Speaker 1: Good morning, good morning, good morning.
Speaker 2: Welcome, welcome, welcome.
Speaker 3: It is time now for our community connection right here
Speaker 3: on K one, the one you trust. We have a
Speaker 3: mayor deal Copeland in here with us today.
Speaker 2: How you doing your honner.
Speaker 1: I'm good. It's a beautiful day, Tom.
Speaker 3: It always is a beautiful day in the city of Bartlesville.
Speaker 1: That's true.
Speaker 2: Yeah, boy, tell you what, We've got a lot going on.
Speaker 3: You had a you got the recent opening of the
Speaker 3: new health and wellness facility. It's right across the streets there.
Speaker 3: While they're cutting the ribbon the other day and I
Speaker 3: was just waving it folks, and they're kind of like,
Speaker 3: who is that? That's at Yahoo at the radio. But anyway,
Speaker 3: that was a pretty good, pretty good time. It's an
Speaker 3: interesting thing. You drive by and it's this small building,
Speaker 3: but you go inside there's there's two I guess they
Speaker 3: call them exam rooms, a little office space, and it's
Speaker 3: with telemedicine. They say it's all that they need to
Speaker 3: provide services to people. They're open seven days a week. Interesting.
Speaker 3: Glad to have them in town. We said we could
Speaker 3: use a little rain. We had like a little whisper
Speaker 3: of a rain.
Speaker 2: Drive was that a whisper. It barely got the roadway.
Speaker 1: I don't think it counted as a sprinkle.
Speaker 2: I don't know it didn't.
Speaker 1: It's kind of you.
Speaker 4: No, we didn't need ras. Yeah, how bad are we?
Speaker 4: Not as bad as some people would imagine. When the
Speaker 4: lakes are full, they hold an amazing amount of water.
Speaker 4: But obviously we haven't had any rain. It's been I
Speaker 4: see this will ring of deal that it's the worst
Speaker 4: drought in one hundred years, something like that I read
Speaker 4: this morning. So we do need rain, and we need
Speaker 4: the rain to be north of here. If it'd be
Speaker 4: rained here at my yard, would appreciate it, but really
Speaker 4: need the rain just north of us. The lakes are down.
Speaker 4: I think I got this information yesterday. Our overall is
Speaker 4: at eighty one point six percent. So we're down, you
Speaker 4: know whatever that is eighteen point four percent, but we
Speaker 4: want to be thinking about it. The good news is
Speaker 4: it is now almost November, so water use will go down,
Speaker 4: watering yards and gardens and all of those things will
Speaker 4: begin to diminish. So that's a good thing. But based
Speaker 4: on our ordinance, if levels drop below eighty percent, we
Speaker 4: will begin an education thing to make people aware of it.
Speaker 4: Of course we try to do that anyway, but I
Speaker 4: think after that, once it drops to seventy five percent,
Speaker 4: we do go to a rationing setup, but it's for
Speaker 4: watering yards on odd and even days in the wintertime.
Speaker 4: I don't anticipate that being a big issue. Usage has
Speaker 4: been up a bit. It was better than six million
Speaker 4: gallons per day during the winter. We're usually four four
Speaker 4: point two four point five, So I do anticipate that
Speaker 4: going down, but something to be aware of that. We
Speaker 4: need to always be aware of our water usage anytime
Speaker 4: of the year, whether we have a drought or not,
Speaker 4: but especially now.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, it looks like the golf course is going
Speaker 3: to be closing some much needed repairents golf deal I should.
Speaker 1: Say overdue overdue, depending on how you talk to.
Speaker 4: The experts tell you that golf courses, greens and fairways
Speaker 4: and trees and all these things have a life like everything,
Speaker 4: and this one is considerably beyond its expected life. Some
Speaker 4: of those greens go back to the sixties, and yet
Speaker 4: they rated as one of the top municipal courses in
Speaker 4: the nation right there. Yeah, I've always said it was
Speaker 4: one of the best munist courses in the state. And
Speaker 4: they agreed. But yeah, we're going to close November the first,
Speaker 4: and again during the wintertime when there's less play. I
Speaker 4: know there's people that go out all year, but going
Speaker 4: to replace all of the greens, the practice greens, the
Speaker 4: chipping green, so all of that's due to be replaced.
