Speaker 1: All right, good morning, good morning, good morning. Welcome, welcome, welcome.
Speaker 1: He is that time now for our community connection, the
Speaker 1: thing that we call city matters, because if it matters
Speaker 1: to you, it matters to the city.
Speaker 2: We've got the whole gang in here. Mike Bailey, make
Speaker 2: your introductions please.
Speaker 3: You're right, we got the whole gang. We brought the
Speaker 3: Hey crew.
Speaker 4: Okay, So we have our newest library director, Kylie. She's
Speaker 4: not new anymore, but newest, newest, newest, she's almost the
Speaker 4: newest director, although now Dea is our newest director. Of course,
Speaker 4: we have our returners. We've got Jason Monager. He's here
Speaker 4: about once a month to talk about sales tax. And
Speaker 4: then we have our assistant city manager, former HR director Laura,
Speaker 4: who's going to update us on Citizens Academy here. Oh nice,
Speaker 4: got got it coming back. It was really popular. So
Speaker 4: we're we're gonna launch another one this fall. So but
Speaker 4: before we get into all that, we've got a few
Speaker 4: announcements to make.
Speaker 3: In fact, we've got quite a few announcements to make.
Speaker 4: So first off, we have the thep off site for
Speaker 4: tree debris. It's closed now, so hopefully everybody had a
Speaker 4: chance over the last few weeks to get everything there
Speaker 4: and get it dropped off.
Speaker 3: This is.
Speaker 4: If you're not familiar with where the site is, the
Speaker 4: next time it comes up, you might want to use it.
Speaker 4: It is actually over by the rodeo ground, so it's
Speaker 4: just I guess that would be west of one twenty
Speaker 4: three on frank Phillips and then it's on the south
Speaker 4: side of frank Phillips, which is actually Highway sixty out there.
Speaker 4: So anyway, it is a site that is specific for
Speaker 4: the city of Artlesville.
Speaker 3: It's just licensed for us.
Speaker 4: But during these events then the state is kind enough
Speaker 4: to allow us to collect.
Speaker 3: Tree limbs for a short period of time. So we
Speaker 3: were able to.
Speaker 4: Do that for a couple of weeks, and we're grateful
Speaker 4: to the state for working with us on that. And
Speaker 4: I appreciate Keith Henry's employees, all of our public works
Speaker 4: guys park streets for help and take care of that.
Speaker 4: But hopefully everybody's got everything cleaned up. I know we've
Speaker 4: still got some trees down in the parks and down
Speaker 4: on the pathfinder, but we'll be coming around.
Speaker 3: To those when we get a chance.
Speaker 2: You'll be fishing them out, just trying to get.
Speaker 3: The grass mode right now.
Speaker 4: It's been something so. But in speaking of streets and parks,
Speaker 4: this is a great This is a great combination of both.
Speaker 4: At Monday's council meeting, we had an opportunity to honor
Speaker 4: one of Bartlesville's longest term employees. I think she came
Speaker 4: here in ninety four if I remember right.
Speaker 3: So a couple of years after I graduated high school.
Speaker 2: Way last century.
Speaker 3: Hut, Yeah, it's it. Last century.
Speaker 4: I slipped out of town, she slipped in, and the
Speaker 4: place has never been the same since. We of course,
Speaker 4: were talking about Lisa Beeman, who served as Community Development Director,
Speaker 4: park director, and assistant city manager at one point. Well, no,
Speaker 4: she was actually the acting city manager at one point.
Speaker 4: She's been here long enough that I believe she went
Speaker 4: through four city managers for four of us.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was four.
Speaker 4: So Lisa was an enormous advocate for parks and for
Speaker 4: quality of life in Bartlesville, and we thought a great
Speaker 4: way to honor her and to acknowledge her was to
Speaker 4: rename a park street into the Lisa Beeman Parkway. And
Speaker 4: so that's exactly what we've done. So, if you're familiar
Speaker 4: with MJ. Lee Lake, the park there Lee Lake. Then
Speaker 4: the road that goes through there, it essentially connects Adams
Speaker 4: and Silver Lake. That road will now be named Lisa
Speaker 4: Beaman Parkway. So the council was kind enough to honor
Speaker 4: Lisa in that way, and we were really excited for
Speaker 4: she is she she meant a lot to this community.
Speaker 4: She meant a lot to our organization. So it's nice
Speaker 4: to be able to honor somebody who has the kind
Speaker 4: of impact that she had.
