Canine Atlas.
Atlas has been with us I think right at ten years, maybe a little over anyway, or he's about ten years old.
He's been with us for about eight of those.
So Atlas is one of my very very favorite police dogs of all time.
He used to be he's the one that doesn't bite you.
It doesn't bite me. Yes, I mean he he'll buy it if they want him to, but he is. He is an amazing dog. And so but these these canines, they're they're invaluable to us, but they only working dogs only last about nine to ten years before you need to retire them. So he is getting to retire. And this is one of the few times that you'll hear me say that a law that was passed by the
state of Oklahoma was a really good thing. And what they allow us to do is that they allow us to retire these canines and to transfer them to their own to their handlers. And so cities are prohibited. In fact, we're going to talk about an auction we just had because cities are prohibited from donating anything, and so we can't donate dogs, cars, guns, none of that stuff can be donated to any other organization, agency or individual. This
is one example. The state gave us permission to pass these dogs on.
So Atlas was there.
I got to wrestle with him one last time in the middle of the council meeting. So I'm sure that was the council was really excited to see me on the floor rolling around with a dog. But that's more me than this me. So anyway, wanted to thank Corporal Gonzales and to congratulate him and Atlas both. And so speaking of police, we also have a police academy coming up, so a citizens Police Academy. This for anybody who is interested in how our police department works. This is a
fantastic opportunity. This is coming up. It starts on March twenty seventh. The deadline is actually March tenth, so the deadline for application is March tenth. Space is limited, there will not everybody will be able to get into this. Unfortunately. We we just have so much capacity to handle people in these things.
So you got till the end of business today to get that in.
Huh, look at that. You're right, You're exactly right. I don't even know what day it is. I got no idea what.
Today, So yeah, March tenth, so hurry up, you got till five o'clock today to get in.
And to be considered. And it'll start on March twenty seventh.
Uh.
And also so if anybody who has tried to use Johnstone Park recently, they will notice that Johnstone Parks closed at last fall. We did a lot of upgrades to the infrastructure in our parks and Johnstone Park of course was in use by Fantasy Land of Lights at that point in time, so they could not do it. So we've delayed that. So they're just they're they've gotten started on that. Weather permitting, we expect that it will be that those construction improvements will be completed by April f first.
So let's let's hope for good weather and let's hope to get Johnstone Park back opened.
It certainly will be.
This is the improvements to the Ring Road, some of the sidewalks and paths.
And things of that nature. So it'll be a night's upgrade to that park.
And also another announcement, Operation Clean House is coming up.
So and look at that, Tom.
This is actually let's see, it hasn't happened yet, so I'm announcing something that isn't today.
This is good.
So we have Operation Clean House and Keith handed me a flyer that has like a three.
Font on it, so I'm going to pretend to read that.
So Saturday April twelfth of so next month April twelfth, and it is from eight am to two pm. And Operation clean House, if you're not familiar with it, is essentially getting rid of household hazardous.
Waists outside of explosives.
Outside of explosives, they really don't appreciate it if you drop those off.
We had to call in up Tulsa bomb squad.
Yes we did, Yes we did. I think it turned out to be okay, but it did. It did put a kink in the operation. Sure, it slowed things down. So there's two locations, so it'll be the Phillip sixty six parking lot here in Bartlesville and then Washington County District two if you're familiar. If you're not familiar with District too, it is two miles east on ninth Street off of Highway seventy five. So they take different things.
The District two building, they'll be taking used motor oil and a freeze, automotive batteries, car and pickup tires and then they will also be taking some appliances, assuming that they are certified free on free Phillip sixty six parking lot. This one they'll accept compact fluorescent bulbs, cleaners, Tocsin's yardcare, all of those things, pesticides, oerbicide, so all of that you can take to the Phillip sixty six parking lot.
So take this opportunity to clean up your house a little bit and thank you, Keith.
I appreciate that.
And now moving on, So last week, I guess it would have been just one week ago. We had regular council meeting for the month of March. It was a relatively short council meeting, which is always okay with me. I'm sure it's okay with you too, always, although I believe you were.
At that one start sending Nathan, I don't get to see anymore. Tom.
You know I'm a little older.
What are you in bed? Toms?
