Speaker 1: And it is Community Connection time and it's being brought
Speaker 1: to you by Tall Grass Motors. Also Wesley and Kitty College,
Speaker 1: Arnold Moore and Kneecamp Funeral Home all right here on
Speaker 1: K one, plus the Fraternal Order of Eagles. Don't want
Speaker 1: to leave them out. And today we have Quinn Shipper
Speaker 1: here with us today and Quinn is running for City Council. Now, Quinn,
Speaker 1: you were one of seven applicants to buy for the
Speaker 1: Ward four unexpired term of the Late Billy Roan, and
Speaker 1: you are unanimously appointed by the City Council back in
Speaker 1: June to represent Ward four.
Speaker 2: But you have been quite busy.
Speaker 1: You've done your homework forty five consecutive regular city Hall
Speaker 1: meetings and you consider you continue to serve on the
Speaker 1: Planning Commission, Comprehensive Planned Advisory Committee and the Water Resources Committee.
Speaker 1: And sometimes he goes home and visits is closed and
Speaker 1: has a meal.
Speaker 2: Get that in somehow, how you been.
Speaker 3: I'm a good time. I can always enjoy being in
Speaker 3: the studio with you. Thank you so much. I'm going
Speaker 3: to start with just a quick geography lesson because a
Speaker 3: lot of people don't know what ward they're in. One
Speaker 3: of five but here in Ward four, if you take
Speaker 3: Highway sixty Adams Road, everything north of Adams Road that
Speaker 3: is city limits from the highway Highway seventy five to
Speaker 3: the runway of the airport everything north, and then go
Speaker 3: downtown here to Shawnee, goes south to thirteenth and cut west.
Speaker 3: There's a little notch there and that's all of Ward four.
Speaker 3: So it is the most diverse ward in the city.
Speaker 3: We talk about that another time, but it's very diverse.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, A little bit of everything going.
Speaker 3: On here, A little bit of everything going on here,
Speaker 3: which is really exciting.
Speaker 1: That that is really cool. Now you have a platform
Speaker 1: and folks get ready for this with Quinn Shipper. This
Speaker 1: is called leader ship. See what they did there? All right, okay,
Speaker 1: so tell us a little bit about leadership.
Speaker 3: Thank you, Tom. I believe in leadership and want to
Speaker 3: represent leadership one that is approachable, one that's informed, and
Speaker 3: one that's engaged. We'll be talking about that here a
Speaker 3: little bit in the program this morning. And also to
Speaker 3: talk about one of the top three concerns that I hear.
Speaker 3: I call them the three ahs. Number one is homelessness,
Speaker 3: Number two is H two O water and number three
Speaker 3: is health, But I really want to focus on the
Speaker 3: homelessness concern because it is number one from what I'm hearing,
Speaker 3: and not just in Ward four, but in other sectors
Speaker 3: of the community.
Speaker 1: It's very visible, more so now than anytime I can
Speaker 1: remember in the nearly six years that I've.
Speaker 3: Lived here exactly. And so homeless is not just a
Speaker 3: community issue, it's a state issue. It's a national issue.
Speaker 3: But we need to know how to address this responsibly
Speaker 3: as a local community. We do so as a city
Speaker 3: councilor in all regards, I need to know and stay
Speaker 3: in my lane, like what is my lane as a
Speaker 3: city councilor for addressing homelessness. So one way that's addressed
Speaker 3: tom is through the Strategic Plan, the next plan. People
Speaker 3: can find this online. They can go to the City
Speaker 3: Bartlesviille website. It's all there, but three points that are
Speaker 3: addressing homelessness in that strategic Plan. One the city has
Speaker 3: been and is working to collaborate with other entities that
Speaker 3: are addressing homelessness to see how we can contribute to
Speaker 3: that conversation some of the solutions. There was a review
Speaker 3: completed this spring of existing laws and enforcement policies so
Speaker 3: that there is criminal activity. The police are trained and
Speaker 3: equipped to address those things specifically, and then also to
Speaker 3: utilize the Barisville Police department Mental Health Unit, so we
Speaker 3: know where the homeless are, numbers, specific needs, and one
Speaker 3: practical outcome of that was we have this CERT team gosh,
Speaker 3: the Crisis Intervention Response Team to learn all these acronyms
Speaker 3: on it. And on August nineteenth there was a special
Speaker 3: meeting call to the city council so we could accept
Speaker 3: and approve a grant of one hundred and twenty thousand
Speaker 3: dollars that will be administered over the next two years
Speaker 3: between the police and Grand Health very specifically to address
Speaker 3: homelessness on the Pathfinder. People have substance abuse, so it's
Speaker 3: a program really designed for rehabilitation, not just to remove
Speaker 3: people from from the Pathfinder, but to engage them in
Speaker 3: mental health programming resources to elevate them beyond that circumstance.
