Speaker 1: Actually had two meetings.
Speaker 2: So yesterday had the Emergency Management Council meeting, which is
Speaker 2: a joint meeting between Bartoso City Council and the Washington
Speaker 2: County Commissioner, and you got to heard about the budget
Speaker 2: because that is a joint project between the two entities.
Speaker 1: Right right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we split and I learned a lot last night.
Speaker 3: I never been through one of those before, but we
Speaker 3: split a lot of those costs fifty to fifty and
Speaker 3: as a result, you know, our emergency folks and their
Speaker 3: emergency folks are able to work together. If there's a
Speaker 3: fire or an accident or something out of the county,
Speaker 3: if they need our help, we can help, and vice versa.
Speaker 3: If we need their help, they can come in. You know,
Speaker 3: we had the tornado last year. The Washington County emergency
Speaker 3: management folks, they came in and helped with a lot
Speaker 3: of that disaster relief and clean up. And you know,
Speaker 3: anytime there's something like that that happens, we get alerts
Speaker 3: from them. So it was very interesting. Everything seems to
Speaker 3: be taken right along. Yeah, nothing was like shocking, which
Speaker 3: is what you want from emergency management, which is like
Speaker 3: things are moving correctly, and it all.
Speaker 2: Was Yeah, it was a good presentation carry Cox and
Speaker 2: his staff, Melissa and John and the new guy. I
Speaker 2: forget the new guy's name anyway, but they do a
Speaker 2: great job here in our community. Now, at last night's
Speaker 2: City council meeting, I mean, you had some standard business
Speaker 2: items and we'll talk about here in just a bit,
Speaker 2: but you had one of those items that you know,
Speaker 2: thankfully doesn't come before the council very often because they
Speaker 2: are difficult decisions, and that was specifically dealing with a
Speaker 2: property that has had some issues on Waverley on the
Speaker 2: east side of town. And you know, Aaron, I've known
Speaker 2: you for years and I know your heart. I know
Speaker 2: a couple of other city council members, but not as
Speaker 2: good as I know you. So the decision last night
Speaker 2: was a tough one to go in and basically because
Speaker 2: of the circumstances of the home, there was some code
Speaker 2: enforcement issues and in order to demolish the structure was made,
Speaker 2: but there was there was some progress that was made
Speaker 2: on this particular property.
Speaker 1: Is so we want to kind of give and I.
Speaker 2: Say, these are tough decisions, but it was done with
Speaker 2: compassion and understanding and with a solution which is really important. So, Aaron, GoAhead,
Speaker 2: talk a little bit about what we heard last night
Speaker 2: and how the council came to this tough decision.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I would say, so these abatement hearings, where are
Speaker 3: when code enforcement has said this property is is so
Speaker 3: egregious the neighbor it's hurting the neighborhood and the neighbors
Speaker 3: so much that it needs to be torn down. We've
Speaker 3: had three of these in a row. They are by
Speaker 3: far the hardest things that I've had to deal with
Speaker 3: as a city councilor, because every situation is different, and
Speaker 3: at the heart of it is an individual or a
Speaker 3: family and their property that they care about, they've invested in,
Speaker 3: but that has also become a real problem for one
Speaker 3: reason or another, and those situations the same. So, you know,
Speaker 3: part of seeing every person with individual dignity is recognizing
Speaker 3: that these are really hard situations because we care about
Speaker 3: the people involved and it's not just me. I've been
Speaker 3: extremely impressed by the way that all of our city
Speaker 3: councilors have leaned into these situations and treated them as individual.
Speaker 3: It's not there's no rubber stamping going on, and they
Speaker 3: are difficult, and so last night was particularly difficult because
Speaker 3: it involved a gentleman and some adopted sons. So there's
Speaker 3: like a family history that goes there. And I don't
Speaker 3: want to air out all these You can watch the
Speaker 3: live stream from last night if you really want to
Speaker 3: know the details. I don't want to get into those.
