Connect with us

Oklahoma

Future of Griffin Memorial Hospital campus still unclear • Oklahoma Voice

Published

on

Future of Griffin Memorial Hospital campus still unclear • Oklahoma Voice


Editor’s note: This story is part of Oklahoma Voice’s “Whatever Happened To …” end-of-year series that provides updates to some stories that captured the interest of Oklahomans in 2023 and 2024.

State officials still aren’t certain what they plan to do with 240 acres of land in the middle of Norman that currently house one of the state’s in-patient mental hospitals. 

Officials plan to transition care from Griffin Memorial Hospital to a new facility being built in Oklahoma City, but a spokesperson from the state Mental Health Department said no official decisions have been made yet on what will be done with that land. The opening of the facility was originally slated for 2026, but could be pushed back to 2028

But Norman city officials said they remain interested in acquiring it, though disagreements continue over what to do with it. 

Advertisement

In July, Norman city officials said they were considering moving the emergency homeless shelter to land on the hospital’s campus but nearly five months later no agreement has been reached. 

Darrel Pyle, Norman’s city manager, said the city is “working diligently” with the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services to acquire the land in order to develop a permanent homeless shelter. 

He said the city is involved in weekly calls with the Oklahoma Management and Enterprise Services Department, or OMES, to discuss progress with the agency that has been tasked with selling the land.

“OMES indicated that they are waiting on appraisals and a land survey needed for the sale of the land,” Pyle said. “Since none of the land has ever been platted it will need to be sold by legal description, which requires the land survey. The plan remains the same. We are simply waiting on the survey and appraisals to move forward.”

Christa Helfrey, a spokesperson from OMES, said the agency has partnered with the Mental Health Department regarding the future land sale, but that the Mental Health Department has information on the appraisals and timeline. 

Advertisement

OMES will help sell the property once the requirements are complete, the spokesperson said. It’s still not clear what it will cost to purchase the land.

Mental health officials plan to use money from the sale of the Norman land to help pay for the new facility in Oklahoma City. 

If the current Norman shelter at James Garner Avenue and West Gray Street were to move to the hospital’s campus, the shelter’s capacity could double. 

Norman City Councilor Austin Ball for Ward 1 said he doesn’t support moving the shelter, but supports acquiring the land for other uses, like a sobering center, if Cleveland County were involved. A sobering center gives individuals dependent on alcohol or drugs a place to safely recover and be connected to recovery resources. 

“I think it should still be a county issue because it’s like our county jail … the city of Norman doesn’t need to pay for the whole county’s problems,” he said. “But at the same time, I’m all on board for a TIF district there. I think that area (has) a lot that can be done there. I just don’t want a low barrier shelter there. I don’t want a low barrier shelter anywhere in Norman.”

Advertisement

A TIF district, or Tax Increment Financing, uses newly generated tax dollars to support development in certain limited areas of a city, town, or county.

Ball said he thinks low barrier shelters are unsafe. A “low barrier shelter” refers to a shelter that has limited requirements for entry, such as no background checks or screening of guests. 

“There’s so many people involved with this, and I don’t know if any of them are on the same page,” Ball said. “… There’s a lot of pieces and a lot of people in the dark.”

Helen Grant, who uses they/them pronouns and is the city councilor for Ward 4, said they support moving the shelter to the hospital’s campus, but that they want to see the land used for more than that. 

“There is a thought that we could have a sobering center and urgent care recovery located in the same area, potentially a homeless shelter and maybe some permanent supportive housing,” Grant said. “Those are things that are envisioned, but not solidified.”

Advertisement

They said the city has been in talks with the Mental Health Department for over two years about what will happen to the hospital campus. 

“It’d be amazing if it wrapped up by the end of the year, but I think we could be looking at the beginning of next year to find out what the state would like for the land,” Grant said.

Jason Olsen, director of Norman Parks and Recreation, estimated in July that if the city acquired the land for the shelter, repairs could cost between $100,000 and $500,000 and last three to six months as the air conditioning and fire suppression systems need to be updated. 

The City of Norman has interest in the Griffin Soccer Park land, Sutton Wilderness Area and some small footprint south of Main Street for future Shelter Development, the Norman city manager said. 

The Governor’s Office did not respond to requests for comment by the time of publication.

Advertisement

GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.

Advertisement

YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE.

Advertisement



Source link

Oklahoma

Oklahoma State expected to lose talented EDGE to transfer portal

Published

on

Oklahoma State expected to lose talented EDGE to transfer portal


Oklahoma State EDGE Kyran Duhon plans to enter the NCAA transfer portal, On3 has learned. Duhon was a member of the 2024 recruiting class.

Duhon spent one year at Oklahoma State, logged 16 total tackles (eight solo) across nine games. He began his career at UTEP, where he had a productive true freshman season, Duhon finished 2024 with 43 total tackles, including seven sacks and two PBUs.

At UTEP, his one season there resulted in second team All-Conference USA honors. He was also named to the On3 True Freshman All-America Team as well as the the Conference USA All-Freshman team.

However, Duhon’s stay in Stillwater didn’t go as expected. Oklahoma State finished the season with a 1-11 record, which included the Cowboys firing longtime head coach Mike Gundy after a 1-2 start. Doug Meacham was named interim head coach but ended the year 0-9.