Okay, okay, it would be tough for you to make a five thirty council meeting and have a six pm bedtime. So but council meeting relatively short. But there were some pretty interesting things that happen. So one of the things that the council did is they transferred some land that is in our industrial park to the Barsvielle Development Authority And the purpose of that is is that they're actually
going to build a spec industrial building. And so this will be a building that when we start building it does not have a tenant. What we've discovered and we've we've entertained a lot of companies over the years.
They come here and they are in a hurry.
And by in a hurry, I mean they need to be moving in in a month. That happens quite frequently, and so if you don't have a building that suits their needs, then they move on to the next place. So this will be a little different strategy for the BDA. They typically build the suit. The idea here is to build one that is essentially an open box and then.
If we're lucky, we have at least before it's constructed.
And that way they get to participate in the final construction design.
So anyway that will be happening.
Another building that the BDA is currently building is out at the Barswill Municipal Airport. Actually in preparing to construct a very large commercial hangar out there. We are out of hangar space and there's a huge demand for that. So this gives us a great opportunity to develop further develop the aerospace industry in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. So I think both of those are great things. Look forward to seeing
what comes of them. Council also approved a couple of street projects, so there was really just two of them.
One of them is Yale Drive and this will be Yale from Adams to Frank Phillips Boulevard. This will be a big project.
Shouldn't that a big road that kind of is Yeah, it goes down the hill, it goes around, yes, it is.
It is a it's a big road.
Good luck.
And there are also some connecting side roads that will be part of this, but primarily it's Yell Drive, so and it will be essentially a complete reconstruction and it will be really nice once it's completed. The other one is Madison Boulevard, and so this is of course Madison's in pretty good shape right until you get to Tuxedo and then north of Tuxedo it is essentially it's an old old county road.
Yeah you still got bar ditches. It's really just a chip and seal road.
So this will update Madison from Tuxedo to the Water Tower, and so it doesn't go quite to Minnesota, but it will go essentially to the north.
End of Blanket Out.
On the name of the park, it's the name of the housing edition there. Anyway, there is a there's a housing edition right there, park Hill. Yeah, it is park Hill, right, Look at that. Keith done that very often. I was actually right, and I hesitate. Now I tell you what, Keith. Keith knows every subdivision, every road in Bartlesville, I promise you, and he's worked on most of them. So but anyway, so that will go right up to that area. This
is actually a partnership with the Delaware Tribe. They're they're going to participate in this in a fifty to fifty split, which allows us to construct this in a little different manner than what we had intended. We were it was really just going to keep the original footprint, and now we're able to widen, curb and gutter and do it and do it right through there. And so this will help to serve their complex, which is on the west side of Madison, and it will also provide access to
park Hill on the east side of Madison. So really really excited to get both of those kicked off, but we just we don't we.
Don't have a timeline on him yet. That was the award of bid.
We'll go through some pre construction meetings and that will Micah Seemers will be back someday to tell us exactly when we expect those to be done. One of the other things that happened, and this is this will be a majority, a big part of our program. Today we did have an update on the Unsheltered Homeless Task Force and Rachel Shaller was there. I'm saying your name right right shoulder, God, it was both Scholer. Shall I know he's still I still don't know what Jason's last name is.
I've got it right one time. Not he for twenty years and I still don't. I still don't know him. So I got I got Keith roped in the wires from that microphone there about drugg him out of his chair.
That would have been awesome.
So but uh so, Rachel Rachel actually gave an update to the city council.
And Rachel is the CEO of Well all Right, Optional Director.
Operational Director of Grand Mental Health, which means she's in charge of Grand Mental Health in Bartlesville.
And is it it's not regional. It's just here, right, Washington count just Washington County and Bartlesville.
Yes, and so Rachel serves on our Unsheltered Homeless task Force. We actually have also made former mayor that I've told I've told every mayor who's ever served, that's a permanent title.
Once you get it, it never goes away. So this is form. That's it. Whether you like it or not. It was your fault. You shouldn't have said yes. Now you're that forever.
So Tom Gorman, Mayor Tom Gorman is here with us, and he also serves on the homeless task Force, and he had sort of a unique perspective in that he owns a number of multi family residential units here in Bartlesville, and so he sees another side the unsheltered homeless problem that we have in Bartlesville. But we have a really great task force that is I believe there's thirteen members, and then I think we have two non voting including one council member and one member of another nonprofit.
