Funds Being Used to Help Develop New Business

The Bartlesville City Council met for a regularly scheduled meeting Monday evening at City Hall and decided to take $150,000 from the economic development fund and use it as development assistance for the combined Jimmy's Egg/Bricktown Brewery Building on the former K-Mart site.
President of the Bartlesville Development Authority, David Wood, saidthis is much needed for the city.
The Bartlesville City Council asked the BDA to address plummeting retail sales six-years ago. According to Wood, the BDA's research showed that they had 10-percent job growth and two-percent population growth in the last decade. He said the study determined that the young professionals in Bartlesville were choosing to live somewhere other than Bartlesville even though they were working within the Bartlesville City Limits.
Why was that happening? The data suggested to the Bartlesville Development Authority that there was not enough variety in Bartlesville's retail, bars and restaurants.
Co-owner of Midway Cafe, Payam Sharifi, says the addition of another breakfast restaurant is not needed. He claimed that the addition of a Jimmy's Egg continues the dissolution of mom and pop restaurants across the area.
Sharifi said it is ridiculous to think that Jimmy's Egg will make more people stop and eat in Bartlesville. He said the only thing it does is steal business from the other two restaurants that are within the same half-mile, including his own.
This means there will be three different breakfast restaurants within a half-mile. Sharifi said he the concept of a Bricktown Brewery is a great idea, but a Jimmy's Egg is not ideal.
Mayor Dale Copeland, a business owner himself, knows this is a touchy subject but believes the approval is important for economic success in Bartlesville.
To Mayor Copeland, business is finite. He said there is a certain challenge, and competition is not a bad thing. Brand preferences will be there, and like the mayor said, there will always be hard choices to make.
Referencing what David Wood had presented, Mayor Copeland said this is a highly desirable brand by a segment of Bartlesville's population. He said it is a good thing to have someone come in and invest in Bartlesville with a belief that the city is a good place to be.
Also at Monday evening's meeting, a concerned citizen alerted the council about trash she has seen in the Caney River. City Manager Mike Bailey said Christmas trees can still be dropped off at Sooner Park to be mulched.