Speaker 4: And it's really and I'm not an expert, tom, but
Speaker 4: it's what's below the green, the drainage and all the
Speaker 4: pieces that make that green work and be healthy, so
Speaker 4: all of that will be replaced. They're also we've looked
Speaker 4: at what trees need to be thinned out. Love trees,
Speaker 4: but at some point they create so much shade that
Speaker 4: the grass can grow. So lots of changes coming and
Speaker 4: the course will be closed we think probably through about
Speaker 4: the first of May. Again, it depends on how quickly
Speaker 4: all the new greens grow in and become stable and
Speaker 4: ready for play.
Speaker 1: The big yard and debris pickup coming up here.
Speaker 4: So that's a big deal as people look, and of
Speaker 4: course as the trees. Timing that is always tough. People
Speaker 4: say why did they do it here? Why didn't they
Speaker 4: do it there? If you do it too early, believes,
Speaker 4: haven't let go. If you do it too late, people think, well,
Speaker 4: I've got all this stuff stacked up for weeks at
Speaker 4: a time waiting.
Speaker 1: For the pickup, so we're going to have that.
Speaker 4: And here it is December the ninth through the thirteenth,
Speaker 4: on your normal day. So if you're a Monday or
Speaker 4: a Tuesday, or a Thursday or Friday, they'll pick up
Speaker 4: that day. You would not put them in or on
Speaker 4: your trash carts. You'd put them near because most of
Speaker 4: the time a different truck will pick them up. And
Speaker 4: always tell people if they don't pick them up with
Speaker 4: your cart, don't panic because another truck will be by.
Speaker 4: But you can put as much yard debris bags. They
Speaker 4: don't have to be any certain color, just as long
Speaker 4: as it's just yard debris. You can put limbs and
Speaker 4: sticks and twigs and bundles not over four feet long
Speaker 4: that are bundled up and tied into not more than
Speaker 4: fifty pounds, because somebody has to pick those things up
Speaker 4: put them in the truck. But they will pick all
Speaker 4: of that up. I remember, God, it's been several years ago.
Speaker 4: We had one house in town I think had one
Speaker 4: hundred and eighty five bags. It was a lot with
Speaker 4: lots and lots of trees obviously, but they'll pick all
Speaker 4: that up, get rid of it for you, and start
Speaker 4: off the winter on a good foot.
Speaker 3: Very good, very good. Cold weather is a coming. It's
Speaker 3: just not going to be today because.
Speaker 4: We're not gonna be a day or tomorrow. I'm looking
Speaker 4: at your weather map right, but the day will come.
Speaker 1: In fact, we've.
Speaker 4: Already had two days freezing. We got down in the twenties.
Speaker 1: In the morning. Right back up.
Speaker 4: But you do need to begin to think every year
Speaker 4: it kind of sneaks up on us. Have I unhooked
Speaker 4: the hoses outside? Have I winterized the outdoor faucets, made
Speaker 4: sure they're covered or drained or whatever they need to
Speaker 4: be at your house? But more particularly, and I think
Speaker 4: far chief chief call would tell you, are your smoke
Speaker 4: alarms working?
Speaker 1: Do you have good batteries? Test them?
Speaker 4: They got the little button. You can push the little
Speaker 4: button and it'll tell you that it's working. Get those
Speaker 4: things working. Think about maybe even a carbon monoxide detector.
Speaker 4: Things that I saw in my years in the appliance business.
Speaker 4: Don't use your cook stove to.
Speaker 1: Heat the house.
Speaker 4: It's just not made for that. It not only is
Speaker 4: not safe in some cases, but it's very hard on
Speaker 4: the cook stove. With Thanksgiving coming up, you don't want that.
Speaker 4: So if you're running portable or space heaters, whatever you
Speaker 4: want to call them, plug them directly into the wall.
