Good morning, good morning, good morning, and welcome, welcome, welcome.
It is time now for our City Matters program and we've got to two
representatives from the city. We have Vice Mayor Jim Kurd also Billy Rone,
City council Woman. Today we got a lot going on budget obligation bond and
we're gonna do some brushing up. I guess we'll start off with that.
Miss Rone, were great, I'm happy to start off with Pat. Well,
you know, last year we did brush Up Bartlesville, which was a
community collaboration with nonprofits and in the city of Bartlesville, and it was very
successful. So of course we're doing our second annual brush Up Bartlesville and this
week is our Homeowner Application Week, and so I'll remind everyone what this event
is and how this comes about. This year, the young professionals of Bartlesville
are assisting and really collaborating and being our lead nonprofit and putting this together.
The program is designed to assist Bartlesville low income homeowners by offering exterior trim painting
this year to those that are in greatest need. And there is no financial
obligation by the homeowner, but we do request that they do some in kind
just to be kind of a part of everything that's going on, and that
could be that's exactly right, that can be fixing lemonade for the workers,
or if they're interested, they can get in with a paint brush. And
so the property is inspected by our neighborhood services. That's the city's part to
make sure that it's safe for our volunteers to go in and paint and it's
not too deteriorated that we cannot paint it. And then we also do a
fundraiser to go along with that because we have to buy the paint, and
so the young professionals are helping with that, and it's our buy a bucket
campaign, and we have set up a Bartlesville Community Foundation fund that is titled
Brush Up bart as well, where people can just make a donate. We
made a cute little flyer that says one buckets thirty bucks, and three buckets
are hundred dollars and six buckets are two hundred dollars. And it takes about
three gallons of paint to do the trim on most of the houses, and
so we can do quite a few houses if we get some application. And
so that's what I'm here this morning is because this is a homeowner homeowner application
week and I'll be able to talk here in a moment. And if you
want to find out about that. In the May twenty third City Beat is
an excellent article that Kelly Williams put together and it has a link on there
where you can see what the requirements are. Each home has to be qualified
to be painted. There are several different requirements. They're not tedious, but
they're necessary so that we're all safe and doing good things. And as I
said, this week's our application week. Also, anyone can contact me.
My cell number is nine one eight by five nine to six three four,
and I also have a City of Bartlesville is my email address on the city
council page ward for Council at City of Bartlesville dot org. They can email
or give me a column. I'm happy to help them with the application process.
We'll take applications this week that we may extend if we don't get enough
applications this week, but that we feel we can take care of. That's
pretty much what goes on, and we give anyone in our community an opportunity
to volunteer. The it's a very simple task. You don't have to be
an experienced painter to be able to paint trim and it most certainly makes our
homeowners happy. And so we did four houses or five houses last year,
and it was amazing to see not only what a difference that made on the
for the home and the neighborhood, but also for the homeowner. It was
it was quite something to see. They're very appreciative. Great job. This
is going to be a lot of part of them. Huh, where did
they application? They can get that application for me, as I said,
they can contact me and I'll make sure they get their application taken care of.
That's right, and those two ways. And as I said, and
by the way, if you're not signed up for city Beat, then you
are missing out because you know, if you sign up for city Beat,
you know as much as Jim and I do about what's going on in the
city. So it's very simple, that's true. Sometimes more very simple.
So simple. Kelly Williams does a great job with that. And you just
go to the City of Bartlesville homepage and right there on the bottom right hand
you just sign up. It's free. It comes every just about every week,
and you will be glad you did all right, Thank you very much,
Billy appreciate it. Thank you to a wonderful program. So now viism
occurred and sham. We went a little long last day, but a lot
of things got accomplished. We had a lot to do last night. Yeah,
between the budget and our CIP program projects. And we had the BDA
there, Barbles Development Authority was there, and then we also had the Bartles
of the Visitor Bureau was there. So we had a lot of things on
last night. You invited everybody, but we had it was it was a
big group. So we got we got through a lot. It moved along
pretty quick quickly. We just had a lot of things on the agenda last
night. One of them was the budget. We got the budget uh done,
I'll tell you and Billy would certainly agree. Uh. It's just a
work of art in a lot of ways, the amount of labor that the
city puts into that. We have a standard form, we've been doing it,
so they just fill in a lot of stuff. But every line item,
everything is detailed within our budget. It's six hundred pages. It's online,
it's available for the public to read, and it really details every single
department their staffing levels, their needs for materials for things, and then it
goes into all of our projects that we're using when we passed bond issues and
things like that for our CIP project. So we approved the budget last night.
There's a total of about a thirty five million dollar package and uh got
it done and moved on to our CIP projects last night. So we have
bond money and we have we got to have some projects done. We've spent
a lot of money on roads this year, about twelve million dollars on roads.
