All right, good morning, good morning, good morning, and welcome,
welcome, welcome. It's time now for city manners. If it matters to
you, it matters to this city. Alrighty, it is a nine thirty
close enough, ish, I guess, And we do have our assistant to
a city manager, Teresy Rouhles, in the house here with us. And
you brought a cast of thousands, and I mean thousands. How are we
doing today? Good? You know, I always heard the best leaders are
those ones who surround themselves with people that are smarter than them, and today
I have been successful in doing that. You got a lot, that's right.
Listen. I don't know how many it's going to take, but I
know how many I brought, and we're still waiting on one more. That
just tells you how I feel and how comfortable I am about my abilities.
Well, good, good, good good. So yeah, we got a
lot going on, mostly the weather. The weather has been real good and
it's gonna get better. Uh that that's good and bad not so good.
We were just talking on the way in. That could be really really bad
for the fire chief and his staff. As the things are dry and the
wind is high. That could create some issues. Chief. So, uh,
if you would talk to talk to us about grass fire season, about
the new truck, about the time change, all that stuff, anything fire
related that you think we should know. All right, good morning. Yeah,
we're in store for some high winds, low humidity in the afternoon,
so that spells a really good opportunity to burn burn a lot of stuff.
So the wildland and the grass and the brush and all of that stuff is
uh, it has an opportunity to be very productive and be very wild over
the next several days. And so we just want to remind everybody to be
fire smart when you're out there, if you're doing anything outside that maybe could
cause a fire or start some sparks, because in the afternoons, when that
humidity goes gets really low, high winds, fires will start really easy and
they spread really fast. And so help me help my guys out by just
being real fire smart when you're outside in the next few afternoons. So you're
saying, low humidity, high wind equals fire, fire, fast, fast
fire, fast fire. I don't know about I don't know about fast fire.
But it does not sound like it would be too good. No,
it's it's uh, it makes it really tough on all of us, uh,
and we want to remind everybody some of the ways that you can help
protect your your house and your outbuildings and stuff like that. Is though you
will everybody's got those corners where the leaves blow up into those corners and collect
and everything. This is with the weather being good outside, this is a
good time to grab your right spend just a few minutes clean all of those
places out right where those leaves have have have really got together up in the
corners and stuff. Get those out of there. You know. It's also
a good time everybody's wanting to get outside and start doing some yard work.
Start protecting your structures and getting that high grass and get that down, get
anything that can that can actually bring that flame up to the side of your
house where it could come up the side of your house. We want to
alleviate all of that stuff, and so this is going to be a really
good time to do that and hopefully we won't have any problems with that.
I want to go into We've got time change coming up really quick. March
the tenth is our time change, and so this is the time that we
always tell everybody, you know, you need to check the batteries and your
smoke detectors, your carbon monoxide detectors, change them. The other note is
if if that device, you look on the back of that device when you
change that battery, if the manufacturer date is older than ten years, this
is the time when you need to just throw that in the trash and go
get a new one. That's it's cheap insurance. And so if you've got
a good one that's just a few years old, change those batteries. Now
look at that date. If it's older than ten uh, it's time for
a new one. It's great advice. Update on the fire truck. Don't
you like keeping those notes on your phone. It's real convenient to your phone
goes off, then you've got gassword and all that stuff. That's exactly right.
Yeah. We uh, the city in our U c i P.
Last year, we got a new We they voted us to get us a
new fire truck or it was basically elected to the through the city staff,
and so we appropriated the monies for that. We ordered a new truck.
I'm trying to think it was about October, October November somewhere right around in
there. And so the truck that we're we're gonna be getting. It's gonna
be ready here in just the next few weeks, we'll be we'll be getting
it here in Bartlesville. And so we're we're in the process of ordering all
the news hose and hand tools and all the stuff that goes with that,
and so the total project is of just a little over nine hundred thousand.