Speaker 3: Very exciting.
Speaker 1: We're one of the few police departments works in cities,
Speaker 1: of course, in the nation, they have done this and
Speaker 1: we've been seeing some success.
Speaker 3: We haven't seen success because the cert team it averages
Speaker 3: one hundred and fifty encounters with homelessness per month and
Speaker 3: so they're trained to be addressing that. Of course, the
Speaker 3: Pathfinder Parkway was brought under the umbrella of the Parks
Speaker 3: District this last year. There are more specific patrolling going on,
Speaker 3: and so one concerned people have by perception is am
Speaker 3: I safe? Not just on the Pathfinder, but when they
Speaker 3: see someone they might perceive to be homeless?
Speaker 1: All right, So we've got all that going on here too.
Speaker 1: So this is the one of the big issues. And
Speaker 1: I understand that you've been collaborating with some folks at
Speaker 1: the state level on this too.
Speaker 3: Yeah, last week I had a really wonderful opportunity to
Speaker 3: hear Representative Judd Strom. He spoke at a meeting. I
Speaker 3: tended to hear what the state is doing with an
Speaker 3: initiatives they're taking to address homelessness. And in Judge's inimitable way,
Speaker 3: he took the prism and turned it so we could
Speaker 3: see it differently. And what I agree that gift he
Speaker 3: has a gift, he really does. And what I appreciated
Speaker 3: about that as he reminded the audience that the homeless
Speaker 3: are people too. They are they are somebody's mother or father,
Speaker 3: or sibling or friend or other relative. They are people.
Speaker 3: They just live differently and have needs may be different
Speaker 3: than yours and mind Tom, and so how are we
Speaker 3: looking at them with measures of compassion but also responsibility.
Speaker 3: Because the top presenting needs are mental illness and substance abuse,
Speaker 3: doesn't mean the every homeless person is dealing with that,
Speaker 3: but those are things that need to be addressed. So
Speaker 3: homelessness does not equal criminality. He made a big point
Speaker 3: of that. Well, it's very true.
Speaker 2: Many people didn't ask to be in that situation. It
Speaker 2: just happened.
Speaker 3: It just happened for a variety of reasons, but he did.
Speaker 3: I want to point out something he brought to my
Speaker 3: attention is called the Healthy Minds Policy Initiative. There's working
Speaker 3: to treat or to address untreated mental illness and addiction
Speaker 3: with the homeless. He also talked about alternatives to traditional houses,
Speaker 3: transitional living. So just last Monday, I think it was,
Speaker 3: was when the White House did the groundbreaking for a
Speaker 3: transitional living center. He talked about room and board, other
Speaker 3: alternatives for providing homes for those who are homeless than
Speaker 3: just putting them in a house. That doesn't always solve
Speaker 3: new problems. So if we can bring a bit closer
Speaker 3: to home, the statistic was presented that meeting that two
Speaker 3: hundred pre K to twelfth grade students in Bartlesville are homeless.
Speaker 3: Two hundred.
Speaker 2: I'm not surprised.
Speaker 3: I'm not surprised either, but it's something we don't really
Speaker 3: want to hear.
Speaker 2: That's true, and we've got to find a solution.
Speaker 3: We're looking for solutions for that. And so one is
Speaker 3: state and local initiatives to feed children can make all
Speaker 3: the difference in their ability to concentrate and staying gay
Speaker 3: throughout the school day or even as the day may
Speaker 3: end to the weekends. Now, on the bright side, Tom,
Speaker 3: you and I both know there are a lot of
Speaker 3: community entities, individuals, churches, organizations, programs that are offering various
Speaker 3: kinds of service at city as well the police Department,
Speaker 3: Grand Health. So as I'm campaigning to retain my seat
Speaker 3: on Ward four, I want to touch on the first
Speaker 3: thing being approachable, because over recent months you'd be surprised
Speaker 3: how many people, and not just from Ward four, have
Speaker 3: approached me to have conversation about homelessness and poverty specifically.