Really diverse group of people.
And I serve as staff liaison, which means that I take notes and I'm the least informed person in the room, and so I try to keep everything straight for them.
That's all I can do. But it is.
It is an incredible group of people. And I think we've met three times, right, and so, uh, these two were I think they volunteered to be spokespeople or god volunteers, don't you don't would call it that way. Tom volunteered, Rachel did not unvolunteer. So, but we appreciate both of them. This is an important issue in our community, and I've really I've been impressed watching the committee work and how much information really that has been gathered. There's a lot
we had to first know. Uh, we had to know what the problem was, and we had to understand what it was that we didn't know. So with that, I'm gonna kick it over to you too, and I'll let you give everybody an update on exactly what we've been doing and what we found out.
Well, Mike, I'll start by saying that I swore i'd never meet you like this again, but here here we are.
Never say no, never say never.
That's right, And.
I agree with everything you said about the task Force. It's it's been a good group. I think there's been a very unbiased, you know, exchange of information, and it's been sort of empirical, you know that I so far, we haven't I'm probably the most emotional person in the room, uh regarded this issue, and I really appreciate everybody coming forward and talking about what can be a very sensitive issue in a manner that's that really moves forward the goals.
I think of everybody in the room, I'm going to take exception with one thing you said.
You said you're the least important person in the room, and I disagree, because the city has great ability to impact positively negatively the homeless population, or landowners or the service providers. And I mean it's it's evidenced in in your officer. I might get her her sergeant. I don't know what her title is, wrong, but Sierra Compton, that's in there. You know, she's obviously very dedicated to what she does and involved in the homeless population, and I
think that speaks very well for the city. And you know, from some of the issues I've raised, she has reached out to me about how the police force and the city can better help property owners in dealing with some of these issues. And so, you know, I like your humility, but I'd just like to say that we've seen cities that have taken a hands off approach or let things happen that that I don't think is best for the
citizens and taxpayers of the city. And I think that Bartlesfield's doing a pretty good job of not letting that happen here, and it's appreciated that I don't want to.
Take all the time, and I just want a second that I tell people all the time that we're very fortunate to live in a community where we have so much involvement from the city and law enforcement and criminal justice when it comes to mental health and substance use issue.
So thank you for that. We appreciate it.
And Sierra is there not she she has Bartlesore Police officer, but she works in partnership with Grand Mental Health and so she has she actually has a partner that isn't that is one of your employees.
And it's it's not completely.
Unique to law enforcement to do this, but it is it is very unique in our area. I'm not aware of there may be one other There may be one other city in the state of Oklahoma that's doing this. So yeah, it is all all of the agencies in the city, and of course the police.
Department take it very seriously, so I'll follow up.
But the next thing that was surprising to me when the data came out about our homeless population. You know, when I got on this task force at a number of people reach out to me and say, what are you gonna do about the people getting bust in?
What are you going to do about the people that are.
You know, not Bartlesville Indigenous homeless people? And and you know, the data has been provided to us by Grand Lake and other nonprofit organizations here in town and the police department who support and deal with and try to improve the lives of the homeless populations. And the data all seems to point to the same total number amount of homeless people. And then you know, they go out, the police and Grand Lake, they go out.
Do you call it a survey? What do you call that?
So we have an outreach team and that's their that is their main job. They every day they're just going out, They're meeting with the unsheltered individuals and they just kind of keep track of how many times they come in contact with them. If they'll engage, they'll ask them some questions, and we just kind of track them. How are they doing, what resources do they need, what's their name, where are
they from? Uh, you know, things like that. So we're just tracking as much information as they'll give us, essentially just so we can keep an eye on what the number is, what resources they might need, trying to link them to what those resources are, and things like that.
So it's nothing high tech.
I think it's simply just a spreadsheet where they keep their name and the information that they're asking them, and they updated as they go.
And I think maybe the word we were looking for was a point in time count, and.
That is something yeah, there is a yah.
Yeah, point in time that's a little more hands on deck. So we have a housing department at Grand but they serve the entire agency, so our entire twelve counties. But they come to Bartlesville specifically one day a year and they do a point in time count, so they count how many unsheltered individuals they come in content with that day.
And of course we don't just do it one time a year. And that was what you were saying, is that for us, it's an.