We got a really good deal on a truck, and so, you know,
we we basically went with a stock truck, which it was one that
they already had in production. It is a custom truck, but not fully
customed to us because we didn't design every aspect of it, but it was
basically designed for us. Basically, that company looks at a lot of the
other fire departments in the area and kind of what they're using and what's working
for them, and so it really fit us, and so that's what we
went with. The main thing on that is it cut down the lead time
on building that truck by about two years, and so we're getting that in
just a few months of a few years, and so that's going to help
us out quite a bit. So a couple of things you talked about their
chief I don't think that the average citizen really understands. Number one, you
said we got a good deal nine hundred thousand dollars, Well, the truck
actually was about seven hundred and fifty eight thousand. Each one of those trucks
carries about one hundred and twenty thousand dollars worth of hose and tools and equipment
on that truck, radios, all of that stuff. Anytime you put fire
in front of anything, it makes the cost about three times higher than when
and so yeah, just the package of tools and the hose and all the
equipment that goes on that, it comes out to about one hundred and twenty
thousand. And then the other thing you said that I don't think that the
average citizen really understands. You said two years to produce a fire truck.
Talk a little bit about that. Well, and in times pasting years past,
before COVID, we could take and order a truck and we spec that
we respect that truck out from the lug nuts up. I mean, we
build that truck basically to our specifications. What's going to work for us.
Pump size, how big the water tank is, how big the cab is,
all of those things Before COVID, we could order a truck and have
it delivered in just that ten months. When COVID hit and the supply chains
crashed and all of that, it's really stacked stacked up and backed up all
the orders just because of the supply chain issues. That went from ten months
to over three years, just almost over nine and then we've backed that up
now to where we're in that two to two and a half year timeframe for
a regular engine. And so if you went to order one today and you
SpecEd it out from the lug nuts up, just like we usually do,
we're looking at two to two and a half years to get that truck delivered
to us. Each these truck companies, they will look at the fire departments
around and see what their everybody's building, and a lot of the fire departments,
as far as their first their first run engines, everybody uses just about
the same. They'll do little small intricacies that are a little bit different,
but for the most part, they're all about the same. And so they
had some trucks going on the line that they were going to order, and
so they threw a couple of extras on there that they're going to call stock
truck. They're actually they're really not a stock truck. There's still a custom
made truck, but they're just going to be in stock extra stock. We
looked at what they had available. It fit us. We could absolutely use
it. It's going to be a really good deal. So that's what we
went with and it cut our time down by about a year and a half.
Fire truck production, Tom is an interesting things. You can't just like
go to the go to the car dealership and buy fire truck. It takes
those things a long time and we have to be really strategic in our planning
due to how long they take and how much they cost. So we really
appreciate the citizens of our community supporting things like that to keep the public safe.
And thank you and your and your staff for everything that you guys do.
And hopefully the winds won't get like they are predicted and hopefully nothing will
be a burned fast. Don't want that. Yeah, we need all the
prayers that we can get over the next few days. Did you get that
truck from me? Nine? By the way, Uh, it's this new
truck is coming from Pierce, Okay. One is what one is. The
majority of our fleet is e one's okay. We've had really good luck with
those. They're good trucks, they last long. Just kind of a little
bit of the changes that's that's kind of coming in that truck manufacturing. We
got a little better deal. The the total package is a little bit better
because the parts availability. Pierce has put in a actually has put in a
shop in Tulsa. They've got one in Tulsa in Oklahoma City that we can
actually if we've got to do some extensive repairs to a full warehouse with parks
and everything right there in Tulsa. So that's going to help us out.
Conce I've been better, absolutely well. Thanks Chief, So Shelley, Happy
Monday to you, Thanks for joining us, Thank you. Sorry for my
late rival. No, it was perfect. We planned for you and we
were talking about the brain for us, so I'm glad that you're here to
really elevate that level of brain trudness. I'll try so if you were to
give us a little update about in the library, we would appreciate it absolutely
well. We have been busy at the library and we continue to do a
lot of things. One of the first things we're getting ready to have done
is the LED signboard. As you know, we worked on that project for
many, many months and the signboard guys were there this last week and measuring.
They are building the waterproof enclosure for our signboard. Now it has been
delivered to Tulsa and so sometime we're hoping in the next two weeks they'll be
here to install our new signboard and we're excited to offer for that to our
community again. As you know, it's been off for a couple months now.
Wow. Yeah, and so that's exciting. The next council meeting,
they're going to award the bid for our new skylights. They will be replacing
the skylights and I know we don't often look up, but those run the
whole range of the library from front to back and it's a huge operation.