Speaker 3: Just I don't think it's a coincidence. I'm just hearing
Speaker 3: a lot of that. Second is informed. So my interest
Speaker 3: in homelessness. I could go back to twenty ten when
Speaker 3: we were in Stillwater. That's another conversation for another time,
Speaker 3: that we had over sixty community entities collaborating by MoU
Speaker 3: and in other ways to address poverty, which included homelessness.
Speaker 3: But over two years ago, my dear friend that departed
Speaker 3: Billy Rohan, and we met with Lisa Carey the United Way.
Speaker 3: We met with the mcphails before be the Light was
Speaker 3: a thing and we were having conversations with community leaders
Speaker 3: and others. Then to understand and be informed about homelessness
Speaker 3: nearby and what is happening in other parts of the
Speaker 3: state and other parts of the country, to learn we
Speaker 3: want to learn from others about how we can address this,
Speaker 3: and then finally to be engaged. Obviously I'm passionate about this.
Speaker 3: I'm highly motivated as not just a citizen, but a
Speaker 3: citizen happens to be a city councilor to address homelessness
Speaker 3: in collaborative and strategic ways. So I think the information
Speaker 3: is there, there are already some collaborations happening. That's not
Speaker 3: the only answer, but it is an answer, and to
Speaker 3: facilitate that is something I really want to continue doing,
Speaker 3: hopefully as the representative for Ward four, but something I'm
Speaker 3: motivated to be doing personally as a citizen as well.
Speaker 3: They go together.
Speaker 1: Yes, man, I got to tell you that's it's a
Speaker 1: tall order, but you're working hard on it.
Speaker 2: I can tell it's really something else.
Speaker 1: It's something that we see every day and a lot
Speaker 1: of people just say, boy, I sure wish there was
Speaker 1: an answer, and here you are working on some possible
Speaker 1: some possible solutions here and the fact.
Speaker 3: That there are solutions that are working. Again, if a
Speaker 3: person is seen on the street or wherever and they're
Speaker 3: perceived as homeless, perception is not always the reality. It's true,
Speaker 3: I'm down very early in the morning, as you know,
Speaker 3: and I could easily be perceived by my early morning
Speaker 3: dress when it's dusk, moving around the streets having a
Speaker 3: morning walk. But our perception is not always the reality.
Speaker 3: And so we want to recognize those who are addressing
Speaker 3: it strategically and collaboratively. We want to hear from those
Speaker 3: who want to be engaged. So approach me. You have
Speaker 3: information that I want to be informed about. I want
Speaker 3: to engage with the community as a counselor, as a
Speaker 3: citizen and so people can approach me several ways.
Speaker 1: And how do we how do we approach you? I'm
Speaker 1: looking at a list of about ninety different ways.
Speaker 3: Well, we won't go through all night ago, I see
Speaker 3: my time is about up here. One thing I would
Speaker 3: encourage people to do is go to my Facebook page,
Speaker 3: Super simple Shipper Ward four. I've been doing an out
Speaker 3: and about in Ward four, and so I've highlighted at
Speaker 3: least one topic on homeless. You can read some of
Speaker 3: those there. Today I'm picking up yard signs they've come in.
Speaker 3: And so maybe you're a person who would like to
Speaker 3: support me by putting yards on your business or on
Speaker 3: your home property. But contact me these two ways, real
Speaker 3: simple again, ship Ward four Shippers S C H I
Speaker 3: P P E R at Ward four, Sorry Shipperward four
Speaker 3: at gmail dot com. Or you can text me or
Speaker 3: call me on my cell phone at four zero five
Speaker 3: seven one four three five seven five and let's have
Speaker 3: some conversation and let's make a difference together.
Speaker 2: All right, Quinn Shipper, thank you for being with us today.
Speaker 3: I'm glad to be here. Tom always, thank you.
Speaker 2: Alrighty.
Speaker 1: Our program has been brought to you by Tall Grass Motors.
Speaker 1: Wesley and Kitty College, Arnold Morney Camp Uneral Home and
Speaker 1: the return