Advertisement

Eric Morris has since been named as the program’s next head coach. He comes from North Texas, which finished with an 11-2 record and a trip to the American Conference championship game this past season. However, it doesn’t appear that Duhon will be sticking around during the changing of the guard at Oklahoma State this offseason.

Before college, Duhon was the No. 1,706 overall player in the class, and was recruited as the the No. 165 linebacker during the cycle, per the Rivals Industry Rankings, which is a proprietary algorithm that compiles ratings and rankings from all four primary recruiting media services. He was ranked as the No. 242 overall player out of Texas.

Once the NCAA transfer portal opens on Jan. 2, players can officially enter their names in the NCAA transfer portal and go on to initiate contact with their preferred schools. The portal will be open for 15 days and close on Jan. 16.

Notably, players who are on teams competing in the national championship game are allowed five extra days to make their portal decision. The College Football Playoff championship game will be played on Jan. 19, so the players on those teams will be allowed until Jan. 24 to enter the portal and choose their next school.

To keep up with the latest players on the move, check out On3’s Transfer Portal wire. The On3 Transfer Portal Instagram account and Twitter account are excellent resources to stay up to date with the latest moves.

Advertisement





Source link

Continue Reading

Oklahoma

Oklahoma man doing target practice in back yard charged in fatal shooting of neighbor

Published

on

Oklahoma man doing target practice in back yard charged in fatal shooting of neighbor


A man in Oklahoma is facing a manslaughter charge after he allegedly shot a woman several blocks from his home while firing a gun he got himself for Christmas at an energy drink can in his back yard.

As told in court documents reviewed by NBC News, the death of Sandra Phelps at the hands of Cody Wayne Adams illustrates how deadly the consequences can be when those engaging in the US’s prevalent gun culture do so unsafely. Adams’s back yard was not equipped to stop bullets from leaving the property and striking unsuspecting people in the surrounding area, according to authorities.

Phelps was sitting under a covered porch with family on Christmas and holding a child in her arms when they heard gunshots north of the house, said an affidavit laying out the circumstances of Adams’s arrest.

“Sandra commented that someone got a new gun for Christmas and then shortly after Sandra said ‘ouch’ and collapsed,” the affidavit said. It said there were no more gunshots after that.

Advertisement

Emergency personnel were dispatched to Phelps’s address at about 3.15pm Thursday, the Stephens county sheriff’s office said in a statement.

“We later received a call stating an individual had just received a gun for Christmas and was target practicing in his backyard and that they believed it would be pointing in the direction of the scene,” the sheriff’s office statement added.

“Investigators went to the reported address and spoke with an individual [who] confirmed he was shooting a target in his back yard and that he had heard that someone has died from a gunshot wound a couple of roads over.”

That individual was Adams, 33, who showed deputies a Red Bull can in his back yard that he had been shooting with his handgun, according to the affidavit justifying his arrest.

Authorities allegedly concluded that the vantage point from where Adams was shooting aligned with the angle of the bullet that killed Phelps. They also determined the home lacked a suitable shooting backstop meant to protect those in the surrounding area from being struck by stray bullets.

Advertisement

“Adams became visibly upset and began to cry” when he learned of Phelps, the affidavit added. He was arrested on a count of first-degree manslaughter and later released on a $100,000 bond.

In the US, unintentional deaths from firearms are a small percentage of gun deaths in the country. But they occur four times more often in the US than in comparable countries – and most involve a handgun.



Source link

Continue Reading

Oklahoma

Oklahoma man accused of shooting neighbor dead during Christmas target practice

Published

on

Oklahoma man accused of shooting neighbor dead during Christmas target practice


What began as Christmas Day target practice in an Oklahoma neighborhood ended in tragedy when a stray bullet fatally struck an elderly woman as she sat on her front porch holding a baby.

Cody Wayne Adams, 33, has been charged with first-degree manslaughter after firing the fatal shot, according to a probable cause affidavit obtained by ABC News.

The woman, whose identity was not disclosed, was sitting on the front porch with family members at a home on County Road 1800 on Thursday afternoon when she was shot from several blocks away, the Stephens County Sheriff’s Office said in a press release.

According to the affidavit, the victim was seated on a love seat and holding a baby in her left arm when she was struck in her right upper arm. The bullet then entered her chest cavity.

Advertisement

Family members told the responding deputy that they had heard someone firing five to seven gunshots and that the victim had “commented that someone got a new gun for Christmas” and shortly afterward “said ‘ouch’ and collapsed,” the affidavit stated.

Cody Wayne Adams, 33, has been charged with first-degree manslaughter after he allegedly shot and killed an elderly woman a few blocks from his home

Cody Wayne Adams, 33, has been charged with first-degree manslaughter after he allegedly shot and killed an elderly woman a few blocks from his home (Stephens County Sheriff’s Office)

As investigators canvassed nearby properties north of the shooting, deputies found that all but one home had “suitable shooting backstops or firing locations,” according to the affidavit. The only exception was Adams’s home.

Adams allegedly told deputies that he had been shooting a Glock 45 he recently bought for himself for Christmas, using a Red Bull can as a target in his backyard, according to the affidavit.

When a deputy told Adams he suspected the shooting may have caused the woman’s death, Adams “became visibly upset and began to cry,” the affidavit stated.

Advertisement

Adams made his first court appearance Friday. A judge set his bond at $100,000, according to online court records. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for February 26, 2026.



Source link

Continue Reading

Trending