Oakland Leaders Report Future Is Bright
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A large crowd gathered in Oakland Thursday afternoon for the ribbon cutting for Tri Lake Eye Clinic. Mayor Riley Swearengen cut the ribbon and welcomed Dr. Steve Edwards and his sons, Dr. Taylor Edwards and Dr. Hunter Edwards to the community. The eye clinic is located at 14101 Hickory Street, sharing space inside the hospital-owned Oakland Medical Clinic.
OAKLAND – City leaders, residents and elected officials celebrated the grand opening of Tri Lake Eye Clinic in Oakland last Thursday, marking the third clinic location for Dr. Steve Edwards and sons Dr. Hunter Edwards and Dr. Taylor Edwards. The eye clinic is located in the Oakland Medical Clinic owned by Yalobusha Health Services.
“We are so glad to be here for a ribbon cutting and bringing the eye doctors to our community, this is another milestone for the Town of Oakland,” Oakland Mayor Riley Swearengen shared before cutting the ribbon with a oversized pair of scissors purchased for the big day. “I remember a few years ago when there wasn’t even a building here.”
Lifelong Oakland resident Margaret Ross attended the ceremony and shared that it was the first ribbon cutting that she could remember in recent history. She lives near the medical clinic and readily recalled when it first opened back in 2013.
“It was like a miracle, it was so good for the community,” she shared about the clinic that provides easy access for medical care for people in Oakland and surrounding areas. “And some days this parking lot is full, I mean really full,” she added as the crowd gathered in the lobby minutes before the ribbon cutting.
Ross and Swearengen also shared enthusiasm for another building block for their community from a week before the ribbon cutting. Ross explained that voters in Oakland made history with the first unanimous vote in the state for the adoption of a municipal tourism tax. Eighty-seven voters in the Town of Oakland cast a ballot in favor of adopting a two percent tourism tax that will be levied on prepared food and drinks sold at restaurants and convenience stores in the municipal limits. With almost 30 percent turnout in Oakland, not a single person cast a nay ballot in the May 24 election.
“It was a unanimous vote and that says a lot. The town board promoted it, and we all fell in. I was very pleased, but I really wasn’t shocked,” Ross reported. She attributed the strong vote to unity in the community, people working together.
Swearengen said that one of the first items on the punch list from revenue generated by the new tax will be a splash pad for children in the community.
“We will have to see how much tourism tax that we will collect, but the community wants a splash pad,” the mayor added.
State Representative Tommy Reynolds also spoke at the ceremony and was equally optimistic about future of Oakland. He cited Ajinomoto Foods as an early turning point for Oakland, a plant that has grown to become one of the county’s largest employers.
“People wrote Oakland off, and that was the wrong thing to do,” Reynolds explained. “If they had (written it off), there would not be those 500 jobs up the road. They wouldn’t have the $30 million railroad that comes through town. Look at the past, there was no plant and we almost lost the railroad,” Reynolds added. “To think that the railroad was owned by the world’s largest scrapper, with the world’s largest scrap yard in Utah.”
Oakland is the only municipality located in the county that has rail access, and Reynolds’ comments about the line referenced a fight more than a decade earlier. In 2011 a former owner, a railroad salvage company, filed a petition to abandon the southern portion of the Grenada Railway that stretches from Grenada to Canton, and community leaders along the entire line from Canton to Memphis feared for the future of the short line railroad. Reynolds was among state lawmakers who helped push a $30 million bond through to allow the railroad to be purchased from the former operator in 2015 as part of a successful last-ditch effort to save the railroad. Since then the railroad was purchased by another owner, International Rail Partners, and millions of dollars have been invested to upgrade the line.
Ross can attest to the work on the rail line, sharing that earlier in the day a northbound train passed with at least 100 cars loaded with lumber. The train had been running at night as upgrades to the tracks have been underway for a lengthy period.
“I have seen one other train that long, I counted 100 cars another time,” Ross added. “There is no end to what we can do over here. My dream is to have some type of technical school,” Ross adds. She cites the long-empty Oakland school building on Hwy. 51 as a possible location.
“In a small town, anything that happens that seems to be good for the community, the people just come out and work for it,” the mayor added.
Margaret Ross (left) recounts recent activity that speaks strongly for the future of Oakland with Mayor Riley Swearengen and State Representative Tommy Reynolds.
