We need a couple of really good restaurants to setup shop in Poteau. Chili’s, Applebee’s, Bennigan’s, Wendy’s etc…. Come on “Powers-That-Be” let’s get it done. I like a few of our food places now but want a little more choice of quality food. Maybe even a glass of wine with a steak. (I don’t drink wine but would just because). So let’s get out there and SHOP our city for the potential it has. Poteau has the potential to be a great community and our Current City Government and Some County Officials have gone a long way to get us headed in the right direction. NOW IT’S TIME TO FOLLOW THROUGH!!
On another note I want to be able to pay my Poteau water bill online. I can pay every bill I have, whether through choice pay or their own online payment system on a web page. Gas, Electric, Internet, Cell Phone but not Water.  Com’on Mr. Mayor we talked about this so get it done. You have made a lot of great things happen here (thats why I haven’t ran for Mayor you’re doing a great job) so just make the online bill pay happen and get on the ball for some good restaurants. I will buy your first dinner at our new Chilis if you’ll make it happen

I just had to get this off my chest. Why can’t AT&T get 3G Cell Phone service to Poteau? We’re not that far from Ft. Smith and you can actually get it in Pocola……They could put it on one tower here and it would cover all of Poteau….How about we all complain since they are doing like a Billion dollar upgrade because of the class action suit filed for the misleading 3G speed advertising and non-availability. Any one that uses AT&T/Cingular needs to complain by letter and phone (dial 611 on your cell phone) and COMPLAIN. If you’ve ever used 3G you know why we need it and if not just do it for me please

I found it interesting that I found a letter to the editor over the very subject I was considering blogging about. How horrible are the roads in LeFlore County. Living in Poteau and recently taking my son for some driving practice on some city streets I just can’t understand how bad we have let our streets get. I know there has to be a budget for this right? How about someone from the City and County commenting on this Blog and tell all of us why our streets are so BAD!

1. Employment! The most important thing to improve the community is create new jobs. Jobs create revenue for businesses and trickle down to the entire community.

2. Fiber To The Home! Let me explain! We need more competitive communication services in our area. We are lucky to have DSL at least. But to only have ONE cable company and ONE Telephone company, and only those two provide Internet. Thank God for Dish Network! I would like to see Fiber To The Home allowing use to have Smart Meters for our water, gas and electric allowing us to see usage and manage our utilities better. Then we have the ability to use Voice Over IP (VOIP) for telephone and then IP TV or digital television. All for about 90.00 a month. This is available in 1000s of communities nationwide already. Now that President Obama has included Broadband Internet in the stimulus package maybe our city can apply for grants to make this happen!

3. Build a Community Center! THIS IS ON IT’s WAY! Great Job Mayor Shockley, Councilmen/Councilwomen and Planning Commission. Thank you for making our community better!

4. Improve School and Facilities! We all know what needs to be done here. As I have said before, quit piecing together buildings at a landlocked location and build a first class facility with first class Science, Math and Fine Arts buildings. Build a quality Gymnasium and Football Stadium with Artificial Turf. It may not be long before we are thrown into 5-A and we just don’t have 5-A facilities. As a side note: Stop the petty crap in the administration like whining about the young wrestling Pirates not having the ability to use our school’s wrestling facilities and even more silly: use of the Pirate name (Poteau does not own a trademark on the word Pirate). Who do you think you are preventing our young future Pirates from learning from our coaches and kids at that young (5-6-7 and up) age. These kids are the future of our community as well as future athletes and their parents and our coaches are taking their own time and money to build what will be our future championship wrestling team. Many of these kids are already champions. This is the kind of pettiness that our school board needs to put an end to. Even if it means replacing some of the administration! I know many are worried about statements I make regarding athletics and think I should focus more on education. Athletics create a lot of income for our school system. They are also important in teaching kids discipline, self respect, teamwork, trust and many other great attributes.

5. Street Improvement. We really need a turn lane throughout Broadway. Basically from the Industrial Park to FatAlberts (I’m exaggerating a bit). It’s always nice to have good roads to build a great community. Not that ours are horrible (many cities have much worse roads). I also remember a time when it was discussed to extend the Muskogee Turnpike. Can that be revisited?

I’m sure there are many other things that can be done but that’s where you come in. Feel free to comment and list them here and maybe as a community we can see them accomplished.

“Bandit Born and Raider Bred, when I die I’ll be Pirate Dead!”