It is a time now for our city matters right here on K one,
the one he trust. If it happens in the city, it matters to
us. It should matter to you too. How are you doing there,
mister be In a long time, No almost forgot what you look like.
It's it has been a little while. I was enjoying some time off,
yea, And so since I have no idea what's going on, I've brought
pretty much all the city staff with me. Everybody but Waterboy. That's it,
and he's on vacation. So everybody that's everybody's working his ear. We're
not doing anything other than this. You're our number one priority. Good so
well, unfortunately Waterboys not here, But I don't have any better news than
he normally did. So what we got cooking here with the city here on
our city matters well? Well, thought we would start out with a quick
update on the water supply, which is not unfortunately, not a whole lot
better than it has been. So quick up date on lake levels. Heula
is forty seven percent, copan is fifty two percent. So that is about
where these two have been hovering. They've been up and down around that a
little bit. For the last. I'm gonna say four weeks. I wanted
to take a moment because we've had a lot of small rainfalls, and so
people tend to think that that is sufficient to fill the lakes, or they
don't understand why we're still on these restrictions or why there isn't water getting in
the lake. Well, and I don't have I do. We actually do
have video here, so we could show it, but that would only be
for the people who were watched on Facebook. But for everybody who's listening,
just a quick rundown of what's happening in southeast Kansas and northeast Oklahoma. So
have no doubt we are absolutely in a drought. Just because we've had some
little rainfalls that seem to break that and it kept things green, that doesn't
mean that we're not in a drought. It takes significant rainfall to actually produce
runoff to get into the lakes. And so both Southeast Kansas and our area
Bartlesville, we normally get about forty inches of rain a year. Where are
we Well, over the last three hundred and sixty five days here, we
have had about twenty three inches of rain. Oh, that's significantly lesson what
we used to. Yeah, so there we're down seventeen inches, which is
almost half, and Southeast Kansas is even worse. And of course that's where
the actual that's where the actual drainage basin is for the two lakes in Southeast
Kansas. You were showing me the pictures, which folks really can't see here
on the cameras, right, but it looked like the black hole of cow
Cut. It did right. Everything it was red and it also black right
there though unfortunately, right where we need it to be green, it's red.
So Southeast Kansas is down about twenty three inches over the last twelve months.
And again they only get forty inches of rain of year, so they've
had less than half of what they normally would. So that's what's led to
the water shortage in the lakes. We know that it'll rain again and the
lakes will fill up. But what we are attempting to do. If anybody
is hasn't, it doesn't understand what we've been trying to do with our restrictions
is we're trying to extend that and save that supply for as long as possible.
We do not plan to run out of water. I know that that
is that's that's the question now, is what happens when we run out.
Well, we're not going to run out one way or the other. We're
not going to run out. But in order to buy time so that you
can develop plans in these emergencies, that's why you use restrictions. So the
restrictions are not intended as a punishment for anyone. The restrictions are intended to
reduce the amount of water that we're using so that we can preserve the amount
of water that's in the lake. And that's really where we are right now.
So we are developing contingency plans and there we've got several of them that
are that are in the works. None of them are far enough along for
us to talk about publicly, because as soon as we talk about something and
then it falls apart from that, everybody wondered why we didn't do it.
So, but we've got several things in the work. We've done this before.
You're right, you're right. So, but we do have several things
in the works. We're not going to run out of water, it's' that's
not in the cards. Bartlesville, Oklahoma is not going to run out of
water. However, we need time to develop a contingency plan to ensure that
we don't and so these restrictions are here to stay until we get enough water
to lift them. I've had a couple of questions about the swimming pools.
I would love to open them, and I understand that that is that sucks.
That sucks for the kids in Bartlesville and for the people that use our
swimming pools, But it doesn't suck quite as much as us actually running out
of water, and so that not filling the pool is just part of this
strategy to extend the water as long as possible. So the next major threshold
is once we dip below fifty percent. Good news is is we haven't gotten
down there. We've been up in that fifty eight to sixty percent for the
last four weeks. We hope that continues because at fifty percent and the council
will have to consider additional restrictions to preserve what water supply we have left.
