Good morning, good morning, good morning. Welcome, welcome, welcome.
It's type of city matters. If it matters to you, it matters to
the city. And we have ourselves with your assistant city manager Tracy Rolls and
company, and I mean in company. If we did the roll call,
we'd be here all day. How are we doing? There? Is there
we would? You know, we don't know how many it's going to take
to get through this, but we don't how many. We're gonna bring it
every time, every time. That's right. We brought the big guns out
today, actual water and projects and golf, and I mean that pretty much
encompasses about everything close to everything that we do, pretty much. Yeah,
before I turned over these guys, welcome back. Last time we were here,
you were on a hiatus, so we didn't get to harass you or
visit with you, or whichever way you want to put that. I missed
you too. Yeah, it was good. So just to get my part
out of the way before I turned over to the experts here talk about we're
going through the application process for Ward four. Have until May third, at
eleven thirty am to submit your resume or letter of interest to Elaine Baines for
that ward seat until the end of the term, which will be in November,
so you will get appointed until November and then if you want to keep
that position, obviously you have to go through the election process. But to
be eligible, you have to be a resident of Ward four for the at
least six months prior to the appointment, no felony convictions, be at least
twenty five years old, and hold no other position in city government by appointment
or public office which would constitute a conflict of interest. So send those resumes
letter of interest to Miss Baines in City Hall or give her a call and
she can guide whoever is whomever may be interested through that process. Also,
one thing we talked about appointments, we have a retirement coming up Debbie Nice.
Her last day will be April the twenty sixth after eighteen years at the
History Museum as the collections manager, so that those will be big shoes to
fill. So anybody who's interested in that position go online and apply for that
position as well. We have our free yard debris collection coming up May the
sixth through the tent leaves, grass, lawn clippings, limbs and branches no
more than four feet long, or fifty pounds. Let's put those on the
curb and we'll get those picked up for you. The fire chief interview process
is moving along. Hopefully we'll have a new fire chief named in the very
near future. Big shoes to fill with Chief Topping retiring. A lot of
people are retiring, Yeah, Chief Debbie, yep, so pro will be
leaving within the year or so Rocky, like you said, so at a
lot of people twenty eight years from now. So it's funny. At my
house, we have a we have a list on our refrigerator of graduation years
of the kids and then we put my graduation year and it's like never The
kids think it's pretty funny because they already think I'm so old, you know,
I just work to you di other things that we have going on we
have we talked about the library director, Shelley McGill is retiring soon. So
we are actively taking applications for the library director and various other jobs. So
anyone interested in a job with the city joining a wonderful team of such such
a great team at the city. There are many opportunities for people. Just
to go online to the City of Bartlesville website and there's a job on there
that fits a person's desires. We encourage you to apply. The only other
thing is something new that we have is the my Bartlesville app. You can
go to your app store, whether it be the Apple, Apple or Android
whichever, whichever one of those you choose, and sign up for that app.
It's really cool. It's he talks about you can you can read about
what's going on in the city. You can report things like potholes or water
leaks, or kids riding their bikes and areas they shouldn't be, or adults
riding their bikes in areas they shouldn't. You can apply for jobs. You
can pay pay your utility bills online. But that's the my Bartlesville app.
It's a really cool app, pretty new. A lot of a lot of
people did a lot of good work putting this app together. Does it have
a Hey Bailey button? You could, Yeah, and then it goes right
to mister Bailey and and you know that's that's always fun to directly do his
cell phone, maybe even direct you to his home address where you can just
show up virtually at his doorstep. I think that would be a great thing.
I mean, I don't see a problem with it, and you guys
probably shouldn't say that. I can say that since I'm on my way out,
he can't really you know, take advantage of firing me or anything.
But you guys would probably should You should stay new You guys definitely stay there.
So a lot going on, a lot of opportunities with this within the
city in various ways. We have some boards and commission openings obviously, uh
that if you're someone who is interested in that, please apply. If you
want to be a city council person and you live in more foreign there's opportunities
there. So just a lot of a lot of good stuff going on in
the city, and these guys are going to talk about some more exciting things
that are going on. So Jerry Benedict our golf pro, longtime golf pro,
very popular around the state, very well known around the state and the
golf world. And we're so lucky to have had Jerry and his services for
so many years. But he's going to talk to you guys a little bit
about what's going on at the golf course. A lot going on at the
golf course. Our associations have started a senior association, which is one hundred
and fifty strong and they play about one hundred people every Tuesday. The Ladies'
Association has started and it's going really good. We've got tournaments lined up,
including our Memorial tournament on Memorial Day to raise money for the golf course and
it's going to be for things like new white sand and the bunkers and stuff
like that. So it always goes well. But we have a lady's clinic
on May sixth and eighth. I'd like the ladies to know it's a free
clinic. It's at one o'clock, so come. We don't need clubs,
you don't need shoes. You can just come out and we're going to help
you get started playing golf. And some of the ladies will be there too,
So put that on your ladies. Put that on your deal if you're
interested in playing. The junior program's coming up. That's June three, four
and five, the Ladies or the Junior Clinic. It's free clinic, same
thing there. You don't have to have clubs if you want to come.