Speaker 3: So it was it was a really good way.
Speaker 4: I think it was actually towards the end of the
Speaker 4: evening in fact, in the council meeting, so it was
Speaker 4: a really good way to kind of wrap up the meeting.
Speaker 4: And one other thing, in fact, I saw some comments
Speaker 4: on next door, which is always an exciting place to
Speaker 4: be that some people were concerned about some discoloration in
Speaker 4: their water. That is normal right now because we are
Speaker 4: flushing hydrants and so we do that. It is actually
Speaker 4: a way to clean the lines and so over time
Speaker 4: that Terry could tell you a whole lot about it.
Speaker 2: But he knows things about water.
Speaker 4: He knows a lot of things about water. I mean,
Speaker 4: but there is a build up in the lines. It's
Speaker 4: called a biofilm, and it's actually desirable, believe it or not.
Speaker 4: You want that in the lines, but you don't want
Speaker 4: it built up too much. So every so often we
Speaker 4: go through and we flush the hydrants, usually about once
Speaker 4: a year, and that speeds up the water in the
Speaker 4: line and it actually scours them out, and so what
Speaker 4: you're seeing in there is just a natural deposit that
Speaker 4: was placed in the lines. So it's not harmful. However
Speaker 4: it is it is. It can just color your water
Speaker 4: a little bit, and so we do ask people to
Speaker 4: be careful when you're doing your laundry. So if you're
Speaker 4: not signed up for city Beat, we would encourage you
Speaker 4: to sign up for city Beat. In there, we always
Speaker 4: announce these zones that we're flushing and so out at
Speaker 4: the Cityobartlesfield dot org you can find this information or
Speaker 4: at Citybartlesfield dot org you can sign up city Beat
Speaker 4: and we'll send it to you, so that will help
Speaker 4: keep you up to date on when we're flushing and
Speaker 4: where we're flushing, so that you don't just color your.
Speaker 3: Laundry by accident.
Speaker 4: A couple and some really good news actually, we have
Speaker 4: completed the taxi lane out at our airport This is
Speaker 4: one of the largest investments that's been made in our
Speaker 4: airport in decades. It's actually a two million dollar project.
Speaker 4: And I know it's hard to get excited about a
Speaker 4: taxi lane, but this is part of the basic infrastructure
Speaker 4: of our airport that allows us to continue to expand
Speaker 4: on the airport. And so the taxi lane was actually
Speaker 4: paid for primarily by the Oklahoma Department of Aeronautics and
Speaker 4: Aviation I think is what it is now they've changed
Speaker 4: their name, it's ODAA and the Federal Aviation Administration. So
Speaker 4: they paid one point two million and seven hundred and
Speaker 4: forty thousand, and the city only had to come in
Speaker 4: for one hundred thousand to make this happen. So it
Speaker 4: was a great project with a very low local match.
Speaker 4: It opens up the possibility now of additional hangar.
Speaker 3: Developments because we're full out there.
Speaker 4: All of our hangars are full, and so that leads
Speaker 4: us to the next step. And the next step is
Speaker 4: actually the construction of a twenty thousand square foot hangar
Speaker 4: where they refer to it as a spec building because
Speaker 4: it means we don't necessarily.
Speaker 3: Have a we don't have.
Speaker 4: A tenant yet, but we actually do have somebody in
Speaker 4: mind out there, but there's no no one signed up,
Speaker 4: and so this will be paid for. It's a sixty
Speaker 4: forty split. The ODAA again is paying sixty percent and
Speaker 4: then the Barblesviel Development Authority is going to pay the
Speaker 4: forty percent. So this is part of ongoing economic development efforts.
Speaker 4: So we're we're really excited to have this happening. It's
Speaker 4: the biggest change out at our airport. And honestly, since
Speaker 4: I've been with the city, so super excited about it.
Speaker 4: Less excited about the vandalism at our parks much les
Speaker 4: much less excited, but it unfortunately is a It is
Speaker 4: something that happens in particular in our restrooms. I was
Speaker 4: sent some photos a couple of weeks ago someone had
Speaker 4: gotten in and they had destroyed all of the partitions
Speaker 4: in the bathroom.
Speaker 3: And so they.
Speaker 4: They kicked the sinks off, they destroy the toilets, they
Speaker 4: tear up the partitions, and it can cost anywhere between
Speaker 4: one thousand dollars and forty thousand dollars.
Speaker 3: When somebody vandelizes our parks.
