Good morning, good morning, good morning, and welcome, welcome, welcome.
Media's time now for our community connection right here on K one. What
one you trush. It's a shity matters today because if it happens, if
it matters to you, it matters to the city. We've got Billy Rohan
in today and council that you just had a nice, nice, nice thing
for the veterans get approved last night, very very exciting. I know it
was important to you too, it is. It's really important to me,
you know. I didn't even realize that we had a veterans park until Tom
and I bought that house out of Oak Park, pardon me, and moved
out there and we started kind of searching around and driving all the blocks.
And it was before I ever came on the council and saw where the Veterans
Park and was located, and thought maybe for sure that we could do a
better job honoring our veterans. And so at that time I started talking with
Lisa Beeman and we started discussing some things, and as a matter of fact,
she knew that we had a cannon. She found a cannon, brought
it out, put it there by the entrance to the pool. She I
don't know if you remember, but we bought some playground equipment quite a bit
and she found a really cool piece of playground equipment that looks like a jet
with kids and so. But for me, I really wanted us to have
some flags. To me, it wasn't a Veterans Park without our flags honoring
each one of our military organizations as well as our behind the States of America
or POWs. And so we talked about it then and she retired. And
then when Larry Curtis, our new community development director, came on board,
I went to him, I think he'd been on the job for maybe two
months three months, and told him my thoughts about our Veterans Park and he
was all on board. And so that's where it began. Been a while
coming, and of course we didn't have funding set aside for that, and
so lo and behold in I leieve November October of this last year, we
had a business who wanted to make a donation of one hundred and fifty thousand
dollars towards one of our parks, and the Veterans Park was suggested and they
were all on board for that. So that's where we are today and then
of course last night we approved the bid proposal. We're a little short in
funding right now the current project, but we've gone back in I say we
really Mike Casiemer's our engineer and our community development director along with the business to
talk about changing some things to kind of bring it more in line with the
one hundred and fifty thousand dollars that we have, and so I think we've
arrived at an amount that between our donation as well as tax but also there
is a foundation and a couple of other nonprofits that are right here in Bartlesville
that are interested in helping fund the Veterans Park and being a part of that,
which is not surprising to me. I knew as soon as we started
talking about it there would be a lot of people that would want to support
that because we love our veterans, and so it's really if you want to
see the site plan, you should go to the City of Bartlesville and check
into the packet for last night's meeting, because that it's a beautiful layout and
it will most certainly be a very honoring project in memory of all of our
veterans who have gone on and then are active veterance, our actory military.
So I'm very excited about it. You should be. I'm excited about it.
We've got some water issues I shouldn't say at issues, possibly reveedy.
You said to the problem we had with the drought, a little bit of
a study with taking place life. That's right. That has to do with
call Lake. And of course you know we have a water commission that has
it's been there, but we've reactivated it and brought our membership on that committee
up to date and we have been meeting to discuss different ways what can we
do to not end up in the same place where all of our water sources
are in the same area where there is a drought going on. And so
one of the things that was brought up was call Lake is a possibility.
The figures that we had, I believe were about ten years old, and
so they tried to estimate what that might be today, but which was about
one hundred and fifty million. We don't think that's truly as accurate as it
could be, and so we've commissioned as to engineering to actually do a study
not only on the actual dollar amounts, but they're also going to take a
look at the water quality at Call Lake. And now look at the raw
water intake pipe pipeline alignment and just estimated project costs as well, including engineering
easement right away, environmental and constructions. Well, I think they'll think it's
going to take about four months to do this. Really wow, so just
take a long time. But I guess that's pretty expedient four or five months,
and so that's very exciting. So then we'll be perhaps some more realistic
figures. You know, we talk about one hundred and fifty million dollars as
if it's nothing, but it most certainly is not. It is a lot
of money, and that is as I said, we really don't feel that's
an accurate estimate, and the coll Lake would be a great advantage, but
it also will be very, very costly. And so who bears that burden
is our all of our constituents, our citizens here in Bartos with Oklahoma and
so as a utility, that's who that's paid for by. So it is
something that we have to really think about. You know, we're already doing
some work with the corp of Engineers to see about raising the flood level at
Heala Lake, and so we're hoping that that's something that we'll be able to
achieve. That would be very helpful. And you know, right now we
don't have water woes, and so that is very exciting. But what we're
planning for is the future so that we hit this again, we will,
that's right, because we live in Oklahoma, we will. I understand that
another study is taking place with our waste water treatment plant, that's true.