Get the kids started and it's a good program. And then the week after
that is the Junior Camp, which is more instruction getting them, getting them
going three days, so a lot going on there. We have some construction
getting ready to d so this is a big year this year. It's going
to be at the end of this year and the city is going to build
new greens for us. They're gonna core them out down to the down to
the drainage and put brand new greens in with a new type of bent grass.
We can't really use Bermuda grass up here. It's right on the border
of Bermuda. Yeah, so we got a pretty pretty tough program going for
twenty twenty five. What will happen is December, January, February, March
they'll rebuild the greens and then April. We can't do it in the we
can't plant them in the winter, but in April we will plant the greens.
We'll have temporary greens. The members are being very patient with us,
but it's something that really has to be done. And I'm very appreciative of
what's your name, Tracy, Just kidding. Tracy and Mike have had great
help to get this thing going and do this and a lot of other things
they've both done. Micah seemers to help improve the golf course, which is
really needed and the city has recognized the importance of the golf course. So
much money is raised for so many causes out there. So we're very excited
about this deal coming up. I'm going to try to get the hell out
of here before it starts, but it won't be much business about anyway.
I want to also recognize a Lion Foundation for all the things they've done for
so many years. But they are contributing to this rebuild program, so I
thank them so much. Recognize them for all the work they've done for so
many years for me and the city. Anyway, that's a golf course,
all right. It's gonna be a good one. A lot going on out
there, a lot of tournaments, a lot of opportunities to learn the game,
to play, to play the game. The courses has come a long
way and there's a long way to go, and very excited about what that
course is going to be like this time next year. I'm so I'm so
honored and so appreciative of what the city has done for me for so many
years. To put up with me and everything has been something I'll tell you,
Adams is my backyard and everything. It has just been a wonderful career
for me. We appreciate I couldn't play good enough washing carts and cleaning toddy.
Well, thank you. So now we'll move on to MICA. A
lot of projects going on, a lot of things happening, and a lot
of things happening, and we're you know, we're right there. Actually just
a busy time of year for really all of us as directors, but for
sure they're up and there in the engineering department because it's a it's a budget
time. So we just actually last I guess this last Monday, had our
workshop meeting with City Council, presented the initial presentation of a staff proposed budget,
both for just the operating budget and also for the capital budget as well.
And so all this is is kind of fresh on our mind with all
that we've got a whole lot of projects coming up and a whole lot of
products that we've been working on that we're we're carrying over some addition some funding
for him to to continue those on and get those designed and constructed. So
I thought, what I do today is talk about a little bit about the
ones we've got coming up ready to bid pretty close and for construction. So
we don't have a whole lot in construction right now. We do have the
Veterans in the World ongoing right now. They're at the Frontier Pool. We
started that project about two weeks ago, broke ground on it then. You
know, we haven't let the cat out of the bag on this yet,
but we do have some some private funding involved with that. Some donor funding
made that project possible. But essentially we're going to construct a memorial there for
veterans that it actually is Veterans Park where Frontier Pool is located, and so
it's going to be there on the north side of the pool. We'll do
some new parking there, we'll install some flags, some landscaping, a little
bit of a i'd call it kind of a plaza area sidewalk, but it's
more of like a continuous concrete plaza area there. So we're working on that
project right now. Should get that wrapped up. We're hoping to get it
wrapped up by Memorial Day weekend. I think I think that we can attain
that goal. That would be nice, you know, Veterans Memorial Day weekend,
whatnot. If we can't get it completed by then, we'll at least
for sure have it done by fourth of July. But the goal is by
Memorial Day weekend that we should have that wrapped up. So we got that
one ongoing. We've got the Crestling concrete rehabilitation project that's ongoing right now.
