Good morning, good morning, good morning, good morning, and welcome,
welcome, welcome in his time now for city matters. If it matters to
you, it matters to our beloved city. And my goodness six we have
a cast of thousands today as we rearrange the chairs on the deck end we
have. Let me get this right, Assistant City Manager Tracy rolls in with
us today with a cast of thousands. How are you doing, sir?
I'm doing well. First of all, I just want to thank Mike Bailey
for throwing this on me this morning. My script was very easy to learn
before today. I was going to come in and set where Shelley is setting
and say thank you and I appreciate it, and that's all I was gonna
say. And then I got the call this morning that I was gonna say
more. So I brought a lot of people, so I had to say
less because they're the experts, not me, and we're happy to be here.
All right, Well, you've got the new position. I tell us
a little bit about what it entails here. How are you going to be
helping Mike Bailey the hardest working man city government? So I think I think
the job description for me is anything that Mike does not want to do become
something that I have to do. That's usually how assistant roles. You know,
We've been doing it for a week and that's exactly what it seems like.
But in all seriousness, I really appreciate the opportunity that Mike has given
me, and he's also set me up for success because he's given me directors
within the city that report to me that are by far the very best at
what they do, and so it really will make my job easy because they
are the experts and I just need to stay out of their way and help
them get whatever it is they need for their their departments to be successful.
And I think I have the ability to stay out of the way. So
excellent rule number one. Well, look who's coming in the door? Come
on in, water man. See, like I said, I was bringing
everyone who knew something about what we do here. Jerry was really not wanting
to be on that first hot seat there. Feld Pro's gonna get it anyway,
all right, So we'll be going on today. Okay, So first
of all, we'll talk to Jerry benedict Our our golf pro, and he'll
give us an update about the golf course. Alright, all right, thank
you nice, good to be here. We're going strong out there. It's
real busy and everything. But the main thing that I wanted to bring up
was the junior program is getting started. All the ladies and men's programs are
well under way. We have been very busy, and the junior program it
starts on June sixth, seventh, and eighth. That's a Tuesday, Wednesday
and Thursday, nine o'clock to eleven o'clock. So your parents get your kids
ready. You don't have to have any equipment. We have equipment for you.
If you don't have equipment, you just need a pair of tennis shoes
on and shorts routines. Bring your kids out seven to seventeen and we'll try
to help them with their golf swing's. It's a great sport for you to
get your kids in. It's a lifetime of of help. When you get
in business and everything else, you need that kind of thing, so we
encourage them to come on out. The program then is a free clinic on
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and then the week after that is a junior
camp on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and then every Wednesday after
that is a play day where they can come out and play, and we
encourage the parents to come with them and kind of follow them around. We'll
give you golf carts and stuff. We'll close We're going to close nine holes
so they can learn how to play a little bit. And then on July
twenty six will be a Junior Club Championship and July thirtieth will be Parent Junior
where the parents play with their sons or daughters. So anyways, it's a
great program where we're looking forward to it and we want you to be ready
for that. Also, the watering out there Harry's talking about, We've been
getting some criticism about watering our greens. We're very minimal watering right now,
but we have to keep those alive. We lose the golf course if we
don't. We're just minimal watering on the greens. We want the citizens to
know that and it would be very costly to the city if we didn't keep
those alive. We're not watering anything else. Which your ball goes further when
you when you hit the ball, so that's a good mount to get going.
Yeah, we're digging out a pond right now and getting ready to water
the greens out of out of the ponds instead of the city water, so
that will help too. On another subject, the tournaments for the year,
we are packed with tournaments for fund raisers for the City of Bartlesville. And
this year is the twentieth anniversary for the United Way tournament, so it's going
to be a big one. We're going to remodel a bunch of stuff and
do some stuff there and we're looking forward to that. Lisa Carry runs a
United Way. They all do such a good job. And so one other,
one other subject that we've got next year in the summer, we're going
to start re constructing our greens. It's going to be a very difficult time
those next couple of years because we will only have nine holes and it's gonna
it's gonna be very painstaking, but it'll be worth it in the end,
we hope, We hope two years in a row will reconstruct nine holes and
then another hunt nine holes. So that's kind of what's going on at the
golf course. And come on out and play with us, all right,
So I like a lot of fun. And back to assistant to city Manager
Tracy Rolls, I gotta get used to seeing it. So I'm gonna say
that a lot, and that's one of the nicer things people say about me.