So but again, I don't want anybody getting scared and thinking they got to
move out of Bartlesville. We're not gonna rune out of water. One way
or another. We will provide water to the citizens of Bartlesville, I assure
you, I don't. We don't know exactly what that will look like,
but there are there are a lot of ideas and a lot of plans that
we're developing right now. So we'll we'll want everybody to be confident that,
yes, we'll be fine. But at the same time, that does not
mean that you can go back to using as much water as you did last
year. No. Part of part of being fine is all of us doing
our part. So I just want to encourage everybody and thank them for the
for the for curbing their use as much as they have, and to hopefully
that they will continue that bear with us. We don't control the weather.
I think the Chamber does, but apparently they haven't been much help for us.
So and call Sherry. Well it should be on Wednesday. I'll ask,
Okay, you call Sherry. That's what's going on with the weather.
I don't have anything to Larry Glass seems to think we do it. We
do not, I promise you. So and a couple of announcements here while
we well, we've got everybody listening for businesses who have a business license with
the City of Bartlesville, or who need to get a business license with the
City of Bartlesville. There you go. Tom May has one. Let's right
you and you have your own. You're a business owner. So for business
licenses, those all expire on June thirty, and so you will need to
renew those. Renewal notices will go out, I believe, Larry, we
still do those electronically, so people should not expect to get invoices or anything
in the mail. We will send renewal notices electronically. However, if you
don't get one, you still need to renew your business life. Sure,
they expire on June thirtieth, and you renew in July. So we'll look
forward to getting that started. It is. It is busy time in July
when all of those come due. Also, speaking of July, this is
let's see next week will be Independence Day on the fourth of July horse which
is Tuesday. So the city all of our offices and operations are open on
the third as an however, on the fourth we will be closed. And
so if you normally would put your trash out on the fourth, your day
will actually be the fifth, so it'll be the day after. So that's
the good news, is is I always hate it when the holidays fall on
a Thursday or a Friday, because your trash day came earlier. It's one
thing. It's a lot easier when it comes later. So, and we
have one road closure to announce, and this is twentieth Street between Johnstone Avenue
and Dewey Avenue. It will be closed June twenty sixth, today the thirtieth,
which would be today, And Mica, are we still still on for
this? Okay? So we will. We'll have that closed down. This
is our guys doing the work, and so it'll be closed and detours will
be in place, and it will be closed from seven thirty am to four
o'clock pm each day until the repairs are made. So hopefully they'll be done
by the thirtieth. If not, we'll keep the detours in place until we
can get that rafft up. You know. And we I knew that brood
even existed was when I was covering the fires out there, trick them out
and found it. Uh, they told me, get going gone, get
gone, go ahead, get gone gone. Yeah, I taught you,
and I had a similar experience. I also drove out that way and I
was kind of told going get yeah, Yes, sir A while ago,
I don't believe I'm helping here, So all right, So that's that's pretty
much all the announcements we had. As I said, I've been out of
town, so we've got a crew full of folk here to to to actually
handle the news and what's going on around here. But two of them are
actually new to their current positions, I say new. I haven't had a
chance to introduce them on the radio yet. I promised them I would make
up really cool stories about them, and it turns out I didn't. I'm
gonna disappoint everybody. I don't have any cool stories because frankly, they're both
cool enough. So but the first one we have Troy, and Troy has
been with Parson Police Department year seventeen years, and Troy is our newest deputy
chief. And you actually were promoted to that position after our new chief was
promoted, so we Tracy Rowells was promoted to assistant city manager, Kevin Eackleberry,
who was a deputy chief, was promoted to chief, and now Troy
has been promoted phil Kevin Aiackleberry's old position at deputy chief. So welcome,
congratulations, Troy. I've known you for a long time, think a lot
of you. Yeah, I think you are. Your appointment that was a
great one. I look forward to to seeing your the rest of your career
at the City of Bartlesviol, which is gonna be long. Right, you
know I'm not going anywhere. Okay, you heard it? You record this,
right? I did? Okay, Okay, it was actually hurt on
the radio. We could play it back, so we've got him on a
record. So well, Troy, thank you for joining us, and again,
congratulations on your new appointment. You were you were captain before this,
so it was just it was just one step up. But seventeen years and
you're now the deputy chief of the bart City of Barstool Police Department. It's
quite accomplishment. So absolutely, congratulations, Thank you. I'm thankful for the
opportunity. I also just want to say thank you to Chief Roles for how
he moved us forward, and he sure did, and it put us in
a great position. We hated to lose him, but I think moving forward
we're in a great position to be where we need to be and I look
forward to serving under Chief Bickleberry. Yep, and Tracy, you didn't lose
him, You just got to share him, right, we spread him a
little thing, or now it's he's got the fire department, so we've we've
kind of spread him around. But anyway, so well, congratulations, and
I'm glad you where you are, and I'm glad you're sitting right here so
you can talk about a couple of things. So one of the things we
were going to talk a little bit about was the union agreement. And I
know that Kevin Eickleberry was actually going to be here, so you might not
be as familiar with with the agreement as he was going to be. But
we just came to an agreement with the Fraternal Order of Police that represents our
local policeman and it's it was a good agreement. It's actually for two years,
and we like two year agreements because negotiations are they could be difficult at
times, so this was a good agreement. One of the things that we
did and is always our goal, is to ensure that we pay our officers
or firefighters, or our street workers or our office workers. We try to
pay them a competitive wage, which of course means something different in every position.
