Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Events coming up this week or actually this month, I
want to make sure everybody was aware of so anyone
who would like, we would love to have you join
us this Wednesday, So Wednesday, May fourteenth, this will be
the fall Fallen Officer Memorial event. This occurs between the
Central Fire Station and the Police Station which is on Johnstone.
(00:22):
We actually have a memorial there and so we will
have a memorial event to honor all the fallen officers
in Washington County. And so that will be again Wednesday,
May fourteenth noon to one great event, and we are
we would love to have everyone who's available come down.
The actual ceremony itself is only about ten to fifteen minutes,
(00:44):
so if you're on your lunch break, feel free to
come down. Afterwards, they do open up the police station.
They serve snacks and people are allowed to come in
and you can get a little bit of a look
at what's going on in our police station.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
So good.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Yeah, it is a really cool event. If you've never
had an opportunity to attend, we'd encourage you to join us.
And then coming up this will be on May twenty fourth,
we will be opening the swimming pools and so these
are the city owned swimming pools, which would be Frontier
and sooner. Those are both owned by the city, but
(01:17):
they are operated by the YMCA, and so YMCA will
be ready to open both of those on May twenty fourth. Now,
the splash pads might actually open sooner than that, but
that really is just depending on whether and so if
the weather cooperates, we'll actually open those sooner, and.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
So once that happens, we'll we'll make that announcement for sure.
Did you give the test glide on the slide already?
Did you give them me the approval?
Speaker 1 (01:42):
You know?
Speaker 3 (01:43):
I was. I was.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
I was one of the first ones down, and I'm
going to tell you the fast slides pretty fast good.
I lost I lost contact with the slide at one point.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
Wow, weez, zero gravity in the tube. It was. It
smooked me just a little bit.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
I'm not gonna but it was fun, right, And of
course I had a bunch of people watching. So the
only thing I could think of is please don't scream
like a little girl.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
And I didn't.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
I didn't, but I did on the inside just for
a minute. Okay, So but that's that's coming up, and
we would love to These are all of our swimming
pools are fantastic. They are and the amenities there are awesome,
so it's a great thing for families. But we'll plan
to have those open May twenty fourth, and we're really
excited about it. Another thing that's going on, and actually
(02:31):
we are in the very last phase of it, is
the hydrant flushing, and so we are in the last phase.
In fact, it will be happening this evening, and so
we will be flushing the hydrants between frank Phillips. Basically,
if you live north of frank Phillips between seventy five
and the Caney River, we'll be flushing those tonight, so
(02:52):
you'll you could notice some discoloration of your water. And
people are always curious why we flush the hydrance, and
there's a couple of reasons.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
One of them is to ensure that all the hydrants
of town are working.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
So this is a you go around and you you
actuate them and flush them out and you make sure
that they're working. But actually the main reason for it
is for maintenance of our water lines. And so by
flushing those, you actually flush you increase the velocity of
the water in the line and it scours the inside
of the lines, and so it removes what's known as
the biofilm, and so all all water has minerals and
(03:26):
things in it, and it actually will deposit on the
inside of the lines, and so we we speed up
how much water flows through there, and it actually scours
that out and helps to keep the lines maintained.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
So those are those are the two reasons. And it does.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
It can cause some can cause some discoloration of the
water when we're doing that, so just be careful, especially
if you're washing clothes. You might want to wait a
day and not We don't want you to stain your
clothes at all. So but that'll that's I believe that's
the final phase of that and we will have completed
hydro flushing for the year. So now back week we
(04:01):
had a council meeting, would have been yeah, actually it
would have been last week, so one week ago. Had
a fairly lengthy meeting, but we had a lot, We
really had a lot on the meeting. It was one
of the weightier meetings we've had in a while. And
in fact, we had budgets and we had contracts with
the Barbsviell Development Authority and visit Bartlesville, and we had
(04:21):
their budgets and their stories, and we had a lot
going on that night. In fact, I'm forgetting about half
of it. But one of the one of the items
I know that generated a lot of public interest was
the city's comprehensive Plan. And so if i'd just take
a minute and kind of back up, because the city's
(04:42):
comprehensive Plan was actually adopted in November of twenty twenty four,
and so we have a comprehensive plan and it is
we have been operating under that plan since November twenty
twenty four. And if you're curious exactly what a comprehensive
plan is, it is the longest term plan that the
city implements, and so it looks way into the future.
(05:04):
We're talking twenty or thirty years for these. Most of
our plans are relatively short in nature. We look one
to three years into the future. But this is the
overall framework for our community, for our government, for development,
for economic development. This is the overall framework looking as
far out into the future as we can. Took about
(05:24):
took thirteen months, I think, to develop the comprehensive Plan.
It involved hundreds of citizens of Bartlesville, there was a
tremendous amount of input.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
We had a top.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
Shelf consultant from half An Associates and this plan was
again it was thirteen months in development, adopted in November
by the City Council. At the same time, the City
Council invited people to provide input for a thirty day
period and so during that thirty day period we wanted
(05:56):
to hear from everyone who had concerns, and I think
Larry you told me we received about we received probably
five different submissions, but they were all essentially the same submission,
so they had the same source. And so the Larry
actually facilitated an ad hoc group to review those changes
(06:17):
and to see if any of those that the City
Council would be interested in implementing any of those and
there it was quite a voluminous number of amendments, and
so the ad hoc group, I think you spent about
four months studying that, so about four months actually studying it,
and then took the final document to the Planning Commission,
(06:41):
and the Planning Commission recommended that we reject all amendments.
And so what they wanted was for us to keep
the plan that the council had adopted in November, and
that was unanimous by the Planning Commission, so that was
their recommendation of the City Council. But since the City
Council is the actual deciding body and the Planning Commission
is just a recommend we went ahead and took it
to the City Council and Larry explained it that night
(07:05):
exactly everything that I'm talking about now, how we arrived
at this place and the council considered it and they
actually split vote three to two. They rejected all the amendments,
so they followed the recommendation of the Planning Commission.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
So we have the same comp plan.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
That we have had since last November, and we will
and to be clear, I think we have a great
plan and I think it was well developed, using again
all of the resources that our community has. There was
incredible amounts of public input and frankly, there was even
more availability for anyone who wanted to participate. Not everyone did,
(07:42):
and I get that there's thirty eight thousand people.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
That live in Borlso Localholm and not all of them
care to participate in a thirty year plan.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Well, I and those open meetings there sure were a
ton It was standing room only.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
It was actually pretty impressive, right, yeah, that we had
that many people participate. So that was what went into
the development of the area origional plan and the If
anyone is curious why we had the ad hoc it
was to consider the submissions that we received after the
plan was adopted, and so they did a small group.