We got a really good company to do it. But there's no way we
can install them without closing the library at least a little because they are over
our main entry and go clear to the back. So we can do some
detours, but we're going to have to close probably at least a little time
to get that done. That's out of safe concern for safety, Oh yes,
yes, because we don't want anything to drop on anybody. So just
know that that project they're looking at an August date, and that sounds like
a long way away. But by the time they do the contracts and order
the materials and get the company here, it's going to be July or August.
So that's it sounds like it's around the corner, bit it's not really.
So I goting to tell you guys about the hushrooms. We did install
those in mid December. Those have been really popular, used every day,
and everyone that uses them really appreciates the opportunity to go into a quiet space
to either be loud or to get away from the noise. And so we
are expanding our study caraws. We've always had our study crows at the back
where you could go into a room by yourself and study, but they've always
been open air at the top, and that is created some distractions for other
patrons. If someone's trying to have a zoom meeting in there and it's just
loud, or people are looking for a quiet place, maybe sometimes it's not
so quiet. So we're going to be building those all the way to the
ceiling now and make them actually private rooms. And we're doubling the size because
they were originally built to be smaller and they enlarged them gosh fifteen years ago,
and that we figured out that no one's using that extra space. So
we're gonna make them smart again and make them private, and so that construction
should start within the next month. We're also building two new meeting rooms in
the library because there's many times people call and ask for a meeting room and
they can't get in, so between public companies to help us and our own
building maintenance crew, we're going to get two new meeting rooms built and we're
working on that right now. Gosh. We're also having the chillers replaced at
the library, so those are the big air conditioner chillers. We have two
of them, so we're expecting the first of one the one to come in
the first of March, and the second one the end of March or the
first of April. So I don't know. I haven't been told whether it's
going to be a staggered installation, if they're going to do it at the
same time, but I'm sure there's going to be a little bit of here
cold issues during that time, and I apologize in advance, but we'll try
to make it as easy as possible on staff and public. So that is
most of the construction projects, and we have a lot and we're blessed to
have them all done and we're excited to get everything renovated. But our biggest
thing, as you know, are two things. Our Summer Block Party is
coming up citywide and that's going to be April twentieth. We do that with
the Police Department and we are excited to have that coming up and we're planning
for that. And then our Summer Reading program, which is coming up in
all of June and July, and you'll see billboards for that going up in
the next month and a half. One of the fallacies that people don't understand
is it's just for children, and that's just not true. Summer Reading is
for all ages, and we have prizes for all ages, and we encourage
you, even if you're an adult, to sign up and kind of take
part. So that's mainly what's going on at the library. Anybody have any
questions about anything, always a lot of stuff going on the library. Tom
Oh, Yeah, you know, I don't think. I hope that people
within our community understand the good that the library provides for them and all the
things that Shelley talked about today are all positive things. I would like to
talk about one thing that's not necessarily positive that happens at the library from time
to time. You know, growing up, I always thought that when you
enter a library, you were supposed to be quiet. You were not supposed
to to disrupt people. The people were there to read or to study,
or to just be in a quiet space. Well, it seems like over
time, specifically for our library, I'll speak to that, that that culture
has changed a little bit. It seems like we have younger people who come
into our library and approach it like it's a park, be as loud as
they want, run around, and act inappropriately within the library. And I
would just ask parents and encourage them to visit with your young people and talk
to them about etiquette when you are in public libraries and how to be respectful
of others who are also in the library, and tell them to be quiet
and if they don't want to be quiet, then go outside and be as
loud as you want to be. But that's something that we've seen increasingly getting
worse in our library, or people who are coming in and not being respectful
of others. So just ask parents to talk to your kiddos if they spend
time in the library, and we want them to spend time in our library,
and we encourage them to spend time in our library. But we also
want to be respectful of people. Absolutely, and if you see something that
is bothering you don't be afraid to approach a staff member and tell them,
because we can only address items we know about. And if we haven't seen
that, or if we don't know it's rising to the level of making someone
uncomfortable, then we don't know to address it. So please help us address
issues that bother you if you're in the library. Yeah, we're so fortunate
here here in Bartlesville have such a quality library and a quality staff. You
know, the people are what makes the organization go, and you've got great
people at the library and so blessed. I really appreciate all that you guys
do for our city. Thank you. So. Laura Sanders, the director
of HR, is here with this fresh off of vacation, and she is
so excited about being here. Yes, this is one of her favorite things
to do and so I love it. I think that she can take up
the next probably eleven minutes and Jody can close it out in a minute.
