Speaker 1: Good morning, good morning, good morning, hand welcome, welcome, welcome.
Speaker 1: It's time now for our community connection right here on
Speaker 1: K one to one.
Speaker 2: He trust.
Speaker 1: Mike Dunlap is with us here, Commissioner. Good morning. How
Speaker 1: you doing today, Oh? Doing well, Tom, Thank you very
Speaker 1: much for having me up this morning. Beautiful morning, shunshining,
Speaker 1: temperatures perfect. If it just stay like this all day
Speaker 1: and all, you'd be wonderful, wasn't it? Sure would, sure would.
Speaker 1: Things are busy with the county and they never stop.
Speaker 1: You got a bridge of a bridge project or two
Speaker 1: going on.
Speaker 3: Well, and I appreciate you asking about that. This was
Speaker 3: a project I actually hired an engineer for in twenty fourteen,
Speaker 3: and I finally funding came through. And believe or not,
Speaker 3: I've got to give credit the Cherokee Nation, They're the
Speaker 3: ones funding the project. It's a one point three million
Speaker 3: dollar project. The bridge is a function was functionally obsolete. Actually,
Speaker 3: two large trucks coming to the bridge and opposite directions,
Speaker 3: one is gonna have to give away to the other.
Speaker 3: And usually most people driving cars gave right away, you know,
Speaker 3: let one go across the time. So I'm more than
Speaker 3: happy to get this bridge built. It'll obviously meet all
Speaker 3: federal standards, hold a bus, fire truck, anything that would
Speaker 3: possibly be on it. Bridges one hundred and forty foot long,
Speaker 3: so it's a pretty pretty big project. It was way
Speaker 3: too big for us to build, so that's why we
Speaker 3: never never tied into it. And it's moving along really well.
Speaker 3: The headwalls on the north and south end have been
Speaker 3: poured and are set, and actually the last pier, there
Speaker 3: were four piers in the middle last pier should be
Speaker 3: poured this morning. Those are going about forty feet deep
Speaker 3: to get the four four foot in diameter and forty
Speaker 3: feet deep rebarn, and you pour concrete in it and
Speaker 3: then come up and they will put a cross beam
Speaker 3: on those that will hold the run the main running beams,
Speaker 3: and they'll be nine of those forty foot long, probably
Speaker 3: eighteen to twenty four inches tall, pre cast concrete. So
Speaker 3: now I'm excited. It's fun for me to watch projects
Speaker 3: like this. I used to go and spend some time
Speaker 3: every day because it's just it's what I used to
Speaker 3: do building bridges. But it's a lot like building a building,
Speaker 3: I mean, same skill sets involved, So it's fun for me.
Speaker 1: To watch watching it go in just a little bit
Speaker 1: at a time. It's got to be kind of exciting.
Speaker 2: Well, it is.
Speaker 3: They're pulling concrete every day, pump trucks there, They're you know,
Speaker 3: obviously pulling the tests in their concrete. There's always an
Speaker 3: inspection engineer on site all the time, and the contract
Speaker 3: and supervisors always there. So yeah, I just this is
Speaker 3: something I've always enjoyed.
Speaker 1: We've got the big EOC going up over there on
Speaker 1: Bison Roads. Yeah, that's a that's a project.
Speaker 3: It really is. It's being built with arp of money,
Speaker 3: federal money.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 3: I would never felt comfortable asking the taxpayers to fund
Speaker 3: something like that locally. But this is quite a facility.
Speaker 3: It's actually what we were talking about, the surly above
Speaker 3: ground tank for all practical purposes. Because the walls are concrete,
Speaker 3: the roof is concrete, and the twenty two thousand feet inside,
Speaker 3: we could actually easily set up our entire county operation
Speaker 3: out there if we had to county government. Yeah, we
Speaker 3: could easily. He'll have servers, enough servers out there. But
Speaker 3: the main function he carry teaches a lot of classes.
Speaker 3: He's got a classroom out there that he can put
Speaker 3: eighty people in comfortably. Uh, there's just a lot of
Speaker 3: space and we'll obviously, uh firefighters out of there are
Speaker 3: the people who go fight fires.
Speaker 2: He can be able to they'll store their gear there
Speaker 2: to be able to shire there.
Speaker 3: There'll be trucks there. There's just everything you could possibly
Speaker 3: think of. I've got to give Carry credit and his crew.
Speaker 3: They've just done a fabulous job of putting this together
Speaker 3: and it will be beneficial for many years after.
Speaker 1: Work on well, you know, after kind of being in
Speaker 1: tight quarters and I mean not not kind of type,
Speaker 1: very tight quarters.