Come on now, so we'll so I appreciate the nice things. I'm
glad Terry got here. He was a little bit late, but you know
he's it's okay. He was. He's kind of like me. He was
a bench player. Today. They got thrown into the mix without really,
you know, being ready to get thrown into the mix. So so we'll
hear from him a little bit since he's a late arrival. Arrival, he
got kicked down the lineup. Okay, So we'll keep the good going.
Got a lot of good stuff going on the golf course, and we also
have a lot of good stuff going on at the library and the history museum.
So we'll let Shelley talk to us about that. Awesome thank you.
Um. We have our summer reading program that starts taking in role ease today
actually, and we were having that summer reading program from June fifth to July
twenty eighth. It's kind of a misconception that it's only for kids, and
that's just not true. You can put your babies in there and you get
to read to them and score some time there, and you can also participate
as an adult. We have prizes for all age levels, So whether you're
reading to your kids or reading on your own, please sign up for Summer
Reading in and just score some prizes. We have fun and it's a lot
of fun with the kids because every week we have an activity for the children
and then we have an activity for teens, and so free stuff all summer
long, and we're spending a lot of you know, our friends group spends
a lot of money to make sure we're bringing in really great performers, So
make sure that you look at that schedule and participate where you can. Wanted
to do just two more quick announcements. We've started our new three D printer
now and so you can come in and you can bring your print job and
we'll print it for you for free, and you get to pick your pigment
color. You get to do a lot of things like that. So please
utilize our three D printer. We got a grant for that from Chronico Phillips
and we were very lucky to have that as a service now, so please
utilize this for your three D printing needs. And lastly, I wanted to
congratulate a staff member at the library, Kayla Ashley. She is getting her
Masters in Library and Information Services in just a couple of weeks, and so
that's a couple of years study. And I love it when the staff trains
and brings us even more professionalism and knowledge. So one quick announcement for the
History Museum, they have just got up their ranching exhibit, so I encourage
you to go and see their ranching exhibit. We have a lot of great
ranges around here and a lot of history in that area. We're having several
programs and camps for your kids, so please check our website or Facebook and
make sure that you're participating with our ranching stuff. That's come up, right,
And Shelley, you have a couple of job openings, Oh I do,
yes, yes, um one. Denise Scoff, one of our long
term thirty plus your employees, I think she's at thirty five, is retiring
in August first, and so we have upgraded her position to an assistant city
manager sorry in city manager, no assist a library director. Okay, yeah,
yeah, one of those things. I'm gonna get two weeks in and
then we're gonna over there. Good. Yeah, So we are hiring an
assistant library director, and of course that's an assistant for the history musim director
too, And then we're also hiring the collection senior librarian who buys all her
books and both vigilie and physical books, and she also takes care of our
collection and removes things when they need to be so it's the person that curates
our collection. And so she's a thirty year employee too, so we really
got some big boots to fill there. And then um coming right behind them
one month is our literacy coordinator, so we're losing her as well. Everyone
is old enough to retire, so go figure, you gotta let them go.
So we are hiring a lot of positions at the library, and in
just a few months of the history he's into. So if you've ever wanted
to work at either place, start looking because there's going to be a job
for you. Nice and what a great place to work. The city doesn't
outstanding job of taking care of its people and a lot of good stuff going
on at the library, like the golf course. So we're very excited to
thank you for what you do and for how you do it, and thank
you. How cool is it to be in a position to retire. Oh
way cool one year for me, Well, thank you, thank you.