For the police department, a competitive wage means that we try to pay
you all in accordance with our peers. And so we establish our peers by
looking at five larger cities, five smaller cities, averaging that out and then
trying to make sure that we pay you in the average of that. And
we were able to accomplish that with this contract. It required a little bit
of work to get there, and I think the most of the I think
most of the ranks received about a twelve percent twelve percent pay increase with some
of them, I think the captain did they receive six percents of what that
was? Yes, so, yeah, so we some pretty significant pay increases.
But it puts us in a great position where we can continue to recruit
and retain the best and we want to be one of the best departments.
We've got. We got to hire some of the best officers, so I
feel like we do a good job of that. Was there anything else in
the contract that was noteworthy that you can think of? Not right off any
and I think it was a great contract. Contracts probably the best one I've
seen since I've been here. I thought it was a really great one in
everything the city offered, and it was it was kind of interesting because most
of what was in the contract that we did was frankly, it was almost
agreed upon when we came to the table, and so that really helped things.
I know that Tracy and Kevin worked closely with union management and were able
to establish there were a lot of changes that were made to the contract.
There were some changes made that actually were suggested by the FOP as far as
our fitness standards and rewarding people for fitness standards, but establishing them and requiring
them. So I think that was that was important for looking forward at what
you want to be is a department and trying to ensure the health and longevity
of our officers. But yeah, there was there, There were a lot
of little things and it was Frankly, it was an easy negotiation, and
I was grateful to the FOP for the way that they handle it. And
I'm glad that we have glad that we have the agreement that we have.
So now now we just have one more and we're close, I believe with
with fire department as well. So we're we're looking to close these out for
the next year. But we I specifically brought you on because of course we
have fourth of July coming next Tuesday or a week from tomorrow. So,
uh, the fireworks laws. I know not everybody abides by the fireworks laws,
but Detroy, what what are our fireworks? Neighbor got shot firework?
That this game you play every now? It is so even though that fireworks
are legal in the state of Oklahoma, they're prohibited in the in the Bardsville
city limits. And if if you violate that, then you could be so
object to a citation, which is about two hundred dollars, so they can
be issued to you. And so usually we try to first talk to people
and give them a warning if that is the necessary or the way that we
need to go. But you could be fine for that if you violate that,
and generally speaking, it would be generated by a complaint by the neighbors
or perhaps damage or something of that nature. So people need to be aware
that it's just because there are other people doing it, it doesn't make it
legal, and you could still suffer consequences if you do it correct. And
some of the novelty items like your sparklers, your snakes, you know,
smoke balls, some things like that or are still legal to have in here.
Just be courteous of your fellow citizen. Dispose of them properly and pick
up your trash. Yep. So that's we'll find out exactly how affected the
speech was. We've given it previous years, I think I know, but
nothing worth stepping on a US sparkler. Wow, that's still high. Yeah,
they stayed hot for a while, all right, Troy, Well,
I appreciate anything else you want to let everybody know about the laws. We've
also got Brady here who's going to talk about firework safety specifically, so I
think i'll let him have it. All right. Well, for the second
of my introductions today, we have Brady Watson here with us, and Brady
is the uh is the fire marshal for the city of Bartlesville. And Brady,
how long you've been fire marshal? A little over a year now,
over a year now, so still finding your way into that position? Absolutely?