Speaker 4: Don't plug them into extension cords. Certainly, don't plug them
Speaker 4: into a six strip outlet. That's where things happen that
Speaker 4: are not nice. Unfortunately, our incidents of house fires picks
Speaker 4: up when we have that cold weather.
Speaker 1: Get your furnace checked, have someone check it.
Speaker 4: Vacuum the dust and the stuff that's accumulated, make sure
Speaker 4: the burners are working, the vent doesn't have a bird's
Speaker 4: nest or something over it. That everything is ready to go,
Speaker 4: so that when you get that first cold snap, you're
Speaker 4: good to go and keep your house nice and warm.
Speaker 3: Already very good Sooner Park. We've got a lot of
Speaker 3: work going on down there. Been waiting on that for
Speaker 3: a while. Everything.
Speaker 4: It's really interesting because we pass a bond, don't have
Speaker 4: the voters pass a bond issue, for instance, in twenty
Speaker 4: twenty and here we are in twenty four. But you
Speaker 4: bond issues are for three or five years. Normally you
Speaker 4: don't get all the money the first year. You couldn't
Speaker 4: do all the work in one year anyway, So we're
Speaker 4: now working from a twenty twenty bond issue to improve
Speaker 4: the road. Now that's what we call the Ring Road.
Speaker 4: It will no longer be a ring road because the
Speaker 4: northeast portion of that will not be available for traffic.
Speaker 4: It'll be for foot traffic, bicycles, more of a path.
Speaker 4: But from the swimming pool, the house or building there
Speaker 4: on the east southem, I'll get my directions right all
Speaker 4: the way around to the tower, the play equipment, all
Speaker 4: of that will be repaved.
Speaker 1: They're working on that now.
Speaker 4: Parking lots will be improved and enlarged, but it's going
Speaker 4: to be inconvenient for a while. Brent Bell is doing that.
Speaker 4: He does good work. You'll remember he did Hillcrest Drive.
Speaker 4: So I expect that'll be done as quickly as possible.
Speaker 4: But the weather always always ask city engineers, say mister Seemers,
Speaker 4: when is this going to be done? And he always
Speaker 4: tells me the same thing. Well, we think about this day,
Speaker 4: depending on the weather, give or take sixty days. Hopefully
Speaker 4: that will be done sooner than later. At Sooner Park
Speaker 4: and that roadway and all the parking spaces and all
Speaker 4: will be improved.
Speaker 3: I understand it's going to go in two directions, which
Speaker 3: coming home from Freedom Pest is going to.
Speaker 1: Be a lot easier. Yeah.
Speaker 4: In the past it was always counterclockwise. Oh yeah, and
Speaker 4: you can only if you were here and wanted to
Speaker 4: get there, you had to go all the way around.
Speaker 4: Now because that northeast section of the loop is going
Speaker 4: to be taken out of play, it will be two way,
Speaker 4: so you can go from here to there and it'll
Speaker 4: work nicely. Okay, we've got the Tuxedo Bridge repairs and
Speaker 4: I guess we don't have a date set yet, but.
Speaker 1: No, my golly, we know it's coming.
Speaker 4: We're closer than We're closer than we were. I know
Speaker 4: everybody is frustrated. I am frustrated. Very briefly, we had
Speaker 4: two issues. One was an environmental issue that we had
Speaker 4: to wait and learn about muzzles and bats.
Speaker 1: That took some time. And then we had.
Speaker 4: The situation with a bid that came over one hundred
Speaker 4: percent over bid and we had to back up and
Speaker 4: come at that again kind of reduce the scope. But
Speaker 4: we did approve that the bid has been awarded the contractor.
Speaker 4: They're now working through the stuff you don't see, but
Speaker 4: there's a lot of work getting all of the paperwork,
Speaker 4: getting ready to mobilize the equipment to be on site.