We're getting close to wrapping that up. We probably have another month month and
a half on that project. Essentially, this is a concrete panel rehab from
from Adams Boulevard to Baylor Drive on Crestlin. It also included a leg of
Baylor Place that kind of makes a loop that connects between Baylor and in Crestlin
as well. So just replacing concrete panels there, doing some sidewalkworks, some
handicapped ramps, things of that nature. Uh So we got that one under
construction right now as well. We've got the pickleball courts that are construction.
Now. That's a popular one. Tom's over there giving the old fist bump.
He's ready to go out there and got pickles. Cheir it up on
the pickleball court. I think so. I know Terry is too. Terry
is a big pickleballer. Right. Card cour we played once one time.
We're undefeated, but we dominated. Yeah, we dominated. I think it's
a good time if you retire. Now you retire as some sort of chance.
Now we're undefeated, undefeated, never lost tennis too. Yeah, yeah,
get them off to the tennis court. That's true. We've got that
project. We've got six pickleball courts we're constructing. They will be lighted.
So that was kind of a moving target there for a while. The way
that project was bid, we we bid it as a base bid of six
courts with with the fencing and benches and whatnot for people to sit on,
and then we had some bid alternates for lighting for two additional courts, uh,
some shade structures, things of that nature. But we're able to fully
fund the base bid. We had a little bit of money left over.
But we've also there again kind of a plugged the line foundation. They're going
to participate to help us fully fund the delighting portion of it. Might get
some money from Parsons and some other private donors as well, So working on
that. We've got that included in the contract. So it will be lighted
so that wintertime hours they can they can play into the night, and then
summer hopefully when it's super hot out we can get some some evening play and
just extend play for for better times for those players. So there's really no
other public pickleball courts in this region U immediately around Barnsville, so this will
be nice provide some more usage. I think right now people are using there's
some churches that allow them some time on their facilities. I think you know
the Country Club. I believe they've got some play out there and they hold
some tournaments and whatnot. But this will be the first first public courts in
our area, so looking forward to that, and that's gonna be at Sooner
Park. It will be adjacent to the tennis courts that are well south of
the fire station, north of the tennis courts there at Center Park. So
they're they're moving along in that. The courts have been poored essentially, fences
have been installed. We're waiting on some work on the lighting, and then
we've got to do the surface treatment on those as well. They'll have a
nice Bartlesviill Brewing themed surface treatment using some Navy blues and Carolina blues and or
Columbia blues and and some grays and whatnot. So she looked pretty sharp when
it's done, and we anticipate that being wrapped up here probably in the next
month. I think they've been moving pretty quick on that, So if we
can get all the lighting components in and whatnot, we're looking in the next
month probably getting that project wrapped up. So some projects that we've got on
the books that should be coming out pretty soon. We've got a large Pathfinder
project. We've got about seven hundred and eight thousand dollars planned for Pathfiner funds
either are actually some older funds that we've carried over from year to year.
We've been working on designing that for a while. A while kind of got
kind of got high centered on some things. We're getting that knocked out now.
We got the Steve Roper, one of our project engineers, is getting
that off a high center for us. So we actually have a bit opening
on that on May twenty second. We should hopefully award that contract June third,
assuming it all goes well. So this has got some sections over by
I guess you'd call it the oh they're at Wesleyan Church parking lot area,
the Hillcrest Heights area, Polaris trailhead. We got some work around that area.
We've got some work around Robinwood Park on the section of that that runs
through the I guess it's a bird sanctuary, is it the I think it's
a bird sanctuary that they got through there on at Robinwood Park. Some work
there about a high school a not section of trail. We've got a large
storm through a walkout on hadn't washed out completely, but it's on its way,
so we're gonna get that addressed. We call that the frog Pond area
there by the high school, and so some other sections as well. I
think we've got the section over there by the trailer park there off of Adams
Boulevard. We've got some some issues with some some roots from trees damaging trail
and whatnot through there. So we've got a lot of sections included in this
project kind of covers a lot of the town. We also in that project
are going to do the trail at Douglas Park. So there is a trail
at Douglas Park that makes a loop around that area, and so we're gonna
include that as well. Got some funny for that portion of that trail,
so that'll be a good project. Again. We're gonna award that hopefully June
third. Got seven hundred and eight thousand dollars Planning for that project. We've
also got a large parking lot project for parks, parking parking lots and access
roads into Johnstone Park Center Park. We've got Johann and Low Park included in
there for parking lot lyon park things of that nature. So essentially we've got
a whole series of gravel parking lots that it has served us well. You
know, that was kind of what did back in the day as if we
needed something, we went in there and put it in real quick and got
access to people. But we're trying to clean that up, make it a
little bit more, give it a freshen up, I guess at our parks
and so we've got just about one point two million dollars worth of funding for
our park parking lots as well. So plans on that are complete. So
we're getting ready to bid that project as well. So you'll likely bid that
sometime, gonna get path Finder bid and then we'll we'll advertise bids for the
parking lots and so you'll probably see construction starting that later this summer early fall,
and that'll be a big enough project that'll probably go into next year.