Speaker 4: We have cameras, but it is difficult to catch somebody
Speaker 4: to where you can actually identify them and so we're
Speaker 4: trying a little bit different tactic. So we're going to
Speaker 4: announce that there's a five hundred dollars reward for any
Speaker 4: information that leads to an arrest from park vandalism. So
Speaker 4: we've got one out there right now as the most
Speaker 4: recent one, and it was relatively small, but we wanted
Speaker 4: to get this started. And interesting thing is it actually
Speaker 4: came from a park employee, probably someone who is tired
Speaker 4: of having to clean.
Speaker 3: Up our park bathrooms.
Speaker 4: And Lord, the name has escaped me emply.
Speaker 3: Yes, Travis Jones.
Speaker 4: Yes, it was Travis Jones. So Travis was the one
Speaker 4: that made the suggestion. We appreciated that and we actually
Speaker 4: put that in to put that into effects. So right
Speaker 4: now there's a five hundred dollars reward for any information
Speaker 4: leading to an arrest that deals.
Speaker 3: With park vandalism.
Speaker 4: So we're we are We're not excited about the vandalism,
Speaker 4: but we are excited about trying this new way to
Speaker 4: try to cut that down. It is it is a
Speaker 4: challenge to keep all of those facilities open.
Speaker 3: And available to the public.
Speaker 4: So that's our that's our hope is that will cut
Speaker 4: it down and speaking on open and available to the public.
Speaker 4: All of our pools and splash pads are now open.
Speaker 3: Had the had the.
Speaker 4: The meat the swim meet over the weekend, so it
Speaker 4: was to sooner pool was temporary closed, but they all
Speaker 4: should be open now and everything's running, and so hopefully
Speaker 4: everyone will all the kids will get out and enjoy
Speaker 4: that and families.
Speaker 2: And just in time, because it started to turn the
Speaker 2: heat on.
Speaker 4: I noticed that just now, Jason, just now, Jason. Jason
Speaker 4: is one of these disturbing individuals who believes that it
Speaker 4: the hotter it is, the better it is.
Speaker 2: So I think Jasondas I would agree with that.
Speaker 4: I think Jason should move somewhere where he can root
Speaker 4: for the heat out of impacting us.
Speaker 3: I don't know what you think.
Speaker 4: You like three months, that's three months too long, don't.
Speaker 4: I don't want three days in the kind of heat
Speaker 4: that you like. So yeah, it is a it is
Speaker 4: a good time year to have that going on. So
Speaker 4: also at the council meeting we had, we had, we
Speaker 4: had a really long.
Speaker 3: Council meeting, to tell you the truth.
Speaker 4: In fact, several months ago, the council created rules for
Speaker 4: how they were going to govern themselves, and one of
Speaker 4: those rules was that our council meetings were going to
Speaker 4: be two and a half hours, and they could be
Speaker 4: an extended. They could be extended to a maximum of
Speaker 4: three hours. And there are a lot of reasons for this,
Speaker 4: not the least of which is the the example that
Speaker 4: the City of Norman gave to us when they had
Speaker 4: about a ten hour council meeting and made some really
Speaker 4: terrible decisions at four am.
Speaker 2: In the morning. There are no really good decisions meet
Speaker 2: at four am.
Speaker 3: I would agree with you one that's that's now.
Speaker 4: Maybe if you're Kevin Potter and you got up at
Speaker 4: four am, that's.
Speaker 2: I'm still sleeping in thought, there's something.
Speaker 3: Wrong with you as what.
Speaker 2: So.
Speaker 4: But anyway, we had at a lengthy council meeting, honestly
Speaker 4: was a really good council meeting. Had a lot of
Speaker 4: great discussion, and one of the more important items was
Speaker 4: to consider an ordinance that had been suggested by the
Speaker 4: Unsheltered almost task Force, and so the council did. They
Speaker 4: had great deliberations on it, and then ultimately they unanimously
Speaker 4: elected to adopt this ordinance. And so I won't go
Speaker 4: into the ordinance in a lot of detail, but just
Speaker 4: so everybody knows that this is. This was the result
Speaker 4: of a lot of discussion amongst the Homeless Committee and
Speaker 4: that Unsheltered Homeless task Force.
Speaker 3: I think it's worth.
Speaker 4: Mentioning who's on there because of the sort of the
Speaker 4: qualifications and the depth of who's present there. This is
Speaker 4: not This is not a group who's uninformed about homelessness.
