Chronological Guide of Supportive PDF Documents with Internet References

National Park Service homepage for the Land & Water Conservation Fund:http://www.nps.gov/ncrc/programs/lwcf/

LWCF Compliance Responsibilities and Legal Protection:

(Also in your pdf file – “LWCF 36cfr59.1 – Conversion Requirements.”)

http://www.nps.gov/ncrc/programs/lwcf/protect.html

Land & Water Conservation Fund, Federal Financial Assistance Manual

Chapter 4-Proposals, Environmental Review/Federal Complaince.

Chapter 8-Post-Completion & Stewardship.

http://www.nps.gov/ncrc/programs/lwcf/manual/lwcf.pdf

“Recent Transfers of Public Land to Private Developers” – follows a description and brief history of Lake Texoma:    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Texoma

1967 to 1988:  State of Oklahoma, DOI entered multiple contracts for LWCF Grants. Bureau of Outdoor Recreation / Land and Water Conservation Fund Project Agreements

10/01/67:  Project No. 35-00040 – constructed an overnight group – $40,800. funded.

1/25/68:  Project No. 35-00049 – improved state park roads – $4,406.40 funded.

7/01/70:  Project No. 35-00079 – surface roads and parking area – $3,213.00 funded.

5/31/73:  Project No. 40-00229 – created state park master plan, campgrounds, electrical system work, lagoon aeration system – projects at four parks funded at – $686,533.32

3/02/77: Park Description – accompanying LWCF agreement. The park has 244 improved campsites (with utilities), and 310 unimproved campsites, for a total of 554 campsites.

9/26/77:  Project No. 40-00592 – seven project amendments – funded at $572,600.00.  Note: This first of eight parts, was for a new tennis court lighting and electrical system on “approximately 1 acre on northwest side of the lodge.” The “6F” maps submitted with this project show the lodge encircled noting yet another area being protected LWCF Act.

11/30/83:  Project No. 40-00901 – campgrounds and facilities at 2 parks – $195,482.00.    The 6F maps with this project also show the Lake Texoma State Park lodge encircled.

12/31/1988:  Project No. 40-00904 – Six state park golf courses funded – $158,100.00.

OUR NATIONAL PARKS — OVERCROWDED, UNDERFUNDED, AND BESIEGED WITH A MYRIAD OF VEXING PROBLEMS: HOW CAN WE BEST FUND OUR IMPERILED NATIONAL PARK SYSTEM?

RICHARD J. ANSSON, JR.[*]

1996: http://www.law.fsu.edu/journals/landuse/vol141/anss.htm#FNT214

“Additionally, parks forced to raise revenue have increasingly relied on offering visitors recreational opportunities within the park.[212] For instance, Alabama state parks earn most of their money from golf courses and lodges built in state parks.[213]Oklahoma’s most popular and profitable state park—Lake Texoma State Park—does the same.[214] “

[At least, from 1996 through 2000, Lake Texoma State Park held this distinction.]

6/23/97:  OTRD’s Kris Marek, LWCF Special Liaison Officer, letter to DOI/NPS/ Ed Shellenberger confirms that the new Chickasaw Pointe Golf Course “would be protected” from conversion, since it would displace two prior LWCF park projects.

2/02/99: Keating seeks budget, tax cuts: selling lodgeshttp://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4182/is_19990202/ai_n10126017/

8/17/99: WRDA 1999 Single page authorization for 1580 acre land sale. Original source is: PUBLIC LAW 106–53—AUG. 17, 1999 113 STAT. 359 [Page 91]http://www.fws.gov/habitatconservation/Omnibus/WRDA1999.pdf

1/09/03: Sewage problem may unhinge state park leases. LTSP lease expires, making opportunity to re-write new lease, strike lease clause and language requiring an inventory of state and federal property, prior to sale of 750 acres.

2/19/03: OK House Bill 1431 authorizes the sale of the State Park, and exempts OTRD Commission from normal public processes and oversight during the sale: The sale of Texoma Lodge and any associated real estate and personal property shall not be subject to the provisions of Sections 129.4 and 456.7 of Title 74 of the Oklahoma Statutes.

http://wyomcases.courts.state.wy.us/applications/OCISWeb/DeliverDocument.asp?CiteID=101371http://wyomcases.courts.state.wy.us/applications/OCISWeb/DeliverDocument.asp?CiteID=101990

3/25/2003: OK Title 74, Ch. 46, Section 1852.3 – Sale of Land – Texoma State Parkhttp://wyomcases.courts.state.wy.us/applications/OCISWeb/DeliverDocument.asp?citeid=444118Appears to mimic, and yet it weakens and undermines federal LWCF Act strict conversion guidelines for Lake Texoma State Park. .

 

5/27/04: Title 64 Public Lands, Ch. 1, Sec. 561.1 The School Land Commission could invest as much as 3 percent of its trust – more than $30 million – in real property currently held by the Tourism Department.

 

8/10/04: USACE Notice of 564 Acre Study, soliciting input for LTSP EA.

 

10/06/04: FWS Brabander letter to USACE, RE: Corps failure on cumulative environmental impacts.  Note: Read the other letters from FWS to understand the problem.

 

10/15/04: OTRD’s Susan Henry Warns about LWCF Conversion Requirements

 

11/01/04: Original Request For Proposals (RFP) by the Oklahoma CLO:     “Lake Texoma Resort – Redevelopment Opportunity”  (See pp 22-33) www.oklaosf.state.ok.us/~clo/REM/TexomaRFPPackage.pdf     (2.61MB file)

3/28/05: OK Senate Week in Review  www.oksenate.gov/news/week_in_review/week_in_review_2005/wir2005032831.html

SB 823 – by Sen. Wilson, Rep. Miller would create the Oklahoma Tourism, Parks and Recreation Enhancement Act for the purpose of creating the Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Commission and the Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department.

