Speaker 1: Good morning, good morning, good morning, and welcome, welcome, welcome.
Speaker 1: It's time now for our community connection right here on
Speaker 1: K one though one you trust, we have Tim Shehrick
Speaker 1: City Council Award one and welcome.
Speaker 2: This is your first recap session with us here. Appreciate
Speaker 2: you being here.
Speaker 3: Sure, thanks Tom, Thanks for having me late night last night,
Speaker 3: a long session last night, for sure.
Speaker 2: I understand. We got a few things taking care of.
Speaker 1: One of the things that was on our website this
Speaker 1: morning the Citizenship grant contract between the Oklahoma Department of
Speaker 1: Libraries and the City of Bartlesville in the amount of
Speaker 1: fourteen one thousand dollars to fund salary for the Immigration
Speaker 1: Citizenship Literacy assisted That wound up in two ties, one
Speaker 1: for one against vice versa versu. Advice to tell us
Speaker 1: a little bit about went into that. What was that
Speaker 1: all about?
Speaker 3: Okay, So there's a national grant that comes down from
Speaker 3: the federal level to Oklahoma for disbursement, and then that
Speaker 3: sent out to all the local libraries to fund programs
Speaker 3: and salaries for people to do things like this. And
Speaker 3: it was not a question of whether or not we
Speaker 3: were for helping people to learn other languages or to
Speaker 3: teach citizenship courses.
Speaker 4: I'm all for.
Speaker 3: In fact, I think a citizenship course might even be
Speaker 3: a great idea for people to be able to get
Speaker 3: to vote. If you don't know how our government works,
Speaker 3: should you vote in it.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's to teach civics in high school, but
Speaker 1: it could probably go a little bit further.
Speaker 4: Well, they used to.
Speaker 3: Now we've gone to social studies instead of history, and
Speaker 3: we don't really have much of a civics course, So
Speaker 3: at least a quick refresher on the constitution in our
Speaker 3: representative government would probably be a great thing. Homeschoolers have
Speaker 3: the total advantage on public schoolers in that regard. But
Speaker 3: there was some concern that was expressed through our constituencies
Speaker 3: that perhaps these services that were meant for people who
Speaker 3: are in the United States lawfully are being consumed by
Speaker 3: those who are So that's what that came down to
Speaker 3: was a discussion on whether or not we could perhaps
Speaker 3: request that the library require a proof of status like
Speaker 3: a green card, in order to be able to consume
Speaker 3: these services. And from what the representative said that the
Speaker 3: director of the library would probably say that they could not. However,
Speaker 3: they do require you to have an idea if you're
Speaker 3: going to get a library card. So I'm not sure
Speaker 3: where the administrative hang up is on that, but that
Speaker 3: was the essence of the debate.
Speaker 1: Okay, so that's Is it gone for good or can
Speaker 1: that be brought back up any time later on.
Speaker 3: I'm not sure if the grant will expire, so I
Speaker 3: don't have the expiry date for that.
Speaker 4: In theory, it could be brought back up. I suppose.
Speaker 3: I believe that we should be requiring people to prove
Speaker 3: that they're qualified to receive services that are paid for
Speaker 3: through taxpayer dollars sure.
Speaker 1: Service agreement with the trees City of Bartoletville keep Bartleviild beautiful.
Speaker 1: I understand that this was grant or some money that
Speaker 1: Phillip sixty six wanted to give the city four trees
Speaker 1: and that was voted down. Can you tell us what
Speaker 1: that was all about and how we came to know?
Speaker 4: Sure? Yeah, it was delayed.
Speaker 3: Delayed, so we have until June to take the Endeavor
Speaker 3: twenty forty five plan through reconciliation. As you undoubtedly know,
Speaker 3: the Endeavor plan was adopted or approved, but then there
Speaker 3: he opened a window for citizen comment of thirty days
Speaker 3: lots and lots and lots of correspondents from constituents being
Speaker 3: submitted to the city.
