Good morning, good morning, good morning, and welcome, welcome, welcome.
Any's time now for our community connection right here on K one go one
you trust, and it's brought to you in part by Arnold Moore and Knee
Camp Uneral Home, Tall Grass Botors, Got Real Ministries, and Wesley and
Kitty College. And with us here we have Michael Kohlaw, friend of the
station. You've been around here for a variety of different causes and everything else,
but right now you've got a different kind of causes, more like a
calling. You're running now for Washington County Commissioner District too. First of all,
good morning, good morning. Now for the hard questions. Sure,
what made you decide to get up and run? Well, I'll tell you
what. I was raised in a family where service was important. Born and
raised in Enid, moved to Bartlesville thirty four years ago. While it's not
home like a hometown, I grew up in it's home and I fell in
love with the community and state here. I saw my dad serve two different
times on the school board and Enid and then my grandfather, my uncles,
my aunts here in Bartlesville, Washington County have served on boards and committees for
fifty plus years. And I remember the first board I served on was Youth
and Family Services back in nineteen ninety four, and just fell in love with
the idea of giving back to the community and serving and have had the privilege
to do that for the last thirty years. Wow, that's great. So
you have a servant's heart and that's kind of your call here to run.
Now, you were telling me that it was about a year and a half
ago you'd been muddling this over, yes, and what was your thought process?
Well, at that point in time, I had been working at Phillips
sixty six and you know they have gone through multiple layoffs over the last several
years and I was a part of that, and so I began thinking,
Okay, what's next? What could I do next? And this was something
that a friend of mine said, have you considered Washington County commissioner in your
district? And at that point in time, did not know what current Commissioner
Bouvier was going to do, and so I molled that over, had a
conversation with some of the other commissioners and actually had a conversation with Commissioner Bavia
found out he was not going to run, and so I said, you
know what, let's take that that level of service and raise it up a
little bit further, go outside of Bartlesvillo the greater Washington County community and serve
in the capacity that I haven't done yet. Michael Cola as our guest,
and he is running for Washington County Commissioner in District two. Mike Bouvier is
not running. And this is this is this is a big darn deal.
It is a big deal. You know, it's a little bit more than
pixing a pothole or something like that. This is this is a lot.
I mean, every district has so many moving parts, and until just a
few months ago, I didn't realize how intricate those districts are and how much
really a commissioner has in playing a part and getting things done in each district.
Yeah, there's quite a bit. You know. The commissioners in Oklahoma
are generally the administrator's business managers of the county. Every county in Oklahoma has
three, no matter the size, no matter the population, they have three
county commissioners, and they're all entrusted with their district, with their area.
I think most people do think roads and bridges, and yes, that is
a significant part of it. But there's more, No, there's more.
You know where one of the counties that has a budget board. A lot
of counties the commissioners they control the county budget, but Washing county as a
budget board, and so that money goes to rural fire departments, that money
goes to schools, that money goes to the roads, the bridges to you
know, you'll get phone calls from the conversations I've had. You know,
our ditch is a mess, it needs mode. We need something done out
here, or I know book Commissioner Bouvier has prided himself on the work he's
done with the cemeteries. Oh my goodness. Yeah, and that's been a
huge staple of his time as the county commissioner. So it's vast. I
don't even pretend that I know all of what they do. I'm excited to
jump in and work and find out how I can serve. It's a two
way street. I want to help the community as much as I can be
available, listen and get to work helping this area. That's not gonna be
a problem listening because in other ways, did which you've served that's been the
same two way stream capacities. So that's not gonna be just gonna be a
little bit bigger scale, a little bit, a little bit, quite a
bit bigger scale. Yeah, but this is a great Now do you are
you looking for volunteers to help you out in your campaign? Absolutely? I
will take all the help I could get. You could find me. I
have a campaign Facebook page now and it's a co Law for County Commissioner and
you can just search that on Facebook. You could like that page, follow
that page. You could direct message me on that page. That page also
has an email address that you could email me at. That email is it's
hard to get a short email, but co Law County commission two four at
gmail dot com. So anyone who's interested in helping, anyone who asks questions,
feel free to reach out to me. I want to be available,
and again, I would take all the help I can get because there's a
lot to do between now. In June eighteen, we talked about being brought
up to serve in the other ways in which you have served our community for
about thirty years or so. But what do you think you could bring to
the table that might be just a little bit more than kind of what's there?
