Flooding Neighbor Property in Catoosa
When a pond is not just for holding water
It is a simple story; a big landowner wants 10 acres adjacent. Some ten years ago, Mike Fine and his wife Sherry visited the Davis family to pitch the sale. They own eighty acres.
Gary Davis was with his 90-year-old mother as the couple pressured Mrs. Davis to sell her beloved homestead. The land in question is north of I-44, west of Lynn Lane, with a residential area and the Cherokee Hard Rock Casino directly east of the property across Lynn Lane.
“We weren’t interested in selling,” Davis said. "The Fines, soon after, started construction of two ponds along the shared edge of their land that deliberately and continuously flooded my family’s property to the point of washing out the only historic bridge allowing access. Now, their entire eighty acres drains downhill on us.”
Davis said the bridge was built in 1941 by the Knight family and stood proud, a barrel/post structure, for 70 plus years on a wet weather creek that ebbed and flowed with the rain. The creek is part of the Spunky Creek system a “Flood Zone A” FEMA designation for higher than usual risk of flooding.
“I had to replace one bridge that collapsed and that cost me $35,000 and now the second bridge is in the process of collapse. This is an easement road that is owned by my family and the neighbors, the people responsible for destroying it. It is the only access in and out of our land,” Davis said.
Mike Fine passed to his eternal reward December of 2017 and his obituary notes a “lifetime of service and entrepreneurship that became part of his DNA.” He launched Fine Airport Parking in Tulsa in 1983.
His obituary also notes Fine “was a graduate of Leadership Oklahoma Class IX, Leadership Tulsa Class 30 and was honored as one of Tulsa Business Journal's Men of Distinction in 2012. The Journal Record named Mike as one of Oklahoma's Most Admired CEOs in 2016. He was an active member of the Tulsa Rotary Club and an NSU Foundation Trustee. Mike and his family attended Life Church and Asbury Methodist Church.”
No Christian compassion has been shown to the Davis Family. Facing a corporate legal team with a “make us if you can” attitude, a legal battle seems unavoidable.
Engineers have estimated 2 million cubic yards of dirt was moved to create 20-foot-high embankment for the ponds. Aerial photographs and engineers suggest the land was sculpted for water to flow around the ponds which eroded multiple gullies and destroyed the bridge. Anyone can walk around the land and see the damage.
“When I went to the officials to investigate what they could do to stop [the flooding], I found out, and am continuing to find out ten years later, that there's nothing that can be done because nobody wants to do anything,” Davis said.
Davis said, “All of the work on [the Fine] property was done despite a stop work order from Catoosa, for lack of permitting. The Flood Insurance Program is administered by the Oklahoma Water Resources Board and the waterways are administered by the Army Corps of Engineers, both require permits before the work starts. None of those permits were filed.
“There are ordinances that Catoosa [has not yet] enforced and the permit issue is under their jurisdiction. The Catoosa Police wouldn’t take my report that I am being extorted, but that is exactly what I believe is happening,” Davis said.
Davis has reached out to Sherry (now married to David Reese of Tulsa) repeatedly to resolve the dispute, but she has not responded to a request for mediation or even to a cease-and-desist demand. Apparently, the family awaits a court order, but as a civil matter this complicated case with multiple expert testimonies could be torturous and expensive.
Davis spoke at the Catoosa City Council meeting May 20 noting that he has identified over ten ordinances and regulations relevant to the situation. He is appealing to the City of Catoosa to enforce these rules, as the current actions violate ordinances related to flood zone and federal highway regulations.
The positive result of that presentation is that several Catoosa Councilors declared they wanted to help.
In a healthy growing community, city planning, zoning, and regulation enforcement is critical to keep the peace and protect individual rights. That is why people pay taxes in the first place. While criminal and civil courts are the final authority, the legal system gets expensive, but Davis is engaging council as all other efforts have not resolved the dispute.
Mrs. Davis once had a medical emergency during a rainstorm that caused intense flooding. Her son, a critical care nurse, had to walk a quarter of a mile in the pouring rain to provide aid to her. Fortunately, she did not pass at that time, but her son promised her before she did pass that he would resolve the issue to save the homestead. The house, picnic area and woods hold cherished memories for the family.
This story will be updated as events warrant.
Additional detail for Substack Readers:
The story here was first published on TulsaToday.com and is provided because land use and abuse is happening statewide. Regulation enforcement is also not consistent.
The value of land is often affected by county zoning and planning officials and boards in each county. These are appointed positions and often operate without public oversight, but major money is often in the mix. While the public may occasionally rally in mass, getting public attention is not easy. Many ignore public policy unless their “dog’s in the fight.”
As media shrinks, some citizens are working to pick up the slack. Amy’s Substack is covering in detail how turnpikes are built often against the public interest and sometimes for private gain. Her latest piece is titled, “Cooking the Books on Safety: How OTA Twists Data to Push Toll Roads” with the subhead, “Exposing the misleading numbers behind the I-35 Corridor turnpike push—because Oklahomans deserve the truth, not toll-funded fiction.”
In Osage County, Bud Beaston, after narrowly losing his election for County Commissioner, has taken to Rumble posting videos of county corruption. He exposes a great deal, without professional polish. He is an Oklahoma farmer who can research. His documents on the infamous Pawhuska Kennedy Building sale detail what many believe to be the most obvious example of illegal bid rigging in the history of Oklahoma, if not America. Beaston also names and shames public officials and the work should spark the FBI’s interest, if they were not so busy in Oklahoma on McGirt cases. His Rumble is titled Osage County Corruption Facts, but don’t tell the Attorney General of Oklahoma also busy… running for governor.
As your scribe, thank you for your subscriptions which enable this work. Free subscriptions extend the reach of the material and paid subscriptions (God love you each and every one) help defer costs of investigation. While based in Tulsa, I believe Oklahoma is my greater community and hope to increase coverage of our great people. I believe Oklahoma is a rich state made poor by a bad state constitution, corrupt courts, and individual greed, but we can fix it.
My friend former-Labor Commissioner Mark Costello would say back in the day, “There are too many people in this state with scared cows.” My answer, “Mark, some of them have significant sized herds.”
My beginning in print journalism was not planned but covered by Rebecca Martin writing for the Columbia Journalism Review in 1987 here. I established TulsaToday in 1996 and Straight Up on Substack in 2022. Thank you for reading. If you know of others willing to report news, please help us connect. There is much to be done statewide.
Thanks to David for bringing this story to print. There are many laws, regulations, statutes, codes, and ordinances that make this illegal. But no one will enforce them. According to the Chief of Police, this is not a crime but a civil matter. This started out as a straight up extortion. But when Mr. Fine passed away, so did my ability to get anything resolved. The damage continues and no one is responsible. This is not true. The current owners have played a role in the extortion and continue to cause damage by negligence to correct the problem. Since the damage is over 1000.00 , it’s a felony.
Really good investigative journalism!!