Oklahoma voters are a funny bunch of people. Consider the following.
Oklahoma is the only state in the nation where the Obama-Biden ticket did not carry a single county. We were the reddest of the red states in 2008. These same voters who overwhelmingly supported the McCain-Palin ticket also returned Republican Jim Inhofe to the United States Senate, and all five Congressional incumbents – four Republicans and one Democrat.
The first major piece of legislation passed by the new Congress and signed by President Obama was the stimulus package – the Recovery Act. All our Republicans in DC voted against it, only Democratic Congressman Dan Boren voted for it. Ironically, Oklahoma ranks third in the nation in the percentage of stimulus funds on projects put out to bid, under contract or have already begun.
$87,000 of those stimulus dollars are coming to my local community – Minco, Oklahoma – in the form of a grant from the USDA Rural Development’s Rural Business Enterprise Program. This grant money, which does not have to be paid back to the “big, bad, scary Federal Government,” is supposed to help finance new businesses and help create jobs in our little city of about 1,700 people.
The money has been awarded to the Minco Community Foundation, Inc. which in turn is supposed to loan the money out to help grow our economy, and then as the money is repaid to the Foundation, it shall be used again and again to help other businesses create jobs. Sounds like a pretty good deal to me. Thanks President Obama and Congressman Boren. I say shame on Senators Inhofe and Tom Coburn, and Representatives John Sullivan, Frank Lucas, Tom Cole and Mary Fallin for voting against this.
I had never heard of the Minco Community Foundation, Inc. until Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack announced the Foundation as one of the 145 recipients selected to receive these grants. So I looked them up.
As an incorporated Not-For-Profit, the Foundation must be registered with the Oklahoma Secretary of State. The original date of filing with the Secretary of State is dated October 6, 2006. An amended Certificate of Incorporation was filed September 20, 2007. The records state as the Entity Address: [ADDRESS NOT PROVIDED]. The registered agent is Lu A. Kindblade of Ponca City. The three “Principals” listed as “Incorporators” are Lu Kindblade, John Hacker of Minco, and Deana Walje of Minco. According to the Oklahoma Election Board, all three are registered Republicans.
Searching three separate websites that keep information about non-profit foundations, I found that Minco Community Foundation, Inc is listed at 3406 SW Clayton Road in Minco, which also is listed as Deana Walje’s home address with the Election Board, the Grady County Treasurer’s office and the Secretary of State. Public records show that the gross receipts for Minco Community Foundation, Inc. prior to the $87,000 grant announced by the Obama Administration, was a grand total of $0.
The Chickasha Express-Star wrote on August 6, 2009, “Deana Walje likes the success rate for the Minco Community Foundation. You can’t beat one-for-one on an $87,000 grant.”
Deana Walje also happens to be the Secretary of the Minco Chamber of Commerce and owner of Blossom Time Shops, which according to MANTA – a website that keeps information on small businesses, also does business as, The Minco Community Foundation.
In the August 6th article, the Express-Star quoted Walje, “This is our first grant, the first thing we put in for. This is to help our town, to help business people in town and to help our community grow.”
The newspaper also quotes Walje’s brother, Minco Mayor Keith McMullen who serves as the Foundation’s vice president (also a registered Republican). He told the newspaper, “Those seeking loans will go through an application process like a bank and the board will approve the loans.”
It will be interesting to see who the Minco Community Foundation, Inc. selects as its first recipients of loans to start new businesses in Minco. I’ll be sure and keep you updated.
Come to think of it, Oklahoma voters really aren’t all that funny, they’re hypocrites. They whine and moan about our big Federal Government and all those “socialist” Democrats in charge, they vote for politicians who oppose programs that help our communities, yet they jump at the chance to take advantage of programs sponsored by those same Democrats and gladly accept the resources they provide.