Speaker 3: Well, and obviously that was donated too. We were so
Speaker 3: fortunate to have that facility out there and really kind
Speaker 3: of risky. But now if you get a chance to
Speaker 3: see want to carry his program sometimes when he's out
Speaker 3: in public, he actually has some video of when the
Speaker 3: storm came through how they were functioning out there at EOC,
Speaker 3: and that's really pretty fascinating to watch out there tracking
Speaker 3: the storm and and you know the information that goes
Speaker 3: back to there too. Obviously I was listening to k
Speaker 3: w O entering the storm.
Speaker 2: And we're watching their feet.
Speaker 3: Nathan Thompson saidn't go to the basement. So Paula, let's
Speaker 3: go to the basement and we did the same thing.
Speaker 3: Oh guys, but carrying his crew. They there there's something else.
Speaker 3: I mean, they think of just about any kind of
Speaker 3: contingency that could fall into play.
Speaker 2: They really are very well prepared.
Speaker 3: And I mean there's no perfect response to anything like that, obviously,
Speaker 3: but I mean the intent there's and the efforts there,
Speaker 3: and I really do appreciate the work they do.
Speaker 1: Now, Yeah, we were talking off air when the tornado
Speaker 1: hit Barnstall and then came to Bartbleville. Just how fortunate
Speaker 1: we were. I know that you were privy to a
Speaker 1: little bit more information than the average bear. Well, we
Speaker 1: were a commissioner the pathway.
Speaker 2: Unfortunate.
Speaker 3: Obviously it wouldn't extremely destructive, but there was some you know,
Speaker 3: we did a lot of clean up down the county
Speaker 3: crew came in. We helped from like twentieth Street to
Speaker 3: twenty second, twenty third Street down there. Dewey and o
Speaker 3: Sage I believe were the worst hit areas. We were
Speaker 3: in there a week and hauled off well over one
Speaker 3: hundred loads of large nup truck loads of brush. And
Speaker 3: that was what people, you know, what the other volunteer
Speaker 3: agencies had brought to the streets that we could help with,
Speaker 3: so you know, it was the was a lot of damage.
Speaker 2: Yeah, significant significant.
Speaker 1: You know when people think of of county commissioners and
Speaker 1: we just had.
Speaker 2: The race here with two very qualified guys.
Speaker 1: And mister Chivell, you're you're going to be losing a guy,
Speaker 1: but gaining a commissioner.
Speaker 3: This we are and I'm you know, Michael Cole's great guy.
Speaker 3: Knew him and liked him, and Corey's great guy. Uh,
Speaker 3: Corey's I think probably the advantage he's you know, he
Speaker 3: was my road foreman for fourteen years. He absolutely there
Speaker 3: will be no zero transition from him to district too.
Speaker 3: The only transition will be you know, I will appoint
Speaker 3: a new road forman which we've been operating with so
Speaker 3: many yeah, with so many good people for so long.
Speaker 3: This isn't going to be an issue, won't We won't
Speaker 3: miss a be very good, Yeah, very good.
Speaker 2: Now I'll do things that the commissioners do.
Speaker 1: It's everybody hears about the roads and the bridges, but
Speaker 1: it's everything. You guys have a control of the budget.
Speaker 1: You make a lot of decisions that three people make
Speaker 1: that a lot of folks really just kind of take
Speaker 1: for granted.
Speaker 3: You know, one of the and one of the things
Speaker 3: that's surprised or been really interesting to me is, you know,
Speaker 3: all the counties in the state of Oklahoma, for instance,
Speaker 3: of jails, you just can't go out and buy private
Speaker 3: insurance for these jails. The risk are way too high.
Speaker 3: There's not a there's not a private insuran on the
Speaker 3: planet that would cover insure one of your jails. So we,
Speaker 3: you know, as commissioners, we've in the late nineties, they
Speaker 3: formed their own risk pool, uh and I happen to
Speaker 3: be the chairman of that for state, the State of
Speaker 3: Oklahoma County Commissioners. And it is just extremely interesting in
Speaker 3: our litigious society that we now anytime something wrong happens
Speaker 3: in a correctional facility, you know, these these guys end
Speaker 3: up in a lawsuit. And so we've really had to
Speaker 3: focus and you don't think about stuff like this when
Speaker 3: you're running for count of commission but we've really had
Speaker 3: to focus on making sure there's policies and procedures in
Speaker 3: these facilities that you know, inmates are handled properly and
Speaker 3: that our people are properly trained. And that's really a
Speaker 3: challenge because the revenue we have and the salaries we
Speaker 3: pay are not real competitive, and we really have a
Speaker 3: lot of trouble losing. We lose good people to cities
Speaker 3: who municipalities who can pay better. And I understand that
Speaker 3: people want to, uh, you know, improve their quality of life,
Speaker 3: and that's that's what work is all about, is moving
Speaker 3: to better paying positions. But it's it's a challenge. It
Speaker 3: really is. That the correctional facility in the jail, you know,
Speaker 3: that's well over fifty percent of the cost of our
Speaker 3: operation and I didn't know that. Yeah, and it's going
Speaker 3: to you know, it's always going to be managed by
Speaker 3: the commissioners, who aren't necessarily law enforcement trains. So it's
Speaker 3: a it's a challenge.
