I wanted a place for my kids to grow up.And Frederick was one of those places. It has everything you need, a great school system, and a safe community. You know your neighbors, and everybody is passionate about the community.” THE SHIFTS OF TIME City Manager, Kyle Davis has seen the city go through decades of change, as the population decreased, from 7,500 in the 1970s, to the 5,000s in the 1980s, to 3,600 residents today.“We’re mostly agriculturally based in our part of the country, and as farm machinery grew and got bigger and bigger, a lack of labor was needed to farm sections of land,” Davis reports. “Of course, as the population declines, you don’t need the buildings or the stores like you did before.” But Frederick is a community on the rise again. “On the bright side, we are in a unique opportunity that probably hasn’t come along in 40 years,” Davis says, referring to a new hospital currently under development in the city. “It’s going to be the first hospital built anywhere in the United States in the last 50 years that has recently closed and then reopened with a population less than 10,000 people. It was all paid for by grants from the federal government, and the state, to make this $25 million hospital happen.” BUILDING FOR GROWTH Frederick is also experiencing a new wave of housing activity. “We’ve had a lot of people move from out of state into our community because they love the down home feeling, they love the security, they love the cost of living in Frederick, which is minimal,” Davis explains. Three developers are working with the city to bring in about 15 new houses within the next year, a scale of development not seen in decades. At the same time, local investors have purchased two apartment complexes in need of major upgrades and revitalization. Along with these efforts, the city is working to rebrand itself, rethinking its appeal to new residents. “Until things started to happen, there really wasn’t a need for somebody to invest in housing, but now there is,” asserts Davis. INDUSTRY, INFRASTRUCTURE AND OPPORTUNITY For a city of its size, Frederick has a strong industrial base, with major expansion underway at its industrial park. A recent $2 million grant is going towards infrastructure upgrades to prepare for future growth. “We have a regional airport out there. That’s where 215 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 06, ISSUE 09 FREDERICK, OK
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTI5MjAx