We've got some coordination issues as far as working around Fantasy Land of Lights at
Johnstone Park, and we've got Sunset or SunFest at Sooner Parks. We're gonna
hold off until after SunFest, get that bid and then hopefully get everything done
before that rolls around in the next year. So that'll be a good project
for us, one that a lot of people won't see. But we do
have a large project for some city Hall renovations. We've got some lighting and
energy efficiency upgrades, replacing windows that are they're currently single pane windows, not
very energy efficient, though it was nice having operab windows. Windows when we're
working on our HVAC project, I want it got so hot in there.
But replacing the windows at City Hall, the carpet in some areas where we
haven't replaced carpet yet, and then we're going to do a complete remodel of
the restrooms because they're really outdated. I think they're probably nineteen sixty. When
was that remodel the Peace sixties or they're probably in the sixties. I think
in the sixties was the last time those those restrooms were updated. So there
they're due. And then we've also got a security upgrade. You know,
with the state of the world, these days, we're looking at protection of
city staff and whatnot, so we'll do some controlled access still open up to
the public, get access for the public, but a little bit of extra
provisions for safety for city staff at City Hall. So we've got that project.
Plans are complete on that, just got to get those reviewed and then
get that ready to bid. So we'll probably start construction. That most likely
be about this fall and we start construction on that project. I know this
is a big one for everybody as far as they're aware of it, but
the Tuxedo Bridges and the Sunset Bridge project, we've had Tuxedo Neck down to
one lane westbound for over a year now, so we've had that going for
a while. We're working on design. I think that's the kind of running
joke right now is bats and muscles. So we're still working around some protected
species of bats and muscles that are in the river. And so we're working
through that right now with our environmental engineer on the project. And I still
hope you eat that project bid later this summer, start construction when we can
get in there and do the study for the muscles when there's low water conditions
in the river. So summertime on that study, and then we got to
get past I believe it's September fifteenth. I believe maybe September first. For
the bats, we're going to start construction on the deck of the bridge.
So essential way that works is April April fifteenth to September first. There's a
period of time there that if you're working on bridge decks in this area,
you got to be aware of and careful of bats and not disturbing them.
So we're gonna try to avoid that time of year by just getting past that
time. So again we'll see that product bid this summer and construction start later
this fall and go on that. So there again, so we talked that
we're in budget time. So the budget that we presented to council included a
carryover project we call carryover projects from various different funds. We've got about five
General Obligation bond funds that we're trying to wrap up funding from those. We've
also got the Capital Reserve fund, and we've got the Sales Tax fund,
so we gain a lot of these projects that I'm talking about now are some
of those carryover projects. We already had those plan that were already approved,
but we've also got new projects primarily from again capital Reserve Fund and a halfset
sales tax fund our two main funding sources for those. We don't really have
any new bond funds I could call the twenty twenty three bond new projects,
who really didn't get that money until I guess it's in December, so they
really weren't part of the budget approval process last year. So this is really
the first time that the council's kind of seeing those projects pop up. But
they truly our carryover because we did get that funding halfway through the year.
We've already started shipping away at some of that. But so we've got about
four point seven million dollars available for new projects and the sales tax fund.
