The Norman Transcript

Local news

January 11, 2013

Linda Lockett announces bid to seek re-election for Ward 7

NORMAN — Ward 7 city council member Linda Lockett has announced that she is planning to seek re-election for a second term in office representing the ward.

As a lifetime resident of Norman, Lockett serves as chair of the Business and Community Affairs Committee, member of the City Council Oversight Committee and as the city’s ex-officio member of the Norman Convention and Visitors Bureau.

In addition, Lockett has served her community as a longtime member and past president of the Norman Business Association, a past member of the board of directors of the Norman Chamber of Commerce and a member of Friends of the Library.

Lockett also was instrumental in the drive for building the Sam Noble Museum of Natural History.

In her first term in office, Lockett got two major transportation projects approved for Ward 7. The Cedar Lane Road construction project will start this year, and the 12th Ave Southeast construction project (Cedar Lane Road to State Highway 9) will start after the Cedar Lane Road construct project is done.

In her second term in office, because of the large number of grass fires in the last few years, Lockett would like the city to make an emergency evacuation route east to Jenkins Avenue for people who live in Eagle Cliff and Cobblestone housing editions.

During the past year, Lockett completed the Citizens Emergency Response Team, or “CERT” course, to increase her education and her ability to assist the city in planning for emergencies.

In her last campaign, Lockett went door to door meeting her constituents and plans to do it again.

“I’m very consistent because I’m saying what I have always believed in,” Lockett said.

The retired businesswoman and OU alumna has many ties to the city, from her father building and running its first hotel to her 30-year ongoing partnership with her brother in running a successful small business.

Lockett got her first taste of owning and operating a business while working at the Lockett Hotel for her father, who built and managed the business after he came back to his hometown after World War II. She would run the front desk, change the sheets in rooms, tend to financial records and perform any other work the hotel needed.

“My father was a great believer that if I was going to manage the hotel, I needed to be able to do everything everybody else could,” she said, laughing.

Lockett worked at the hotel during college before graduating with a business administration degree in management from the University of Oklahoma.

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