It was actually Larry was the staff facilitator. We had
(08:15):
Council East on the committee. We had Vice Mayor Dorsey
on the committee, and then we had two citizens, one
of whom had served on the original the Planning Advisory Committee,
which was Dan kelleher he brought some technical expertise as
an architect. And then the final one was Sarah Burnette,
who is.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
I believe her.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
I believe she's actually the vice vice chairman of the
Washington County GOP and so that as far as I know,
that's her only official role she had. She was the
compiler of all of the suggested changes. So the ad
hoc committee met in good faith and looked through everything.
But again at the end of it, both the Planning
Commission and in the City of Artlesfield rejected those amendments
(08:57):
and so we will will go with the plan that
was that was initially adopted and we're.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
Quite happy with it. Oh yeah, very much.
Speaker 4 (09:03):
Then I'd just like to chime in that you know,
the conference ave Plan is a guiding document, is not
an ordinance, right, no law. It is no law. It
is adopted by resolution by city council. So it is
something that the city will constantly be looking at and
actually as a part of our comp plan and ordinances
is that we look at it every at least once
(09:25):
a year to see if there's any potential changes that
need to be looked at, and that's always about every November.
Is that will take a take a look at that,
see if there's anything that needs to be done, and
then go from there. But yeah, I mean it is
it is a well crafted document that you know, well
over a thousand citizens participated in helping create and craft
that document. Oh yeah, I mean that's that is incredible
(09:47):
to have that much participation, both through you know, in
person meetings that we had and the online information that
we are surveys that we had available. So yeah, it's
it's incredible.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
We're grateful to everyone who partic diipated and again, this
is this is something that we will but we will
use as we look to Bartlesville's future, and so it
helps to shape other plans. So when we look at
our strategic Plan, which is a shorter frame timeframe it's
generally about three years, is what we look at there.
As we look to our strategic Plan, we align it
with comprehensive plan. And then every year when we do
(10:19):
our budget, we align it with the Strategic Plan, and
each department they align their.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
Goals with the Strategic Plan. So it does.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
It is important, but again it's just it's a it's
a guiding document. It is not there is no force
of law, it doesn't allocate resources. So but we're excited
to have that behind us so that we can we
can continue to move forward. And speaking of budgets, that
was a major topic at our last council meeting. In fact,
we essentially the Council adopts two separate budgets. The first
(10:48):
budget is the operating budget, and included in that is
funding for capital projects. But the Council actually considers the
capital budget separately. So they adopt the operating budget and
that's funding to these capital sources. But then we have
a completely separate presentation on all of the capital projects
and then the council adopts those So as far as
(11:09):
the operating budget went, the council did adopt the operating
budget as presented, so all of the city staff's work
was appreciated on that. And so just some quick highlights
on the operating budget. Our finance director will be back
later this month and be on the radio and he
can talk in greater detail.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
But the biggest highlights.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
We anticipated decline in both sales tax and use tax,
and so we typically budget very conservatively and this year
was no exception. We have budgeted for a one percent
decline in sales tax, which is a significant amount of money.
Sales tax is our largest tax source, and a two
percent decline in use tax, and so both of those
are significant revenue sources. So we're trying to hedge our
(11:53):
bets a little bit as we go into these times
of uncertainty. It's always uncertain, by the way, that's just
the reality. When you're planning a year, you don't know
how it's going to go. So you described as uncertain.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
Well, if you did, there would be no surprise. That's true.
That's not all surprises are good. Dumb. The older we get,
the more we realize that there are very few good surprises,
very few.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
So one of the other provisions we did provide for
standard pay increases for all city employees, which is very
important to us.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
We want to be an employer of choice.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
We want people to want to work here because eighty
over eighty percent of our budget is for personnel.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
Work service organizations.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
So the service we provide to the citizens of Bartlesville
is dependent on the quality of people we can hire,
and that is directly related to what we pay. As
far as additions of personnel, there really were only four
additional personnel. We are looking to add four firefighters to
the City of Bartlesville, and there's a lot of reasons
for that, but part of it is is to help
(12:56):
to offset some of the overtime that we were incurring.
And part of that is that we have simply grown
as a city since we established the number of firefighters
that we have, so adding for we believe will we'll
provide a better service to our community and save money.
And so it's it's not often we can do those
two things at the same time, but we believe this
will do both. And then there were a couple of
(13:16):
initiatives in there that were they're sort of interesting. One
of them is as we set aside some money to
explore the implementation of AI in our in our organization,
it is an incredibly powerful tool, somewhat misunderstood, and we
were just curious where where could we.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
Go with that?
Speaker 1 (13:34):
And and again, our goal is tooful, just like it
was with the firefighters, is to reduce costs and increase
service to citizens. So we think that AI presents that opportunity.
We just need to be very careful in how we
implement it.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
Okay, yep, very careful.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
Very yeah, we don't want to turn on sky Net Tom, No,
we don't. Sorry for anybody who's under the age of thirty.
That was a terminator reference. And the other thing that
we set aside some money for was actually to implement
the next plan. And so the Council is currently in
the process of adopting our next strategic Plan and so
(14:13):
that is has been titled Barlsville Next and so we
will be looking to do that in the near future.
And so once we adopt the next plan, there are
typically some priorities in there that do require funding, and
so there was just some money set aside that the
Council can actually use to accomplish some of the goals
within the next plan.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
So that was it.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
It was a relatively boring budget, which is awesome. Those
are my very very favorite kind. I like it when
things are simple, and in this case, it was a
relatively simple budget. No, not yet, but there most certainly
there most certainly will be. And you're right, we have
we have reserves to help deal with those surprises, and
that's why we budget the way we do. So the
(14:56):
second budget that the council adopts is actually the cap
little budget that we discussed, and that one is that
that's run by our city engineer, Mike Seamers, actually our
city engineering director.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
You're also a city engineer. You're also a traffic engineer.
Is there anything else I miss something? Manager?
Speaker 2 (15:16):
Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
It's done at the water buffalo. Lie.
Speaker 4 (15:19):
That's it.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
There you go. See, we're all about to say it clearly.