Yes, correct. It was a new position that was created a little
over a year ago, and it was prior to that the deputy chief was
the fire marshal and the deputy chief right, yes, So it was it
was a little much for one person, so we split that into two and
and Brady, how long have you been at the fire seventeen? Years.
That's the magic number. Well, Brady, you you're also I don't know
if you still are. But we established an honor guard, correct, yes,
and I am the commander of the Honor Guard, Craik. Yes,
I knew that you were prior to and I suspected you first. Yep.
You actually helped to build that and to establish it, and we started that
in twenty seventeen. Yes, correct, And I don't I don't. I
don't believe we'd had one at firepart. No, we have not, I
know. Yes, So that was that was quite an accomplishment and we appreciate
that. Thank you all are able to do to provide services for for a
lot of people who weren't able to get it before. So thank you appreciate
that. And you guys look pretty dart and sharp, and they looked pretty
good. That's a long walk, isn't it is? Yes? It is?
Yeah, The parades are a long walk, that's right. Yeah,
but I bet the coats are more appreciated at Christmas than that. And absolutely,
yes, yes, absolutely, that stopped for water breaks and that this
time. Yea. So well, Troy talked a little bit about the firework
laws and so but let's talk just a little bit about firework safety. Okay,
today I'm gonna talk about fire safety. You brought a couple of notes
with me here. What we're gonna talk about is, first and foremost,
alcohol and fireworks do not mix. You need a designated shooter, somebody who
is not going to partake an alcohol. First and foremost, we want to
put that out of That's where a lot of accidents happens. If you are
going to go outside the sibling on it's to shoot fireworks. We ask for
a good, clean, flat surface, something that won't catch fire very easily.
We want you to have a garden hose, a fire extinguisher, something
available to snuff out any little small pop up fires or mishaps. We talked
about sprinklers sparklers earlier. Those burn at two thousand degrees. Oh, they
hold heat for a long time. You know, we think they're kid friendly,
but they may not be. So if you do have those fire,
kids, exactly, put those in a bucket of water, let them cool
off, disclose them correctly. A lot of times trash can fires can spark
from that, so make sure you extinguish them, DAWs them in water.
When you do fireworks do one at a time. Do not put your body
over the top of the device. Light it and get back. Space and
area is going to be your biggest safety value there. Get back, get
away, keep family away, keep young kids away, keep pets, the
dogs, especially away from that um. Do not try to manufacture your own
Sometimes people them beyond I have a manufacturer that's going bad. I've seen that.
Yes, yes, we all handed back right right, We asked that
you do not do that. The other thing is bottle rockets. They said
to look at Michael on that one. Do not shoot bottle rockets o each
other. They will put an eye out. You can't lose fingers, So
be safe with all those points, right, No, please please now listen,
listen, listen to the expert. But we do have two shows going
on July first at Dunga Stadium around nine thirty they're gonna shoot them off.
And then on July fourth, by Sooner part Freedom Fest, they're gonna shoot
them off too. We recommend you go watch those professionally done. They're gonna
be a great show. So we highly recommend you go watch those. When
you say design need a shooter, that doesn't mean hey, hold my beer,
right no, no, please, don't not that guy that when you're
drunk past the punk. Yes, I don't think you step out of it,
was ad hear me. No, I don't know whether that good or
not. Keim got any slogan for for fourth July. If you're drunk past
the punk, don't stick somebody with the punk as well? All right,
Well, thank you, Brady. I appreciate that. Speaking from experience,
I think I have literally experienced every one of those errors at some point,
every one of them, I think every one of them. Yes, there
were there were memories flashing as he was talking. So yes, and we
kid and fireworks are a great time and I have always enjoyed putting on fireworks
shows and since I was a kid, and I Brady is entirely correct.