Speaker 4: Hey, we think this needs to be changed. We don't
Speaker 4: like how this might impact our neighborhood.
Speaker 3: So they're doing their best to take that through a
Speaker 3: reconciliation process. And so what we did with the trees
Speaker 3: grant was to say, this seems to be in line
Speaker 3: with one of the green initiatives that is contained within
Speaker 3: Endeavor twenty forty five. We'd like to just postpone consideration
Speaker 3: until we get a final ruling on Endeavor. Because Endeavor
Speaker 3: also covers increasing the tree canopy and other things like that,
Speaker 3: it could potentially be a duplication, but it definitely is
Speaker 3: tied together as far as a green initiative. We also
Speaker 3: know that trees planted in roadways like that very often
Speaker 3: have roots that go underneath and cause additional road maintenance costs.
Speaker 4: There's an issue.
Speaker 3: With potential maintenance of the trees because the up with
Speaker 3: trees folks are great with helping out for the first
Speaker 3: three years, but then they're going to pass that cost
Speaker 3: back to the city. So we don't think that it's
Speaker 3: necessarily a great thing, or at least some of us.
Speaker 3: Don't think it's a great thing that those costs could
Speaker 3: be sent back to the city for maintenance after the fact.
Speaker 1: Another thing that came up as water situation. That's a
Speaker 1: big thing, the water issue. Now, I understand you heard
Speaker 1: a presentation that was something that really wasn't going to
Speaker 1: require a vote.
Speaker 2: It was more of a let's hear what you got
Speaker 2: it correct on that.
Speaker 3: You're absolutely correct. Ter did a great job bringing in
Speaker 3: what they did. The presentation was very informative. It's quite
Speaker 3: a lot to consume. Actually, what it boiled down to was,
Speaker 3: at this time what they believed the best option to
Speaker 3: be is going to be trying to raise hula by
Speaker 3: seven feet to provide us with the I believe additional
Speaker 3: approximate ten million gallons per day that could potentially cover
Speaker 3: us for the next forty or fifty years on water
Speaker 3: supply demand. It doesn't necessarily speak to all the water
Speaker 3: quality issues that were raised, particularly back during the campaigns,
Speaker 3: but it does at least begin to speak to a
Speaker 3: water supply.
Speaker 4: That we could utilize for the foreseeable future.
Speaker 2: How these are cheap? Are they?
Speaker 4: None of them?
Speaker 3: In fact, I think the average was on all the
Speaker 3: things that were presented was over two hundred million dollars. Wow,
Speaker 3: which raised a question for me that you know, this
Speaker 3: was just a presentation. We didn't really have time to
Speaker 3: get into it too deeply. But I once saw an
Speaker 3: estimate on creating sand Lake that was estimated to only
Speaker 3: be about one hundred.
Speaker 4: And fifty million dollars.
Speaker 3: So I'm not sure how that compares at this point
Speaker 3: because that would have been construction, pipeline and so forth,
Speaker 3: and of course you've got to wait for the water
Speaker 3: to accumulate in that storage.
Speaker 2: But where would this be built?
Speaker 4: Sand Lake? I believe would be out near the sand
Speaker 4: Creek area.
Speaker 2: Okay, where the kind of damm up there? Yeah? Yeah, okay,
Speaker 2: now that makes sense a little bit.
Speaker 1: One hundred and fifty million dollars a scant one hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty million dollars.
Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, Everything, Everything is doable as long as you've
Speaker 3: got a great, big wallet.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 1: That hurts now, we were I guess the city was
Speaker 1: offered seventy six thousand dollars worth of money for electric vehicles,
Speaker 1: two for the police and two for the golf course.
Speaker 2: How do we go on.
Speaker 4: That that went through?
Speaker 3: The money on that was accepted, they'll go through a
Speaker 3: bid process and then do the ordering of the vehicles.
Speaker 3: Our concern there, of course, is that we want our
Speaker 3: first responders in particular to have the best possible equipment.