Ongoing outreach, which which is appreciated, and it keeps us, it keeps us a little bit more informed. We can track the statistics a little bit better. I loved it, and the mayor said it. It was interesting to me to hear the percent of people who were from our area, and then it was even the ones that weren't from Bartlesville proper. We're largely from surrounding counties, or they had family here, or they had some connection to this.
So yeah, I think, and I know you all had those. You may even have those statistics handy.
But yeah, I mean, we could write through the statistics. I think it's more important if people want them to reach out and get the real numbers for a news article, or Kelly could distribute those. But I think the story that needs to be told is that the majority of them are Bartlesville Indigenous or Bartlesville Native, or they have
a close tie to Bartlesville, and they're not transient. And from what has been told to me or told to the committee by the AGAPI, who feeds a lot in the data that they track, is that the ones who are transit are just that they may have gotten here by some means that we don't like, but they don't stay here, is what it's really looking like. So we're really dealing with people that are Bortlesfield based, and we
need to have the compassion for those. And she took a little liberty talking about Grand Lake, So I'm gonna take a little liberty talking.
About property owners.
And I think a lot people that own property that are would have experienced this is that this is a new phenomenon to have people camping on your land without permission. It is it is a within the last five years phenomena. And this is you know, we've owned the same property that's been the same condition for over thirty years not had this issue.
And so it's new.
This this attitude that this is something that is allowed or acceptable and and and that's something the task force is working on. I think your city Judge Alan Genties is making some good work and you're going to work with your city attorney Just Caine, to try to work on some refining and maybe additional ordinances to give the city tools to uh, namely Keith. I think you should make Keith go out and clean things up, but of course in the finance department, I don't.
Uh, but uh, that's right, yeah, But I think it's good to have have this give the city the broad city I'm talking about all all facets, you know, code enforcement, everybody.
The tools they need to protect the citizens, taxpayers and landowners. And and this is it could be a simple a homeowner or what we've experienced more is a business.
And this is one of the things that I really appreciated about in the committee has been that broad viewpoint that they've taken. The committee understands that there is some degree of accountability that we have to have. Well at the same time not forgetting the compassion that you mentioned, Mare, and so I really have appreciated that because everybody there is there with.
An open heart.
They're there to serve, but at the same time they understand that this is an issue that affects more than just the population that we're trying to serve. And so how do you balance the needs of want against the needs of the other. And of course that's what we call public policy, and it's never easy, but I appreciate you all assisting us with it.
I don't know if you want to touch on it. You know, Aaron Kirkpatrick, or city council member, started this.
Initiative I think what you'd probably call it and form the committee, and he has a framework called.
Out of Homelessness yeah, I.
Might have the word highway into I don't know, but anyway, it you know, it's and it was definitely a framework for the discussion. We'll see what happens with that document
that he's he's put forward. But I'm I am heartened for the fact that the nonprofits who come to this from a serving the individuals and need perspective, they're still at the table talking, you know, and and and I really appreciate all them doing that because some of the things we're talking about don't exactly fit your mission and and uh and but but the fact that they're continuing to have the conversation speaks volumes.
I don't know where it will end up.
Well, we'll see, but but I I this has been a really good educational process, and I hope that in the end we can sort of push this out in some sort of broad based form that uh that you know, short enough that that people will read it and digest it, but with enough detail that they'll they'll understand the situation.
A little better.
I sure have.
Yes, Yeah, it's been It certainly has been very helpful for me. I'm very data driven, and so I like to understand a problem before we try to before we try to solve it, and I have appreciated the approach the committee has taken. I think that was a huge part of it over the first couple of meetings was to understand better the scope of what each of the
agencies was dealing with. And so you know, we got the count, which was our outreach team had that and it was it's about fifty eight unsheltered people in Bartlesville. We realized that there are some in camps right outside of Barnsville, and since it was using Bartow police officers, our count didn't have them, and so it but I think you said it at the council meeting, the committee believes there's probably about one hundred unsheltered people right in
our surrounding or using services in Barblesville. And so that is not an insignificant number by any stretch of the imagination, but.
It's also not I don't think it's as bad as we feared.
And the other revelation is the one the mayor has already mentioned that they were largely from here, and that matters because it's a different solution. And when people assumed that it was some outside entity that was sending them here, well, that has a solution, but it's very different than dealing with your own people who are experiencing homelessness. You can't keep them from coming here. You can't deal with an outside agency that's creating the problem.
