How to Opt-Out of the EMSA “Fee”

If you aren’t interested in the extra $3.64 EMSA tax being tacked onto your water bill, opt-out! I contacted the City of Tulsa Utilities Services today to find out how. They are preparing forms that must be filled out and mailed back. However, the forms will not automatically be mailed to Tulsa citizens; you must ask for one first. To get a form, call (918) 596-9511 7:30 a.m. - 6 p.m., Monday through Friday. They will make a notation on your account, and mail you the form as soon as they are ready.

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EMSA
opt-out

TFD or EMSA?

I would have gotten more fired up about the $3.64 EMSA tax, approved last night by the Tulsa City Council, approved last night were it not optional. Isn’t it ironic that not more than 5 months after Tulsa renewed its contract with EMSA they now need $3.64 a month? And not only that, but if you will remember the Tulsa Fire Department wanted to pick up that contract. TPD said that they could save Tulsa $11 million a year. Was this planed all along? The whole thing smells to me.

The irony continues because as I was standing outside at work, looking at the Tulsa World Headline and talking about this with a co-worker, someone else at work needed emergency medical service. Who got there first? That’s right the TFD. I could not resist the above shot of the fire truck pulling up with the Tulsa World Headline in the foreground.

As for the $3.64 tax, I plan to opt out of the service. I live no more than 1 mile from the fire department. If I need help I’m sure they will get there first anyway.

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Tulsa City Council
EMSA
Tulsa World
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LIVE Telephone Town Hall with Congressman Sullivan

Congressman Sullivan has come up with a great way to keep in touch with his constituents, a live telephone, conference-call-style, town hall meeting. I think this is a great idea; however my only complaint would be with the chosen time. Wednesday night?

Congressman, some of your most loyal constituents will be at church on Wednesday. Why don’t you have this call on a different night? On the other hand, if they are really that loyal then perhaps it doesn't really matter when you have it; they will probably have your back regardless of their ability to participate.

For those of you who can't, won't or don't attend church on Wednesday nights, here are the details.

On Wednesday, March 28th at 7:00pm Tulsa time, I will be calling tens of thousands of households across the First District and inviting them to join me in a telephone town hall. Those of you who receive this call and choose to do so will be able to join the town hall live and will also be given the option of asking me questions.

Those of you who do not receive a call, but would still like to participate may do so by calling the following number at 7:00pm CST: 1-888-447-5149 PIN: 12803

This advanced technology is a win-win situation: I am able to communicate with my constituents, even though I am tending to my legislative duties in Washington and you are able to participate in a town hall style event without having to leave the comfort of your home. I hope you are able to join me for this exciting event.

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town hall

The Hummer is Better for the Environment than the Prius

I first heard about this from my wife and I thought to my self, “How could the Prius, a favorite amongst environmental Hollywood Superstars, be bad for the environment? Could the Hummer actually be better for the environment?”

Well, the answer to the second question is yes, and the reason lies in the answer for the first. The Reader’s Digest version is that construction of the Prius requires more total energy than the Hummer, but not only that it causes more environmental damage.

…the Prius is partly driven by a battery which contains nickel. The nickel is mined and smelted at a plant in Sudbury, Ontario. This plant has caused so much environmental damage to the surrounding environment that NASA has used the ‘dead zone’ around the plant to test moon rovers. The area around the plant is devoid of any life for miles.
The plant is the source of all the nickel found in a Prius’ battery and Toyota purchases 1,000 tons annually. Dubbed the Superstack, the plague-factory has spread sulfur dioxide across northern Ontario, becoming every environmentalist’s nightmare.

The nickel is then shipped to Europe where it is refined. Next stop china where it is further processed. From China the nickel travels to Japan where the batteries for the Prius are constructed. Finally the batteries are shipped back to North America where they are installed in the Prius. Wow… this doesn’t sound very environmentally friendly.

When you pool together all the combined energy it takes to drive and build a Toyota Prius, the flagship car of energy fanatics, it takes almost 50 percent more energy than a Hummer - the Prius’s arch nemesis.

It appears as if the Prius is a wolf in sheep’s clothing which confirms two things I’ve always known; 1. Appearances can be deceiving. 2. The Hollywood Elite do not have the answers to all life’s problems.

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Hummer
Environmentalism

Net Nanny

For a few months now I've been trying to find a good solution for web monitoring and filtering. I didn't want to pay for it so that knocked off a lot of solutions right of the bat. Being a do-it-yourself kinda guy, I experimented with a couple DIY solutions, but they either went very good or were easy to bypass. (They were also complicated and hard to set up)

It finally occurred to me that I should ask my network admin friend. He told me that the company he uses for his corporate solution, Blue Coat, has a free internet filter called K9. I've tried it out and I'm very impressed. It looks like it works not only well, but easily and seamlessly. As long as you don't chose a goofy, easy to guess password, you will be able to keep your kids away from all the crap on the internet. If you have kids at home check it out.