Speaker 3: But the point is there had been many and a
Speaker 3: long history of damage to the property and of disruption
Speaker 3: to the neighborhood, and so the abatement order, hey, demolish
Speaker 3: this house. And one of the questions I asked was
Speaker 3: what happens to you and your and your boys if
Speaker 3: we do that? And the answer was whow, I'll be homeless.
Speaker 3: And yet balancing the needs of the individual like there
Speaker 3: are still I mean, one of the things we talked
Speaker 3: a lot about is uh I talked a lot about
Speaker 3: and publicly is you for a society to function, you
Speaker 3: cannot externalize the negative consequences of your own choices unto
Speaker 3: the people around you. That's so there's a responsibility aspect
Speaker 3: to it. And there had been real harm to the neighborhood.
Speaker 3: But it turns out there was some situations going on
Speaker 3: with especially the oldest son who is now an adult
Speaker 3: and incarcerated and as he was telling these uh, he
Speaker 3: was telling us what was going on. Uh, you know,
Speaker 3: Counseman Dorsey, and Trevor leaned over and said, like, I
Speaker 3: know this is true. I knew this boy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was that was an interesting part.
Speaker 3: Of Yeah, And so I told him. He kind of
Speaker 3: whispered with to me and said, you need to we
Speaker 3: need to know that you need to tell And so
Speaker 3: he said, like this is true because sometimes also you
Speaker 3: don't know someone's telling you the truth.
Speaker 1: True.
Speaker 3: Everybody has a story, but this gentleman was he was
Speaker 3: telling us the truth. And he had been trying to
Speaker 3: do a good thing for his family and had been
Speaker 3: a very hard situation. Of course, these boys had gone
Speaker 3: through a lot of trauma and uh and and so
Speaker 3: at that point, I think every body realized, you know,
Speaker 3: this is a very unique situation. We want to be
Speaker 3: compassionate here, but also we have to be compassionate for
Speaker 3: the neighbors. And it does nobody any good to have
Speaker 3: a vacant lot. Also, well, this gentleman had been very
Speaker 3: proactive in this situation. He said, if nothing else, if
Speaker 3: there's no way for me to stay in this property,
Speaker 3: he said, I've talked to my Lenning company, and we
Speaker 3: could do a deed in lou which basically means I
Speaker 3: can give him the title and I don't have to
Speaker 3: get foreclosed on right. And then when that happens and
Speaker 3: the bank comes in, they bring the property up to code,
Speaker 3: they fix it, and then they will sell it try
Speaker 3: to recoup their investment. And that and is really credit
Speaker 3: to that gentleman who who brought this solution to us.
Speaker 3: But this gave us a way to help him and
Speaker 3: his family because it doesn't destroy his credit, which means
Speaker 3: they can find a place to rent with without something
Speaker 3: bad in their history. We weren't worried about like, well,
Speaker 3: it's just exporting the you know, these issues somewhere else
Speaker 3: because because a lot of the problem is a lot
Speaker 3: of the problem is gone gone, and and then you
Speaker 3: have and then the neighborhood, the neighbors will also be
Speaker 3: will benefit from this. And then you know, we haven't
Speaker 3: just destroyed a house. We also have an affordable housing
Speaker 3: crisis exactly. So so really, like I said last night,
Speaker 3: I laid it out and said, I think there's three
Speaker 3: things that we care about here. Number one is the
Speaker 3: person in this family. We care about them. Number two
Speaker 3: is the neighbors. These are other individuals that we care about,
Speaker 3: and number three is a structure. Ironically, the structure is
Speaker 3: the only one that we have authority to do anything about.
Speaker 3: But there was a path forward, and so that's what
Speaker 3: we did. Is this gentleman will be doing the deed
Speaker 3: and lou but there's a there is a time period
Speaker 3: for them to still be in the house until they
Speaker 3: while they find a place to move and the bank
Speaker 3: can take it over, fix it up, and it will
Speaker 3: benefit the whole neighborhood. And I think we've had three
Speaker 3: of these in a row and all three have now
Speaker 3: are in the process of resolving themselves in a positive way.
