CHICKASHA – Energy production dominated the City Council’s latest meeting, highlighted by an emotional appeal from the owner of a drive-in theater worried about the potential impact of a drilling rig near her property.
“Not all economic development is compatible with all locations,” said Barbara Egbert, co-owner with her husband Greg of the Chief Drive-In Theater south of Chickasha off US-81, in Ninnekah. The Egberts and the drilling company were at an impasse as of last Friday.
Camino Natural Resources based in Denver, Colorado, received a permit from the Oklahoma Corporation Commission to drill an oil well inside the Chickasha city limits. The drilling site is “just west of” the drive-in, perhaps 500 feet or less from the theater’s back row, Egbert said.
The Chief is one of only seven drive-in theaters in Oklahoma and is the oldest one in the state: “since 1949,” Egbert said. The couple have owned the theater for 19 years, since August 2006, she confirmed to Southwest Ledger on Aug. 20.
“We own 12 acres,” part of which is in Chickasha and the remainder is in Ninnekah, she said.
In a tearful appeal to the council on Aug. 18, Mrs. Egbert said “light pollution” and noise from the drilling rig would be “disruptive” and would “make it difficult for our customers to enjoy the movie.”
That rig will “light up the Chief Drive-In like a football game,” Councilman John Smith said.
Between Aug. 1, 2024, and July 31, 2025, the Chief Drive-In Theater logged 15,500 moviegoers – primarily from Chickasha, Duncan, Lawton, Blanchard, Marlow, Anadarko, Tuttle, Rush Springs and Elgin – according to Jim Cowan, director of the Chickasha Economic Development Council.
The theater has also attracted a few celebrities, Egbert told the Ledger. “We’ve had people from the Street Outlaws” auto racing show, for instance.
The Chief shows popular movies: for example the tornado disaster film “Twisters” filmed in various Oklahoma locations, including Chickasha, was shown at the Chief in July 2024 shortly after the film’s release. “We’ve also carried OU football games and OKC Thunder basketball games live on our screen, although we can’t charge admission, Egbert said. “It’s like a big-screen TV.”
After the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in Oklahoma in 2020, the Chief opened five nights a week, she said. “People were tired of being stuck in their house or apartment and wanted to get out once in a while.” The Chief has since cut back to four days a week, Thursday through Sunday, and soon she will drop to three days a week, she said. The Chief has 250 parking spaces but, “We had only three cars last Sunday.”
Typically the Chief Drive-In Theater is open year-round, Egbert said. “We’re the only one in Oklahoma that does.” People “like to snuggle when it gets colder.” Besides, “I gotta pay the bills” – which included recent electric bills of $700 for the Egberts’ home and $1,200 for their theater.
Egbert asked the City Council to persuade Camino to “consider another drilling site.”
“I’m in oil and gas,” said Councilman Charlie Burruss, whose profession is oil and gas mineral management. “It has fed my family for years.” And he acknowledged that property owners receive royalty checks from oil and gas production.
Nevertheless, he said, “We have friends and neighbors who live in the country and have to live near oil and gas operations.” If a drilling rig is within 300 feet of your house, “you will see and hear and sometimes smell and taste it.”
The city council needs to “slow down before we approve this,” Burruss said.
The drilling site is in the northeast sector of a section bounded by Pikes Peak Road on the north, Quail Road (County Road 1400) on the south, County Road 283 on the west, and South Fourth Street on the east.
Russell Eustace of Dynamic Land Services, Camino Resources’ representative on the Chickasha drilling project, said two wells are to be drilled at the site and are scheduled to be spudded in October. A bulldozer began dirt work at the site last Thursday, Egbert said.
Drilling on the wells will continue for four months, Eustace said: October through January. Water for the operation will be drawn from a pond; Brannan Bordwine is the surface owner for access to the pond, records show.
Camino “doesn’t want to be the company that runs one of the last drive-in theaters in Oklahoma out of business,” Eustace told the council. “We’re trying to be a good neighbor. We could build sound walls around the edge of the pad, but the budget is limited.” The drilling pad will encompass 4.65 acres, records reflect.
Camino is “the steward producing the minerals” for royalty owners who will be affected by the oil production from the well, Eustace said, adding that 246 Chickasha addresses “are on our report” to receive payments from the drilling operation. Eustace was asked whether the project could be put on hold for a week or two while he negotiated with the Egberts to resolve their problems with the drilling operation.
“We could be back here the week after next, and more people would be bringing up new complaints,” Eustace replied. “In two weeks it would be harder to come to a conclusion.”
The council was also told that “it’s costing Camino thousands of dollars for that rig to sit idle.”
‘At least we still have more than a month to try to sell it all’ Councilman Clark Southard, an economic development specialist, noted that Oklahoma’s three principal “income producers” are aerospace, agriculture and oil/gas exploration and production. But if the Chief theater “shuts down, we lose money” because it attracts thousands of people to Chickasha, he said.
Camino has met “all ordinance requirements” for receiving a drilling permit from City Hall, Community Development Director Rachel Bernish said. The city’s permit is simply “to ensure they are in compliance with our ordinances and with Corporation Commission rules and regulations,” she explained.
Camino “has been a good community partner” to the City of Chickasha, Mayor Zach Grayson told Eustace. “We don’t have the legal precedent to deny” the company’s permit application, Grayson conceded, but he subtly urged Eustace to negotiate an equitable solution with the Egberts.
While the Egberts and Eustace huddled in the city manager’s office, the city council held a public auction of oil and gas mining leases on 12 tracts of cityowned land. Camino Natural Resources and Heritage Holdings LLC of Chickasha dueled for the tracts.
However, after a 40-minute closed-door executive session – during which the council discussed a lawsuit and the resignation of Finance Director Elaine Jensen on Aug. 15, as well as the oil/gas leases – the councilors rejected all of the bids on an 8-0 vote. Burruss was absent from the room at the time.
Afterward, Eustace announced that he and the Egberts “came up with a number” on the sound wall “and with general terms about a nuisance agreement.”
However, the Egberts and Camino were at an impasse as of last Friday.
“We make our money from the concessions,” Barbara Egbert said. “I ordered our films for November and December and have already ordered products for those two months, so we have all of that candy and food.” If the Chief has to close, “At least we still have more than a month to try to sell it all.”