We'll talk to another guy who's in a position that could retire. And people
like that have all the power tom they do it. On any given day,
they could come in and say, you know, that's enough, I'm
out. But it's because of their dedication to the city that's put them in
that position. So when I left the police department, we named an interim
police chief and that's Captain j. Hastings. He too, is a thirty
plus year veteran of the City of Bartlesville and the police department. So we're
very fortunate to have Captain Hastings in place, and he's taken over the police
department. It's already gotten better than it was, so I don't know if
that's a sign or what that means, but I'm glad it's gotten better,
and thank you Jay for stepping up and taking on the interim police chief role.
We've posted the police chief position internally, so it is I am certain
that we will be able to hire a police chief from within the police department
because there are great people there, very deserving people, and Jay is one
of those. So thank you for being here. And thanks for taking on
the role of interim police chief. And you're another person who got a call
late this morning about being here today, so so thanks and welcome to the
circus here. So what about policing talk to us about that. Well,
first of all, thank you for the opportunity to let me step in.
Um. Yeah, we've got a lot of things going on this month.
It's a busy month. We have I believe the police Officer Memorial is the
seventeenth, and that's at noon on a Wednesday, and we want to invite
everybody to come out and help us honor the officers who have given their lives.
Also to tomorrow, Tuesday evening at seven pm at city Hall, we're
having a town town meeting and we invite all citizens to come out if they
have any concerns about their neighborhood policing stuff like that. We'll have officers on
hand to talk just kind of one on one in a group setting about what
we do, where, where the state of the department is, and also
any questions or concerns about crime in your neighborhood. But that's it. See,
he's not been a police chief long enough. He needs to know that
when we give it to him, he has to take up at least ten
ish minutes of time. Okay, we're good. But so so we opened
up that process on Monday, looking last Monday, and it'll close this Friday.
Uh, and then we'll move We'll move quickly forward to try to get
a permanent police chief to give some stability to the police department because chain sometimes
is a little bit scary. I know, change for Shelley and in the
library has to be scary because she's losing several years of talent um and and
that that's a little bit scary. But I haven't. I have full faith
and confidence in Jay and his leading of the police department until we can name
a permanent police chief. And that could be Jay. Uh if he's interested,
that very well could be him as well. But I thank him for
for stepping up and taking on on that role. Again, thank you for
the opportunity. So before we bring up the water guy to talk about water
or lack thereof, or however you want to look at it, I do
want to remind people about the yard debris pickup day. It's this week.
It's on your normal trash day. It is free. We asked that you
place the bags near your polycard at the curb. And if you if you
have limbs, we asked they'd be no longer than four foot in weigh less
than fifty pounds. And please remember that that debris is picked up by a
separate truck. So if the first truck who picks up your trash does not
pick up the debris, please don't freak out. It's okay. There will
be another truck that comes along and we'll pick that stuff up. That's this
week, starting today, on your normal trash day. So it's a great
service that the city provides. And again it's free, so take advantage of
that. The other thing we mentioned some jobs, a couple of the library
at also UH like to mention that we have there's a property and evidence clerk
position that's opened at the police department, maintenance tech position of building inspector,
sanitation collector. The parks are looking for some summer help. So there's a
lot of opportunities to join what I think is the greatest team there is,
and that's the City of Bartlesville. People care about each other, they care
about the city, they care about the good of the city. Great benefits.
So if anyone is interested in a job with the city, go to
the city website and apply or contact our human resources department with any questions.