Speaker 3: We don't believe battery powered vehicles are that. And that
Speaker 3: also ties into another green energy initiative and into ever
Speaker 3: twenty forty five. That could be a slippery slope towards
Speaker 3: moving city fleets towards electric vehicles which will cost exponentially
Speaker 3: more than a gas powered vehicle, and the maintenance on
Speaker 3: them will be exponentially more, with an average battery replacement
Speaker 3: cost of three to five thousand dollars.
Speaker 1: Isn't it true that with the electric vehicles, once the
Speaker 1: batteries gone, the vehicle is rendered useless.
Speaker 3: It is pretty much rendered useless. You can go in
Speaker 3: and replace those batteries, but that's.
Speaker 2: Might as well get a new vehicle.
Speaker 4: You might as well because you're going to be substantially
Speaker 4: into it.
Speaker 1: The Homeless Task Force, it was a little confusion toward
Speaker 1: the end of the discussion on that it was a
Speaker 1: resolution to amend Unsheltered Homeless Task Force. The resolution for
Speaker 1: Folks Keeping Track at Home is thirty two to seventy
Speaker 1: seven tell us a little bit about this and what
Speaker 1: all took place.
Speaker 3: I think it's actually three seven to two two if
Speaker 3: I'm not mistaken, and it was amended then by the
Speaker 3: resolution brought last night as three seven two six. This
Speaker 3: resolution basically just created a couple of additional non voting
Speaker 3: positions on the task force and named the names of
Speaker 3: the people to be initially seated.
Speaker 2: Okay, was there any objective to the names of.
Speaker 4: Oh no, no, there was. There was no objection.
Speaker 3: There was some question as to why they chose Congressional
Speaker 3: District ten Representative Judd Strom instead of ced eleven John Kin,
Speaker 3: because John actually represents more of Bartlesville than Judd, who
Speaker 3: is in Osh County, But there was no objection in
Speaker 3: the end to any of the people who were named
Speaker 3: to be seated.
Speaker 1: How do you see this task force working? Is it
Speaker 1: going to be just a lot of fact finding and
Speaker 1: see what's available to do?
Speaker 2: If anything.
Speaker 3: That's kind of what the resolution actually says is that
Speaker 3: they will attempt to determine strategies. And then one of
Speaker 3: the tertiary goals I believe in the resolution was to
Speaker 3: determine if there's a need for an ongoing task force.
Speaker 2: Gotcha gotcha.
Speaker 1: There was a discussion about possibly punishing those who dump
Speaker 1: off homeless folks.
Speaker 2: In our community.
Speaker 1: We've seen enough tick in the number of homeless people.
Speaker 2: And I.
Speaker 1: Come into work at three point thirty in the morning,
Speaker 1: so I see a lot of folks coming from the
Speaker 1: laundery met the river as they migrate toward downtown for
Speaker 1: the day, and I'm seeing a lot I don't recognize,
Speaker 1: and I know there new. I don't know if we've
Speaker 1: got any kind of accounter that you know says that's
Speaker 1: a factor, if that's just by observation, But if they're
Speaker 1: being dumped off here, do we know who's dumping them
Speaker 1: off here?
Speaker 3: We're getting a very good feel for that now. The
Speaker 3: evidence of the experience of the nonprofits that are already
Speaker 3: actively involved in serving the homeless has indicated that there
Speaker 3: are entities in our community that will bring people in
Speaker 3: from other areas, sometimes in the guise of receiving a
Speaker 3: medical evaluation perhaps, and if the evaluation doesn't go well
Speaker 3: so that they're admitted to a program even though they
Speaker 3: have no residents, they have no friends or family in
Speaker 3: our community, they're just released, which means they're stranded.
Speaker 4: They have no way to survive.
Speaker 3: They have no gainful employment, they have no money, and
Speaker 3: that puts them on our streets and in this.
Speaker 2: Pretty unfair to them too, since they have no support.
Speaker 4: Oh, particularly in this weather.