And can I say, as a citizen, thank you? Yes,
yes, yes, So it seems to be a very popular item. I'm
more of a parks guy, but we we've we've spent a lot on parks
in the last several years and and they look great. They do. They
look great, and they've done a lot for the city. But it's time
to catch up on some roads. And uh, we got a lot of
that done last night. So Billy and I put together a little package for
some additional signs that we the council was gracious enough to approve for us last
night. We're gonna have some signs at veterans. The second sign at Veterans
Park, one at Earl Sears Park, one at Civitan, and one at
Douglas Park. So we've got some signs that will go in to kind of
fit in with there'll be the exact kind of the exact same signs that we
put in our parks just recently. I love those. It looks so big
city but yet so ah we're at home. Yeah, it's got that real
cool look to it. It doesn't mean. We've had cedar posts and railroad
ties for the last twenty five years and they've kind of outlived their usefulness.
So those are good back in the seventies and eighties, but we had a
lot of we've had such a great deal of compliments on so they we had
a busy night, but the council, Uh, we all have our areas
of where we pay attention to things, and we got through it very well
last night. Very good. Now I understand we're also going to do some
pixing up of some of our facilities too with this Geo bod sit a pass.
Yes, we're gonna build a new fire station was talking about of our
Virginia and Hensley. That's a kind of our oldest fire station that we have.
It's still fairly useful, but it's a little undersized and it's got some
structural issues. So uh, we felt like this was the best time to
upgrade that. We've upgraded several others in the past ten and fifteen years,
so it was time to address that facility. So Billy, also, you've
gotten more neighbors moving into your pority. That building's got a new houses apart.
Wow, yea, so this is going to fit in nice. That
was a nice one, d Ad in there. We approve the BDA budget.
Uh. Last night we had a couple of new presenters. David Wood,
who is the director there, has been in the hospital, had a
heart surgery and his home at this time, so we had his counterparts there
last night. They did a great job. And then Maria Gus was there
also presenting the budget for the Barswold visitors. So well, they they bring
new neighbors to town all the time, that bunch that they've been I think
Batch Elder made a pretty good statement last night. They normally addressed like five
or six RFPs a year. They had sixteen in one month come through the
Oklahoma Department of Commerce, so they're not all eldible they're not all fit.
They don't all fit. At least they know where we are. There's a
lot of movement into the center of the country right now, and people are
looking for lower taxes and uh kind of a easier way of living in larger
cities on the east and the west coast. So we're seeing a lot of
activity in that way, seeing a lot of people moved to town. We've
given out thirty UM credits for new home building within the city, so we've
got thirty new homes that have been built and we've incentivized those, and we've
kept those people that built those homes hopefully working here. We're in the past,
we felt like many of them were working and living in Tulsa and commuting
up there. So we've got a lot of great things going on to keep
our city growing and keep people here. I've only been here a short while,
but in that short while, you know, we had COVID, but
we still had like tons of places come in that we'd command, you know,
some folks with a little bit of knowledge and a little bit of a
go get it, like our friends at Harrisop right down the road here.
That's that's a company that said sorry California, you ain't in and they caved
here. A few others did the same thing, along with some retail and
some some restaurants and stuff like that, and uh, you know, it
just seems like one by one, you know, we're just putting in all
the pieces that a lot of folks said when they first got here, you
know, bartle Bill would be just a little bit better if well, we're
getting that if put in that's correct. We really are. We're getting with
between the furniture store. We're even getting a new car wassh which here in
the time of water restriction street with this kind of a risky move, but
where's this going? Building that in? And then we've christ went over several
new restaurants that we've had in town, the new businesses. So those are
all positive signs that people see our community is growing and there are needs here
and I think on a daily basis we're addressing those needs as we go forward.
Oh, very very good. This really is Sometimes when the city council
meets, people say, oh, well, it says the mixed bag.
Some people are gonna be upset and some people are gonna say yippie. And
so we're gonna walk out blood. Man. Well, this is kind of
a yippie all the way around, because there's a lot of good victories that
came out of this one last night. I think, oh, I agree
one hundred percent all over the city of something exciting that's going to happen all
over the city. It's not concentrated in one area. It is really spread
very evenly, which is always a win win. Then everyone can see what
their tax dollars are doing, because this is really the money that belongs to
our citizens. And of course we pass the slate for the GEO bond,
but the citizens voted in in October, and so that's a kind of that's
how we work in Okahoma, and of course that's how we work in Bartlesville.
Now, miss run, you were telling me just before we begin here,
more and more businesses are popping up on the west side of town.