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K9 Web Protection
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parenting

Are You Ready?

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Standing Up For What's Right

I've long been interested in the three radio towers in East Tulsa. Today, I decided to get some closeup shots of these towers. Little did I realize that they were broadcasting 1170 AM. That is I assume that they are because of the main control building's sign that reports to be for 1170 KVOO.





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Questions, Comments...Email Me

You may or may not have noticed that my email address is listed on the right, under my handsome picture. I point this out because an anonymous poster has been trying to put comment on one of my recent posts. They tried several times but I rejected the comment each time it came through. Had the commenter not been anonymous or had the commenter emailed me to ask why I didn't post their comments I would have responded as to my reasoning.

If you have questions, off topic comments, or tips, feel free to email me at roemermanonrecord at gmail dot com. Otherwise feel free to make a comment on any post. However, I reserve the right to reject any comment for any reason.

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comments

Leaky Oil Well in East Tulsa

This crew was contracted by the Oklahoma Corporation Commission to repair an old leaky oil well here in East Tulsa. I spoke with the general contractor in charge of the operation and he told me that no one knew the well was even there until salt water started coming up out of the ground. According to the contractor, the well, located in a baseball field on 129th between 31st and 41st, was probably drilled, used, and capped during the 20s. Apparently it is not uncommon for this to happen. In fact the gentleman I spoke to has made his living repairing old wells for more than 30 years.

Luckily this well was in an open field and not underneath a house, which has happened before. I asked how this is repaired when a house is involved, and I was told that the house has to be split in two and, essentially moved off the site.

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Tulsa
East Tulsa
Oklahoma
Oklahoma Corporation Commission

New Camera

My old camera served me well, unfortunately I broke it (I dropped it on the tile floor). Using my misfortune as an opportunity to upgrade, I recently purchased the Nikon D40.

I'm happy to report that it rocks; the D40 way outperforms my Coolpix S4. The poor performance of old Coolpix in low light was one of my chief complaints, and I also wasn't thrilled with the shutter speed. No worries with the D40, it seems capable of accomplishing my requirements quite nicely in both of these areas.





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Nikon D40

Sales Tax Overview Appointment

I’m excited to announce, even if I’m not the first to announce it, that I’m officially on the Sales Tax Overview Committee. It is an honor to serve my fellow citizens by keeping an eye on our third penny sales tax dollars.

I have some exciting ideas on how to share information with you. I won’t say exactly what I’ll do, mostly because I’m not 100% sure how I’m going to pull it off, but I’ll give you a hint. Keep your eyes on this page for updates.

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Tulsa City Council
STOC

Surgery Residency in Tulsa: A Well-Kept Secret

The University of Oklahoma College Of Medicine has a surgery residency program here in Tulsa. According to their site it has been well-kept secret, but I think that should change.

The General Surgery residency program is fully accredited by the ACGME/RRC for Surgery. In December 2002, the Program was approved to increase from two to three categorical residents per year. We offer a superior clinical surgical experience and have 1700 teaching beds with no other surgery programs or fellowships to compete for cases.

The full-time faculty is increasing in number and provides an excellent, cutting-edge surgical education. A one to three year optional resident research fellowship is available and completely funded for laboratory or clinical research experience. The Department has active basic science laboratories with an NIH-funded faculty member. Half of our residents continue into fellowship training.

The University of Oklahoma College of Medicine, Tulsa is centered in midtown Tulsa at the Schusterman Campus. The Schusterman Campus consists of five major health-related schools: Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Public Health, Social Work, and Allied Health. The University of Oklahoma College of Medicine, Tulsa consists of seven departments: Geriatrics, Surgery, Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, Obstetrics/Gynecology, Family Medicine, and Psychiatry and six residency programs are distributed among three major Tulsa teaching hospitals: St. John Medical Center, Saint Francis Hospital, and Hillcrest Medical Center.

To learn more about the program click here, and to learn how to apply, click here.


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Oklahoma
surgery residency
OU College Of Medicine

Google Provides Traffic Conditions For Tulsa

Google has added a bunch of cities to Google Maps traffic, Tulsa included. Green means clear sailing, yellow, means slow, and red means stop and go. I assume the gray areas are places where Google does not have accurate data. Click here for the current traffic conditions in Tulsa.

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Google