It's endemic to your own community.
So I've appreciated that and it has allowed us to better understand what's going on. I plan to have you two back in the future, maybe in a month when I'm allowed to do this again. So call me, let me come back, yes, because I've really appreciated and I know that we are on the cusp of making some recommendations of the council. I appreciate both of you, not just for serving on the committee, but for also agreeing to be the spokesperson that is that's that's a difficult job.
And Rachel, you did a great job presenting this to council and I do appreciate it. And tell your boss Josh that I said, Hi, I.
Will, I will.
I'll tell him I've really enjoyed getting to know him. So if people don't know, the grand has a new CEO, uh and he spent a lot of time in Bartlesville lately, and so it Bartlesville is clearly important to Graham, and.
We appreciate you all for sure.
Thank you all.
Anything else you would like to add before I kick it over to these two.
I got three minutes, says Tom.
He doesn't want me to tell the audience that I have three minutes, but I have three minutes.
I don't know how this thing works.
Top.
You're gonna have to give me rules next time, you know.
I'm just.
So Keith, let's talk. We had a we had an auction on.
We did, but you didn't missed it, so if you wanted to go, it's too late. YEA very successful. We got lucky the Wedther cooperated with us. I don't know the exist number, but I think there was over two hundred bitters, probably a big cards that were put out.
That's awesome.
The good part is we got rid of everything, so we kind of cleaned out the key.
That was our goal.
We of course wanted to make a little money for the city and we did uh, but the main thing was to get rid of our surplus items automobiles, cars, trucks and anything else laying around we weren't using.
So that went very well. Was happy with that.
We haven't got rid of an old fire truck that we just had no idea what we were going to do with it was so old. It was I think a nineteen seventy four model, but I think somebody bought it and found a good use for it. We might find out locally. I don't want to throw anything out there. I don't know for sure, but we'll see if it shows up somewhere parade.
It is a cool truck, but it does not new by any stretch.
A couple things I wanted to mention real quick was the spring leaf and grass collection. We're just putting that out today. It's going to be the week of May the fifth through the ninth, so if you're familiar with that gives the residence in Bartlesville the opportunity to put up their mulching and their leaves, or if they've scalped their yard before a spring hits, it gives them an opportunity to bag that material set it out on the curb on their normal collection day again starting the week
of May the fifth through the ninth. No commercial yard services is just for the private resident. You can also bundle your sticks and limbs up in four foot links and no more than fifty pounds and also set those on the curb out near your poly carts and we'll come around and collect those. So that'll be on our website also, But again it's coming up pretty quick May the fifth through the ninth. Another thing I want to mention real quick was in our parks department. It's just
around the corner. We're gonna be mowing grass again. But we're looking for someone to spray mosquitos. So it's been an ongoing problem. We run a program throughout the summer to try to keep the mosquitos down and we really it's very hard.
Yeah, it's hard to fill that job.
So if you're somebody looking for a part time job, it is in the evenings typically from probably five or six o'clock in the evening till eleven or twelve o'clock at night. Run five to six hours a night. Typically one person, if they work those hours during week, can spread the entire time. We can do the town in two weeks, and that's our goal to do and so
we're looking for somebody to do that. So if you're interested, to go to the City of Bartlesville's website, there's a page there tab for jobs, and.
Then if not. You can also go down to city Hall the second floor.
Great way to serve your community.
Try to apply there.
No one likes mosquitos. We love our mosquito man.
We'll help you.
We've got to get a little license through the Oklahoma Department of Bag but we'll help you with that and get you through that process, and we'd be glad to have you come to work force.
All right, thanks Keith, appreciate it. Hopefully we'll get somebody somebody in there in time. Jason thirty seconds House Sundes Town sales taxes up, use taxes up.
You got much more talk to go any further?
Ay, come my chop.
I'm a use tax up thirty two percent, which is one hundred and three thousand dollars roughly. Sorry if I'm rushing through this off here, rush off. Sales tax is only up thirty thousand dollars one point seventy nine percent for the year.
We're up half percent eighty five thousand, uh budgetarily we're up there in forty seven thousand, which is two percent.
All right, that's gonna do it.
Thank you for