Speaker 3: I know there will be a day when we when
Speaker 3: the structure has to be knocked down. That is inevitable.
Speaker 3: But I am so impressed by our city councilors, and
Speaker 3: I want to give a special shout out to Councilman East.
Speaker 3: There's been a synergy I think between Larry and I
Speaker 3: at times in these that we neither of us that
Speaker 3: he had any idea this was gonna be a big
Speaker 3: part of what we had to do, and I hope
Speaker 3: it isn't. I hope this is just a weird run
Speaker 3: of them, but Larry is very good at diving into
Speaker 3: the technicalities of the issue and then and then we
Speaker 3: have really been able to His compassion comes through as
Speaker 3: that I'm trying to sure absolutely and I really it's
Speaker 3: true for all five of us, I think, But in
Speaker 3: those questions, I think he and I have had a
Speaker 3: synergy that I didn't expect as I've gotten to know
Speaker 3: Him'm not surprised, but I think he deserves a real
Speaker 3: kudos because we've been able to navigate these more effectively
Speaker 3: because of the way that he dives into the technicalities
Speaker 3: and still sees the person behind.
Speaker 1: Them absolutely well.
Speaker 2: What I witnessed last night was was a objective, objectively
Speaker 2: focused conversation about this is where we are. But you
Speaker 2: could also tell that those objective questions were done so
Speaker 2: out of an act of compassion. And I think I
Speaker 2: think that's really important for our community to know, is
Speaker 2: that these are very tough decisions. Nobody wants to be
Speaker 2: in this position, specifically an elected official who's telling a
Speaker 2: person I'm gonna have to tear down your structure. But
Speaker 2: these decisions are very difficult, but they're done so in
Speaker 2: a way that is beneficial to the community as a
Speaker 2: whole and hopefully for the situation to be remedied as well,
Speaker 2: while keeping in mind there's a human impact here too. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that was really important. Now, a couple of other things
Speaker 2: I've covered it this morning. The Sunset Bridge project, a
Speaker 2: little change to that. You know, it was originally kind
Speaker 2: of like grouped together where it would be a road
Speaker 2: structure for the Sunset Bridge over Butler Creek, and then
Speaker 2: an alternative to that was to also add in a
Speaker 2: pedestrian bridge on the side.
Speaker 1: Unfortunately, the pedestrian bridge as of right now is not able.
Speaker 3: To move forward because of costs, right, Yeah, Yeah, And
Speaker 3: I hope that's not the last word on that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't think it will be.
Speaker 3: I am I'm on Pathfinder every single day when the
Speaker 3: weather is, when the weather allows it, and I think
Speaker 3: Pathfinders are real of our community. And one of my
Speaker 3: long term visions or hopes is that is that Pathfinder
Speaker 3: will be connected safely and easily to every neighborhood in Bartlesville.
Speaker 3: And that's a very as a long term vision because
Speaker 3: a lot of costs associated a lot of a lot
Speaker 3: of projects, but this was one of those places where
Speaker 3: Pathfinder was going to be able to connect to Oak
Speaker 3: Park and that's a win for Ward four. So I
Speaker 3: hate that this has been removed because of the cost
Speaker 3: of the funding. And really it's just waiting on a grant.
Speaker 3: There are some government technicalities here that they were explaining
Speaker 3: last night that I got to tell you I'm frustrated by,
Speaker 3: and I'm also not done asking about I cannot I
Speaker 3: just cannot imagine that there's not a way that we
Speaker 3: can't figure out to get around this. I'm may be wrong, right,
Speaker 3: but what I'm saying is I'm still on this. I
Speaker 3: know that I know that our engineering department wanted to
Speaker 3: see it. All of our city staff want, like we
Speaker 3: all want this to happen. But the real frustrating thing
Speaker 3: is our staff is really good about balancing the objectives
Speaker 3: and the goals we have with the limited resources of funding,
Speaker 3: and they had figured out a way to do this
Speaker 3: as a cost effectively as possible. And because of a
Speaker 3: hang up at the grant level, we are now waiting
Speaker 3: and that that project may not happen, or if it does,
Speaker 3: it'll be more expensive because it's inefficient.