You know, we've had some citizens who have been asking us about wastewater,
our wastewater reuse, and of course this is not a main water use that
we're talking about. It is an emergency water use and it has to do
with repurposing wastewater and there's a whole process for that, and so we have
engaged one particular group for lab work and another particular group for monitoring reporting.
That sets us aside from being the sheriffs over this and so and so this
is not something new. Our city engineers have already done some testing, not
actual in the water, but pilot testing at the plant, and so this
will help the environmental quality. Permitting this has to be done to permit a
new discharge into our Cane River and involve, of course, our wastewater to
become potable roads. So it's very to me. It is one of the
most fascinating things because the water is actually cleaner after it goes through this in
the water that we're drinking now, which is clean, and so I think
it'll be very interesting. Last night, city manager Mike Bailey said that if
someone wants to tour the wastewater plant, wants to know more about what's going
on, if they have concerns, if they would just contact the city that
they would be glad to accommodate them and let them take a look. And
so I appreciate that from our city management, and it's only due since people
have some concerns. I like it when different entities play nice together and it
looks like our Sheriff's office and our police department are going to do something kind
of cool together. That is true. I do too. I love it
when we collaborate with things and do a really good job doing that, I
think in Bartlesville. But yeah, this is an innerlocal five year agreement between
the Washington County Board of Commissioners on behalf of the Sheriff's Office with our Bartlesville
PD to share our firing range and it's a five year agreement, but that
anyone can opt out after thirty days written notice. After thirty days, the
county is going to put in five thousand dollars for some upgrades and maintenance.
And so I think it'll be a very good partnership. They can both use
the range and no need to build a new range just for the Sheriff's department.
So very good, very good. We got a little something going on
out there at the airport. Oh, my goodness. You know I love
the airport. Oh I know, it's right in your backyard. My goodness.
There are so many possibilities there and we're already seeing so many of them
come true with not just events, but just you know, for me,
it is a safety I believe it is one of the most important safety de
terms we have for all the possibilities that are there. We have that airport,
an amazing airport and the airspace and that is huge. And so this
project, I think it's about one and a half million dollars, two million
dollars something like that. But with four different funding sources that are granted in
or moneys that we get from four different entities, it will cost us around
seven percent of that total amount. So it's like the project that we do.
It was there last year here before last, the same kind of deal.
It was like a six hundred, five hundred and fifty six hundred thousand
dollars project that ended up costing us I think around forty nine thousand dollars.
So it is very exciting to me that we have that quality of an airport
already, that that these aeronautical corporation not corporations but commissions and are feel confident
in investing money into the into the Bartlesfield Airport. And I will tell you
Mike Richardson is a huge asset for us. Oh where it goes well,
he's just amazing really his knowledge of the airport and procedures and just so much
that goes on there. I'm so grateful that he decided to stay on.
And absolutely, I promise you city staff is and so well counselors feel the
same way. And he is just doing an amazing job. But it is
very exciting that and then of course we're working with even Bartlesville Development and Authority
on a project out there, and so this project out there, so that's
very you know, it's exciting, it's taxi ways and then also one hundred
and fifty by one hundred and fifty hangar is another project that we have working.
And so I believe Mike. I'd ask Mike how many hangars did he
think we could feel? You know, we're full right now. We rent
out our hangars. A lot of people are not aware of that. Oh
I wasn't right. That is a very active airport. There are planes landing
there every single day, in and out, stayovers people. We have a
lot of pilots here in Bartlesville, and a lot of pilots who fly in
for our companies, and some of them are coming in to see this.
