Photo By Stacey Reese | David Yarbrough, port director for Port of Catoosa on the MKARNS near Tulsa Oklahoma...... read more read more
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Brigadier Gen. Christopher Beck, Southwestern Division Commander and Division Engineer U.S. Army Corps of Engineers visited areas within Tulsa District August 18th and 19th. As commander, Beck oversees Tulsa District, along with Fort Worth, Galveston and Little Rock Districts whose missions include navigation, recreation, flood management and military design and construction.
During the tour of Tulsa District, Beck held a virtual town hall meeting, toured the Tulsa/West Tulsa Levee and visited lake and hydropower projects and ports along the Arkansas River. While here he spoke with stakeholders regarding impacts of 2019 flooding. This marked Beck’s first visit to a district since he took command of SWD in June.
Beck recognized Tulsa District personnel who recently graduated from the ranger and power plant trainee programs during the town hall. “Graduates of these programs should be proud of the commitments they have made to themselves and to the district, they are great assets to our team” said Beck.
Tulsa District missions span civil works, military construction and environmental protection. The two day tour touched on a few mission areas, giving the general an overview of the vast expanse of knowledge held by the district subject matter experts.
Hydropower plant visits to Keystone and Webbers Falls demonstrated the similarities and differences between the two projects. Each one has a mission to provide hydropower, but the inner working of each plant is very different presenting the need for diverse maintenance and upkeep of the plants.
A large part of the visit was spent learning about navigation and flood risk management and the impacts of flooding in 2019 on those two missions with visits to the Tulsa Levee and ports along the Arkansas River.
“Tulsa District leadership does have discussions with us” said Fred Taylor, Port 33 terminal manager. “There isn’t anything held back.”
Taylor indicated the working relationship is a team approach between the Corps and companies whose livelihoods depend on the river. He added that getting things back up and running along the river is needed not only for the company but the people employed by the companies.
“We have to make tough decisions everyday” said Beck. “Having a good working relationship with stakeholders means we are able to make more informed decisions when we have to make them.”
| Date Taken: | 08.19.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 08.26.2020 22:34 |
| Story ID: | 376876 |
| Location: | TULSA, OK, US |
| Web Views: | 32 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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