Speaker 4: In fact, it's exactly the opposite. So on the task Force,
Speaker 4: we have two council members. We have Aaron Kirkpatrick and
Speaker 4: Larry East, both of them. We have Keith and Christy McPhail,
Speaker 4: which they are the they run Beat the Light YEP,
Speaker 4: which is a it is a just recently opened homeless
Speaker 4: shelter and also a sort of a homeless recovery center.
Speaker 4: I don't know exactly what the right term is, but
Speaker 4: that sounded sounded pretty good. Don't be mad at me, Keith.
Speaker 4: I'm sure I got it wrong. We have jud Strong,
Speaker 4: he is our state representative. We have Rachel Shaller or
Speaker 4: Shoulder Dang. I knew I was going to get it wrong.
Speaker 4: I've shoveler Shoulder.
Speaker 3: I did it both ways. Tom, I was wrong. No
Speaker 3: matter what I did, I should have just stopped.
Speaker 4: I should have just stopped it, nobody would have noticed
Speaker 4: except for poor Rachel. So anyway, Rachel is the executive
Speaker 4: director of Grand Mental Health. So we have someone on
Speaker 4: there who's very familiar with mental health and Bartlesville. Sierra Compton.
Speaker 4: She is a police officer, but more importantly, she's assumed
Speaker 4: she is assigned to our mental health coresponse to him.
Speaker 4: So actually she is paired with a social worker from
Speaker 4: Grand Mental Health and they have a lot of interactions
Speaker 4: with the homeless people. Errol Hada is part of this group.
Speaker 4: If you know, I'm not familiar with Errol. He runs
Speaker 4: Lighthouse Shelter. Tom Gorman, So Tom Gorman is a former mayor,
Speaker 4: very familiar with city government. But he also he also
Speaker 4: operates Gorman Management, which has a lot of a lot
Speaker 4: of properties in Bartlesville in particular, some of them are
Speaker 4: low to moderate income properties, so he has a lot
Speaker 4: of familiarity with this issue.
Speaker 3: Sherry Smith.
Speaker 4: She is the founder and operator of a gape that
Speaker 4: provides two warm meals a day.
Speaker 3: So Sarah Rowe.
Speaker 4: She actually comes from Barlsbow Public Schools and she is
Speaker 4: their homeless specialist, a little different situation. Most of the
Speaker 4: homeless children she deals with they're not unsheltered, but they
Speaker 4: are experiencing a lot of the same issues, so she
Speaker 4: was able to add all perspective Dustin Ainsworth. Dustin Ainsworth
Speaker 4: is a veteran and he also had been homeless at
Speaker 4: one point in time, and he's very open about his story.
Speaker 4: It's very powerful, it's very informative when you have someone
Speaker 4: like him in there. And then we have the Municipal
Speaker 4: Court judge, which is Alan Genties. We have the executive
Speaker 4: director of the United Way, Lisa Carey, and then I
Speaker 4: believe she's a nurse practitioner, a family nurse practitioner, So
Speaker 4: this is amberview, so we brought somebody in that could
Speaker 4: talk to about the health aspects of this. So really
Speaker 4: it is a very powerful committee. They've done a lot
Speaker 4: of work and so anything that comes out of there
Speaker 4: is first off, it was rooted in compassion.
Speaker 3: They've ensured that that's the first thing they talk about.
Speaker 4: And I think once you see this list, you realize that,
Speaker 4: of course it is because that's literally what most of
Speaker 4: these people do. They're in the business of compassion. So
Speaker 4: they adopted a model early on. They refer to it
Speaker 4: as a golden circle, which is who why how and
Speaker 4: what Everything leads to something else, And the real purpose
Speaker 4: of it is is who are our homeless neighbors, why
Speaker 4: are they homeless, how did they get here?
Speaker 3: And what can we do to help?
Speaker 4: And so those four sort of guiding principles are what
Speaker 4: has led to this. Now, the other side of that
Speaker 4: is is recognizing that we have to be able to
Speaker 4: help them, but we also have to have accountability for everybody.
Speaker 4: It doesn't matter whether you're homeless or not. There's accountability.
Speaker 4: And so we talked about vandalism in the parks in
Speaker 4: the past. The forty thousand dollars that I mentioned earlier
Speaker 4: was actually caused by a homeless person who vandalized and
Speaker 4: he actually committed arson in our park bathroom. And so
Speaker 4: you don't think there's that much in there that burn,
Speaker 4: but I promise you there is.
