A Tulsa city councilor is seeking a permanent waiver on inspection and permit fees regarding projects at the Route 66 Station Village in west Tulsa, reported the Tulsa World.
The councilor, Jeannie Cue, is leading the effort:
“This project, which is for the city, is the work of a lot of volunteers who have donated time, labor, and costs for materials,” Cue said.
“It doesn’t seem fair that the volunteers keep writing checks out of their own pockets for those fees because of the difficulty navigating through the red tape at City Hall on waiver requests, which is allowed by ordinance.” […]
The 4-acre site is home to the three train cars – a Frisco Meteor 4500 vintage steam locomotive, a Murray Hill solarium lounge car and a vintage caboose – plus a 154-foot-tall replica of an oil derrick, 320 feet of train track and a Route 66 logo on a berm at the station’s entrance.
Initially, Cue wanted the waiver to cover all public property along Route 66. However, alignments of the Mother Road cover so much of Tulsa, officials thought such a request was too broad.
Even councilor Blake Ewing, who’s led the effort to establish a Route 66 Task Force in Tulsa, was cool to such a sprawling request. However, he said he was amenable to waiving the fees for public-property projects led by volunteers.
I wouldn’t mind if the waiver also included volunteer projects on historic private property on Route 66. Any little bit that provides incentive to preserve Mother Road landmarks would be a good thing.
An excellent idea. I hope they get it done here, and the idea spreads from one end of the Route to the other.