For immediate release: 4/6/07

Stakeholder Working Groups to meet in May ...
SMP Public Input Meetings Achieve Their Goal

Vinita — Public meetings, for the purpose of gathering input on the development of a Grand Lake shoreline management plan (SMP), achieved their goal in February and March. Facilitated by the Grand River Dam Authority, meetings held in the Grand Lake area as well as Tulsa and Oklahoma City, provided the public an opportunity to comment on the latest draft of the plan, as drafted by the SMP stakeholder working groups.

“As we said at the beginning of this process, there are many stakeholders out there with an interest in the lake,” said GRDA Chief Executive Officer Kevin Easley, “and the goal has been to insure they are all represented in this comprehensive plan. These meetings were a large part of achieving that goal.”

Over the course of the SMP process, GRDA has also made efforts to increase communications with lake area stakeholders. Lori Starks, a longtime employee in the GRDA data processing department, transferred to GRDA Community Relations to help coordinate special projects, like SMP communications, and manage the stakeholder database.

“Communicating the SMP process has been a priority for us,” said GRDA Community Relations Director Holly Moore. “Through the newsletters we’ve produced, information on our web page and other avenues, we’ve tried to encourage stakeholder involvement throughout. Having Lori Starks move over to our department to help ramp up efforts has also been beneficial.”

Many of the 600-plus people who attended the five public input meetings took advantage of the opportunity to address the audience. Their comments have been transcribed and added to the collection of other public input provided to GRDA by letter or email, from other citizens with an interest in the SMP.

When the stakeholder working groups meet in May to develop the final draft of the SMP, those comments will be integral to their efforts.

Once the working groups finalize the SMP draft, it must be approved by the GRDA Board of Directors before it is submitted to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for final approval.

For more information on the SMP, visit the Shoreline Management Plan link on www.grda.com. The site contains SMP terms, timelines, minutes from previous working group meetings and other information on the process.