Commissioner John Smaligo's respectful opposition to the proposal given at the Adjustment meeting was the right approach.
We need to work together---church, community association, local business owners, the park and the school, and with County officials--to come up with alternatives for the use of this space. This 'crisis" for all parties could become an opportunity if we use it to begin envisioning and working toward planned development in the Turley area.
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