Speaker 2: Right because it has to be bid separately. As city
Speaker 2: attorney just kine.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and because and I don't understand, I really don't
Speaker 3: understand how I know why all the bid process has
Speaker 3: to happen. That's that is transparency and lack of anti
Speaker 3: corruption like, all of that is wise. But to have
Speaker 3: zero flexibility when you're talking about a sixteen thousand dollars
Speaker 3: gap and it may end up costing the city significantly
Speaker 3: more than that, to pause, that's just that is the
Speaker 3: that is a level of foolishness that can only happen
Speaker 3: to the government. Government, And like the entrepreneur part of
Speaker 3: my brain does not accept that as fact. Yet I
Speaker 3: understand that the realities may you know, physics may hit
Speaker 3: me in the face on this one, but I'm not
Speaker 3: done pushing.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's it is as you you know, you are,
Speaker 2: what eight months into the job here, and you learn
Speaker 2: something new and know that unfortunately government sometimes stands in
Speaker 2: the way of its own progress.
Speaker 4: And it's just and I think or usually that's that's
Speaker 4: worthwhile because when there's when there are those inefficiencies, there
Speaker 4: almost always because somewhere in the history of our country
Speaker 4: there was corruption because those checks and balances didn't happen, right,
Speaker 4: So I support them being there I think.
Speaker 3: I think transparency and accountability are necessary. They are good,
Speaker 3: and that's part of what I part of the reason
Speaker 3: I ran for city council, not because there was corruption,
Speaker 3: because I wanted to be able to be transparent, communicative
Speaker 3: and let people know what's going on proactively. So I
Speaker 3: don't have a problem with the things that sometimes gunk
Speaker 3: up the works, but sometimes the rigidity of law. Right,
Speaker 3: anything that is legalistic can can become its own worst enemy. Right,
Speaker 3: end up layering so many things onto each other that
Speaker 3: all of a sudden it is now counterproductive. And so
Speaker 3: that's the balance of rules in general. When you're writing policies,
Speaker 3: how do we make sure that we are doing what
Speaker 3: is right for the people, but also giving enough flexibility
Speaker 3: to the process that we can still do what's right
Speaker 3: for the people.
Speaker 1: Sure, yeah, it's it is. It's an interty thing. Now.
Speaker 2: Another big thing out of last night was the box
Speaker 2: hangar that's going to be out at the airport. We've
Speaker 2: we've talked about that quite a bit. You guys went
Speaker 2: ahead and moved forward with that, and it's important for
Speaker 2: I think the community to also understand that these are
Speaker 2: not City of Bartellsville funds.
Speaker 1: They're not coming from the city budget.
Speaker 2: These these are things, Uh the Oklahoma Department of Aviation
Speaker 2: and Aeronautics is paying.
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, that's forty percent of it. Uh.
Speaker 2: And then the Barbolesville Development Authority through their real estate fund,
Speaker 2: which is not a tax on it. So this is
Speaker 2: all money that is not coming out of the taxpayers
Speaker 2: dot right hand.
Speaker 1: So uh, so that's going to be built.
Speaker 2: And then because of it being on city property out
Speaker 2: at the airport, that is city property.
Speaker 1: Now the city actually has to own the building.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so we're gonna end up owning a structure that
Speaker 3: we're not gonna have to pay for. The BDA is
Speaker 3: paying for it. We are leasing the property to them
Speaker 3: for a dollar for several decades, which will allow them
Speaker 3: to you know, basically gather that the rent from that
Speaker 3: hangar so then they can then reinvest in other economic
Speaker 3: development in Barblesville. The b d A is exceptionally well run.