Speaker 3: It'll burn.
Speaker 4: And so these are very expensive. That is not a
Speaker 4: problem of a homeless person. That is a problem with
Speaker 4: someone who's committed a crime. And so we wanted to
Speaker 4: balance out assisting our homeless neighbors with at the same
Speaker 4: time holding them accountable for their actions.
Speaker 3: That wouldn't be acceptable for anybody.
Speaker 4: And so that was the purpose of the ordinance, which
Speaker 4: I thought was extremely well thought out. And as I said,
Speaker 4: I won't go into all the details, we won't have
Speaker 4: time for it, but there is it is. It was
Speaker 4: a really well thought out and compassionate piece of legislation.
Speaker 4: So thus far this group, they have conducted a census
Speaker 4: so that they know who are homeless are, they know
Speaker 4: where they came from, they know why they're homeless, they
Speaker 4: know why they're here. And the good news, I guess
Speaker 4: it's good news bad news, I don't know which way
Speaker 4: to look at it is that almost all of the
Speaker 4: unsheltered homeless people in Barblesviellt are from this area. There
Speaker 4: was a rumor early on, of course, that they were
Speaker 4: being bust in and that's not.
Speaker 3: You and I both and that is not the case.
Speaker 4: And so over eighty percent of these people are from
Speaker 4: our area and so they are our citizens. So I
Speaker 4: think it changed the minds of some people on the
Speaker 4: task force once they realized who it was we were
Speaker 4: dealing with. Gathered information on all the nonprofits who are
Speaker 4: referring to them as helping agencies. We've identified the services
Speaker 4: that they provide and the gaps that are in the
Speaker 4: gaps that are in there, we were trying to identify
Speaker 4: what the agencies need and then of course they had
Speaker 4: the ordinance that they that was adopted by counsel. So
Speaker 4: really the next thing for this committee is to focus
Speaker 4: on ways that the organizations can collaborate, determine where we
Speaker 4: have resource gaps, and try to figure out how we
Speaker 4: can help and we not just the city, but how
Speaker 4: they can help each other. So anyway, it has been
Speaker 4: a fascinating process. I think they have gotten to know
Speaker 4: each other better, these agency directors, and so there have
Speaker 4: already been some collaborations that have come out of this
Speaker 4: that that didn't exist prior to it. So one of
Speaker 4: the big ones will be transportations, so you hear a
Speaker 4: lot about that coming up.
Speaker 3: But yeah, it is a.
Speaker 4: Monumental task and I truly love and appreciate all of
Speaker 4: these people have who have taken this on as their
Speaker 4: life's mission. So to choose to run a shelter or
Speaker 4: a food pantry or to provide meals to homeless people
Speaker 4: is it is a calling and a passion that, as
Speaker 4: I said, I love and I'm grateful for people like them.
Speaker 4: So but that expect to hear more out of this
Speaker 4: task force their goal. They have a two part goal,
Speaker 4: and number one is to reduce the number of unsheltered
Speaker 4: homeless people in Bartlesville, and they're trying to help their
Speaker 4: homeless brothers and sisters to get out of homelessness.
Speaker 3: And then the other thing is.
Speaker 4: Is to protect the community from some of those damaging
Speaker 4: effects of growing homelessness. So we'll be hearing a lot
Speaker 4: more from them. The committee was actually extended. We'll continue
Speaker 4: meeting through the end of this year, and then it
Speaker 4: may be extended beyond that so that we can continue
Speaker 4: to measure.
Speaker 3: The metrics and make sure that this is accomplishing what
Speaker 3: we'd hoped it would.
Speaker 4: But with that, talking about community programs, we have Miss
Speaker 4: Kylie here with us, and as we said, Kylie is
Speaker 4: our library director, and this is the time of year
Speaker 4: to where the library really kind of gets moving and
Speaker 4: there's a lot of programs that are offered, including our
Speaker 4: summer reading program.
Speaker 5: That is true, it is officially summer at the library.
Speaker 6: It may not be officially summer everywhere else, but it
Speaker 6: is summer reading time at the library and we are
Speaker 6: in full swing.
Speaker 5: This is the most exciting time of the year for
Speaker 5: our library because we offer.
Speaker 6: Dozens and dozens of programs for people of all ages,
Speaker 6: and then the big piece being the Summer Reading program.
Speaker 6: So we've changed things up a little bit this year.
