Stan Geiger

Ignoring the Shark

Ever seen the movie 'Jaws?' Richard Dreyfus, the scientist, sounds the alarm about an eating machine in the water. The town sticks its head in the sand and ignores Dreyfus---until the shark eats a little boy.

In Oklahoma, we have a very serious bridge problem that poses a clear and present danger to anyone driving in the state. Yet we are content to ignore the shark.

The local media seems to be doing its part to minimize the threat. I saw two TV news reports about the warnings of ODOT engineers the other day. One was on KOTV, the other was on OETA's Oklahoma News Report. Both left me shaking my head.

KOTV's story was fine---up to the end. After the body of the story aired, reporter Emory Bryan, in a live spot, added what came very close to being an editorial comment. He admonished viewers that any money that goes to bridges won't be available for education.

I've seen many a story touting more money for education. I've seen more than I can count. I don't recall ever seeing one end with a reporter's warning that any money going into education won't be available for bridge construction.

ONR anchor George Tomek smirked as he called ODOT's pleading for a larger appropriation "rhetoric." Strange, he doesn't smirk and call teachers' pleas for more and more taxpayer money "rhetoric."

I wonder if George will consider the warnings of engineers "rhetoric" when a chunk of concrete falls through his windshield one day and rips his freakin' head off.

The alarms going off about bridges aren't "rhetoric;" they aren't hype. This is a real problem, and it demands real attention.

I'm running on memory here, so I hope I have this right. In KOTV's story, a particular Tulsa bridge was cited: the I-244 bridge over the Arkansas River. Engineers say it is bad and needs replacing. That single project, the experts say, will cost $50 million.

I challenge any Tulsa citizen to take a drive to about 15th and Lewis Avenue, where the Broken Arrow Expressway crosses overhead, and take a good look at the bridges. You will see missing concrete, exposed re-bar and rusted-out steel.

Bad bridges are not a problem unique to Oklahoma, of course. Not long after the Minnesota collapse, I saw a very brief mention of the Oakland-San Francisco Bay Bridge on the national news. The report said engineers give that bridge a structural rating of, as I recall, 38. That's out of a possible 100. To make matters worse, that particular bridge sits in earthquake central. A little shaky-shaky and the whole thing could land in the bay---no doubt killing every unlucky soul that happened to be on it at the time.

I won't even venture a guess as to how long it would take to rebuild that bridge---or as to how much it would cost.

We can argue back and forth about taxation, how much a tax burden should be and on whom it should land. But I see one issue relative to public money about which there can be no argument: We have to stop pissing off what public money we have on nonsense and start directing it to necessary expenditures.

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