CHICKASHA –The Economic Development Council voted unanimously to renew its Placer contract.
Placer’s “location analytics” tracks foot traffic via cellphones and is “an artificial intelligence software platform” that the EDC has been using since 2022, Director Jim Cowan said.
The cost is $13,892 per year and the EDC voted Oct. 14 to renew the contract for two years. The EDC pays half of the amount, and the other half is split between the Chickasha Chamber of Commerce and the Festival of Light.
“We use Placer to tell us how many people come here and where they come from,” Cowan said. “It validates a lot of what we do with data.”
During the first nine months of this year, Chickasha had 638,800 “unique” visitors, Placer data reflects. The top 10 states of origin of those visitors were Oklahoma, 75%; Texas, 11.4%; Kansas, 1.8%; Missouri, 1.4%; Arkansas, 1.2%; California and Illinois, 0.7% each; Florida, 0.6%; Colorado, 0.5%; and New Mexico, 0.4%.
Cowan also announced that the local Chamber of Commerce reached a milestone recently: 400 members.
The newest is ADG Blatt engineering and architectural company from Oklahoma City. “They have a contract with the City of Chickasha and will be doing some work in our airport industrial park,” Cowan said.