All right, So Micah, let's talk capital budget. So the
first off, capital budget is generally from sources of revenue
that are voter approved. So we have our sales tax,
which is a half cent sales tax that's dedicated for capital.
(15:40):
We have GEO bonds that are voter approved, so the
projects for those are largely decided unless we have excess
funds and then we can add projects of the same type.
So if the voters approved streets in this amount and
we have some extra money, then we can do some
extra streets.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
It's kind of how how that shakes out.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
So talk to us, and there's some other sources of capital,
but those are the two biggest. So talk to us
about what what the citizens can expect.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
And these are projects that we expect to either.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Start design or start construction in the next year, which
is why they were funded.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
Correct.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
Yeah, so we we each year also always carry over
some projects that were already funded with the previous year,
quite a few previous budget.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
And it takes more than a year to get most
of these capital projects.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Unfortunately, it does.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
Unfortunately it does.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Yees, lengthy design and then bidding process and then right
some of them then themselves could take six well, depending
we've got wastewater plants, may take.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Two years to may take two years on that. In
our bridge project, we'll be pushing a year when it's
all complete there on Tuxedo. So yeah, so there's government
doesn't always move quickly when we're opening money, which isn't
necessarily always a.
Speaker 3 (16:43):
Bat, but not always a bad thing, that's right. Let's
be deliberate.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
We don't rush into things, yeah for sure. So but yeah, so,
like you said, we were working on geo bond funds
from the twenty twenty geo bond. Currently we've got the
twenty twenty two issues, the twenty twenty three issues of those,
and so actually really the majority of those projects should
be really going out to bid this year. Hopefully.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
This is awesome.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
We're I don't want to say we're caught up, because
we're not caught up by any means, but we're finally
doing better I think in our department and trying to
get some of these things cranked out. So you'll see
a lot of street projects happening this year and whatnot.
But as far as new projects that they're new to
the budget, we're, like you said, we're on year five
of the five year sales tax extension and there.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
Weren't a whole lot of projects in there.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
Usually try to get things done earlier in that five
year periods. You never know what the money is going
to do.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
Right, all of the ones that we promised the public
we would do, we try to get done.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
We're trying to get that done early, so there really
weren't a whole lot of projects in there. The biggest
thing really is about one point two million dollars worth
of prevent the maintenance street funds. Those specific streets aren't
identified yet. We'll start working on that here the next
couple of months and get that before Street and Traffic Committee,
but we'll use our payment condition model to help identify
those as well. But we've got funding for that, and
(17:55):
then we've got our kind of what we call evergreen
funds as far as maintenance, some equipment, things of that nature.
So we've got small vall smaller things. We've got funding
for general fund, vehicle replacement, for police vehicle replacement, and equipment,
you know, tasers, things of that nature. It's all the
things that really are kind of recurring each year. We've
(18:16):
got funding for that. But like you said, if we
do have some savings or more money available than the
product that we're planned, we do reach out with the
directors for their list of needs, and so we went
through that process this year as well. And so in
sales tax alone, we do have a one hundred and
eighty thousand dollars for new abatement storage building. That was
really kind of the largest thing in sales tax sadly enough,
(18:38):
and that's just not all that exciting.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
Right, Well, that was a very exciting budget. Very exciting budget.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
We've got that We've actually got the last bit of
funding for our City Hall remodel project in the carpet.
So we've got some funding for carpet replacement in City Hall.
Speaker 3 (18:51):
That's exciting for the people who work there.
Speaker 4 (18:53):
It is.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
And so you know, we're getting close to bidding that
project as well, and this actually works out well, we're
now just got that last piece of funding so we
can make that happen.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
This building is over one hundred years old, so it
requires a little care.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
And love, it does for sure. So again that's kind
of your project's there for sales tax. As far as
new projects, we also have a capital Reserve fund, which
is actually general fund money that again, if we have
a surplus that we can put towards capital project, that's.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
Right, anything that we can we try to put towards.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
Capital, right, and so really the most exciting project in
that is going to be nine hundred and fifty thousand
dollars for a new fire truck.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
It is definitely badly needed. We were due a replacement
on the pumper anyway. But this will be special.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
Right, So this will be special. So this is gonna
be equipped with phone capabilities. They call it RF I believe,
I forget what that even stands for. Yes, well, I'm
not even gonna report, I don't remember. Long story short,
it's gonna help us be covered at our airport. That's
so if you have fires out there and those hangars,
you've got jet fuel, you've got other things that are combustible,
and so we're really not currently equipped to handle that.
(19:57):
There was a time when Conico Phillips ran that airport
that they had the equipment on site I did.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
They actually had to our vehicles on site that we
don't have anymore.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
And so when we took over operation of the airport
out there, we've already always owned it, but we took
over operation.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
What was that three years ago now, it.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Seems about right, Yeah, we we haven't had that equipment.
So that came up as part of this new hangar
project that we're currently working on design out there, and
that it would have cost about one point five million
dollars just for fire suppression in that one building to
do foam suppression. And so we thought a better option
would be to equip our fire department appropriately and then
(20:33):
we can get by with normal I guess, more conventional
water fire suppression in that hangar at a lesser cost,
and then we can be covered on the other hangers.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
With It allowed us to increase our capability of our
fire department and yeah, for sure for the airport and
beyond the airport.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
Right, So this is I think this is I think
we all feel like this is a good, good step,
good thing, decision, good project per se. It's equipment, not
so much a project, but so EARLYI Other than that,
I mean that's the rest of us equipment and things
for other departments and whatnot. It's as far as sales tax.
We had about four point four to seven million dollars
available for new projects. That's after we got through our
(21:11):
carryover projects that were already budget previous years and if
we had to add additional funding to those or we
never really cut the projects, but sometimes we'd have to
carry over some additional funds and we haven't got the design,
maybe haven't got to construction. Those who carry over the
full budget for those we had about four point four
to seven million available in sales tax. We had about
three point sixty seven million dollars in actual projects, and
(21:33):
so it's got that about just almost eight hundred thousand
dollars buffer.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
It's always good to have, especially when we have increasing
prices like we have right now.