 

4/01/05: OTRD Tourism Momentum ”News for Stakeholders in Oklahoma Tourism”

http://www.travelok.com/industry/pdf/momentum/05_apr.pdf

SB 823 – by Sen. Wilson, Rep. Miller would create the Oklahoma Tourism, Parks and Recreation Enhancement Act for the purpose of creating the Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Commission and the Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department.

 

Note: SB 823 rewrites over 70 years of State Parks and Recreation statutes to empower a governor appointed OTRD Commission for the first time, to issue bonds, sell park land,  condemn property, to drill for oil and gas on state park lands. It further weakens the provisions of the federal LWCF conversion guidelines at Lake Texoma State Park.

 

4/01/05: USACE Draft Environmental Assessment of Lake Texoma Land Salehttp://www.swt.usace.army.mil/library/libraryDetail.cfm?ID=183

 

4/06/05: US Congress Senate Bill 728 – Oklahoma Lake Demonstration (page 190)

WRDA 2005 was not passed into law.

6/01/05: USACE Final EA of Lake Texoma Land Sale with Finding Of No Significant Impace (FONSI). http://www.swt.usace.army.mil/library/libraryDetail.cfm?ID=212

6/08/05: Changes Coming for State Tourism and Recreation Departmenthttp://www.oksenate.gov/news/press_releases/press_releases_2005/pr20050608.html

7/30/2005 – Jeff Erwin, State Parks Director letter to Kris Marek, OTRD, acknowledges awareness of federal LWCF Act 6F conversion guidelines, He also states:

 

Note: 161 acres of prime lakefront acreage has been appraised at under $4,000 per acre, prior to submitting a conversion proposal for approval by the National Park Service/DOI.

8/03/05:  Kris Marek, letter to Bob Anderson, Director, LWCF Grants, NPS, regarding possible conversion – this is not a conversion proposal, but will later be called that. The 6(F) maps submitted with this letter exclude the lodge and cabins from LWCF protection.

3/15/2006 Land deal near for lake resort area

http://newsok.com/land-deal-near-for-lake-resort-area/article/1787780

“This is a win-win-win for everyone involved, said Lt. Gov. Mary Fallin, chairman of the state Tourism and Recreation Commission. “When I envisioned this process almost three years ago, I could have only imagined the positive opportunities it would open up.”

 

3/16/2006  Nigh, Gumm and Fallin Announce Lake Texoma Lodge Deal:http://www.gumm.us/laketexomadeal.html

 

“This agreement will turn that around,” Fallin said. “Texoma has always been one of the crown jewels of Oklahoma tourism, and it is about to shine.”

[Gagne dropped their bid when they couldn’t get $10 million in state subsidies. ]

 

6/01/06: CLO Reissued the same original RFP with the same Land Use Plan

Pointe Vista Purchase Agreement Documents:http://www.clo.state.ok.us/PointVistaDocuments.htm

11/08/07: Inhofe Leads WRDA Effort to remove reversionary clause, etc..

3/02/2008: Putting Lake Texoma on the Map Again

3/12/08: Rep. Terry Hyman tried to get State to comply with its own laws

5/21/2008:  Pointe Vista, Catfish Bay given 28 days to reach agreement

http://www.kxii.com/weather/headlines/19157959.html

07/14/08: An In-depth look at development on Lake Texomahttp://www.kten.com/Global/story.asp?s=8674968

9/12/08: Another Kris Marek letter to Bob Anderson, more than three years later, without any conversion proposal submitted by OTRD to the DOI/NPS, the park has been sold in two parts, and Marek states:

 

There were no other documents, notes, e-mail, or letters during that three years, and yet OTRD wants more time to submit a conversion proposal with alternative, replacement park land. They hid the conversion from the federal government for three years because they knew a conversion on this scale would never be approved.

10/24/2008: WRDA 2007 National Recreation Lakes Act.

12/11/08: Texoma Park Promise Reiterated by Legislators – The “replacement park lands” at Lakeside and Johnson Creek in Bryan County, are already USACE recreational areas, which conflicts with the LWCF conversion guidelines, but not the weaker state law.

1/15/09: Friends of Lake Texoma State Park letter to AG Drew Edmondson

Edmondson wrote back that he has referred our concerns to CLO and OTRD attorneys for review and analysis. Then the Tourism department Assistant AG and Director Watkins came out with more denials. With that we have exhausted all possible administrative remedies.

1/22/2009: Study could delay sale at Texoma – note: “3,000 residences” planned.

http://newsok.com/study-could-delay-sale-at-texoma/article/3339778

2/04/09:  OTRD Director Watkins writes NPS Bob Anderson, repeating much of the content in Kris Marek’s letter of 9/12/08.

Note: We learned on 1/31, that Tourism Director Hardy Watkins is the somehow related to former U.S. Representative Wes Watkins, of the 3^rd Congressional District of Oklahoma.

2/23/09: NPS Bob Anderson writes to Watkins finding OTRD in compliance with LWCF.

4/09/09: Pointe Vista Chief Operating Manager Scott Fischer announced at a public meeting in Madill, OK, that they would begin construction next January, although they don’t expect to have a completed EIS by that time. They make annual payments of $1 million, and the CLO holds the title on the park land that was illegally converted/sold, but they insist that they own the park now and can do what ever they want with it.