Speaker 2: You got a lot of collaboration with the sheriff owning it.
Speaker 3: I tell you what, I've talked to commissioners across the
Speaker 3: state of Oklahoma, and we are I have been so
Speaker 3: lucky to have a good relationship with your sheriffs. It's
Speaker 3: just essential, and so many counties don't, and they really
Speaker 3: really struggle.
Speaker 2: That's too bad.
Speaker 3: Well, it is, and it's a budgetary issue because a
Speaker 3: lot of these sheriffs just want more and more and
Speaker 3: Scott works with us so well, you know, to make
Speaker 3: all you know, make sure all the other officers have
Speaker 3: hunting to where they can function properly also, So it's
Speaker 3: a challenge and Scott's I just really appreciate the voters
Speaker 3: of Abortioning County. That's a very important position and they've
Speaker 3: always done a great job selecting sheriffs in this county.
Speaker 2: Well, he and John Copeland do great on getting.
Speaker 3: The really brands, you know, really they work hard. It's
Speaker 3: just there, you know, and it's really a challenge.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: I've got a facility over there, and that hard to believe,
Speaker 3: twelve thirteen years old. Start starting to have some maintenance issues,
Speaker 3: you know, not significant ones, but notice you can move
Speaker 3: into a brand new building and have maintenance issues.
Speaker 2: You know how that is I've done.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yes, sir, Hey you ever buy a house that
Speaker 1: was built too quick? Yeah, But we were talking with
Speaker 1: the commissioner Mike Dunlap here on our community connection and
Speaker 1: tell us a little bit more about what's going on
Speaker 1: at the county level that we're going to probably see
Speaker 1: or hear about maybe perhaps in the next several months ahead.
Speaker 3: Well, nothing significant that I you know that pops on
Speaker 3: the top of my head. Our revenues have been steady
Speaker 3: and it's a revenue stream that we could function off
Speaker 3: of which is important to use. Taxes helps significantly and
Speaker 3: we've dedicated virtually all of that to help with with
Speaker 3: making the salaries in the correction facility more competitive good
Speaker 3: so we can actually keep those people online.
Speaker 2: And then you know, even.
Speaker 3: For my road crews, uh, you know C d L drivers,
Speaker 3: they could probably leave me and make twice the salary
Speaker 3: tomorrow if they wanted to. So I'm really you know, you.
Speaker 1: Try to get to go home to their own bed,
Speaker 1: and that's the upside of that.
Speaker 3: And we actually have lost one and then I know
Speaker 3: he's probably making significantly more money, but he's not in
Speaker 3: his own bed every night.
Speaker 2: You're absolutely right, there is. Uh.
Speaker 3: You know, we've kind of kept up with our maintenance
Speaker 3: issues pretty well. We've replaced two rough top units in
Speaker 3: the last year on the on the old courthouse did
Speaker 3: a beautiful job downstairs. I thought the wayns coning some
Speaker 3: old quains coding. If you get a chance to go
Speaker 3: buy their look at it in the new courtroom's pretty well.
Speaker 2: I just I love that old building.
Speaker 3: Uh, I think it can be functional for many, many
Speaker 3: more years. I think the maintenance on the outside has
Speaker 3: been has done very well, and of course that we
Speaker 3: it's not new to the scisions. Bottle built the parking
Speaker 3: lot between the few two structures, which has done four
Speaker 3: or five years ago, has really been beneficial to all
Speaker 3: of us helping them. A lot of people were paying
Speaker 3: for parking off site, so that's helped our budgets a
Speaker 3: little bit. It just I really feel good about where
Speaker 3: we're going in the direction we've gone the last few years.
Speaker 2: So those the building sturdy, very sturdy.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but oh my gosh, yes, that uh building twenty
Speaker 3: four and the structures aren't built like that anymore. It's
Speaker 3: it's it is true fascinating for me to be inside
Speaker 3: that facility and get up above the drop ceiling sometimes
Speaker 3: and actually see the precast concrete ceilings. It's it's it's
Speaker 3: a it is a shelter. Well, it was a civil
Speaker 3: defense shelter at one time when they had those. Yes, yeah,
Speaker 3: I had to remember the old yellow tags they would
Speaker 3: put on building and the black sign the other black
Speaker 3: fallout shelter. For a long time, it had that sign
Speaker 3: on it.