Sure, you know, I think my experience that I have uniquely positions
me to do this job. Well, seventeen years in pastoral ministry, and
you work with a lot of different people in pastoral ministry. You see the
good, the bad, the ugly, the happy, the sad, you
see all of it. So seventeen years there and then thirteen years oil and
gas and banking uniquely positions me to see a financial side, a personal side,
the people side, and just I think that skill set has been developed
during that time, which I'm proud of and I'm excited about. Now,
when it stows, I'm just gonna give you a little little heads up if
you get the gig when it snows, one of the people you're gonna hear
from me because we always call our commissioners. I just want to give you
the heads up there. That's fine, I know what you're gonna say.
Yeah, we got the standard going. You know. I had someone mentioned
to me early on when I had a conversation about doing this. They said,
well, you know, when it snows, you're not going to sit
at home, You're going to be out checking out the roads and that type
of Oh yeah, I said, well that's why my truck's four wheel drive.
I'll be glad to get out there and check things out and do what
I can to help get that stuff done. Now, you you do have
relationships with other commissioners and other county office holders, Greg, Yes, other
current commissioners I have. Well, we have a commissioner who just resigned over
in Osah County and I used to work at oklamal Wesson University, so Everett
Piper was a commissioner there, so I do know him. I have taken
the time to get to know a couple of the commissioners in Tulsa County when
I was down there for an event, introduced myself to them and said,
hey, I'm going to be running and they said, we're excited. Let
us know how we can help you. So some of the surrounding counties,
yes, I have do know some of them. And you're not walking into
this blindly, no, sir, I'm not trying to cover as many bases
as I can. How many pairs of shoes have you worn out knocking on
doors? You know what? We have not yet started the door knocking process.
I'll get ready, just got the yeah, I just pulled the data
from the Voter Registry warehouse the data and then have created multiple spreadsheets to go
all right, here are the doors I need to go and knock. And
we're ordering the print material and we're going to start knocking doors probably in the
next week, so you might see me if I'm in your area. I'd
love to talk to you, and I would love the support and get to
know what I could do to help. Okay, right now, you do
have the Facebook page and people can can reach you there. Can they ask
questions of you there? Absolutely? All right. I would gladly entertain any
questions. And of course the volunteer information is there as well. Yes,
and that is again your Facebook page. Co Law for County Commissioner. Can
just search that on Facebook and like, follow and message me away, Message
you away, I'll get you. I imagine you're gonna get a few.
I love it already. Well, Michael, thank you very much for being
here with us. Michael cole Law. He is a candidate for Washington County
Commissioner District too. I have to ask one thing, is there anything that
you'd like to put out there that we haven't reached today? Boy, you
know I will be up and do you this Saturday. Okay, there's Dewey's
doing an event called Second Saturday. This is the first one they're doing,
which they always have fun with this. They've been planning this for a long
time, they sure have. And I'll be playing some music outside of the
Vault, which is right there on Don Tyler. Yeah, and if you
want to come up and be a part of the Second Saturday, I will
be available. I will not be playing the entire time I'm there. I'll
be playing music and then being around to talk to anyone who'd like to talk.
So if you want to come up to do you this Saturday, it's
going to be a little wendy, but should be good weather anyway. Oh,
there's always fun to be had in Dewey. Always if it's not right
there in front of you, folks have a tendency to make it fun.
Yeah that's true. Hey, thank you for being with it. Thank you
all right, folks, you've been watching and listening to our community connection right
here on K one