And Laura assured me that Tom that she would only talk for Lidia has more
to say than that, but she's going to talk about our citizens, our
city Citizens Academy, not to be mistaken with the police Citizens Academy. There
is a difference, and I'll let Laura talk about that. Yeah. So
this is our first ever citizens Academy and it's for city wide. And I
know we've taken part in leadership Myrtlesville and we have a city Day and so
this is much like that, but it's more invasive. So we're excited to
be able to offer this to citizens because we get the benefit of seeing what
our employees do every day and who we are and what we do and all
of those things. But to be able to share that with citizens, for
me, is going to be awesome, I think. So we are accepting
applications for that until March first. I think as of this morning, we
already had forty one applicants, So this is well received. We're only accepting
twenty participants this first time around. We think that it'll be a better experience
if we have a smaller group. It's more manageable. I don't know what
we'll do in the future, but this go around, it's going to be
twenty participants that we accept. The criteria for the applications or applicants are they
have to be eighteen and up. They have to either reside in Bartlesville,
own a business in Bartlesville, or be employed full time in Bartlesville. The
application is very easy to complete. There's just you know, some demographic questions
that are on there, and then it'll ask why you want to be a
part of the Citizens Academy. And so the I think we've got six Where
can they find the application? So if they go to the City of Bartlesville
dot org, slash Bartlesville Dash, citizens slash Academy, or you can just
go to Cityofbartlesville dot org and there should be a spot on there and where
you can click on it. We've got let's see, seven sessions planned.
The seventh session would be graduation. So there's technically six sessions and this is
biweekly on Thursdays from one to four pm. And we've got a full schedule
each day of things for citizens to learn and things for them to do.
It'll be very hands on We're excited to be able to take them to each
department and kind of show them what we do. So what could a person
who who is reluctant to sign up? Maybe they don't maybe they don't trust
the city, or maybe they don't support the city. Should should those should
people in that category apply to this as well? Absolutely, this is very
educational. So the intent is to show show you what we do and to
you know, sometimes there's misinformation that gets spread around and this is an opportunity
for people to come and see for themselves what we do. So it's an
opportunity to hopefully enhance or raise the civic IQ of those that we serve every
day. Absolutely, Okay, very good, anything else because you still got
like, well, I will be remiss in my responsibilities as the HR director
if I didn't point out that we are always hiring. So we've got a
lot of jobs. If you go to Cityofbartlesville dot org, we have a
jobs tab that you can click on and there's a full listing of all the
positions that were hiring for. We're always accepting applications for police, fire and
dispatch, and currently we have an abatement officer position that we're hiring for.
We've got a water plant operator and some of those positions don't come around very
often. We have some that come around more often than others, but this
water plant operator, I think this will be a good opportunity for some people
because this one doesn't come around as often. We're still looking for an accountant
and that would specialize in grants. And then of course we've got maintenance worker
positions in street wastewater and water distribution, and that that list changes on a
daily basis. So if you want to see our full job listing again,
you can go to Cityoffartlesfel dot org and click on the jobs tab. Now,
wasn't that better than vacation? Oh? I didn't The beach was beautiful.
Yes, I am enjoying. This is unbelievable. A fair question,
I agree, I would agree that. Well, thank you and and and
Laura. One thing that she did not mention is she will be one of
the chair people facilitators for this for the first ever City Citizens Academy. So
we're very excited about that and hope that others are as well. And it
appears that they are for over forty applicants and we have about a week to
go. So those who are interested, thank you and will be in touch.
Laura will be in touch soon to tell you the good news or the
got away. Till next time. News Jody Adam's golf course. It looks
totally different today than it did, say this time last year. Yes,
sir, a lot of trees are gone. For somebody who plays golf like
I do, less trees is always good unless they're those They are those trees
that are along the outside, out of the fair way that I could use
maybe as a springboard, a backboard to keep my ball somewhat in an area
that I can hit it again. But a lot of trees gone, a
lot of things changing, a lot of good, good things going on at
the golf course if you want to visit with the Sumid common So we most
people in town know, maybe some don't. We are on the verge of
a major renovation at the golf course. We are just wide about nine months
out from starting construction on on all eighteen of our greens, getting those rebuilt.