Sales tax has been doing well. We had originally planned for about two point
seven two point eight million dollars a year in sales tax projects. We've been
getting little bit more than that each year, and so that's now we're on
year four of five on that five year sales tax extension, and so that
money has been building up somewhat. We've had about four point six million dollars
worth of carryover projects. That's projects that are already on the books, like
those pathfinder projects, some of the bridge project street projects, the lines share
that carry over those from we're prevented maintenance street projects. People might citizens might
recall that we were working on updating our payment condition model over a period of
time, and we just actually got that wrapped up this last year, and
we've got a whole list of projects. We've got actually two point eight million
dollars worth of projects the Street and Traffic Committee had identified for use of those
funds last year, so we'll get council approval on those projects at the coming
meeting in May when we get the Capitol budget hopefully approved. We've also got
one million dollars in new funding for print of vani At street projects for this
year. That was planned for year four or five with that sales tax extension,
so a lot of money that'll be wrapped up in streets as part of
that. And then again those pathfinder projects were part of that. And we've
also got eight hundred thousand dollars for downtown landscape improvements, which was a big
ticket item as far as those Carver projects, we just got money for that
last year, got to get designed going on that you'll likely see design happening
here in twenty twenty four, hopefully get a twenty twenty five construction on that
project in the downtown area. So again, about four point seven million dollars
worth of new project that we're planning that we're proposing this year. We'll see
if council approves. I think it went well at the workshop meeting. We
have a council not a whole lot of questions or concerns about the projects we'd
recommend, and so I should hope to see all those approved at the main
meeting. And with that, I think I've probably about kicked this dead horse
on projects. It's amazing what you do. I tell you, what really
is so much, so much activity going on. I mean, it's it's
it's something every single day, and it's that's That's one of the things that
I think is so great about this community is it's it's so innovative and forward
thinking and there's always something going on to improve the quality of life, whether
it be through pickleball, or streets or parks or or just quality of life
things. There's so many things that are going on. So you guys are
doing amazing work, and you guys for a very small engineering department, You
guys kind of stay a little bit busy. Yeah, and I'm excited where
there's a we're got potentially going to get a position. I knew a new
position for us, so that'd be that'd be handy. If I can get
Terry Lordson back in there, that's right, well, stuff out, that'd
be great. Keep talking. I'm trying to get him to just take my
spot and then I can. Depending on how the summer goes, that might
not be a hard sale for you. So we'll let them go ahead and
talk about what do we pray for? No rain? I mean, that's
up to you. Should I pray? Well's let's start out about water supply.
Since we had that smooth transition there to that, so water supply we
are in very good shape for this time of year. Really, all the
lakes are pretty much normal, except Copin is still a little bit low,
but that's our smallest war supply, so from an overall perspective, we're very
good. But we have started our flushing operations here within the last week and
a half or so, so this is where we flush our fire hydrants.
We do that for two main reasons. The first one is to test the
hydrants make sure they're all in good operation, because we don't want to find
out that a hydrant is broke when they need to put out a fire.
So that's we do that annually on all the sixteen hundred fire hydrants that we
have within the city of Barlsville. And the other thing that we use with
that flushing is just to kind of trust the system a little bit, to
ensure that it's flowing and it's performing as far as pressures and conveyance the way
that it needs to. So it's kind of a twofold as far as to
test a hydrance and then just make sure that the system is flowing and it's
providing the volumes and pressures that we need in all of our system, but
primarily for these firefighting applications through there. So that will continue really for the
next month and a half or so. It's typically about a six to eight
week program that we use to flush all the hydrants. We're currently in the
southern and eastern downtown areas is where the operations are currently. After we're finished
with that, we will move to the east side of town and start flushing
all through there, and then we finish up on the very west end of
town and Circle Mountain to conclude those activities. So more of the normal operating
procedures for us at this time of year, so we're thankful for that.
With water supply being in good shape, so we pray for a typical spring
and normal precipitation for spring and that will really help boister us for the rest
of the year and on to the future. There we'll talk a little bit
about wastewater, because water wastewater certainly, you know, you always think of
those two in the same breath, right, Micah. That's a good thing
they're taping this because you had provided amountain of information. That's my head was
hurting with all the information that you conveyed through there. Tom's got that photographic
memory, so he could probably just spit it off and all the highlights that
go with it there. But wastewater, we have had a couple of council
actions here within the last couple of months really regarding the financing piece of it.
So as we are preparing ourselves for the investment our wastewater treatment plan expansion,
we estimate that cost is going to be around eighty three million dollars and
we are looking to finance that through low interest loans that's available through the Oklahoma
Water Resources Board. So we have taken a couple of items through Council to
get our application and the environmental document approved by Council and submitted to the ODWRB
so that they can consider our application and then finalize the financing rates for those
improvements. So we won't need that money until twenty twenty six, is when
construction is anticipated, but at least this gets those rates locked in now while
interest rates are decent, and if they go down then we're able to reapply
at the time of construction. If they go up, then we're just in
a better position to move forward with it. So the good news is that
if construction comes in at the eighty three million dollars, we won't have to
raise rates as far as sewer rates to repay that debt. We have the
current rate structure that's sufficient for that, but we'll have to find out once
we get construction underway in twenty twenty six. So with that, that's where
we're at. Very good