Speaker 3 (21:43):
Correct, we are really.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
Uncertain, you know, It's been interesting. It's just might have
been all over the board, something seem high.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
Something.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
I've been surprised on some street projects here they're actually
coming in lower than expected. But I think as a whole,
things are still high.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
And I think some of.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
The streets are the materials are local right, our buildings,
a lot of that stuff is We're going to be
bringing in steel and stuff from other areas, so that
will will certainly be more susceptible there.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
So this is nice.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
This is I think last year we had around the
same amount a little.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
Bit last thing.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
That's seven hundred and fifty thousand last year for unallocated
It's nice because there haven't always been years. No, there
have been years where we've had about one hundred dollars
safety hundred thousand dollars safety debt there and.
Speaker 3 (22:22):
It went fast, pretty nerve wright again it went fast.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
So this allows us to do the projects that we've identified,
even if some of them come in over budge correct,
which which we know that that's a good chance that
will happen this year, right, right, Our estimates are not
are a couple of years old.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
Now, so they are. Yeah, especially on the sales tax
side of things. You know it's a five year extension
or geo bond products were maybe a little bit better
shape on this lightest one, but uh, we try to
be conservative, but we we did find out pretty early
on especially on some bridges I think too hurry over
on that one we've adjusted and modified for a sunset
portion is going to happen here the next year.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
So there is there anything in there that you think
that the public would be excited about that it's something
something unique, sort.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
Of like you said, it's kind of boring.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
It's kind of kind of boring.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
Kind but there's there are a lot of street projects,
a lot of street projects.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
Yeah, and so and really what's going to happen is
is not so much with the new projects, but what
you're going to see is on that last issuees of
the twenty twenty g O bond Uh. There's a whole
bunch of street projects in that. We've got I think
four different concrete street projects that we're lumped into one project.
We've got about six different asphalt projects that are lumped
into one larger project. So we've got a lot of
things that you're going to see construction happening that are
(23:37):
really carried over from previous years.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
And there will be some disruption, there will be asked
for everybody's patience. I would apologize, but the reality is
is what we're doing is we're improving our community and
making our streets spanishers nothing to apologize for.
Speaker 3 (23:50):
We find ourselves apologies.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
That's it, and so I and right now we're we're
getting ready to go through a period of some pretty
significant intermittent district eruptions and they're signage up on those
streets now. So if people have noticed the little temporary
reflectors on a road, it's because that road is getting
ready to get and improvement.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
That is and is if you drive through town, it's
pretty much going to cover It's quite a.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
Few major.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
We've got them all and we do and that will
be essentially a thin overlay and then it gets sealed
with sort of a year. It's sort of a super
hard sealant on it. And this is preventative maintenance. So
these some of these roads you'll look at and think, man,
that road was okay to begin with, Well it is,
but in a couple of years it won't be right.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
And so she just had that conversation with a friend
over the weekend. We were talking about it and they
were asking what the you know, what the signage was
it was up and what's going on and the sticky
tabs and and I just explained it, and actually I
sent them the link. So if you guys are interested
in this project, good point for starters, get on city Beat.
There's a link in there for that and in the
project description. We should also have that on our website.
(24:56):
But they really did a pretty good job of laying
this project out. It's in phases. I don't if you
want to go to that level of detail here on
the radio this morning, I'm not sure we have time for.
Speaker 3 (25:03):
Yeah, But.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
Bottom line is it's going to cover a lot of
the city of Barbles little but there is information out
there on that link, and yeah, it's prevented maintenance.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
But those streets.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
They're really not in that bad a condition now now
they're they're in pretty good shape, but we want to
extend the life of those This will get us another
ten to fifteen years. So this is where we have
to do something more like Teresa's.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
Painting your house rather than repair repair in your side.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
And so that's really where we're painting our roads and
we're going to make sure that they're in good shape
come ten to fifteen years. So this is an excellent
use of that money, right, all right, Michael, Well, thank you.
We got Larry here too, and I don't want to
cut him out completely, so he got a couple of minutes.
Speaker 3 (25:41):
But Larry, so we're here really to kind of.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
Talk about code enforcement because this is the time of
year in which I.
Speaker 4 (25:48):
Want to talk about Mark exciting, okay, so I'll okay,
well I'll do very quick on that.
Speaker 3 (25:54):
Well, just as a reminder, I'll tell you what you do.
You nobody ever listens to me anyway, So just do
your thing.
Speaker 4 (26:00):
Always listening to it doesn't mean I actually act on it,
but I mean I listened thirty seconds Argus, Yeah, exactly.
So anyways, code enforcement coming. As you know, we've had
lots of great rain, Thank the Good Lord that we
did is that we needed that desperately considering the past
couple of years. But what that leads to is grass growing.
So what does that mean, citizens, please be out there
(26:20):
maintaining your your grass. Is that we need to make
sure that those things keep mode because if not, we'll
be knocking on your door to just get you a
little reminder.
Speaker 3 (26:27):
Keep it under what keep it under least twelve inches?
Speaker 4 (26:29):
But if it all possible.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
Shorter it is always better. Better, Shorter will be better
for inches wet grass, it is hard to.
Speaker 4 (26:34):
Moyah exactly exactly. So the other thing I wanted to
point out is that Keith Barsol Beautiful our committee that
we crayed last year as doing an excellent job, and
that we have our first project that we are doing
to day. We are going to be out actually planting
us some new plants within the planters downtown at Keeler
and Frank Phillips and so they will be out today
doing that and we're really excited about that. And we'll
(26:56):
be doing that as well. Uh, we'll be kicking off
Zony Code update soon. We are going to be going
out for an RFQ request for qualifications for a consultant
to come in and assist us with that update. That
will be about a year year and a half long process.
So the comp plan, we want to make sure everything
is going to be cope a set of goodness, so
we'll be doing that as well. The last thing I
want to talk about is that last year, late last year,
(27:20):
the History Museum had requested the park Board that we
do a slight neat installation over off on a pathfinder
and that is where the inner Urban crosses pathfinder was
to do a little little installation of actually showing that location.
So our team will be out there doing that hopefully
this Friday, if all the weather holds out, that we
will be actually putting that installation in, which will be
(27:42):
a painting on a cross pathfinder showing the location of
where the inner Urban For those who don't know what
that was, that was our old city rail line that
we had going through the city. Super cool and so
we're putting it doing that as well.
Speaker 3 (27:54):
So that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
So we got we got a lot of little things
going on and so our as always, our community is
a very unique place and this is just more demonstration
of it.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
Very good job. We got that all in on time.
Just listened in already. Thank you for watching and listening
to our City Matters program right here on K one,
the one you trust. Stay tuned, we have news ahead
in just a moment.
