OKLAHOMA WRECKER OWNERS ASSOCIATION
300 SW 29TH
OKLAHOMA CITY, OK 73109-6793
(405) 319-1724
MAY, 2003
ON-LINE NON-MEMBER NEWSLETTER
DEAR FELLOW WRECKER OWNERS:
Our meeting for May will be our Towing and Recovery School. I am writing this before the event takes place and you will receive it while the school is happening or at least when it’s over. Dewey Farrington has out done the school last August. There are 99 wrecker owners scheduled to attend the heavy duty towing and recovery school. In addition to the 99 wrecker owners there will be at least 6 OCFD attendees, 1 DOT Official, 4 DPS employees (including Gene, S.T. and Ed) and several OHP Troop Commanders.
We have 24 wrecker owners from Texas attending and 2 from Oxnard California. This will be a chance for wrecker owners from all over to meet and share ideas and techniques. This school has snow-balled and taken on a life of its own. The down side is we had to turn down several wrecker owners since the class was so full. Again, there will be door prizes for everyone and the meals both days will be included. Door prizes ( I will put a list of the donators in next months newsletter) include, but not limited to many local restaurants, oil/lubricant companies, wrecker & equipment suppliers, truck washes, cables and on and on.
Dewey has acquired, borrowed, manipulated and whatever to get big “things” (trucks, trailers, tankers and etc) to turn on their sides so they can be set up again. The tractor-trailer will be loaded this year and it won’t be set down on blocks. The recovery will start from the very beginning, flat on the ground, just like real life. The propane truck and the tanker will be filled with water, just to make sure of the weight factor. There will be wreckers galore to help in this process. We will break into at least 2 groups for the recoveries.
This may well be the best school put on in the USA for a long time. I know Dewey would never brag, but he has made this the best school ever. We not only have a great facility at the Oklahoma City Police & Fire Training Center, but we have great demos and a great instructor. I hope you get the chance to attend one of these classes. I am sure this won’t be the last school and if the past is any indicator, the classes will only get better. If members would like to have a light duty only class, please let us know. There are so many things to learn and new ideas and techniques are being developed.
We also will administer the TRAA Certification test for Level One and Level Two after Saturday’s class. So far we have 21 taking Level One and 8 taking Level Two. This is quite an undertaking and it will help our industry in Oklahoma and Texas, not to mention Oxnard California. If you would like to set up a TRAA Certification Exam in your area, call the OWOA number (or email me) or the TRAA and we can help you set it up.
OKC Wrecker Ordinance Changes
One of the reasons I have been so busy and stressed out is that the Oklahoma City Planning Commission (or the planning department for OKC) decided to make a few changes for all wrecker services and salvage pools. They decided that facilities that store wrecked vehicles or sell wrecked vehicles needed more rules. They said this didn’t include salvage yards, but every salvage yard I know of has sold a wrecked vehicle at least once. The requirements would devastate any wrecker service or storage lot and put them out of business.
The city wanted every lot to be paved (6 inches of concrete or asphalt), have a 10 foot “buffer between the lot and all public streets with trees planted every 20 feet, sight proof fencing (which will probably still be required), and no residential areas within 300 feet. Out of the 47 wrecker services (according to records provided by the DPS) there were only 1 or 2 that could comply. The bad part is there was basically no grandfather clause. Wrecker owners would be given 1 year to comply or go out of business. Isn’t that ridiculous?
Only 4 or 5 wrecker owners received notice of the Planning Commission meeting less than 1 week before the meeting to approve the new ordinance (do you suppose this was planned?). Thank goodness we had access to a list of wrecker owners in OKC and were able to notify all 47 that stored vehicles. We even had wrecker owners that were a “G” license only (no storage) that showed up to show support for all of the wrecker owners affected by this ridiculous change in OKC Law. There were probably 40 to 45 wrecker owners showed up for the Planning Commission meeting and almost every one filled out a request to speak, which meant standing at the podium and speaking on cable TV. The purpose was to show how many people this would affect. The Planning Department of OKC wanted only 3 or 4 wrecker owners to speak. We felt the more people that stood in front of the TV camera the better it would be for us. That way we would not only show support for each other, but also that we were united. The first speaker was an attorney and he requested a 30 day continuance, which was granted.
The following Thursday we had a surprise un-announced meeting of the Urban Development Committee to discuss the proposed ordinance changes. There was less than 3 wrecker owners notified (and possibly only one) of the meeting. Again, we were given less than one week notice. Fortunately we again had a list of owners and we showed up with around 35 to 40 wrecker owners in a smaller room with no TV. We even had a former Oklahoma County Judge that was there and spoke for our side. The chairman of the committee wanted a few wrecker owners to meet with Bob Tener (OKC employee and part of the Planning Department bureaucracy) to try to come up with language that is satisfactory to wrecker owners. We should have a meeting May 1st or 2nd. I wanted to have a meeting April 25th, but was told Bob Tener needed to “talk to others” before he had a large meeting with us. Bob wouldn’t have anything to discuss until he talked to “others”. I wondered who “others” was.
It appears that an OKC Councilperson is upset with a few wrecker owners and has decided to take it out on many. We believe we will be able to get the standards reduced to a livable set of laws. If not, does anyone need to hire a former wrecker owner and association president?
We aren’t out of the woods yet, but we believe we have enough data and support to make this a reasonable set of ordinance changes. We will meet this coming week to see what transpires. Worse case scenario, we may ask many wrecker owners to come to our support and aid and show solidarity for our industry. This is the advantage of having an organization that can be ready to come to the aid of other owners in a time of crisis. That’s why we need an association, kind of like the military reserves.
Next Meeting – June 10th
Our next meeting will be June 10th. We can hold it almost anywhere. If you would like to host a meeting, please contact me as soon as possible. I will need to have a place set up by May 20th so I can send the next newsletter. If no one calls, we may have a meeting in OKC and try to have some one from the Corporation Commission speak (and explain the rules as they see them on transporting things other than vehicles) or perhaps from OTC/Motor Vehicle. If you would like to have a meeting in your town, please call or email me. We can always have a meeting in OKC and invite these government agencies almost anytime.
NO MEETING IN MAY
NEXT MEETING – JUNE 10TH
LOCATION TO BE ANNOUNCED