CHICKASHA –The Chickasha City Council made six appointments recently to two advisory boards and one public trust.
Newly elected Councilman Clark Southard, who was serving was as an at-large member of the Airport Advisory Board, was appointed to one of the two recently created City Council seats on the board. His term will expire June 30, 2027.
Southard retired from the U.S. Army after a 30-year career. He was an FAA commercial helicopter and airplane pilot and has 20 years of military aviation management experience.
Councilwoman Erica Alexander also was appointed to the Airport Advisory Board for a one-year term that expires in 2026. “I am interested in preserving, improving, and promoting our amazing airport,” she wrote in her application for a board membership.
Alexander fills a board position previously occupied by Homer Hulme Jr., a former U.S. Air Force pilot who served on the Airport Advisory Board for six decades. However, “He hasn’t been at a meeting for a year,” Mayor Zach Grayson said.
Hulme, a former Chickasha mayor who no longer lives in the city, “furnished the conference room at City Hall, lighting for the city library, and furniture at the municipal animal shelter,” Councilman John Smith said.
Other members of the Airport Advisory Board are Scott Taylor, Mitchell Williams, Luke Williamson, Greg Jacobi, and Ronny Hightower.
Councilwoman Georgianne Hebblethwaite was named to the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board; her term expires June 30, 2028. She succeeds former Councilman Kelly Boyd.
Newly elected Councilor Kim Irving was appointed to the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board to replace former Councilman Brian Gerdes.
In turn, Gerdes was appointed to the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board to fill the seat formerly held by Jim Gleckler.
Other members of the board are Parker Denton, Jeanne Mather, George Hector, and Whitney Molder.
Longtime Chickasha resident Kimberly “Kimmy” Loggins was appointed to a new term on the Chickasha Industrial Authority; she replaces Daniel Terry, who resigned. “He’s busy and needs to focus on his business,” the mayor said.
Loggins, who attended Chickasha’s University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma, served on the CIA in 2016-21, “during my time as a City Council member and as vice mayor,” she wrote. She is the quality and compliance manager at HSI Sensing, where she has been employed for nearly 38 years.
According to its trust indenture, the CIA has multiple purposes that include “to promote the development of industry within and without the territorial limits” of the municipality “and to provide additional employment which will benefit and strength the economy” of Chickasha and Oklahoma.
Another purpose is to “lease, rent, furnish or provide such property, buildings, improvements and facilities for use by industrial and manufacturing firms, businesses, or concerns upon such as terms as the Trustees may deem suitable…”