Events coming up this week or actually this month, I
want to make sure everybody was aware of so anyone
who would like, we would love to have you join
us this Wednesday, So Wednesday, May fourteenth, this will be
the fall Fallen Officer Memorial event. This occurs between the
Central Fire Station and the Police Station which is on Johnstone.
(00:22):
We actually have a memorial there and so we will
have a memorial event to honor all the fallen officers
in Washington County. And so that will be again Wednesday,
May fourteenth noon to one great event, and we are
we would love to have everyone who's available come down.
The actual ceremony itself is only about ten to fifteen minutes,
(00:44):
so if you're on your lunch break, feel free to
come down. Afterwards, they do open up the police station.
They serve snacks and people are allowed to come in
and you can get a little bit of a look
at what's going on in our police station.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
So good.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Yeah, it is a really cool event. If you've never
had an opportunity to attend, we'd encourage you to join us.
And then coming up this will be on May twenty fourth,
we will be opening the swimming pools and so these
are the city owned swimming pools, which would be Frontier
and sooner. Those are both owned by the city, but
(01:17):
they are operated by the YMCA, and so YMCA will
be ready to open both of those on May twenty fourth. Now,
the splash pads might actually open sooner than that, but
that really is just depending on whether and so if
the weather cooperates, we'll actually open those sooner, and.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
So once that happens, we'll we'll make that announcement for sure.
Did you give the test glide on the slide already?
Did you give them me the approval?
Speaker 1 (01:42):
You know?
Speaker 3 (01:43):
I was. I was.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
I was one of the first ones down, and I'm
going to tell you the fast slides pretty fast good.
I lost I lost contact with the slide at one point.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
Wow, weez, zero gravity in the tube. It was. It
smooked me just a little bit.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
I'm not gonna but it was fun, right, And of
course I had a bunch of people watching. So the
only thing I could think of is please don't scream
like a little girl.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
And I didn't.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
I didn't, but I did on the inside just for
a minute. Okay, So but that's that's coming up, and
we would love to These are all of our swimming
pools are fantastic. They are and the amenities there are awesome,
so it's a great thing for families. But we'll plan
to have those open May twenty fourth, and we're really
excited about it. Another thing that's going on, and actually
(02:31):
we are in the very last phase of it, is
the hydrant flushing, and so we are in the last phase.
In fact, it will be happening this evening, and so
we will be flushing the hydrants between frank Phillips. Basically,
if you live north of frank Phillips between seventy five
and the Caney River, we'll be flushing those tonight, so
(02:52):
you'll you could notice some discoloration of your water. And
people are always curious why we flush the hydrance, and
there's a couple of reasons.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
One of them is to ensure that all the hydrants
of town are working.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
So this is a you go around and you you
actuate them and flush them out and you make sure
that they're working. But actually the main reason for it
is for maintenance of our water lines. And so by
flushing those, you actually flush you increase the velocity of
the water in the line and it scours the inside
of the lines, and so it removes what's known as
the biofilm, and so all all water has minerals and
(03:26):
things in it, and it actually will deposit on the
inside of the lines, and so we we speed up
how much water flows through there, and it actually scours
that out and helps to keep the lines maintained.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
So those are those are the two reasons. And it does.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
It can cause some can cause some discoloration of the
water when we're doing that, so just be careful, especially
if you're washing clothes. You might want to wait a
day and not We don't want you to stain your
clothes at all. So but that'll that's I believe that's
the final phase of that and we will have completed
hydro flushing for the year. So now back week we
(04:01):
had a council meeting, would have been yeah, actually it
would have been last week, so one week ago. Had
a fairly lengthy meeting, but we had a lot, We
really had a lot on the meeting. It was one
of the weightier meetings we've had in a while. And
in fact, we had budgets and we had contracts with
the Barbsviell Development Authority and visit Bartlesville, and we had
(04:21):
their budgets and their stories, and we had a lot
going on that night. In fact, I'm forgetting about half
of it. But one of the one of the items
I know that generated a lot of public interest was
the city's comprehensive Plan. And so if i'd just take
a minute and kind of back up, because the city's
(04:42):
comprehensive Plan was actually adopted in November of twenty twenty four,
and so we have a comprehensive plan and it is
we have been operating under that plan since November twenty
twenty four. And if you're curious exactly what a comprehensive
plan is, it is the longest term plan that the
city implements, and so it looks way into the future.
(05:04):
We're talking twenty or thirty years for these. Most of
our plans are relatively short in nature. We look one
to three years into the future. But this is the
overall framework for our community, for our government, for development,
for economic development. This is the overall framework looking as
far out into the future as we can. Took about
(05:24):
took thirteen months, I think, to develop the comprehensive Plan.
It involved hundreds of citizens of Bartlesville, there was a
tremendous amount of input.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
We had a top.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
Shelf consultant from half An Associates and this plan was
again it was thirteen months in development, adopted in November
by the City Council. At the same time, the City
Council invited people to provide input for a thirty day
period and so during that thirty day period we wanted
(05:56):
to hear from everyone who had concerns, and I think
Larry you told me we received about we received probably
five different submissions, but they were all essentially the same submission,
so they had the same source. And so the Larry
actually facilitated an ad hoc group to review those changes
(06:17):
and to see if any of those that the City
Council would be interested in implementing any of those and
there it was quite a voluminous number of amendments, and
so the ad hoc group, I think you spent about
four months studying that, so about four months actually studying it,
and then took the final document to the Planning Commission,
(06:41):
and the Planning Commission recommended that we reject all amendments.
And so what they wanted was for us to keep
the plan that the council had adopted in November, and
that was unanimous by the Planning Commission, so that was
their recommendation of the City Council. But since the City
Council is the actual deciding body and the Planning Commission
is just a recommend we went ahead and took it
to the City Council and Larry explained it that night
(07:05):
exactly everything that I'm talking about now, how we arrived
at this place and the council considered it and they
actually split vote three to two. They rejected all the amendments,
so they followed the recommendation of the Planning Commission.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
So we have the same comp plan.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
That we have had since last November, and we will
and to be clear, I think we have a great
plan and I think it was well developed, using again
all of the resources that our community has. There was
incredible amounts of public input and frankly, there was even
more availability for anyone who wanted to participate. Not everyone did,
(07:42):
and I get that there's thirty eight thousand people.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
That live in Borlso Localholm and not all of them
care to participate in a thirty year plan.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Well, I and those open meetings there sure were a
ton It was standing room only.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
It was actually pretty impressive, right, yeah, that we had
that many people participate. So that was what went into
the development of the area origional plan and the If
anyone is curious why we had the ad hoc it
was to consider the submissions that we received after the
plan was adopted, and so they did a small group.