Speaker 4: They think that that will happen again, depending on weather,
Speaker 4: but they think that that will happen probably in mid
Speaker 4: to late December. One of the reasons they have to
Speaker 4: is we want them to number one, but also they
Speaker 4: have to get that deck removed by March because of
Speaker 4: again all the EPA things about bats nesting and muzzles
Speaker 4: and stuff. I don't claim to understand completely. So it
Speaker 4: is coming, just not today, but it's a lot closer
Speaker 4: than it was. Good Halloween.
Speaker 3: Every time I have you in here about this time
Speaker 3: of year, you always set the record stream on Halloween.
Speaker 4: Halloween is coming now. Everybody has ideas about when that
Speaker 4: should be. This year, October thirty first falls I think
Speaker 4: on a Thursday. That the City of Bartlesville does not
Speaker 4: decide when Halloween should occur. So people call and say, well,
Speaker 4: when has the city set The city does not set Halloween.
Speaker 4: If you want to have it traditionally on October the
Speaker 4: thirty first, that's fine. If you want to have it
Speaker 4: a different date because it's not the weekend, that's your
Speaker 4: decision to make. What we do remind people, and Tom,
Speaker 4: I gave you it's maybe too much, but there's a
Speaker 4: sheet here that has kind of a neat little what
Speaker 4: is that called. It's not an acrostic anyway. Each letter
Speaker 4: so H in Halloween stands for hold of flashlight, wear
Speaker 4: reflective clothing. If you're out at night, sometimes people are
Speaker 4: in a hurry to get somewhere and they might not
Speaker 4: see little people wandering about, and the little people are
Speaker 4: excited and they might not pay attention to the vehicle.
Speaker 1: So hold a flashlight. Always try.
Speaker 4: If you're going to wear costumes, fine or makeup, but
Speaker 4: check that. Make sure there's not any reactions to that
Speaker 4: standard things look both ways crossing the street. Don't wear
Speaker 4: I know it's kind of cool looking, but the decorative
Speaker 4: contact lenses you see sometimes with the weird stuff. Only
Speaker 4: walk on sidewalks. Try to stay as we always teach
Speaker 4: people on the side. You walk facing the traffic. If
Speaker 4: you have to be near the street, make sure your
Speaker 4: mask fit. You need to be able to see. You've
Speaker 4: got something over your head and you can't see, that's
Speaker 4: a problem. Only eat factory wrapped treats. Tom and I
Speaker 4: was growing up, we had nice people in our neighborhood.
Speaker 1: I was a kid.
Speaker 4: This was a long time ago, but you had candied
Speaker 4: apples and all this stuff and nobody's anything about it.
Speaker 4: In today's world, parents, you have to be aware. Look
Speaker 4: at that stuff before your kids dig in, or before
Speaker 4: you dig into. It might be the case too. Don't
Speaker 4: go into homes unless you're with an adult that you trust,
Speaker 4: a parent or a guardian. Only go to well lit houses.
Speaker 4: Don't stop at dark houses, of course, never except rides
Speaker 4: from strangers. The biggest thing this one really kind of
Speaker 4: surprised me. The majority of fires related to this and
Speaker 4: Fire Marshall Brady Watson shared that from eighteen to twenty
Speaker 4: two and that four years, there were an average of
Speaker 4: eight hundred and thirty five home structure fires and they
Speaker 4: caused three deaths fourteen million dollars in damage. Half of these,
Speaker 4: almost forty seven percent, occurred because the decorations were too
Speaker 4: close to a heat source such as a candle or
Speaker 4: something along that heat lamp, and approximately a third of
Speaker 4: them were started by candles. So be safety conscience. Have
Speaker 4: a good time, have a lot of fun. It's a
Speaker 4: great time, but it can be a really bad time
Speaker 4: if something happened. So those are the things that Halloween.
Speaker 4: The letters they've kind of used to help people remember that.
Speaker 2: Hey, I understand we have an election coming up here, Mayor.
Speaker 1: I've heard that too. What do you tell me about that?
Speaker 4: It it's been kind of going around. Election is two
Speaker 4: weeks from today. Early voting will start on Wednesday the thirtieth.
