Governor Completes Board For Tar Creek Buyouts

Friday, July 14th 2006, 12:31 pm

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ Governor Brad Henry Friday announced a new trust authority to oversee a federally funded buyout of residents in the contaminated Tar Creek Superfund site in northeast Oklahoma.

The relocation program was started by US Senator Jim Inhofe to help residents in Picher and Cardin to move away from the area that's contaminated from years of lead and zinc mining.

The new trust authority succeeds a trust that was established in 2004 to oversee a buyout program proposed by the governor to help families with children aged 6 or younger to move out of the area.

The new trust includes chairman Larry Rice of Pryor; Ed Keheley of Quapaw; Miami residents Doctor Mark Osborn, Bob Walker, Tamara Summerfield, Mike Sexton and James Thompson; and Picher residents Janell Trimble and Reverend Charles Clevenger.