Speaker 2: With the more you know, Yeah, there you go.
Speaker 1: So it shouldn't surprise me that, Hey, that looks pretty sturdy.
Speaker 1: Yeah it is, Oh man, anything else you like to show.
Speaker 3: Well, just you know that if you get a chance
Speaker 3: to go free fair this weekend, I'm break on my watch.
Speaker 3: She got three blue ribbons or whatever. I don't know
Speaker 3: what she turned in, but she turned in something she
Speaker 3: did in the sewing room upstairs. Today. For those of
Speaker 3: you are competitive, there's a donut eating contest at five
Speaker 3: pm up there. I think you, if you're if you
Speaker 3: have the urgent one could be competitive. You might go
Speaker 3: check that out.
Speaker 1: But they haven't told me just what kind of donuts
Speaker 1: they're serving yet, And.
Speaker 2: I don't think it's I don't think it's donut holes.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 1: I don't think it's that. But I wonder, you know,
Speaker 1: if you had the powdered donuts, that could be.
Speaker 2: Fun to watch. It could be fun to watch.
Speaker 1: If you had jelly filmed, that'd be even more fun.
Speaker 3: But I know it might be more entertaining than the
Speaker 3: hot dog eating contest. We may be onto something.
Speaker 2: I think that we are.
Speaker 1: Hot dog eating contest was pretty first. It got kind
Speaker 1: of messy once, but you know, watching people eat donuts,
Speaker 1: you know you got to say, yo, one of them
Speaker 1: is good, two of them is great. Yeah, but when
Speaker 1: you get to four or five should with coffee?
Speaker 2: Do you chase it? Well? Water? What do you chase
Speaker 2: I wouldn't know how to deal with that.
Speaker 1: Sky was strong, I would be I would be hitting
Speaker 1: that bull Martin Blum out there for ice cold milk.
Speaker 2: That's what I would go. There you go. But then again,
Speaker 2: I'm not a dietitian.
Speaker 1: Look at me.
Speaker 2: Come on, anything that could go wrong will go wrong.
Speaker 2: Then I put in my mouth.
Speaker 1: But anyway I go out to the Free Fair, I'm
Speaker 1: going to be back out there here in a little
Speaker 1: bit checking in on the exhibitors and on the kids
Speaker 1: and the other kids always make that happen.
Speaker 2: Yes, I would like to one more point.
Speaker 3: We've had an opportunity to overlay approximately three miles of
Speaker 3: blacktop this year, another mile off of twenty nine hundred
Speaker 3: going into Ocelida, and then a couple of miles actually
Speaker 3: off county line Rogers County Line on thirty nine hundred
Speaker 3: west back towards the little town of Vera, and a
Speaker 3: lot of this the Ocelida project was done there again,
Speaker 3: the Cherokees contributed. Cherokee Nation contributed significantly to that project,
Speaker 3: and I'm very appreciated of that. But really, I feel
Speaker 3: you'll never get perfect, obviously, because there's a lot of
Speaker 3: traffic and we're picking up a lot of semi traffic
Speaker 3: even now on our.
Speaker 1: Roads, just on the county roads.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, And I mean we can't monitor it. There's
Speaker 3: no way to control it. But it's just the fact
Speaker 3: when you have a good road, people find it and
Speaker 3: they use it, they use it, and it's become a
Speaker 3: cut through from one sixty nine to seventy five. A
Speaker 3: lot of residential construction going on south end of the county,
Speaker 3: which is all good. I mean, that's all future revenue,
Speaker 3: it's all activity. We're in a really good place right now.
Speaker 3: And as a county, I feel like I like our leadership.
Speaker 3: I like our new leadership coming on Corey and the
Speaker 3: Jane coming into the county, the county clerk's physician over there,
Speaker 3: so things going in the right direction. Tom really feel
Speaker 3: good about it.
Speaker 2: Well, something to be all that is for sure. Mike,
Speaker 2: thank you very much for being with no time. Thank you.
Speaker 2: How's the family doing over there in the Middle East?
Speaker 3: Well, got one obviously, got Travis and his wife, Sophie,
Speaker 3: and Leora, my granddaughter, and Israel. Another granddaughter coming in October,
Speaker 3: and Paul is going to try to get over there.
Speaker 3: But I understand the Tel Aviv airport's been open and closed.
Speaker 3: I don't know where that stands.
Speaker 2: So, yeah, it's kind of dicey right now.
Speaker 3: Kind of dicey, but they seem really confident where they're
Speaker 3: at that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well that's that's great. Yeah, thank you, thank you
Speaker 2: for asking
Speaker 1: Folks, you've been watching and listening to our community connection