Ricky Hayes was a police officer from Texas applying for a law enforcement job in Owasso in 2002 when Owasso's Rodney Ray made him an offer that changed his career path. Ricky became Owasso's Economic Development Director and has helped Owasso continue a remarkable retail growth period.

Hayes gives Rodney Ray much of the credit for having "the vision to see what could happen if we (Owasso) work hard." All Owasso city departments are "development friendly" and "proactive instead of reactive". Mr. Hayes also noted that about 80% of Owasso's residents (including himself) have lived there less than 5 years. He said many comment to him that "it has been months since I've been to Tulsa" with all of the shopping opportunities now available in Owasso. That now includes two hospitals also.

Ricky Hayes says the retail growth continues as each new business seems to spawn others. Owasso is also putting an emphasis on trying to draw corporate headquarter relocations to Owasso. For retail economic development Hayes recommends plenty of networking and an annual retail convention in Las Vagas as one key to Owasso's recent success. He also says he never takes "no" as a final answer and continues to put Owasso's potential in front of potential large retailers looking for their next location.

Hayes cited two small Texas communites as gatesways into Dallas (McKinney from the north and Rockwall from the east) as being in similar situations to Owasso being a northern gateway into Tulsa. He said the Owasso zip code populations was 33,800 with about 25,000 in the city limits but that the populations of Collinsville, Skiatook, and communities as far north as Coffeyville are included in "Owasso's trading area" projections. Hayes said Collinsville is poised for retail growth in the future.