Speaker 6: In the past, it was a little bit convoluted. You
Speaker 6: had to track the minutes and some other things, and
Speaker 6: it just got a little complex, and we want to
Speaker 6: make things as easy as possible to encourage that continued learning,
Speaker 6: continued reading throughout the summer months.
Speaker 5: So this year we have four different programs.
Speaker 6: So we have our ages zero to five and you know,
Speaker 6: those are our little biddies that we know may not
Speaker 6: be fully reading on their own just yet. So for
Speaker 6: that age group, we just ask that they have a
Speaker 6: caregiver read twenty five books to them and that is
Speaker 6: their completion of the summarine program. They can be board books,
Speaker 6: just picture books, you know, anything counts. Our first graders
Speaker 6: through fifth graders we asked that they read twenty five
Speaker 6: books by July twenty fifth, so it's you know, they
Speaker 6: have plenty of time. Our sixth to twelfth grade we
Speaker 6: asked that they read six books by July twenty fifth.
Speaker 6: And then we do not leave out the adults because
Speaker 6: it is so important that we set those examples for
Speaker 6: the kiddos in our lives and our communities. So we
Speaker 6: ask that they read four books because we know those
Speaker 6: books are a little bit bigger. And this counts for ebooks, audiobooks,
Speaker 6: print books, comic books, anything counts.
Speaker 5: It all counts.
Speaker 3: The third of the way through one book, I don't
Speaker 3: think I'm all.
Speaker 2: Right, you can do it. We will fantast.
Speaker 3: Nothing worth mentioning if I read it.
Speaker 6: It's for pure entertainment, and that's all that matters, because
Speaker 6: that's what we want to see people doing in the summer,
Speaker 6: is just continuing their learning to you know, have fun.
Speaker 6: And you know, this also is a big part of
Speaker 6: bridging that learning gap and that summer slide that we
Speaker 6: see a lot in our kiddos. When you're out of
Speaker 6: school those couple of months, you're busy focusing on other things,
Speaker 6: and it's great to take a break, but then that
Speaker 6: beginning of school year gets really tough again.
Speaker 5: When you have to jump right back into the thing.
Speaker 3: You lose quite a bit of time, a little bit.
Speaker 6: Yes, So if we keep people reading, we keep people engaged,
Speaker 6: it's you know, really better for their outcomes as they
Speaker 6: start the next school year. So the best thing about
Speaker 6: This is that after you complete these programs, you can
Speaker 6: come in and you get a prize, which is really exciting.
Speaker 6: It's not something we've been able to offer in the past.
Speaker 6: We've only been able to offer some grand prizes, which
Speaker 6: is still really great. But this year, everyone who completes
Speaker 6: the Summer Reading program will receive a prize which is
Speaker 6: a fun little tote bag that they can carry their
Speaker 6: library books in and within the tote bag there are
Speaker 6: going to be some coupons for all kinds of fun
Speaker 6: treats and experiences from some of our incredible.
Speaker 5: Local businesses here in Barlosville.
Speaker 3: That donating those.
Speaker 6: So come and get a free ice cream cone, a
Speaker 6: free cookie, you know, all of those fun things as
Speaker 6: your reward for.
Speaker 5: Doing all your summer reading.
Speaker 6: And on top of all of just that piece of it,
Speaker 6: we have a bunch of programs all summer long to
Speaker 6: keep everyone engaged and to offer some of those indoor
Speaker 6: activities when it's super super hot outside and you don't
Speaker 6: want to run to the swimming pool, you don't want
Speaker 6: to get a sunburn, so you want to be inside.
Speaker 6: Today we have a storytelling event. Yes, we have storytelling events.
Speaker 6: The Tulsa Zoo is coming on June twentieth and bringing
Speaker 6: some fun animals. Tomorrow actually we have our giant Bubble
Speaker 6: party that's going to be a Unity Square, so we
Speaker 6: will have.
Speaker 3: The library bubbles.
Speaker 5: We didn't want to do the bubbles inside.
Speaker 3: I feel like we could have gotten in the library.
Speaker 5: It would have been big. It could have been big.
Speaker 5: That's right.
Speaker 6: It'll be perfect for our teens. And these are all
Speaker 6: different age levels. We have some baby programs for like
Speaker 6: story times and stuff. We have children's programs like the
Speaker 6: bubble parties, and then we have teen programs. One tomorrow
Speaker 6: we're making T shirts and they're going to do some
Speaker 6: fun TIEDI and design learn to some like sew and
Speaker 6: embroider and all.