Speaker 3: I mean I get to sit down with those guys regularly,
Speaker 3: and just I just learned the math they use. There's
Speaker 3: a reason they have been so successful. They are out
Speaker 3: performing other entities like them all in our all around
Speaker 3: our region. I think we're running out of time there.
Speaker 3: We're okay because I want to make sure we get
Speaker 3: to a few things that that were covered in the
Speaker 3: in the staff report last night that I know you
Speaker 3: weren't sitting in there for, but I know they're really
Speaker 3: important to our community absolutely. So, like if we can
Speaker 3: put a ribbon on the on the on the new hangar,
Speaker 3: it's going to be great for we have a growing
Speaker 3: aviation repair industry. I'm looking for some day. I hope
Speaker 3: that someone will open up, like, uh, a quad copter
Speaker 3: taxis you know, service from here to you know, from
Speaker 3: here to the Tulsa Airport or something so that so
Speaker 3: that consumers and you know, really take advantage of it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but it is great for our economy.
Speaker 3: It's not costing the taxplayer.
Speaker 1: Anything, not at all, not at all.
Speaker 2: Now during the city manager reports last week, we uh
Speaker 2: have a couple of things we'll touch on here and.
Speaker 1: I can get rid of some of this stuff. So
Speaker 1: we're good.
Speaker 2: But uh so what we're what we're the things again
Speaker 2: was the boil water issue where everybody was saying, oh
Speaker 2: my gosh, there's eat.
Speaker 1: Coli in our water, eat coli in our water, and scary.
Speaker 1: Come to find out it was something a little bit different.
Speaker 3: R right, So here's the good news. So that so
Speaker 3: our stat did any kind of an action after action report. Uh,
Speaker 3: you know, they tried to figure out where was there
Speaker 3: an issue. Right, So we had two things going on.
Speaker 3: Coliforms and any cola coliforms are you know, they're organic
Speaker 3: matter that normal that regularly grows in pipes where there's water. Uh,
Speaker 3: they're not dangerous and they you know, we put chlorine
Speaker 3: in the water to kill them. You flush those pipes,
Speaker 3: that goes away, and then you're good. That happens, not
Speaker 3: a lot, but a couple of times a year. We
Speaker 3: find it somewhere in the system, You hit it with chlorine,
Speaker 3: it dies, you flush it. Everybody's good to go. Ecla
Speaker 3: is different. E Coli is dangerous. It's a fecal matter
Speaker 3: bacteria that should never be in our pipes. And in
Speaker 3: Terry Lawrence is twenty five years here, it had never
Speaker 3: been in our pipes. It freaked everybody out right and
Speaker 3: rightly so and then and then I'm not going to
Speaker 3: go through the whole process of how it all happened.
Speaker 3: I was in updates as I understood it along through.
Speaker 3: Let me tell you the coli thing as we currently
Speaker 3: understand it, as best we can tell, we actually never
Speaker 3: had a coli in our water system. Like I want
Speaker 3: people to hear this, clip this and repost it. We
Speaker 3: never had a coli in our drinking water system. There
Speaker 3: was a stand pipe, which is essentially the place where
Speaker 3: we test the water. That is, water can flow into it,
Speaker 3: but it cannot backflow out of it, and that pipe
Speaker 3: where this testing site is, it was we don't have
Speaker 3: a lot of standpipes that function like this, okay, And
Speaker 3: essentially you could put water in it, but then it
Speaker 3: wasn't all getting vacuumed out. So you had a spot
Speaker 3: between the backflow valve to our water supply where it
Speaker 3: was going to the houses and where the water came
Speaker 3: out to be tested that was not getting fully flushed.