They are extremely dangerous. And the older I have gotten, the more I
have realized because act like how dangerous they were. And so now I actually
do most of the things that he said, or I don't. I don't
do most of the things that he said not to do. There we go
take most, most, most sometimes. But thank you, Brady, I
appreciate that. Thank you. All right, and with us we have Larry
Curtis who actually normally is the newest person in the booth. Now look at
him. Have you been here seventeen munch yet he's seen He's been in his
position longer than almost to anybody in this room. Now, time's changed fast,
don't they. Larry, Yeah, but I still introduced myself as the
new LEAs. Yeah that way everyone. Oh yeah, I could go both
ways, by the way, I have discovered that as well. So Larry
is our community Development director, and he's gonna give us a quick update on
sidewalks, quick quick. He's gonna give us an update on starving guns.
And Michael would be Michael would be perfectly content to sit there and not have
to say anything. But you've already, you already kind of did the mic
drop with the past the punk very very quick on its feed. So yeah.
Council a couple of months ago allowed for a temporary moratorium on ordinance that
was passed last year, Ordinance number three five five five, which was a
new ordinance that went in place for sidewalks and putting new ones in um So.
It specifically stated that for any new development that would be happening on in
the city is that sidewalks would have to be installed. It also incorporated anytime
that there was a change of land like love splits, loot combinations, h
lot transfers, things like that that would require new sidewalks to go in.
And so taking a quick glance of what was going on with that, I
know there was some concerns with some citizens and things along those lines that we
were wanting to have a more in depth analyzation of that. And so the
ordinance also said that the Community Development Director, at his all knowing behess could
waive those requirements. And I was like, oh, yeah, put that
pressure on me. Yeah, that's where it all came down to, really,
like I didn't want it. Yeah, yeah, yeah exactly exactly because
do guy, Yeah, I can be their best friend that yeah. Anyway,
so looking at all, so council allowed us, but that moratoriument plays
to do more in depth analysis and potentially updates to that ordinance. And so
staff has discovered, with the help of Mica and his team, that we
have about one hundred and forty miles of sidewalks within the City of Bartlesville.
But it is, it really is. But unfortunately, the average age is
about fifty eight years old. We've got a lot of them that are in
for repair. We do, we do. But the other thing is that
about only half the city of sidewalks, so and that can be by design
or development. You know, back in the nineteen fifties, sixties, you
know my subdivision, we don't how many sidewalks in it, because that was
the trend at the time, and so you know, the city's had big
booms and with that, there were some sidewalks that were put in, some
sidewalks up or not. But I think the biggest thing that a lot of
citizens see within our community are those missing sidewalks, aka the orphan sidewalks or
sidewalks to nowhere. And so a lot of people are like, why is
this out in the middle of nowhere exactly exactly, And so you know,
the curtain ordinance kind of pushes that and as you know, with the expectation
that eventually other things will connect. But you know, staff has been really
looking at this as an opportunity for us to kind of reach out and find
out more information and see what our citizens really think about that. And so
we're going to be looking to come up with a new game plan, but
first and foremost with our citizens inputs. So it'll be a survey that'll be
going out hopefully within the next month, that'll go out digitally to everybody.
You know, we'll give k one. We'll really push it out so that
way we get some good responses back. But the goal is to you know,
get new game plan in place, help really analyze the sidewalks to nowhere,
see what we can review and our access points so that way where we
have higher traffic along our materials, we could be focusing on ada accessibility look
at you know, like I said, public engagement, but more importantly has
to come up with a maintenance plan. You know, we the state law
currently stays and so it was our ordinance that when you a butt a sidewalk,
you the property owner, are responsible for the maintenance of that. But
we want to come up with a game plan to where we can work to
you know, hopefully update those fifty eight year old average sidewalks. Some of
them are one hundred and four just letting you know some of them are completely
under dirt at that too, that too, exactly, So we want to
make sure that we get a good game game plan in place. And so
now that we're past kind of data analysis move mode, like I said,
we're going to be pushing that public input portion and you really get some insight
from the public on what their thoughts will be. This does not include our
trails, by the way, so that one hundred and forty miles is not
include the fantastic pathfinders. So anyways, that's kind of what we're going on
there. I will do one more plug if I can go right ahead.