Speaker 5: Kinds of fun designs on their T shirts.
Speaker 6: And then we have some adult programs too for book
Speaker 6: clubs and crafting classes.
Speaker 5: And things like that as well.
Speaker 6: All of this ends with a really fun grand finale
Speaker 6: pool party at Frontier Pool and will be on July
Speaker 6: twenty fifth, And we just encourage everyone to participate in
Speaker 6: these amazing, free, awesome programs and you can.
Speaker 5: Find them all on our website. It's at the.
Speaker 3: Library there you go four they'll be in city Beat
Speaker 3: as well.
Speaker 5: They will be in City b and they'll Facebook page.
Speaker 5: They're all over the place.
Speaker 4: Follow us on Facebook, sign up for city Beat.
Speaker 3: That's right, all that good stuff.
Speaker 2: Kelly doesn't miss anything, no sense there, she.
Speaker 4: Doesn't, and if she does, Kelsey gets it. So one
Speaker 4: or the other, all right, thank you, Kylie. So Jason
Speaker 4: sales text doing. Tommy hasn't even told me yet, by
Speaker 4: the way.
Speaker 3: So kids would say it's mid it's mid at best.
Speaker 3: So I think that's good by about a quarter percent.
Speaker 7: So that equates about five thousand dollars over last year's collection, and.
Speaker 4: As we had budgeted for a one percent decline, anything
Speaker 4: above that ahead, but that.
Speaker 3: Is ahead of budget.
Speaker 7: It is for the year we finished about half a
Speaker 7: percent over whi's about one hundred and thirteen hundred and
Speaker 7: fifteen thousand over last year's collection. But for the year,
Speaker 7: we finished, you know, one point almost one point seven
Speaker 7: percent over budgetary expectation, which is about three hundred and
Speaker 7: eighty thousand, So sitting pretty good. I mean, it's about
Speaker 7: where we thought we were going to be. Obviously, you know,
Speaker 7: you can't predict where it's going to be. Just try
Speaker 7: to get close. And we got pretty close.
Speaker 3: We'll take level over a decline any day.
Speaker 4: Oh absolutely, and especially as we budget four declines just then.
Speaker 3: But that's what happens.
Speaker 7: So level, yeah, level or slight increases, you know, pretty good.
Speaker 7: So use tax. The only thing to say about US tax,
Speaker 7: it's highly volatile. They were going to get some history
Speaker 7: on this scene, may be able to trend it. No, well,
Speaker 7: it's if you look down through this. We've had this
Speaker 7: month in particular, was forty six percent up, which forty
Speaker 7: six per sounds like a lot.
Speaker 3: One hundred and fifty seven thousand.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but it is a lot.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 7: Uh, you think forty six tent be a lot more
Speaker 7: than that. But we've had you know, minus twenty percent
Speaker 7: down this year, thirty percent up, twelve percent.
Speaker 3: Down rock range that it can fit.
Speaker 7: I said, you know, it's forty hundred and fifty seven
Speaker 7: thousand dollar over the previous previous month of June for
Speaker 7: the year was about four percent up over what we
Speaker 7: had received last year, which is about one hundred and
Speaker 7: eight thousand. Budgetarily, we're ten almost eleven percent. I had
Speaker 7: a budgetary anticipation which puts us over about four hundred
Speaker 7: ninety three thousand.
Speaker 3: That's great.
Speaker 7: Yeah, but like I said, highly ball and I don't
Speaker 7: know that you can predict this one as well. You know,
Speaker 7: it's got the component which is online sales tax, but
Speaker 7: has the component that's traditional use tax, and I think
Speaker 7: that's probably business tax probably where that volatility comes from.
Speaker 4: That's the business side, correct, it is it is deploying
Speaker 4: equipment that they didn't pay sales tax exactly. Oh and
Speaker 4: by the way, then if they don't fully utilize it.
Speaker 3: It has useful we use tax back. So that explains
Speaker 3: a lot of that volatile.
Speaker 2: So I think you can't really can't.
Speaker 7: I mean, it's one of the things, whatever the useful
Speaker 7: life for the asset you brought in town, we could
Speaker 7: over refund.
Speaker 4: Back on it. Yeah and half and that's so yeah.
Speaker 4: All right, well, thank you, Jason. Sounds like the year
Speaker 4: when pretty well, well will we'll take it. So we
Speaker 4: mentioned this earlier. We got another Citizens Academy.