It was actually Larry was the staff facilitator. We had
(08:15):
Council East on the committee. We had Vice Mayor Dorsey
on the committee, and then we had two citizens, one
of whom had served on the original the Planning Advisory Committee,
which was Dan kelleher he brought some technical expertise as
an architect. And then the final one was Sarah Burnette,
who is.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
I believe her.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
I believe she's actually the vice vice chairman of the
Washington County GOP and so that as far as I know,
that's her only official role she had. She was the
compiler of all of the suggested changes. So the ad
hoc committee met in good faith and looked through everything.
But again at the end of it, both the Planning
Commission and in the City of Artlesfield rejected those amendments
(08:57):
and so we will will go with the plan that
was that was initially adopted and we're.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
Quite happy with it. Oh yeah, very much.
Speaker 4 (09:03):
Then I'd just like to chime in that you know,
the conference ave Plan is a guiding document, is not
an ordinance, right, no law. It is no law. It
is adopted by resolution by city council. So it is
something that the city will constantly be looking at and
actually as a part of our comp plan and ordinances
is that we look at it every at least once
(09:25):
a year to see if there's any potential changes that
need to be looked at, and that's always about every November.
Is that will take a take a look at that,
see if there's anything that needs to be done, and
then go from there. But yeah, I mean it is
it is a well crafted document that you know, well
over a thousand citizens participated in helping create and craft
that document. Oh yeah, I mean that's that is incredible
(09:47):
to have that much participation, both through you know, in
person meetings that we had and the online information that
we are surveys that we had available. So yeah, it's
it's incredible.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
We're grateful to everyone who partic diipated and again, this
is this is something that we will but we will
use as we look to Bartlesville's future, and so it
helps to shape other plans. So when we look at
our strategic Plan, which is a shorter frame timeframe it's
generally about three years, is what we look at there.
As we look to our strategic Plan, we align it
with comprehensive plan. And then every year when we do
(10:19):
our budget, we align it with the Strategic Plan, and
each department they align their.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
Goals with the Strategic Plan. So it does.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
It is important, but again it's just it's a it's
a guiding document. It is not there is no force
of law, it doesn't allocate resources. So but we're excited
to have that behind us so that we can we
can continue to move forward. And speaking of budgets, that
was a major topic at our last council meeting. In fact,
we essentially the Council adopts two separate budgets. The first
(10:48):
budget is the operating budget, and included in that is
funding for capital projects. But the Council actually considers the
capital budget separately. So they adopt the operating budget and
that's funding to these capital sources. But then we have
a completely separate presentation on all of the capital projects
and then the council adopts those So as far as
(11:09):
the operating budget went, the council did adopt the operating
budget as presented, so all of the city staff's work
was appreciated on that. And so just some quick highlights
on the operating budget. Our finance director will be back
later this month and be on the radio and he
can talk in greater detail.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
But the biggest highlights.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
We anticipated decline in both sales tax and use tax,
and so we typically budget very conservatively and this year
was no exception. We have budgeted for a one percent
decline in sales tax, which is a significant amount of money.
Sales tax is our largest tax source, and a two
percent decline in use tax, and so both of those
are significant revenue sources. So we're trying to hedge our
(11:53):
bets a little bit as we go into these times
of uncertainty. It's always uncertain, by the way, that's just
the reality. When you're planning a year, you don't know
how it's going to go. So you described as uncertain.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
Well, if you did, there would be no surprise. That's true.
That's not all surprises are good. Dumb. The older we get,
the more we realize that there are very few good surprises,
very few.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
So one of the other provisions we did provide for
standard pay increases for all city employees, which is very
important to us.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
We want to be an employer of choice.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
We want people to want to work here because eighty
over eighty percent of our budget is for personnel.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
Work service organizations.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
So the service we provide to the citizens of Bartlesville
is dependent on the quality of people we can hire,
and that is directly related to what we pay. As
far as additions of personnel, there really were only four
additional personnel. We are looking to add four firefighters to
the City of Bartlesville, and there's a lot of reasons
for that, but part of it is is to help
(12:56):
to offset some of the overtime that we were incurring.
And part of that is that we have simply grown
as a city since we established the number of firefighters
that we have, so adding for we believe will we'll
provide a better service to our community and save money.
And so it's it's not often we can do those
two things at the same time, but we believe this
will do both. And then there were a couple of
(13:16):
initiatives in there that were they're sort of interesting. One
of them is as we set aside some money to
explore the implementation of AI in our in our organization,
it is an incredibly powerful tool, somewhat misunderstood, and we
were just curious where where could we.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
Go with that?
Speaker 1 (13:34):
And and again, our goal is tooful, just like it
was with the firefighters, is to reduce costs and increase
service to citizens. So we think that AI presents that opportunity.
We just need to be very careful in how we
implement it.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
Okay, yep, very careful.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
Very yeah, we don't want to turn on sky Net Tom, No,
we don't. Sorry for anybody who's under the age of thirty.
That was a terminator reference. And the other thing that
we set aside some money for was actually to implement
the next plan. And so the Council is currently in
the process of adopting our next strategic Plan and so
(14:13):
that is has been titled Barlsville Next and so we
will be looking to do that in the near future.
And so once we adopt the next plan, there are
typically some priorities in there that do require funding, and
so there was just some money set aside that the
Council can actually use to accomplish some of the goals
within the next plan.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
So that was it.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
It was a relatively boring budget, which is awesome. Those
are my very very favorite kind. I like it when
things are simple, and in this case, it was a
relatively simple budget. No, not yet, but there most certainly
there most certainly will be. And you're right, we have
we have reserves to help deal with those surprises, and
that's why we budget the way we do. So the
(14:56):
second budget that the council adopts is actually the cap
little budget that we discussed, and that one is that
that's run by our city engineer, Mike Seamers, actually our
city engineering director.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
You're also a city engineer. You're also a traffic engineer.
Is there anything else I miss something? Manager?
Speaker 2 (15:16):
Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
It's done at the water buffalo. Lie.
Speaker 4 (15:19):
That's it.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
There you go. See, we're all about to say it clearly.