Speaker 4: Early voting Wednesday through Saturday is only at the Election Board,
Speaker 4: which is downtown. It's actually in City Hall. They call
Speaker 4: it Sweet four. That's code for the fourth floor. So
Speaker 4: if you go in the front door of City Hall,
Speaker 4: get on the elevator, go up to the fourth floor.
Speaker 4: I've done that when I had to be out of
Speaker 4: town on election day. It's a really good system. They'll
Speaker 4: get you through there quickly and it works really well.
Speaker 4: So if you can't be voting on Tuesday the fifth,
Speaker 4: you can vote Wednesday through Saturday the week before. Those
Speaker 4: polls are open for early voting Wednesday through Friday eight
Speaker 4: to six and then on Saturday from eight to two,
Speaker 4: so that's a possibility. Of course, regular polling on Tuesday
Speaker 4: the fifth will be from seven in the morning till
Speaker 4: seven in the evening. I know y'all will be heavily
Speaker 4: involved with reporting on that. Oh boy, so, but my
Speaker 4: deal is, yes, I am running as all the city
Speaker 4: council are trying to talk to people. If you have
Speaker 4: a question, call, People are surprised. I don't get that
Speaker 4: many calls. If you have any time, doesn't that to
Speaker 4: be during election, call your representative, call the city because
Speaker 4: you'll tend to get the answers you want much quicker.
Speaker 4: I had someone reach out Saturday, I think about a
Speaker 4: question they had on It was a fairly minor thing
Speaker 4: but at the city and it was taken care of
Speaker 4: by nine point thirty Monday morning, So you know, you
Speaker 4: just have to let us know. But the big deal
Speaker 4: on any election, for anything is vote. If you don't vote,
Speaker 4: then you didn't get a say. So I encourage me.
Speaker 4: It's very in Bartlesville, very quick, very easy. You'll see friends,
Speaker 4: you can visit for a few minutes and follow up.
Speaker 4: It's a privilege to vote. It's also a responsibility and
Speaker 4: we need to take it seriously. So I encourage people
Speaker 4: to vote. Tell your friends to vote, tell your neighbors
Speaker 4: to vote. Take a neighbor and go vote together. Hey, Gil, Hey,
Speaker 4: how's that app working? That city app. Oh, that's the
Speaker 4: coolest thing. I'm glad you mentioned that. I mean, I
Speaker 4: really tell people to get City Beat, the email that
Speaker 4: comes out usually on Tuesday or whenever there's a need.
Speaker 4: But the new app my Bartlesville. You download that thing.
Speaker 4: I've got it on my phone and it has scheduling,
Speaker 4: has calendar. But the big deal is it has news.
Speaker 3: Yeah, like if you're out of Harvard, you wonder why
Speaker 3: your water pressure is down?
Speaker 4: Yeah, So they'll post current news. But then there's an
Speaker 4: archive that you can go back. Get that to him
Speaker 4: and look at last week or the week before.
Speaker 1: He said, I know, I saw that. I wonder what
Speaker 1: it was.
Speaker 4: And for me it's usually it was last week, and
Speaker 4: I found out it was three or four weeks ago.
Speaker 4: But it's just it is the coolest deal. It loads
Speaker 4: on your phone. It's just like you tap it and
Speaker 4: it goes blinking there it is.
Speaker 2: It's missing one thing, the hey Bailey button. Hey Bailey.
Speaker 1: I'll talk to you them about that. That that that's
Speaker 1: a good idea. He told me not to bring that up.
Speaker 1: I won't tell him where I heard. It'll be our secret,
Speaker 1: you know.
Speaker 3: And I talked with the about it with the previous
Speaker 3: assistant city Manager Tracy Rowles, he thought it was a
Speaker 3: wonderful light.
Speaker 2: As long as it said Hey Bailey, as long as
Speaker 2: it said hey Laura.
Speaker 4: Yeah, okay, I understand.
Speaker 1: Mayor. Thank you very much for being with us today.
Speaker 3: Thank you always enjoy it all right, folks, you've been
Speaker 3: watching and listening to our community connection.