That's exactly right. They'll stay over a couple of days. A lot of
them will stay at Hotel Phillips, and so it's very exciting and so just
a potential for not only sales tax dollars coming into our city, but also
just quite a great asset for us. Now I understand we have a housing
thing going on right next to a housing thing. I explain this a little
bit to the layman here. I'm glad. That's why I put that on
this today. I have, of course, that's out in my neck of
the woods, that's north of Oak Park, it's Oakwood edition. And we
have been working with mister Wendell since this came about for an adjusted PUD so
that he could actually build instead of flat top duplexes, he could build three
bedroom, two bath homes brick and two car garage for affordable housing. And
so one of the things that I admire about mister Wendell is he believes that
because you are affordable housing, you still need you still can live in a
very very nice home. And I studied a lot of his projects, you
know, that was something important to all of us, especially the residence in
Oak Park, about what exactly was going to occur there and so what this
is for. He had bought two additional lots to put his office. He
will have an office there. That's we'll have an employee forty hours a week,
which will be varied throughout the seven day week. And also a maintenance
instead of having an old metal maintenance building to store I mean building to store
maintenance equipment that will be stored right there in the two car garage and so
it will look like the houses there, but it will be in office.
And so that's what that is. And it had to have a new PUD
just like the entire addition had to have a new PUD so that he could
build homes instead of duplexus because that's what it was zoned for. Very good.
Well, I'm going to jump around here a little bit too, because
this one caught my city Comprehensive Plan Endeavor five. Now we got the news
release on this about the new website and the survey. How's that coming along?
Well, you know, that's just us being launched and that's just beginning,
so I don't know how that's going. I'm hoping that people will take
a look absolutely, because this is when you have your input to say,
this is what we'd like to see, this is what we want. And
you know, the comprehensive plans are required by law, and we have one,
and I believe it's nineteen ninety nine. So needless to say, I
think we needed to do some enough dating right along with our Community Development director
and his staff as well as our city manager. And so that's what this
is. This has come out of our strategic plan that we did last year.
The website includes details on the planning process, all about the comprehensive plan
as well as the survey. And so the survey is SurveyMonkey dot com back
slash our backslash Endeavor twenty forty five. Don't take my word for it,
or go on the if you'll go on City of Bartlesville the face page.
Of course, Kelly Williams, as always has a wonderful rite up there about
this very thing that has these links in there. And I believe there'll be
something again coming out this week in the city bet so. I know people
are excited about this, the Citizens Academy. Oh my goodness, you know
this is something new also that has come out of brainstorming, out of the
strategic plan. And I'm looking right now because I want to be sure and
tell you the details about this. Let's do This is a comment from our
city manager. He said, we wanted to offer the public an in depth
look at where their tax dollars actually go. This debut debut Citizens Academy program
will focus on educating residents, business owners, and interested persons of Bartlesville on
how daily city government operations contribute to building a better community. And this is
what I do know. The more that you know about how city government works,
the more you are apt to see why the decisions are made that are
made. You will have a lot more knowledge in order to give input informed
input, and it is just a good thing. I haven't talked to anyone
who's been on one of our citizen committees who has not learned something. And
so the academy is free. It's an interactive program designed to familiarize the general
public with the roles, services and operations that compromise Bartlesville City government. Really
and as I said, it's offered at no cost. It'll be biweekly on
Thursday afternoons beginning April first, running through June twentieth, and the course culminates
with a graduation ceremony during July first City Council meeting. And so it includes
site visits to major city facilities, presentations from our department leaders, interaction with
elected officials, and much more. And it truly is a unique opportunity to
learn how city government operates, which is vital knowledge that benefits our entire community.
And I would equate this with what we do with our through our Bartlesville
PD each year, with that informational for citizens that can participate in that.
And so here are the requirements eighteen and up to meet one or more of
the following resident of Bartlesville, own a business in Bartlesville or employed full time
in Bartsville. So that about covers the gamut. It does. Now I
think we're going to have to kind of move a little quicker here. Civit
in shed is ready to go soon as the ground drives up a little bit.
That's exactly right. A that's waiting on. And then I understand we
have some boards and committee and Rust Authority, Bartsville Area History Museum and the
Sewer System Improvement Oversight Committee, which there was a little bit about that in
last night's City council meeting. And you can go to the website and that
is Cityobartisville dot org to learn more. That's right. And if you're not
signed up for the City Beat, you need to be. That is free
that comes about every week. Kelly Williams puts that together. If you want
to know what all of us know on the city council, all you need
to do is read the City Beat. Just go and sign up for the
newsletter. It's free. It is Heymous Bill