Wednesday, December 30, 2009

City of Norman Emergency Operations Plans

An interesting read. Lists things like City warning siren locations, number of hospital beds available in Norman and the OKC area, and police and fire department structure and org charts.

City of Norman Daily Police Department Activity Logs

The City of Norman has their police daily activity logs on the web as PDFs. Dry reading but I think an excellent example of transparency and openness in government with public records.

Sunday, December 27, 2009

I-35 Aesthetics Design

As part of the I-35 widening project there will be a re-do all of the bridges in Norman over I-35, either as new bridges/intersection or as re-work of existing ones, each bridge having its own theme.

US-77 - Prairie
Tecumseh Road - Tecumseh and the Shawnee
Rock Creek Road - Horses in Motion
Robinson Street - Railroad
Main Street - Land Run of 1889
Lindsey Street - University of Oklahoma
SH-9 E - Lake Thunderbird
SH-9 W - Agriculture and the Chickasaw

The City has a page (http://www.normanok.gov/content/i-35-aesthetics-design) up with a ZIP file (~13.5 meg) containing two PDFs showing the design proposals and an email for anyone who wants to comment on the designs.

There are some really cool designs being considered. Really cool. Worth a read.

Cattle Foraging After The Blizzard



Looking westward at cattle foraging in the field north of W Robinson and west of 48th Ave NW in Norman.

Where Robinson Street Gets Its Name?

I don't know if this is from where Robinson Street in Norman gets its name or not, but an Engineer on the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe RR who worked on the railroad through Oklahoma Territory was named Robinson.

http://skyways.lib.ks.us/genweb/archives/1912/r3/robinson_albert_alonzo.html

This article in The Oklahoman says that's where Robinson Ave in OKC gets its name.

http://blog.newsok.com/archivist/2009/11/05/meet-mr-robinson/

And I'm guessing that's why the theme for the Robinson Street bridge over I-35 is Railroad says this City of Norman newsletter (p. 5, lower right-hand side).

http://www.normanok.gov/sites/default/files/WebFM/Norman/Community%20Resources/Inside%20Norman%20Newsletter.pdf

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Old Route of the Interurban through Moore to Norman


I found this map on another blog. It lists the route as having been abandoned 5-17-44. Check out Doug Loudenback's blog for lots and lots of great info on OKC history.

By the time this map was made you can see Verbeck had become Moore and Norman's Camp just Norman.

http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/2007/08/okc-trains-part-2.html

Thursday, December 24, 2009