Please control the grass population. Please have your ones clean and trimmed. We
need it more than ever. It's that time of the year again for your
property up to snuff well, and it's it can be a safety issue as
well. We've been talking about fireworks and so if you have tall, dry
grass and weeds or trash in your yard at this time of year in particular,
could be at risk. Yeah, exactly. I've seen a few places
where it looks like they're ready for the helicopter to land in order to cut
the grass. It doesn't work that way. There's there's a couple of them,
unfortunately, and of course the city does go out and debate some of
those, and we're probably the most expensive lawn service in town. We are.
We do file that lead against your property. There's better ways to do
it, I promise. Yeah. Now I will say the new policy is
in place that we enacted. You know, we pushed down on a city
beat about how um you know, instead of waiting for the grass to grow
six feet tall, you know, we're notifying everyone ten days that they can
that they need to take care of their property or we'll be out to take
care of it for them. So well, and it's it is unfortunate.
And there are people who are in circumstances where they can't mow their yard.
And so I would also ask that if your neighbor, if you know that
they may have some limitations, rather than calling us, perhaps call them.
Yeah, So start neighbor, Start be neighborly, try to help your neighbors
out. I had an elderly neighbor that I mowed his grass for years and
he was he was very grateful. I thought my son that when we shovel
our driveway, we also shovel some of the neighbors. So I, you
know, I hope that people will do that. But yes, if you
have a neighbor that is just determined not to mow the grass, and they're
perfectly capable, and we will address it. Yeah, and as always,
you know, we do realize that those situations are out there, so we
encourage those people that may get that notice but may not be able to physically
handle it, please let us know we can. We can try to connect
them with a nonprofit that may be able to assist them. So we'll be
glad to have help and try to resolve it one way or the other.
Exactly prefer that to resolve it amicably. Always amicably, believe it or not,
cities would much rather do things amicably. Yeah, so, hey,
look, two minutes to go. Two minutes. That's it. Two minutes.
What's the biggest I didn't have much to say that this is a good
thing. Now you gotta loop back in. I'm filling in for water Boy,
but I'm not talking about Now. We got the Civitan Park shelter.
I think that's number two on everybody's concerns, Civitan Park. So we did
get a contract awarded to lead construction last Friday and a special city council meeting
at three third, four o'clock, four o'clock, and we got that done.
And so they essentially have committed to trying to have that structure down taken
down. Removed UM by the fourteenth of July, so that gives them a
couple of weeks to get their ducks in a row and get that done.
UM. Once we get that taken down, we will start addressing the footings.
UM. So the ideas we can remove that structure get the park open
back up those because right now it's currently closed down. So so we'll get
that removed and we'll get the park open back up. We'll do some work
on the footings. It'll either be with city staff or we'll contract that workout
as well. Essentially, we're going to extend the footings up, get them
level, UM, get the reinforcings and get the reinforcing and the bolts right.
Yeah, address the installation errors and then UH Lead Construction is also on
contract then to reinstall the structure. So that was the basis of the contract.
We awarded them that contract for seventy six hundred dollars seven thousand and six
hundred dollars and UH local contract with where they do good work. We're looking
forward to it then UH and want to get that park open back up and
so kids can can use it. To get it open as soon as we
can. That is the fact it'll probably be without a shade structure for most
if not all. It's it should be, Yeah, it should be.
So I'm not sure how quick we can get the footings turned around on that.
But there's also some repairs that have to be made to the structure itself
true while it's on the ground, and makes some fairs the structure as well,
so there'll be there'll be more to do, but we look forward to
at least getting the park back open. It's most popular one it is,
Yeah, and it's eighty a accessiful that is our one that was a truly
designed to accessiful park. So it'll get done. You get to have that
open, back it up, So thank you, Mica, I appreciate that.
And Tom thanks for usness as always. All right, thank you very
much. Ladies and gentlemen, you've been listening and watching City Matters right here
on K one the one you tried stay tuned. CBS News comes your way
next. Thanks for listening to one on one with a professional. A paid
presentation in fourteen hundred K one Dignity Compassion Excellence Stuff Funeral Home in Crematory,
Bartlesville, Nowada, Barnstall, ky Wn Bartlesville K two twenty seventy Q Bartlesville
KY two thirty six ct POSCA