That's exactly right. And of course one of my favorites is this new contemporary
you shaped like a little shopping Yeah, a little shopping area. They actually
have some retail, yes, and it is just I just think it's great.
And I just all of a sudden, they started seeing something really nice.
Signs in the windows, and I'm like, going, well, this
ain't your usual, but by golly, there's cars here. That's exactly right.
I'd encourage everyone to stop in there and say hello and take a look.
But there is a little shop there that has some of the cutest things,
and then there's a pet shop and they're getting ready to expand and have
a dog car wash right out there in the uth. So it's just really
a fun little place. And then of course Jim I can't think of his
sweezy he is actually is putting in an office area over on Hensley, and
so no, he doesn't. And so we are still waiting for a pizza
place to say, hey, I want to be over there, because I
guarantee you even if they just had drive through pizza, they would be very
successful because we have of course, we have Murphy's and we have Sawnic which
is downtown and I'm hoping I'm not leaving somebody out that serves food over there,
but but we most certainly that would be exciting. So any entrepreneur out
there that's interested in putting in a pizza place, we would love to have
that on the West Side. But you're right, and you know, we're
working now and expanding the Veterans Park. A lot of people don't realize where
that is. It's right there at Frontier Pool kind of behind it. Well,
we're going to be able to expand that anna towards Frank Phillips, putting
in that. We've been working on that and raising money to put in our
flagpoles for our services, and they'll be all front most of Frank Phillips,
so it'll be very visible to the community. So taken on that task and
found some foundations and some grants and so so you're gonna city. It will
help clear the area and make it available, and then we'll get the flagpole's
construction and we'll get our new sign up there right on Frank Phillips. So
it'll be a great addition to the community. Well, it'll look really great.
They're perfect, and then we'll all recognize where the Veterans Park is and
we can begin to do some things there. It is White Road Cemetery.
Part of this is that city. Yes, yes, it is, I
understand. We're coming up on July eighth, it turns one hundred years old.
Something. Maudsleyum anyway, Mausleium Park cemetery been there a little in a
very long time. Yea, but yeah, I heard they're coming up on
a big to do so but I think you know, passing the budget,
and I give so much credit to the city administration for putting all this together.
It starts months and months ago. And then I'm extremely proud of the
City Council as we've all worked together for the past several years. They always
been a great edition. Lauren's been a great edition, the mayors and a
fantastic job. And then Trevor, I'm just pleased to be a part and
proud to be a part of a group of people that all work together.
We certainly have occasionally we have our differences, but we all have our mind
on growing and expanding our community and making it a better place for people who
live. Well, I'll tell you what the job well done on this budget
and the GEO bond. This has been a improved in principle. Yes,
we've we've got the framework for it and it'll go out for the they'll put
it together and we'll pick a date at our next meeting for the bond issue
in October. I think we've got that schedule. Jim. It works right,
TB tent over pin for you. That's right. Everybody can put it
on the calendar kind of sort of, but it has to be official.
And voters have in the past just been so gracious in their support of our
bond issues because about those, we just wouldn't be able to continually improve our
city and fix the things that need to be fixed. And they've supported that
along with the quartercent sales tax for the BDA. You know, no community
has really what we have in the way to drive our economic development like we
have. And I think it's proven itself over certainly under David Wood's uh done
a great job. And in the past it's done great, but we've just
come to a point where we're really utilizing those services better and better every day.
We have a lot of new people who moved into town over the past
few years. Does this raise your taxes? Taxes? Our middle levy remains
the same. We continue roll it into another bond issue, so nothing continue.
Okay, It's exactly right, because all of a sudden you hear some
new folks coming in town say, I just left New York City. They're
going to raise that No, they're not going to raise tax No, And
welcome to the land of Freedom. I will just say that if you're coming
here from New York City, you get to live, you get to breathe,
you get to say hi to people and meet it. You can tell
me your opinion, and I do not get upset. I welcome the information
and so much different. I had to tell my friends, said I grew
up near the Chicago area and said, I'm in a cool place. It's
called Bartlesville, Oklahoma, and said, what's it like down there? Is
it folks come up to you and they say, Hi, how you doing,
and they actually mean it. On the back of little room Buggy.
We're really experiencing that here, and I think the council and the City of
Staff have really done a great job of leadership to present our community well at
the state level and certainly on the national level, to be an attractive place
for people to relocate a business here or just come here and live and retire
here. We've had people here and moved from San Antonio, from Austin,
Texas, from California, from Chicago, from New York. We've had people
from all over the country find this place and come in here, and and
they're invested in the community at different levels. They want to be on committees.
They want to be a part of what we're doing and be a part
of our successes that we're having right now. All right, hey, thanks
for being with us today