So that's the good. Now we have to talk about this guy. We'll
see. I was just going to go with the ugly. I didn't talk
about what I wanted to talk about the bad. Okay, good, mister
Lawrence said, I'll give you a little something. Alan Croner meteorologists to be
partner with it k TV News on six. He said, there's a chance
for rain and it could be substantial north of Bartlesville. Now, if we
have everybody to stand out during the rain and yell, go to the lake,
go to the lake, that's right, Maybe maybe we can get these
storms to just hang in there in the watershed. Yeah, you know,
Tracy had a great idea that maybe we could organize a tent camping weekend at
the at the lake because that's usually when it rains, it's when you go
camping of some sorts. So you know, that's that's another option that maybe
we'll keep in our pocket and hold for a little bit. Well, somebody
asked what they could dump an unpopular beer these days into the lake and see
if that would do anything, but I think it might mess up the fish,
you know. Yeah, yeah, I probably wouldn't encourage that. I
do think it's a liquid, but probably not the liquid. Yeah, the
liquid that we need there. But well, we did get some rain last
week. Um it was some better than none. It didn't really appreciably change
lake levels to there. So as of today, we're at fifty six percent
as far as our overall water supply remaining, and then our average consumption last
week was four point six nine million gallons per day, so it's a little
bit below what we traditionally are because outdoor water use is really a large consumer
of water. So for all of those who are conserving and doing everything you
can, we appreciate it. And if you're not, or if you're maybe
kind of late to the game, it's it's not too late to conserve and
to do what you can. We do have restrictions in place now that limit
water outdoor water used to one day a week, So if you're an even
number property, that's a Thursday, if you're an odd number property, that's
a Friday. We do post updates and information on city beats, so if
you're not a subscriber, to city Beat please do so you can do that
through the city's website of City of Barcel dot org and there's some links that
you can follow to become a subscriber to city Beat, or you can look
at some archived editions of city Beat through there. So with that, Tracy,
I thought I'd cover some hot button topics for water. So obviously Kelly
Williams, who does a fantastic job, is our information person, and with
the newsletter and the websites and social media and such, we do have some
uh, some hot button items that come up on social media that we just
to venture an answer to, so for regarding water consumption and used to there.
So one of the hot bit items now or has been lately is why
are we allowing car washes to remain in business? Why are they still operating
and not shutdown? And so when the water restrictions and the ordinance was put
in place little over a month ago, council did that kind of on an
impartial basis, and so we wanted to provide the most equitable way to conserve
water, to enact restrictions and to not penalize unduly different businesses or people's occupation
and so that was done through the right structure that was implemented with the Stage
two and potentially Stage three, Stage four. So we are looking at trying
to curtail water use by higher rates water rates during those those higher blocks of
usage, with the thought that the more that it costs, the more potentially
a business has a charge, which and then would likely lead to less consumption,
less demand for that type of service to there. So that was the
thought with it, and we're still evaluating how effective those measures are. We
have not this is the first time we have enacted these water restrictions and the
Water Shortage Ordinance since two thousand and two, and that's when the ordinance and
the provisions were adopted. So we're kind of learning as we go and adjusting
on the fly a little bit. But I do suspect that here in the
near future will have to have an adjustment to help ensure that everybody is conserving
water and doing so in kind of an efficient manner there. So that's the
reasons that we have not shut down any kind of businesses, that we haven't
targeted different types of businesses with the restrictions. We've done it through the race
structure to help make that as equable as we can across the board to ensure
people's water use remains just as minimal as we can, and as well as
maintaining their business or their operation that they rely on, as well as several
people who rely on for you know, their income through there. So with
that, the pools, the city pools, we're still looking at whether we're
going to open that. I think that traditionally opens in the last part of
May. We're right at fifty six percent, so if we drop down below
fifty it really shuts down all the pools what's all together. And so one
of the things that we're trying to weigh is if we open the pool and
we go below fifty percent in June, which is where we're projected to be
without any significant rain to change it, then we would open it for a
couple weeks and then close it right away. And so that would be somewhat
disastrous from an operational perspective as well, so all the kids that are employed
for the time to do it. So we're we're kind of evaluating that and
holding for the for the interim to see how the weather goes and hopefully the
year all just is spot on as far as the rainfall predictions up there,
and we'll we'll get enough rain to change our water situations sientifically enough that we
can start opening things back up. Very good. So Jerry, could you
talk about, I know, the pro hit on this a little bit about
why we water the greens at the golf course. Yeah, so the greens,
as as Jerry mentioned, are a significant investment I think as well over
two million dollars as far as what the city has invested within just the greens
itself. And so that's really kind of our line in the sand is that
we want to maintain the greens, keep the greens alive. So um,
they're doing that in a very kind of prudent manner with the watering. So
I know Jody Shahan at the golf course, Uh, he has rain gages
and everything else, moisture sense sensors, so he's only adding water when it
needs it, not just to just to water. So they are currently getting
rigged up where they can water excuse me, off of the ponds, so
they would stop using city water for water in the greens. And so um
kind of the intent is f if we near fifty percent, they're going to
make that conversion over to watering with the ponds. Uh, and then try
to operate that way until hopefully rains replenish the water supplier until water runs out
one of the two. So okay, so come on rain, Come on
rain. Yes, Yes, Terry talked about doing a rain dance, but
Jay kind of shut him down because of it may have bordered on some violations
of the law or something, so I don't I don't know what he had
in mind, but Jay said no. When he's the police chief, so
he could say no. Yeah, he didn't even let me finish the thought,
you know, he kind of shut it down, roths off the bat
well. He said, you can, but you're probably gonna be able to
spend a night somewhere that you're not used to being. So well, he
said a little bit, a little bit more direct than just that. Yeah,
I figured I didn't want to stay at a hotel for a EID or
two or however long. I'd rather stay my own home for for the time
being. So I would imagine the bed would be a lot a lot better.
