The decision was reached Monday after both Heminover and Beymer met with trustees Keith Estes, Christy Jeffcoat, Ron McAfee and Jill Francis. They will have to be approved by the city council and, if given the okay, they will take the seats vacated by resignations of Gary Clason and Mike Meeks.
City Manager Ted Graham said a three-day trip to Dallas may pay off in the long run for Henryetta.
He and Clason represented the town at the ISCS conference Nov. 12 through 14. "It was probably more successful than some that I have been to," he said.Graham hinted that a food franchise has Henryetta "on the list," and said more meetings will be held in coming weeks.
Another company, Hibbet Sports is expected to have representatives visiting in Henryetta in the coming weeks. "It takes about four years to land someone like this," Graham said, "and I have been visiting with them for the past two years."
Henryetta was represented at the show in a booth with other cities and towns. That group effort was acknowledged by the ISCS organizers who asked in Henryetta and the rest of the state delegation would attend the international show in Las Vegas next May.
"Whatever we are doing, we are doing it right," he said.
He gave HEDA members a copy of one promotional piece that was being handed out to visitors stopping by the Oklahoma booth. That presented the trade area around Henryetta with a population of 51,065. Of the population in the area, some 70 percent of the homes are owner-occupied. "That seems to be a positive look," he said.
He said a long-range goal should be to increase the number of homes in the area.
Graham said a big concern among the communities at the show was the impact of oil and gas prices on their retail sales.
Henryetta's share of the sales tax was down slightly in October from last year but Graham pointed out Woodward was experiencing a 26 percent downturn in sales tax receipts.
He said a move to increase the state sales tax by one cent to held fund education is something that needs to be looked closely at.
Questioned about plans for development on the west side of Henryetta, Graham said there has been some interest but installation of a sewer line is still important. That work is projected to cost over $900,000.
City council members will be holding a special meeting Tuesday night to discuss financing work on the water storage tank east of town.
Graham said there has been a lot of hesitation from potential businesses waiting to see if a Wal-Mart store would be built there first. He related a conversation that CVS Pharmacy would build as soon as Wal-Mart made the announcement.
Graham said there has been some marketing efforts on several empty buildings on East Main but nothing is solid.
"Everybody wants to be by Wal-Mart," he said.
We need an area where we can build a strip center," he said. "Everybody feeds off each other. We need to seriously discuss an area where we can target spots for strip centers. It's relatively difficult in the city without tearing things down."
