South Tulsa councilor has nearly $1M to spend. Here’s where it could be headed.

Every Tulsa City Council district had $1 million in its coffers for district improvements — and one councilor still has nearly that amount to spend. 

District 8 City Councilor Phil Lakin holds nearly $1 million. He wants that money spent on sidewalk additions and repairs — and his constituents in south Tulsa have some ideas, too. 

The money came as part of the Improve Our Tulsa initiative, a multi-year plan approved by voters in 2019 and designated for city improvement projects in all nine Tulsa council districts. Each district received $1 million to invest in parks, streets, public facilities improvements or  community-based projects. 

So far, Lakin has used $75,000 for road repairs in 2024. 

“In District 8, I requested, and the Council approved, a distribution of $75,000 to smooth out the incredibly frustrating humps on Memorial, between 81^st and 91st,” Lakin said in an emailed response. “I created the plan and Lori Decter Wright and I both used the same amounts from our district allocations, which was then matched by the City’s engineering services department to make the repairs.”

Wright also spent $500,000 on Mingo sidewalk improvements last December. She also used $75,000 for road repairs. District 2, represented by Anthony Archie, used all of its $1 million to fund several projects, including a Route 66 community center, the removal and replacement of StoneBrooke Estates bridge, the Route 66 Village and the Route 66 Bell Station. 

District 4 City Councilor Laura Bellis spent $550,000 on the remodeling of Dream Keepers Park and street improvements in Kendall Whittier. Bellis told the Flyer she’d want the remaining funds in her district to go toward a grocery store in west Tulsa. 

How should Lakin allocate the $925,000 remaining to improve his district?

David Harder, a former president of the Sheridan Hills South Homeowner Association, offered an idea: an interchange street between 101st Street, Sheridan Road and Memorial Drive. Harder described the area as a “backlog” that is “hard to get in and out” of. Other residents echoed the idea on the district’s Facebook page.

Harder also favors making some of the roads in the district bigger. 

“There are plans to widen the roads in the next decade,” he told the Flyer. “But I really wish they could speed that up.”

He pinpointed 101st Street between Sheridan and Memorial as one stretch in particular in need of wider roads. 

“We have so much traffic, so much commercial traffic that goes through there — that 101st is beginning to be a problem,” he said.

Richard Wollmershauser, the current president of the Sheridan Hills South Homeowner Association, says he has seen only incremental improvements in the 40 years he has lived in south Tulsa and believes far more work is needed.

“I have watched the whole road system as it sits with very little improvement,” Wollmershauser said in an interview. “We are way behind, but that is millions and millions of dollars to fix that. In the short term, the only other thing I can really think of is, possibly, sidewalks.”

Lakin agrees that at least part of the funds should go to address south Tulsa’s long-standing sidewalk accessibility issues.

“We have a pretty substantial sidewalk deficit in south Tulsa, which I’ve been working to correct during my time as a councilor,” he told the Flyer. “About 22 miles of sidewalks have been added during my tenure.  
“If I can use part of the remaining (Improve Our Tulsa 2) allocation, combined with the sidewalk district money, I might be able to have a sidewalk constructed or connected that touches more people, allowing them to walk/bike from their neighborhood to other neighborhoods, schools and businesses,” he said.

Lakin says he intends to use District 8 funds and to seek further city, state or federal aid. He keeps up with constituents through regular social media engagement, which he says informs his decisions on district dollar investments. 

Lakin has not identified a timeline for when those funds will be spent.

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