A very interested and engaging group of residents and business owners from Sulphur met with City Manager Bill Holley and City Planner James Toal of the firm Gideon Toal Thursday night for 90 minutes.

The reason for the meeting was to talk about things that those in attendance like about Sulphur and things they would like to see change in the city. This group, along with other residents and city council members, will be the ones who will come up with a strategic plan to help the city grow and prosper.

"This is a start of the process that will take months," Holley told those in attendance. "We need to put together a city plan. We need to know how to get there from here, but first, we need to know where there is."

Toal then made some introductory comments.

"I have had a chance to work with some of the city leaders and I am very impressed with them," he noted. "And I have also worked with some of the leaders of the National Park Service and the Chickasaw Nation and I was impressed with them. I see a lot of the advantages that Sulphur has, like its water, the fact it is green and the people here."

Toal said the object of creating the plan is not to make Sulphur a big city.

"We are going to try to lay out a comprehensive plan with a lot of focus on creating a sustainable city," he said. "That means creating jobs so families can stay here and work and young people can come back here and find well paying jobs. We also need to make sure the quality of life continues and that some people may want to move here to live and work."

One of the first questions Toal wanted answered was, What do you like about living in Sulphur?

Sondra Clagg, of Clagg Funeral Home, was the first to speak.

"I moved here in 1970 and opened a business," she said. Living here, I feel like I am a part of a family. I enjoy the people, the park and Rock Creek."

Toal took that idea and expanded on it.

"We need to expand the opportunities for the next generation," he said. "We need to create businesses or find a way for people who are here to stay here to work and live. With the World Wide Web, people can have high tech business and work and live anywhere."

Among the other things talked about as to why people like living in Sulphur was the low cost of living, it is safe and hard to get into trouble, and the town has good schools.

Toal said the target group to look at to sustain the population is retirees.

"They always contribute to the economy and this area is affordable to live in and the estate taxes are lower," he explained.

One of the biggest complaints is the speed of cars on city streets. One of the areas of particular concern is Williams Drive and 14th Street. Also of concern were the people not following the speed limits in school zones.

Another concern was the number of 18 wheelers traveling through the city on Broadway.

Holley said the city is working on a plan with ODOT and the Turnpike Authority to make the beginning of the Chickasaw Turnpike into a bypass for those large trucks.

Holley said drivers will have to start slowing down as patrols will increase and Park Rangers will be writing tickets for the section of road that goes through the park.

Park Superintendent Bruce Noble said he has some concerns about changes made to the city.

"I want to see some protection for the older historic buildings in the city. If we want a more vibrant downtown, we need to stop the litter problem," he said. "If you go out on the Lake of the Arbuckles, the view is beautiful. But once you get to the shore, you see a major litter problem. I would like to see a city landfill with more emphasis on recycling in Murray County."

Don Brown, one of the finest construction contractors in the area and the man who has helped install pipe in the city recently among his numerous city projects, said a better idea was a transfer station and that it was more feasible than a landfill.

A couple of other problems addressed was the problem of junk cars in the city and the number of older houses that are so dilapidated that people cannot live in them.

Holley addressed the issue of junk cars.

"Code enforcement is the one area the council has given me an edict to work on," he said. "We have had some good success so far, but there is a long way to go."

Another area was the view to the backside of downtown. Attendees asked that the city not only address the store fronts, but also the backs of many of the downtown businesses that are visible as you enter town.

Another aspect that could make the downtown more aesthetic is putting items in the windows of some of the closed downtown businesses or etching on the windows to beautify them.

"There is not much pride in the town," Holley said. "We have to find a way to instill pride. It will not be an overnight fix. We need to educate people in town and get the young people involved. We need to start developing stronger pride in the community. People here have become complacent. The energy is here and we have to bring that to the forefront."

One other item discussed was changing the name of the city back to Sulphur Springs.

Toal said that is a relatively easy process.

"This town is green and has water so the name sounds much more like the town," he said. "Sulphur Springs better describes the city and has a very positive ring to it."

Another possibility is to change the name of Muskogee in the downtown area to Main Street. That was not widely discussed except to say that it would take the approval of 60 percent of the businesses on Muskogee to make the change.

Email our reporter at dhudspeth@sulphurtimes.com.