All right, So Micah, let's talk capital budget. So the
first off, capital budget is generally from sources of revenue
that are voter approved. So we have our sales tax,
which is a half cent sales tax that's dedicated for capital.
(15:40):
We have GEO bonds that are voter approved, so the
projects for those are largely decided unless we have excess
funds and then we can add projects of the same type.
So if the voters approved streets in this amount and
we have some extra money, then we can do some
extra streets.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
It's kind of how how that shakes out.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
So talk to us, and there's some other sources of capital,
but those are the two biggest. So talk to us
about what what the citizens can expect.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
And these are projects that we expect to either.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Start design or start construction in the next year, which
is why they were funded.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
Correct.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
Yeah, so we we each year also always carry over
some projects that were already funded with the previous year,
quite a few previous budget.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
And it takes more than a year to get most
of these capital projects.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Unfortunately, it does.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
Unfortunately it does.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Yees, lengthy design and then bidding process and then right
some of them then themselves could take six well, depending
we've got wastewater plants, may take.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Two years to may take two years on that. In
our bridge project, we'll be pushing a year when it's
all complete there on Tuxedo. So yeah, so there's government
doesn't always move quickly when we're opening money, which isn't
necessarily always a.
Speaker 3 (16:43):
Bat, but not always a bad thing, that's right. Let's
be deliberate.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
We don't rush into things, yeah for sure. So but yeah, so,
like you said, we were working on geo bond funds
from the twenty twenty geo bond. Currently we've got the
twenty twenty two issues, the twenty twenty three issues of those,
and so actually really the majority of those projects should
be really going out to bid this year. Hopefully.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
This is awesome.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
We're I don't want to say we're caught up, because
we're not caught up by any means, but we're finally
doing better I think in our department and trying to
get some of these things cranked out. So you'll see
a lot of street projects happening this year and whatnot.
But as far as new projects that they're new to
the budget, we're, like you said, we're on year five
of the five year sales tax extension and there.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
Weren't a whole lot of projects in there.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
Usually try to get things done earlier in that five
year periods. You never know what the money is going
to do.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
Right, all of the ones that we promised the public
we would do, we try to get done.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
We're trying to get that done early, so there really
weren't a whole lot of projects in there. The biggest
thing really is about one point two million dollars worth
of prevent the maintenance street funds. Those specific streets aren't
identified yet. We'll start working on that here the next
couple of months and get that before Street and Traffic Committee,
but we'll use our payment condition model to help identify
those as well. But we've got funding for that, and
(17:55):
then we've got our kind of what we call evergreen
funds as far as maintenance, some equipment, things of that nature.
So we've got small vall smaller things. We've got funding
for general fund, vehicle replacement, for police vehicle replacement, and equipment,
you know, tasers, things of that nature. It's all the
things that really are kind of recurring each year. We've
(18:16):
got funding for that. But like you said, if we
do have some savings or more money available than the
product that we're planned, we do reach out with the
directors for their list of needs, and so we went
through that process this year as well. And so in
sales tax alone, we do have a one hundred and
eighty thousand dollars for new abatement storage building. That was
really kind of the largest thing in sales tax sadly enough,
(18:38):
and that's just not all that exciting.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
Right, Well, that was a very exciting budget. Very exciting budget.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
We've got that We've actually got the last bit of
funding for our City Hall remodel project in the carpet.
So we've got some funding for carpet replacement in City Hall.
Speaker 3 (18:51):
That's exciting for the people who work there.
Speaker 4 (18:53):
It is.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
And so you know, we're getting close to bidding that
project as well, and this actually works out well, we're
now just got that last piece of funding so we
can make that happen.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
This building is over one hundred years old, so it
requires a little care.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
And love, it does for sure. So again that's kind
of your project's there for sales tax. As far as
new projects, we also have a capital Reserve fund, which
is actually general fund money that again, if we have
a surplus that we can put towards capital project, that's.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
Right, anything that we can we try to put towards.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
Capital, right, and so really the most exciting project in
that is going to be nine hundred and fifty thousand
dollars for a new fire truck.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
It is definitely badly needed. We were due a replacement
on the pumper anyway. But this will be special.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
Right, So this will be special. So this is gonna
be equipped with phone capabilities. They call it RF I believe,
I forget what that even stands for. Yes, well, I'm
not even gonna report, I don't remember. Long story short,
it's gonna help us be covered at our airport. That's
so if you have fires out there and those hangars,
you've got jet fuel, you've got other things that are combustible,
and so we're really not currently equipped to handle that.
(19:57):
There was a time when Conico Phillips ran that airport
that they had the equipment on site I did.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
They actually had to our vehicles on site that we
don't have anymore.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
And so when we took over operation of the airport
out there, we've already always owned it, but we took
over operation.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
What was that three years ago now, it.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Seems about right, Yeah, we we haven't had that equipment.
So that came up as part of this new hangar
project that we're currently working on design out there, and
that it would have cost about one point five million
dollars just for fire suppression in that one building to
do foam suppression. And so we thought a better option
would be to equip our fire department appropriately and then
(20:33):
we can get by with normal I guess, more conventional
water fire suppression in that hangar at a lesser cost,
and then we can be covered on the other hangers.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
With It allowed us to increase our capability of our
fire department and yeah, for sure for the airport and
beyond the airport.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
Right, So this is I think this is I think
we all feel like this is a good, good step,
good thing, decision, good project per se. It's equipment, not
so much a project, but so EARLYI Other than that,
I mean that's the rest of us equipment and things
for other departments and whatnot. It's as far as sales tax.
We had about four point four to seven million dollars
available for new projects. That's after we got through our
(21:11):
carryover projects that were already budget previous years and if
we had to add additional funding to those or we
never really cut the projects, but sometimes we'd have to
carry over some additional funds and we haven't got the design,
maybe haven't got to construction. Those who carry over the
full budget for those we had about four point four
to seven million available in sales tax. We had about
three point sixty seven million dollars in actual projects, and
(21:33):
so it's got that about just almost eight hundred thousand
dollars buffer.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
It's always good to have, especially when we have increasing
prices like we have right now.
