OTTAWA — It’s likely the conversations before and after Ottawa’s First Friday forum were as important as the actual program.
If so, organizers have done their job of getting local residents to come together.
About 75 gathered Friday morning in the cafeteria area of what was the town’s middle school and high school. The massive complex now serves as Washburn Heights, housing units complete with an indoor pool after the school district built a middle school campus in 1998.
The local branch of Arvest Bank, Ottawa’s newspaper, The Herald, the city of Ottawa and its Main Street program, sponsor the monthly forums that highlight area news and events.
“We copied it after Bartlesville’s program,” said Jeanny Sharp, publisher of the newspaper. The Oklahoma city program holds weekly meetings with average attendance at 200, Sharp said.
“That was too much, so we scaled it down,” Sharp said.
Organizers in Iola are now in the works of coordinating a similar effort.
In Ottawa, the bank pays for rental of the meeting space as well as refreshments of coffee and pastries.
Presenters include the Ottawa mayor, a financial analyst with Arvest Bank, a Realtor, a representative of Main Street, the newspaper publisher and a guest speaker.
In all, the program lasts about an hour, though participants gather well before the start of the 9 a.m. program and linger afterward for more discussion.
Sometimes presenters have quick videos or slides to help emphasize their points.
Clay Nickel, a vice president for Arvest Bank, had several slides showing recent national economic trends.
“Things are trending in the right direction,” Nickel said with graphs showing a 2.5 percent growth rate predicted for 2012.
Tammy Ellis of Century 21 real estate told of a still depressed housing market.
“We have 130 active houses,” for sale, Ellis said. “In the last two months, 18 have sold. But 15 of those were from bank foreclosures,” she said of their drastically reduced prices, averaging of $57,000 per home.
“Spring is the time to market your house,” Ellis said. “Interest rates are still at an all-time low. It’s a buyer’s market.”
