City of Tulsa officials and a Tulsa Regional Chamber board member rallied support for Improve Our Tulsa 3 during a news conference Thursday at Centennial Center in Veterans Park.

The $814 million capital improvements package heads to voters Aug. 8. Hosted by the Chamber, Thursday’s event centered on the $249.4 million portion of the package devoted to city facilities.

“Improve Our Tulsa is how we make our assets work,” said Gordy Guest, Cyntergy CEO and member of the Chamber board. “We can either invest in them and reinvest in them and make them last for multiple lifetimes and that be the legacy -- or we can waste it.

“There is very little in-between, to be quite honest. Improve Our Tulsa is that opportunity for us.”

In terms of money earmarked in IOT3, the city facilities portion trails only streets and transportation ($279.8 million).

“What we’ve seen in the last 50 years is that the citizens of Tulsa have put over a billion dollars into street work, catching up on deferred maintenance there,” Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum said. “But we have allowed facilities across the city to fall behind when it comes to maintenance.”

Bynum said that, earlier this year, he and city councilors toured municipal facilities that, in his words, were in “embarrassing” condition. Bynum saw, among other things, an “irresponsibly old fire vehicle fleet,” brown water running through a faucet at police headquarters, and ceiling leak issues in a municipal courtroom.

“We want to get them out of the facilities they are in and into one new, shared comprehensive facility,” said Bynum, referring to a new $47.5 million public safety center that is on the ballot.

Other facilities getting improvements in the package include the Tulsa Performing Arts Center (79.7 million); Cox Business Convention Center ($18.8 million) and the BOK Center ($6.4 million).

Tulsa City Councilor Crista Patrick called the three venues “key to enhancing the great quality of life that Tulsa is known for: concerts, musicals, plays, dances, speakers, sporting events. Those are all available to us as citizens because we have the facilities to host them.

“…All of these buildings are aging rapidly. They need serious repair work. We are asking Tulsans to work and play in facilities that need everything from safety and security improvements to roof replacements…We have an obligation to ourselves and others to make Tulsa more than just any other city.”