Local & Regional

Tulsa officials on Friday said the city and county are ready to follow the state into phase three of a reopening plan on Monday.

As of Friday, Tulsa County had 983 total confirmed cases of COVID-19, 158 active cases and 51 deaths. Tulsa Health Department Executive Director Doctor Bruce Dart said the county's case trend is almost flat and hospitalization rates are trending up but remain manageable.

Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum said he does not have the same concerns proceeding to phase three as he did going into phase one, however, because the main benchmark is hospital capacity.

The bodies of two young children recovered from waterways in northeastern Oklahoma this week are the two toddlers who went missing from an east Tulsa apartment complex May 22.

Tulsa Police Chief Wendell Franklin announced Friday the medical examiner's office had identified the bodies as 3-year-old Miracle and 2-year-old Tony Crook.

"It's saddening, but it's also, from our perspective, we are elated that we were able to bring closure, and this is closure. It's closure because we were able to actually locate those two and bring them home to their families

Friday's top stories:

• Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum and IC Bus announce a new, 20-year lease agreement.
• According to the Oklahoma State Department of Health, there are 708 known, active cases of COVID-19 in the state. Oklahoma has seen 6,270 confirmed cases so far.
• The State Board of Education approves a waiver so schools can count Saturday sessions next year toward instructional time requirements.

OU Medicine’s Stephenson Cancer Center has been picked to join two more networks of the National Cancer Institute.

One of those is the Experimental Therapeutics Clinical Trials Network, one where OU’s group of collaborators includes cancer centers at Yale, Vanderbilt, University of California San Diego and Columbia.

Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum and IC Bus have put their differences behind them for the next two decades.

Bynum, IC Bus and parent company Navistar announced Thursday a new, 20-year agreement for the bus maker to stay at its 1 million-square foot facility at Tulsa International Airport.

Bynum and IC Bus publicly sparred over their lease renewal earlier this month, with IC Bus claiming Bynum was threatening them with eviction and Bynum saying the company hadn’t met maintenance requirements under their previous, $1 lease.

The Oklahoma State Board of Education approved a waiver for the upcoming school year on Thursday that will let Saturday sessions count toward instructional time requirements.

Previously, individual districts had to apply for the waiver, a process that could lead to them waiting a month until the next education board meeting. State Superintendent Joy Hofmeister said districts need the ability to change their plans quickly because while COVID-19 has likely not run its full course, she does not foresee a state-level response like closing all schools again in the fall.

Tulsa saw significant decreases in vehicle miles traveled during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

INCOG Transportation Modeling Coordinator Nimish Dharmadhikari said on the south leg of the Inner Dispersal Loop, vehicle miles traveled between April 1 and April 15 were down 57% from the same period last year, and some areas of the city had steeper declines.

"Arts District experienced around 77% reduction in volume, whereas Brookside experienced about 69% reduction in volume," Dharmadhikari said.

Tulsa Transit buses will be free to ride a little while longer.

The transit board on Wednesday approved an extension of the policy through June, though General Manager Ted Rieck will most likely end after the first week of the month.

Rieck said Tulsa Transit buses have perhaps been busier than they should have under the policy.

"We have a lot of people who ride just to joyride, crowding out people who actually need to get somewhere on the buses. So, we believe by charging fares, we’ll control who’s actually riding the bus," Rieck said.

The man managing replacement of Tulsa’s Arkansas River pedestrian bridge told a board that oversees sales tax–funded projects its estimated cost has fallen closer in line with its $27 million budget. 

Original estimates for the Gateway Bridge, which will connect the west bank River Parks trails with the Gathering Place along Zink Dam, put the cost as high as $35 million. 

Thursday's headlines:

• First responders find the body of a "young, young male" in Bird Creek and believe the search for two missing Tulsa children is over.
• The Oklahoma Supreme Court rules the Secretary of State must accept petitions for a state question that would prohibit some sentence enhancements.
• Things are looking up for a pedestrian bridge planned for the Arkansas River. 

The search for a missing 2- and 3-year-old from Tulsa appears to be over.

First responders found a second body around 5 p.m. Wednesday in Bird Creek near 46th Street North. Tulsa Police Lt. Richard Meulenberg said like with the body found Tuesday in the Verdigris River, they are awaiting identification from the medical examiner’s office, but it seems unlikely the children are not Miracle and Tony Crook.

Wednesday's top stories:

• Tulsa police now describe their search for Miracle and Tony Crook as a "recovery effort."
• The Oklahoma State Department of Health reports there are fewer than 1,000 active cases of COVID-19 in the state.
• Tulsa County inks a new agreement to detain undocumented immigrants for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Newfound security camera video has changed the search for two toddlers missing from an east Tulsa apartment complex since Friday.

Tulsa Police Chief Wendell Franklin said the video, captured on a camera on the west side of the Shoreline Apartments and discovered Tuesday afternoon, shows 3-year-old Miracle and 2-year-old Tony Crook playing in the grass next to Mingo Creek on Friday.

Franklin said the kids then walk down the embankment hand-in-hand and never reappear.

After two years at No. 60, Tulsa climbed five places in the Trust for Public Land’s annual ParkScore rankings.

The jump to No. 55 came down to an $18 increase in per capita spending on parks, but that’s largely from what the George Kaiser Family Foundation has spent on and around the Gathering Place.

Tulsa County renewed on Tuesday its agreement with the federal government for the sheriff’s office to identify undocumented immigrants for deportation after they’ve been arrested.

The Board of County Commissioners voted 2–1 for the new U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement 287(g) agreement. Commissioner Karen Keith voted against it.

Tulsa County’s previous agreement was set to expire in June. The new one is in effect until terminated by the sheriff or ICE.