I think so, I think so, I think so. So.
So we have a few minutes we can make fun of Mike Bailey I think
that would be that that's what ass Yeah, since he's not here, No,
I won't we'll do that. But I really appreciate everyone here, all
the directors in the city. They do an outstanding job in the city staff
does amazing as well. And we're lucky to live here. We're lucky to
be in a city like Bartlesville and have the things that we have, and
we face it. We have our challenges. I mean, Terry can't make
it rain, so then we have water problems. But I think we're going
to get through that because we're prepared for the care to move forward. If
we don't have golf greens, I mean, we're gonna We've got so many
fundraising tournaments and this United Way tournament. It brings a thousand players in plus
another three hundred volunteers from outside the city and they stay here and they go
to the restaurants and they spend money, and it's gonna be a it's going
to be a big tournament this year. Every year they raised right out a
million dollars or a United Way, which is that money stays here, it's
not spread out over the United States. So and so many other fundraisers that
we've got at the golf course that helped so many different things, over a
million dollars from other fundraisers stuff. So this watering we have to do.
We have to figure it out somehow, but I know it's really really gotten
difficult. Well, you know, you you made that comment about the people
to come in just for the use of our course. That's a that's that's
hundreds of thousands of dollars maybe into the millions of economic impact to the benefit
of our city and surrounding community. Absolutely, So we're fortunate to have a
lot of the amenities that we have to make people want to come here.
Sure, and so it's because of the hard work and dedication of the staff,
and we really appreciate them, and we appreciate you for allowing us to
be here and talk about what we do and some of the struggles that we
have and really educate those that we serve. Well, very good. You
know, our city is a great place to be. I tell this to
people all the time. Four years ago, I didn't know anything about Bartlesville,
and then all of a sudden kind of popped up on the little map
here is well, this might be a darnking place to live, saw a
couple of pictures and said, okay, we came here, and mister Potter,
by the way, he didn't even have to, you know, tell
me anything about this, that or the other. My mind, pretty meet
up. This looks like a pretty good place, and so far it has
been probably the best place I've lived. And I've lived a long time,
so you know, I've never lived in a community. We're more people rallied
for your success. People you don't even know. You go to other places,
there's a little bit north. They're not necessarily rallying for your success.
They're kind of hoping for your demise, you know. So it's a little
different mindset down here. So we're pretty fortunate. We are. We are
very very fortunate. I know what you're talking about. Well, once again,
I want to thank everybody for being here today. On our City Matters
program, we will have a little bit of a post broadcast on here with
our podcast. Also, we will have the uh the video to last along
with the stories today right here on K one, the one you trust and
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up from CBS next and I want to remind everyone that we do have a
twenty percent chance of rain today. Otherwise we are looking for a sunny high
of eighty nine degrees. Other than that, not too bad, all right.
And also we do want to let you know that there's a forty percent
chance of rain tonight with a low of sixty five Tomorrow forty percent chance of
showers, partly sunny with the high of eighty nine degrees. Another chance of
rain on Tuesday night, but only a thirty percent chance. Our biggest chance
of rain is coming up on looks to be on Wednesday, with the seventy
percent chance thereob is CBS News on the Hour presented by indeed dot Com