Part of that master plan that was put together was tree removal. We're
gonna be taking out almost two hundred trees on the golf course and that is
more about erosion and keeping good grass. You cannot grow grass under a very
big tree, and my job is to grow grass, not to grow trees.
So of that two hundred, we've got about eighty of those trees taken
out. Sounds like a lot, but those are the small trees. We
have the big trees left to take out. So that's gonna be our focus
between now and you know kind of when we when contractors start rolling in here
at the end of this year. So that's that's kind of where we're at.
I mean, just lots and lots of trees to be taken down just
to overall improve the turf, improve the golf course, speed up play,
and just make it look a lot more manicured rather than it's kind of gotten
a little bit overgrown over the last few years. So we're going to try
to get it back to that nice manicured look that it used to have.
What is having fewer trees, What does that do, say maybe for those
new greens that we're putting in. Does it benefit the new greens at all?
Yes, it does, because what happens when you start getting trees growing
very close to greens, those big trees will send out roots for a long
ways, and you start getting those roots underneath greens, you're gonna start plugging
up the drainage on them, and you're gonna start sucking water out of those
greens like nobody's business. I mean, one of the one of the big
bunch of trees that we took out are you know, western red cedars,
which are they're an invasive tree now and all they do is suck water out
of the ground. So that's been a big chunk of the trees that we've
taken out. So yeah, and just shade. Shade's not good for greens.
And if we can keep air movement across those greens also, that's that's
huge. I Mean, some of the greens that we have the most problems
with right now do not get any air movement across them, and some of
them have fans and sold on them, you know, just for that simple
reason, Tracy, you see, you won't be fire putting anymore. Well,
I mean, if we'removing, a tree will prevent that, Tom,
I mean, let's take them all out. I'm in we'll have a tree
golf course. I'm not sure how it's going to prevent five pass, but
I'm I'm for it. You know, Tom said it. If Tom says
it, I believe I'm trying to get around the fight, but issue myself.
So, a lot going on at the golf course, a lot of
good stuff. There's gonna be some disruptions at the golf course coming up when
we start the greens project, but it's two point two million dollars worth of
money well spent for something that is so important to our community. It's interesting
to me how things like trees can really enhance the overall quality of golf course.
Yes, it's it's crazy. I mean, even the time I've spent
out there, and it's kind of one of those things. I've just got
blinders to it. I don't even notice them. You go out there and
you start taking them out, and it just completely changes the aesthetic of a
hole and changes how the whole plays. You know, that doesn't mean the
whole play is any easier by any means. It just changes how you have
to play the hole. I'm I'm excited. We've got We've got so much
going on out there, and I tell you what, we with this weather,
we have been just ridiculous busy lately. So people are getting out enjoying
it and uh, you know when it's when it's new and improved, I
think it's going to be the play is. It's going to be more outstanding
than what it is now. Also have a new teaching pro Yes, we
do, Jason Dockney. Jason was actually out there when I first went to
work out there, which was late eighties, and so we have a class
A golf profession out there that's available for lessons. All you got to do
is call the pro shop three three one thirty nine hundred and get some lessons
set up. He's so he's a very good instructor. That's mainly what Jason
focuses on is lessons. Awesome. Well, thank you, uh, and
thank you all for being here and thank you for everything that you do for
our city. Think I want to thank everybody tom for their involvement in the
Barlsville Next Strategic Plan. We had those public meetings about this comprehensive plan and
had great input from citizens and we're really excited about how that's going to progress,
and so I thank everybody for that. City staff also did an amazing
job taking part in adding information to complete that comprehensive plan. Other than that.
Tom, I hope everybody drives safely. Stop signs really mean stop and
don't mean go, so be mindful, slow down, respect each other,
and Tom, I hope you have a great week. I hope everybody has
a great week. One to thank you all for coming in and being a
part of city matters right here on came one to one and you try straight.
Now it is nine fifty seven degrees watch up fires. As the chief
said, it could be a real doozy here with the weather coming up here
and just a bit a full look at your forecasts coming your way as well.
Stay tuned as CBS News comes your way next. It is ten o'clock