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The President of the Bartlesville Development Authority, David Wood, along with his board members, have been looking for a way to make Bartlesville a more attractive place to live and work. This is a result of data found in 2013 in which over a ten year period, there had been a ten percent increase in jobs, but only a two percent increase in population.

A study conducted by the BDA showed that younger workers in particular were choosing to live in Owasso or Tulsa because Bartlesville lacked national brand name retail, featured restaurants and had a lack of nightlife. This resulted in the K-Mart renovation project, the Silver Lake Village and many other additions to the City. Wood says that as things stand right now though, even with the job growth, there is an acute housing shortage in the City and something must be done to fix that.

This is why Wood is proposing a pilot program offering incentives for the 25 ConocoPhillips employees relocating to Bartlesville. These incentives would come out of the economic development fund.

Wood says he would enjoy seeing other workplaces getting this opportunity and he goes on to lay out some of the guidelines that he and the board recommend.

Mayor Dale Copeland spoke highly of the concept that the BDA has came up with.

The council voted unanimously to approve the pilot program.