Speaker 3: That when they pulled it out, they cut it, you know,
Speaker 3: they removed it, they sealed it off, and they're going
Speaker 3: to put a new standpipe in. But that right there,
Speaker 3: that what was described last night as like a black goo. Yeah, gross,
Speaker 3: It's possible an animal got in there and died, as
Speaker 3: possible that sludge built up over time. But the point
Speaker 3: is that grossness was totally cut off from our actual
Speaker 3: water supply that came out of it was great people
Speaker 3: who were going, well, I'm afraid what my you know,
Speaker 3: what if my pet got this or was I exposed
Speaker 3: or whatever? You were not There was no ecoli in
Speaker 3: our water supply. There was a coli. It's like having
Speaker 3: it in your hose, right, your hose can't feed back
Speaker 3: into the system. This is essentially that, and that's where
Speaker 3: the city was testing from. That's what pop positive. That
Speaker 3: has now been removed.
Speaker 1: And you know that.
Speaker 2: Great news body, But again, no e coli was ever
Speaker 2: in our water. Yes, good point. Now, another thing that
Speaker 2: people are really fired up about right now, Counselor Aaron Kirkpatrick,
Speaker 2: is the state Well, it's the state of the.
Speaker 1: Road rehabilitation preservation projects.
Speaker 2: Yes, basically for a lot of customers or for a
Speaker 2: lot of folks here, it looks like gravel on the
Speaker 2: road and the city is just ruining everything.
Speaker 1: I mean, what's going on with this this gravel folks.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So, and there's been lots of updates about this.
Speaker 3: Let me tell you where we're at right now. So
Speaker 3: this the road project. We did a whole bunch of
Speaker 3: road projects at once, and the goal the way this
Speaker 3: was supposed to work, is within four to six weeks,
Speaker 3: you'd start ripping up a road. Here the process has
Speaker 3: to sit for a couple of weeks. So they were
Speaker 3: going to be moving through the community ripping up roads
Speaker 3: and by the time they got to the last one,
Speaker 3: they'd circle back around start laying the new topping. And
Speaker 3: it was going to be a very efficient process, which
Speaker 3: again saves us money. Yeah, two things happened. Number One,
Speaker 3: it's very moisture sensitive and we got, thank god, a
Speaker 3: ton of rain this spring and summer exactly. That delayed
Speaker 3: everything in a way that I don't think city staff
Speaker 3: fully anticipated, fully understood. We've learned from that, but there
Speaker 3: was nothing It's just it's moisture sensitive. So that delayed things.
Speaker 3: And we had a subcontractor that was doing the process wrong.
Speaker 3: So kudos to Micah Seimer's and the rest of our
Speaker 3: engineering and our guys over there, because they went out
Speaker 3: and inspected the work that was being done by the
Speaker 3: subcontract and said, this doesn't look right. So the general
Speaker 3: contractor fired that subcontractor and then had to hire someone
Speaker 3: else to do the job. Didn't cost us any more money,
Speaker 3: but in doing all of that, that created another delay,
Speaker 3: so a four to six week process and now been
Speaker 3: going off for like three months. You know, as they
Speaker 3: were talking about this last night, I was like, yeah, like,
Speaker 3: when we leave this meeting, we're all going to hit
Speaker 3: the old dusty trails the way if we haven't done
Speaker 3: since eighteen hundreds. It's not cool. Nobody is happy with this,
Speaker 3: and the biggest thing people are frustrated by is the
Speaker 3: gravel that is on the road exactly. That will all
Speaker 3: be swept up and removed before the final layer is
Speaker 3: put on. Ideally that would have happened twice. Like you'd
Speaker 3: be great if all that had been removed now and
Speaker 3: then done a second time before the you know, before
Speaker 3: the topping was put on, because it was supposed to
Speaker 3: happen quickly. They didn't bid to do that because it
Speaker 3: should have been a rapid process. Yeah, what has left
Speaker 3: us with is what we're all frustrated by.
Speaker 1: Tully.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we feel it too.
Speaker 2: I don't know if anybody who is happy with what's
Speaker 2: going on, but it is an important part.
Speaker 3: We are making progress. Over the next few weeks.
Speaker 1: This will be wrapping up absolutely absolutely well.
Speaker 2: A council member Aaron Kirkpatrick Ward four representative. Thank you
Speaker 2: so much for spending some time with us.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Nack all right, you're welcome.