Speaker 1: Yes, and so are these government type folks that are
Speaker 1: doing the dumping or who do we? Because I can
Speaker 1: tell you that when I lived up north, there were
Speaker 1: you know, police agencies that would you know, find a
Speaker 1: way to get a guy a bus ticket, right, and
Speaker 1: I should say law enforcement, shouldn't say police, And it
Speaker 1: was the one way to Florida. Therefore, you know, that
Speaker 1: kind of caught on with other northern states. Therefore, the
Speaker 1: Sunshine States got some real characters down there, lots right.
Speaker 3: Well, we really have some great people that are already
Speaker 3: involved in this issue. And as they've begun to work
Speaker 3: with the homeless, they've also begun to work together already
Speaker 3: they have so they communicate consistently. They at times will
Speaker 3: share extra food, extra shoes, extra shirts, you know, as
Speaker 3: that goes around. But they already have a fantastic strategy
Speaker 3: in place, and what they've expressed in my conversations with
Speaker 3: them is what they need the city to do most
Speaker 3: is to file an injunction against those entities, not any nonprofits,
Speaker 3: but against the entities who are the outside entities. Correct,
Speaker 3: So none of the five O one C three's, none
Speaker 3: of the nonprofits, none of the people who are like
Speaker 3: a Gape or anybody like that that are already out
Speaker 3: there trying to help feed and help the homeless.
Speaker 4: That's right, that's it wouldn't be filing it.
Speaker 3: But people like those nonprofits are the ones who are
Speaker 3: expressing we need to have the city help us to
Speaker 3: plug the hole. We've got people bringing people in from
Speaker 3: Ardmore and Venida and sometimes even as far as Kansas
Speaker 3: City that are getting left on our streets with no
Speaker 3: way to survive.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 1: Now that that calls for more investigation, a lot more answers,
Speaker 1: because if this is true, this is a bigger problem
Speaker 1: than a lot of people realize.
Speaker 4: Right, it is something that is being perpetuated.
Speaker 3: In other words, even if we had a strategy today
Speaker 3: that said we could go out and deal with all
Speaker 3: approximately two hundred and forty is what they estimate that
Speaker 3: they have currently in Bartlesville. Even if we had something
Speaker 3: that could put them into a place where we could
Speaker 3: help them to try to regain a good path forward.
Speaker 4: We want to help.
Speaker 3: Them to be educated if they needed, you know, whatever
Speaker 3: we can do to try to help them.
Speaker 4: Even if we had that in.
Speaker 3: Place today, it's just going to grow as long as
Speaker 3: we don't stop the entities that are continuing to bring
Speaker 3: them in very good.
Speaker 1: Anything you'd like to add is that we begin to
Speaker 1: wrap this up today.
Speaker 4: You know, it's just really important.
Speaker 3: It's on my heart for sure to make sure that
Speaker 3: we do the right thing with this homeless thing.
Speaker 4: These are people that are.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 3: They are as Pastor Fullerton who gave the invocation would
Speaker 3: have said, the least, the last, and the lost.
Speaker 4: And it is definitely our job. It is the job
Speaker 4: of the churches.
Speaker 3: It is the job of every individual to get out
Speaker 3: here and volunteer, to give, to help, to do everything
Speaker 3: that they possibly can to be a part of the solution.
Speaker 3: And if you're not, I'm not sure you really have
Speaker 3: a complaint coming. You need to do what you can do,
Speaker 3: because if you can't go, you can give. And if
Speaker 3: if you're not doing those things, then I would encourage
Speaker 3: you to do so, to contact the people that you
Speaker 3: feel like are doing the best work and to get
Speaker 3: behind them all the way.
Speaker 2: Very good, Hey, Tim, Thank you very much for being
Speaker 2: with us, Tim.
Speaker 1: Sharik Ward one Ward one Ward one City Councilor, thank
Speaker 1: you for being with us.
Speaker 2: You're on city matters. Thanks Tom, alrighty, take care