Speaker 3 (21:43):
Correct, we are really.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
Uncertain, you know, It's been interesting. It's just might have
been all over the board, something seem high.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
Something.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
I've been surprised on some street projects here they're actually
coming in lower than expected. But I think as a whole,
things are still high.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
And I think some of.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
The streets are the materials are local right, our buildings,
a lot of that stuff is We're going to be
bringing in steel and stuff from other areas, so that
will will certainly be more susceptible there.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
So this is nice.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
This is I think last year we had around the
same amount a little.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
Bit last thing.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
That's seven hundred and fifty thousand last year for unallocated
It's nice because there haven't always been years. No, there
have been years where we've had about one hundred dollars
safety hundred thousand dollars safety debt there and.
Speaker 3 (22:22):
It went fast, pretty nerve wright again it went fast.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
So this allows us to do the projects that we've identified,
even if some of them come in over budge correct,
which which we know that that's a good chance that
will happen this year, right, right, Our estimates are not
are a couple of years old.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
Now, so they are. Yeah, especially on the sales tax
side of things. You know it's a five year extension
or geo bond products were maybe a little bit better
shape on this lightest one, but uh, we try to
be conservative, but we we did find out pretty early
on especially on some bridges I think too hurry over
on that one we've adjusted and modified for a sunset
portion is going to happen here the next year.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
So there is there anything in there that you think
that the public would be excited about that it's something
something unique, sort.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
Of like you said, it's kind of boring.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
It's kind of kind of boring.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
Kind but there's there are a lot of street projects,
a lot of street projects.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
Yeah, and so and really what's going to happen is
is not so much with the new projects, but what
you're going to see is on that last issuees of
the twenty twenty g O bond Uh. There's a whole
bunch of street projects in that. We've got I think
four different concrete street projects that we're lumped into one project.
We've got about six different asphalt projects that are lumped
into one larger project. So we've got a lot of
things that you're going to see construction happening that are
(23:37):
really carried over from previous years.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
And there will be some disruption, there will be asked
for everybody's patience. I would apologize, but the reality is
is what we're doing is we're improving our community and
making our streets spanishers nothing to apologize for.
Speaker 3 (23:50):
We find ourselves apologies.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
That's it, and so I and right now we're we're
getting ready to go through a period of some pretty
significant intermittent district eruptions and they're signage up on those
streets now. So if people have noticed the little temporary
reflectors on a road, it's because that road is getting
ready to get and improvement.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
That is and is if you drive through town, it's
pretty much going to cover It's quite a.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
Few major.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
We've got them all and we do and that will
be essentially a thin overlay and then it gets sealed
with sort of a year. It's sort of a super
hard sealant on it. And this is preventative maintenance. So
these some of these roads you'll look at and think, man,
that road was okay to begin with, Well it is,
but in a couple of years it won't be right.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
And so she just had that conversation with a friend
over the weekend. We were talking about it and they
were asking what the you know, what the signage was
it was up and what's going on and the sticky
tabs and and I just explained it, and actually I
sent them the link. So if you guys are interested
in this project, good point for starters, get on city Beat.
There's a link in there for that and in the
project description. We should also have that on our website.
(24:56):
But they really did a pretty good job of laying
this project out. It's in phases. I don't if you
want to go to that level of detail here on
the radio this morning, I'm not sure we have time for.
Speaker 3 (25:03):
Yeah, But.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
Bottom line is it's going to cover a lot of
the city of Barbles little but there is information out
there on that link, and yeah, it's prevented maintenance.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
But those streets.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
They're really not in that bad a condition now now
they're they're in pretty good shape, but we want to
extend the life of those This will get us another
ten to fifteen years. So this is where we have
to do something more like Teresa's.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
Painting your house rather than repair repair in your side.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
And so that's really where we're painting our roads and
we're going to make sure that they're in good shape
come ten to fifteen years. So this is an excellent
use of that money, right, all right, Michael, Well, thank you.
We got Larry here too, and I don't want to
cut him out completely, so he got a couple of minutes.
Speaker 3 (25:41):
But Larry, so we're here really to kind of.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
Talk about code enforcement because this is the time of
year in which I.
Speaker 4 (25:48):
Want to talk about Mark exciting, okay, so I'll okay,
well I'll do very quick on that.
Speaker 3 (25:54):
Well, just as a reminder, I'll tell you what you do.
You nobody ever listens to me anyway, So just do
your thing.
Speaker 4 (26:00):
Always listening to it doesn't mean I actually act on it,
but I mean I listened thirty seconds Argus, Yeah, exactly.
So anyways, code enforcement coming. As you know, we've had
lots of great rain, Thank the Good Lord that we
did is that we needed that desperately considering the past
couple of years. But what that leads to is grass growing.
So what does that mean, citizens, please be out there
(26:20):
maintaining your your grass. Is that we need to make
sure that those things keep mode because if not, we'll
be knocking on your door to just get you a
little reminder.
Speaker 3 (26:27):
Keep it under what keep it under least twelve inches?
Speaker 4 (26:29):
But if it all possible.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
Shorter it is always better. Better, Shorter will be better
for inches wet grass, it is hard to.
Speaker 4 (26:34):
Moyah exactly exactly. So the other thing I wanted to
point out is that Keith Barsol Beautiful our committee that
we crayed last year as doing an excellent job, and
that we have our first project that we are doing
to day. We are going to be out actually planting
us some new plants within the planters downtown at Keeler
and Frank Phillips and so they will be out today
doing that and we're really excited about that. And we'll
(26:56):
be doing that as well. Uh, we'll be kicking off
Zony Code update soon. We are going to be going
out for an RFQ request for qualifications for a consultant
to come in and assist us with that update. That
will be about a year year and a half long process.
So the comp plan, we want to make sure everything
is going to be cope a set of goodness, so
we'll be doing that as well. The last thing I
want to talk about is that last year, late last year,
(27:20):
the History Museum had requested the park Board that we
do a slight neat installation over off on a pathfinder
and that is where the inner Urban crosses pathfinder was
to do a little little installation of actually showing that location.
So our team will be out there doing that hopefully
this Friday, if all the weather holds out, that we
will be actually putting that installation in, which will be
(27:42):
a painting on a cross pathfinder showing the location of
where the inner Urban For those who don't know what
that was, that was our old city rail line that
we had going through the city. Super cool and so
we're putting it doing that as well.
Speaker 3 (27:54):
So that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
So we got we got a lot of little things
going on and so our as always, our community is
a very unique place and this is just more demonstration
of it.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
Very good job. We got that all in on time.
Just listened in already. Thank you for watching and listening
to our City Matters program right here on K one,
the one you trust. Stay tuned, we have news ahead
in just a moment.
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