Speaker 3: Yea, Laura, good morning.
Speaker 8: So we offer a lot of services and programs to citizens,
Speaker 8: but one of my favorites that we offered last year
Speaker 8: was the Citizens Academy. So this was the first time
Speaker 8: that we had done it, and we took twenty citizens
Speaker 8: through our Academy, and we took them all over the
Speaker 8: city to show them how city government operations works on
Speaker 8: a daily basis. And so I think it was a
Speaker 8: hit with the people that we had in the program.
Speaker 8: I think we had all good, good things about it,
Speaker 8: and so we're ready to do it again. And so
Speaker 8: we are going to start accepting applications in July and
Speaker 8: that that process will run through July thirty. First, the
Speaker 8: program will start in September, so September fourth and run
Speaker 8: through November thirteenth, and so we're excited to get that going.
Speaker 8: And as soon as we have the application ready in July,
Speaker 8: we'll start promoting that and pushing it out there. It'll
Speaker 8: be out on our website. And basically, applicants must be
Speaker 8: eighteen years of age. They must be able to provide
Speaker 8: their own transportation to and from the Citizens Academy. They
Speaker 8: must be a resident of Bartlesville, a business owner in Bartlesville,
Speaker 8: or employed full time in Bartlesville. And then of course,
Speaker 8: the primary form of communication from city officials to the participants.
Speaker 5: Must be by email, and so you'll have to have
Speaker 5: email to get going.
Speaker 8: So those are the requirements, and we do ask that
Speaker 8: if you're accepted into the program that you attend to
Speaker 8: all of these sessions, so there's very little criteria for
Speaker 8: you to apply to and so we asked that if
Speaker 8: you're interested, to apply when the time comes.
Speaker 2: They did.
Speaker 4: It was a great cross section of our community last time. Yeah,
Speaker 4: I thought so too, But regardless of what people's prevailing
Speaker 4: opinions were, when they came in, everyone seemed to really
Speaker 4: enjoy it. And then we have a graduation for them
Speaker 4: and council meeting and so they're actually able to come
Speaker 4: up and be recognized in front of the council and
Speaker 4: in front of anybody who happens to be watching the
Speaker 4: council meeting that day, and it really was. It's funny
Speaker 4: because you meet people in these processes that you don't
Speaker 4: that you hadn't seen before, and then you begin to
Speaker 4: see them constantly. And so I believe actually Rachel was
Speaker 4: one of them, and she's the executive director of Grand
Speaker 4: and now she's sitting on a committee. So don't listen
Speaker 4: to what I'm saying, but we are looking for volunteers
Speaker 4: and this is a great way to recruit.
Speaker 8: I didn't say that, but that's the hope that people
Speaker 8: will be engaged he'll be inspired to maybe sit on
Speaker 8: some of our boards and committees and I think be
Speaker 8: more involved.
Speaker 4: I think once they get to see what the city
Speaker 4: does and the difference that we make in people's lives,
Speaker 4: and people get really passionate about I'm very excited. So
Speaker 4: hopefully we'll collect continue to collect some good volunteers through
Speaker 4: the years.
Speaker 5: And you know, I had somebody asked not too long ago.
Speaker 8: They said, you know, I've been a part of I
Speaker 8: don't know if they were a vendor for the city
Speaker 8: or something, but they said, I have a pretty good
Speaker 8: understanding of how the city opts rates. Do you think
Speaker 8: that I would be you know, i'd learn something from this?
Speaker 8: And I said absolutely. I think even directors learned from
Speaker 8: other departments, and so there's always something to be learned
Speaker 8: by attending this.
Speaker 3: So yes, I appreciate you heading that up and Jason
Speaker 3: helping you out on it. So you two are the coachairs,
Speaker 3: my co facilitator here. Yea, yeah, I remember i'd never
Speaker 3: been to the wastewater play. Oh yeah, yeah. First, and
Speaker 3: believe it or not, it's really cool to see it is.
Speaker 3: Don't get me wrong, it's gross, it's wastewater, but it's
Speaker 3: really cool to see.
Speaker 2: Oh, you've been watching and listening to our City.
Speaker 4: Batters program, the Tea Compassion Excellence stuff you in your
Speaker 4: home in Crematory, Bartlesville, No Water Barnstall
Speaker 2: K w N, Bartlesville, Ky two twenty seventy Q Bartlesville,
Speaker 2: K two thirty six C T Pausco