Wednesday, April 23, 2014 • 2 • www.tulsabusiness.com

Tiemann said she felt that part of the reason was because people felt that ICE (Immigration and Customs En-forcement) would be waiting if they showed up.

“Law enforcement won’t bother these meetings,” she said. “They get involved through traffic stops and oth-er violations.”

Tavares and Tiemann said they had a group of attorneys affiliated with the American Immigration Law Associa-tion ready to help.

These are qualified individuals fo-cused on immigration law, Tavares said. They will tell individuals whether or not their cases have merit. If they can-not be helped, they are advised accord-ingly and not to waste their money.

“There is a lot of fraud in immigra-tion practice,” Tiemann said. “Many times people are told they can be helped when in reality, they can’t.”

Tavares said he would like to know about barriers that prevent people from coming to the immigration clinics.

“I felt like we did a pretty good job getting the word out in the community through fliers and advertisements in Hispanic newspapers and on the His-panic radio station,” he said. “This clinic was open to everyone with im-migration problems regardless of the country they were from.”

Tiemann felt there was interest be-

cause she has received calls inquiring whether or not she maintained Satur-day hours at her law practice. «

DA I LY B R I E F S

Inc. declared a quarterly dividend of 28 cents per share of common stock, payable May 15, 2014, to shareholders of record at the close of business April 30, 2014.

“This dividend represents an important fi rst step in returning value to our shareholders. It refl ects our confi dence in ONE Gas and its abil-ity to generate solid earnings for our investors,” said Pierce H. Norton II, ONE Gas president and chief executive offi cer.

The company indicated previously that it expects its quarterly dividend to be 28 cents per share in 2014, or $1.12 per share on an annualized basis, with annual dividend growth of 5 percent between 2014 and 2018, with a target dividend payout ratio of 55 percent to 65 percent of net income, all subject to its board of directors’ approval.

ONEOK DIRECTORSINCREASE DIVIDEND

The board of directors of ONEOK, Inc. in-creased ONEOK’s quarterly cash dividend by 16 cents per share, or 40 percent, to 56 cents per share, effective for the fi rst quarter 2014, resulting in an annualized cash dividend of $2.24 per share. The dividend is payable May 15, 2014, to shareholders of record at the close of business April 30, 2014.

“This latest dividend increase — our fi rst as a pure-play general partner of ONEOK Partners — is further evidence of our ongoing commit-ment to deliver sustainable, long-term value to our shareholders in the form of increased dividends,” said Terry K. Spencer, president and chief executive offi cer of ONEOK.

“We expect that increased distributions that ONEOK receives from ONEOK Partners, driven primarily by completed capital-growth projects from the partnership’s previously announced $6.0 billion to $6.4 billion capital-investment program, will strengthen ONEOK’s cash fl ow available for dividends and enable ONEOK to continue increasing the dividend to sharehold-ers.”

In January 2014, ONEOK affi rmed its plans to increase dividends by 1.5 cents per share per quarter for the remainder of 2014, subject to board approval.

ONEOK also has estimated an average annual dividend increase of 20 to 25 percent between 2013 and 2016, which includes the announced and planned increases in 2014 and 10 per-cent annual increases in 2015 and 2016, while maintaining a long-term dividend coverage ratio of approximately 1.05 times, subject to board approval.

The dividend has been rasied 18 times since 2006, a 300 percent increase. «

Briefs, from 1

RALPH SCHAEFER

Lorena Rivas Tiemann and Cesar Tavares

Port transit shed on removal listWork is part of Port of Catoosa facility upgrade

Removing a bit of history from the Tul-sa Port of Catoosa will cost an estimated $430,000.

The Transit Shed, the oldest building at the port is going on the demolition block. The engineer’s estimate also includes remov-ing the utilities and ramps associated with the structure along with some adjoining pave-ment.

It is all part of rehabilitating the port’s main wharf after 43 years of service. The outmoded building is being replaced with a new struc-ture across the street from the wharf.

In its stead, present plans call for installing a second overhead crane that would permit the simultaneous loading or unloading of two barges,

The wharf’s concrete deck is to be replaced

and new rail lines installed.The City of Tulsa-Rogers County Port

Authority approved advertising for bids to demolish the transit shed at its April meet-ing.

It also approved advertising for bids to construct about 770 feet of eight-inch sani-tary sewer line with three manholes at an estimated cost of $115,000. The line is the initial construction to open a 40-acre site in the northwest section of the port for indus-trial development. The site had been cleared of trees earlier.

Becco Contractors, Inc. was awarded a $1.09 million contract to completely rebuild about 2,700 feet of the two west-bound lanes of Main Parkway and nearly 500 feet of East Channel Road. Both are among the oldest streets at the port with Main Parkway having been in use as long as the Transit Shed.

The authority was told that 208,909 tons

of cargo moved through the port during March on 125 barges.

The March traffi c was less than both the previous months with 222,367 tons on 125 barges and a year earlier with 225,854 tons on 128 barges.

Inbound and outbound traffi c was nearly balanced during March with 106,549 tons departing the port on 57 barges and 102,360 tons arriving on 68 barges.

Although fewer tons moved through the port during the fi rst three months of year than for the comparable period of 2013 — 728,635 to 796,608 tons — the number of barges in-creased to 422 this year up from 400.

Traffi c through the port accounted for 37 percent of the 572,124 tons that were carried along the Oklahoma portion of the Arkansas Waterway and 17 percent of the 1.24 million tons moved along the entire two-state route. «

BY LARRY LEVYnews@tulsabusiness.com

in various events.Part of that was accomplished by

scheduling board meetings to end just prior to evening seminars and events.

Another was to participate in the speed networking activities that al-lowed law students the opportunity to meet with attorneys and help familiar-ize them with what is needed when they graduate.

In addition, there were reports from the student bar association president that highlighted the various activities that were ongoing in the law school.

Some board committees are be-ing restructured so they can be more effective in meeting needs at the law school, she said. This has become nec-essary because the law school has taken over some events.

“We keep looking at activities to see if they have value,” Smith said. “There has been an interest in the website and people wanting to get involved in that area. I really want to energize a diverse board for more activities and get more alums involved.”

Part of that work includes reaching out to TU Law alumnas in other cities and get them actively involved. Meet-ings already have been held in Oklahoma City, Houston, Dallas and Los Angeles.

“I will continue to be fl exible and continue my work with the associa-tion,” Smith said. «

Focus, from 1 Clinic, from 1