Good morning, good morning, good morning, and welcome, welcome, welcome.
It is time now for our community connection right here on K one,
the one you trust, and it's a eight to fifteen. Corey Shibble is
in the well. There's a long time no see Corey. How you doing,
Yeah, long time no see right. I think Tuesday, Tuesday night,
something like that. But it is, of course election season open,
and of course the early voting gets underway here this morning, just got underway
a little bit ago. And you are running for commissioner of District two and
it's a contested race. You've got two other challengers and it's a it's gonna
be interesting. It has been interesting. Tell us about the campaign up to
this point, other than it's been busy. Oh yeah, absolutely, it's
it's been busy. Actually it's it's been a little bit exhausting, to be
honest with you. But uh, there's a lot that goes into these campaigns.
And you know, we we have what is there three candidates. Darryl
I'm not real. I don't know Darryl very well. I've met him a
couple of times. Uh. That other guy though, I've met him quite
a bit. And so we've We've visited quite quite a bit over the over
the past few weeks, and you know, it's been a real a very
civil campaign and and yeah, absolutely, so we all understand we're just guys
running for the you know, applying for a job is what we're doing.
So and that application process, like you said, has it been something.
You've had three or four forums right now and and and everything, and you've
done a lot of door knocking and talking to people. What are people telling
you when you visit with him and you ask them about their concerns as far
as the commissioner, Well, yeah, we we get I get questions of
obviously roads and bridges are are is the top? That's the top question?
That's yeah, that's that's how they they relate a commissioners to the two roads
and bridges, you know. And so I've had questions about the expo building,
the fair grounds, that kind of stuff. So so yeah, it's
been it's been pretty good. I've had some wild questions that you know,
does not concern the county commissioner at all, but but yeah, those are
the typical questions. Sure, Now, when it comes to experience, what
can you tell people who are not familiar with you or have not been to
one of the forums. Tell us a little bit about your background and your
experience and what makes you qualified best for this job. Sure, yeah,
well I brought some notes here because you know, I've done four or five
of these these things, and I always leave something out. So but i
have worked with Washington County for twenty eight and a half years, so obviously
I've learned a lot, I've seen a lot. I've been I've been the
supervisor for the past fourteen years. I'm under Commissioner Mike Dunlap, and I'm
a graduate of the Oklahoma State Road Management Program. I've got twenty eight years
safety achievement, and I've supervised eight new bridge projects. I've been a part
of building miles and miles of roads, resurfacing miles and miles of roads,
and you know, as a supervisor, I've taken on a lot of responsibilities
that I think, you know, really kind of get me into the commissioner's
job as far as you know, assessing roads and bridges and overseeing the upkeep
on equipment and the building of that department, tracking inventory, managing personnel,
and assisting the commissioner. Commissioner dunlap with the budget of that department. So
I've built a good working relationship with the commissioner. So it has allowed me
to see their day to day duties and understand their job. So, you
know, all of that plays a huge part in I believe my ability to
know the job on day one. Very good. Very good. Now,
for folks who don't know you personally, tell us a little bit about you,
your family. You've been around here for a long time. Yes,
I'm a lifelong resident of Washington County. I've been in the Ocelida area in
my entire life. I'm married, been married for thirty one years. I
have two adult kids. I've got three grandkids. So yeah, three grandkids.
The oldest one is not quite four yet. So they keep us on,
they keep us on our toes for sure. You know, as we
go in, folks are going to the polls right now as a matter of
fact, to early vote, and of course on the eighteenth that we've got
to election day, what would you like to tell voters, as pretty much
one of the last four ris here before everybody goes and votes, are conscious?
Yeah, absolutely, I just I encourage people get out and vote,
and you know, just do a little bit of homework, find out,
you know a little bit about your candidates, and you know, vote for
the person you think is best fitting for the job. Now we've got some
more time here and I want to give that to you here. We had
a few questions that came up during the forum, and one of them,
of all things, by golly, it was roads and bridges. And it
took me by surprise, but it didn't. And I kind of got that
look from every one on up there on the at the desk that they had
the same thing, like, well, I kind of figured this might be
coming. It was a person who lives on a gravel road, and he
asked, how would a commissioner suggest taking care of maintaining and repairing a gravel
road that he lives on. Yes, and kind of an open enter,
but it was, it was, it was there. Yeah, it's a
legitimate question, no doubt about it. You know, you have people that
live in these rural areas and they drive those roads every day. It's it's
not just a one time over and and you know they they hit bumps every
day and it gets aggravating. So I completely understand that, you know,
and and our take my take has always been, you know, driving these
roads, making sure that the potholes are taken care of on the gravel roads
as well as the asphalt roads. And what I was saying the other night
is is, you know, I drive these roads. I try to hit
all of them at least once every two weeks. You know, there's one
hundred and eighty six miles to drive. And it's not just a straight shot.
You know, you have to you drive, you have to turn around
and come back and go another direction and all that stuff. But anyhow,
on the on the gravel roads, yeah, we I feel like we maintain
our gravel roads very well. You know, we keep we keep the right
amount of rock on them, and if they get potholed out, we we
grade them. Weather dictates so much, it does so much. You know,
this spring has been has been really wet, which is great. You
know, we've needed the water. But with that comes a lot of grading.
So you know, we may grade these roads two or three, two
or three times a month, and then there's times where it may be once
a month. You just you really you never can tell. It's an ongoing
process. Yeah, absolutely right. Yeah, And also when it comes to
winter stuff, there are people that are moving in here from all over the
place, and some of them can't understand why we don't have twenty seven blades
out there plowing snow. And there's a reason for that. It's because we
don't always get that kind of stuff. Yeah, there really is. You
know, some winters. I believe it's twenty eleven. We could have used
twenty seven blades, you know, and then there's winners. We don't need
any. So we are not set up for a heavy snowstorm because it's so
rare. It is rare, It is rare, and it costs so much.
We have we have two graders. We have two trucks with snowplows on
them, and then we have two little trucks that we carry the sand and
chips and salt, and that's what we you know, that's what we spread
on intersections and hills. We cannot do like go down a mile of road.
We try to hit intersections and hills to you know, give them a
little bit of stopping distance. And then the graters and the and the plows
are obviously pushing snow off the road. Ice is our arch nemesis. Ice
is terrible. You can't push it off the road. All you can do
is, you know, get the sand and salt the hills and intersections,
and you know, just tell everybody to be careful driving or stay in if
they possibly can. That is absolutely true. And usually when we get a
snow overnight or into the winter, by afternoon it's all gone. It is.
Yeah, there there is nothing better than the sunshine. Yeah, that's
where the folks that came in here from New York, Slovania, Illinois,
and Iowa who recently moved in here. I hope we answered your question because
I've been getting the emails on it ask about the story walk. Yeah.
But anyway, once again, we have election day on the eighteenth. We
have early voting going on right now, Corey. If someone has a question
they'd like to ask, they can get a hold of you, and they
can also get ahold of your Facebook page. Right. Yes, I have
a Facebook page Corey Shivell for County Commissioner District too. You can find an
email on that on that page as well, And yeah, you can message
me on there, and you know I'm quick to respond to that, and
yeah, I'll take I'll take any questions and be happy to try to answer
them. All right, Corey is running for district to Commissioner Mike Moouvier is
not running for re election. It's a three way race and if you live
in District two you need to get out in vote. This is a competitive
race going on right now, and of course, as we mentioned, early
voting today, tomorrow, Saturday, and election day on Tuesday. Corey show
well, thank you for being with us, Thank you Tom for having me.
Folks, you have been listening and watching our community connection right here on
K one, the one you trust.