Ted Lockin may be giving up his seat on the Bartlesville City Council when his term ends next month, but the long-time councilor and former mayor says he won’t stop working for Bartlesville.
“I don’t intend to stop,” Lockin says, noting that he’s “filling out applications now” to continue serving on the City of Bartlesville’s long-range water committee and parks board after the new term begins on Dec. 5.
“It’s a real downer for me to get off the council,” Lockin says. “Every time we talk about something I’m excited about the future of Bartlesville. I will do everything I can do outside the council to help.”
Lockin, who has represented Ward 1 for the better part of two decades, announced months ago that he would not seek re-election this year. With ward boundaries changing following a vote of the City Council earlier this year, Dale Copeland, who was unopposed in the Nov. 8 election, will represent the ward into the new term.
Born in Cherokee, Iowa, Lockin was raised in Clarinda, Iowa, where he met his wife of 65 years, Maxine (Dillon) Lockin. The two started “going together” in high school and have been together since.
“I was one of those athletes who thought I knew everything, and I was just kind of enthralled by her,” he says. “We started dating, and it’s lasted.”
Lockin graduated high school in 1949 and started college in Clarinda, Iowa, where he was a proud member of the school’s basketball team. But the team encountered an unexpected twist in the middle of Lockin’s sophomore year.
“The Korean War broke out in December 1950,” he says. “We knew we’d be drafted — 18, 19, 20 year olds — so we, en masse, enlisted in the service. Nine (of us) went into the Air Force, three of us went in the Navy. That ended the basketball season.”
After his stint in the U.S. Navy, Lockin returned to Clarinda to finish his college career, with Maxine and two children, Steve and Doug, in tow. But the school did not offer married housing, so the young family moved to Maryville, Mo., where Lockin attended Northwest Missouri State College.
He was hired by Phillips Petroleum Co. in 1957 and started in Des Moines, Iowa, as a management trainee in the mailroom.
“One of the very first things I did — postage in those days was 3 cents a stamp, and I quickly put 30 cents on about a thousand letters. I thought I’d be fired, the first week I was there,” he says.
Instead, he moved up within the company, relocating in Kansas City in 1960 and working in credit cards. By then, the family had grown to include daughters Ann Marie, who was born in Des Moines, and Linda Sue, who was born in Kansas City. He eventually wound up in Bartlesville, in 1970. He admits that at first, he missed “the big city.” But he grew to love Bartlesville in no time, he says.
“The city just grew on me,” he says, “There were things happening that I thought I could contribute to and help here and there.”
The idea to run for City Council came in 1997, spurred on by a neighbor, John Perkins. At Perkins’ and Maxine’s urging, Lockin started knocking on doors.
“I don’t think I missed a house in my ward,” he says.
Lockin was elected mayor by his fellow council members in 2000 — not long before the city would face two of its most significant challenges.
“We were doing pretty well, then we got a shocking announcement: that the CEO of Phillips Petroleum Co., Mr. (Jim) Mulva decided we should move headquarters to Houston,” he says. “What a downer that was for Bartlesville. The reality (of it) wasn’t so bad — it was the fear.”
Then came the drought in 2002.
“The combination of Phillips moving and the drought was a real indoctrination, being mayor of Bartlesville,” he says.
In his many years on the council, Lockin points to the long-range water committee as well as the Mayor’s Committee on the Handicapped and the creation of CityRide, the City’s public transportation system, as some of his most rewarding accomplishments.
“I have a very personal interest in (CityRide) because I have a disabled son that depended on CityRide after it started, for dialysis. I can’t say enough about CityRide. It’s grown and I hope it continues forever,” he says.
Long-range water initiatives in which Lockin participated continue to advance, with Oklahoma legislators now working to reduce pricing at “non-hydro” lakes, including Copan Lake, which studies show is the best option for Bartlesville long-term water supply.
“My vision has never changed, that we have a pipe at Copan feeding our water plant,” Lockin says. “We look at the politics of Washington, and things move so slowly … but we’re getting closer.”
Lockin also points to “water re-use” as an affordable option for securing water into the future.
“Water re-use is something the citizens probably aren’t even aware of,” he says. “I think I can boil it down to one thing: the technology today … if we treat waste-water and put it in the Caney River, it’s probably cleaner water than what we’re pulling out of Hulah (Lake), and that should stick in people’s minds as the bottom line of why the money (for the program) should be spent.”
(More information will be available regarding the feasibility of implementing a water-reuse system once a study, currently underway by Tetra Tech FHC, is released in the spring of 2017.)
Looking toward the future, Lockin says he hopes the City Council will take measures to keep the cost of living in Bartlesville as low as possible, as well as continue the momentum gained thanks to many efforts in recent years to increase the city’s retail presence.
“One thing I think is so important for the council now is that we look at our cost of living,” Lockin says. “We have five or six major international oil and gas companies and private oil and gas producers … these families make up probably a third of our population. We must watch our cost of living, because they have choices where they locate their people.
“I’ve enjoyed every minute of working with citizens, staff and the council of Bartlesville. I think the citizens can look forward optimistically that this community is going to grow. Right now, as I understand it, the Bartlesville Development Authority is getting calls almost weekly: ‘What’s going on in Bartlesville?’ Things are happening in Bartlesville. Retail — just look at the Lowe’s area — to me it’s just a starting point of where we’re going. Retail, in itself, must have jobs. I think the two will work in synergy. We’ll have more jobs and retail, and we’ll be better for it.”
Lockin says that moving forward, he hopes the council will look at all areas of the city’s infrastructure.
“The citizens, I think, are on board with what the City’s doing now, and I think optimistically we have a council set up that they have put in place to make this happen,” he says. “With (City Manager) Ed Gordon and his staff’s direction, working with them, we’re going to have a bright future for Bartlesville.”