Good morning, good morning, good morning. Welcome, welcome, welcome. It's time now for our City Matters program. It matters to you, it matters to the city, of course it does. And right now we have miss Laura here. How are you doing, young lady.
I'm doing great, Thank you, well, super We got a house full.
Today, we do.
Yep.
We've got lots going on at the city and so lots to share today.
On with it all right, So the first thing.
I wanted to talk about this morning was our Citizens Academy. So this is the final week of accepting applications for our second annual Citizens Academy. And so this is not to be confused with our Police Department Citizens Academy. This is the city wide Citizens Academy. So participants can expect to go to all the different departments within the city and meet city staff and really see where their tax dollars are being spent and how daily operations are going
each day. And so we do tours of all the different facilities, including the wastewater treatment plant, the water plant, the police department, fire department. We go to all of the different departments and so it's a really great deep dive into city government and so.
We encourage people to apply. And so if you are.
Interested, you must be at least eighteen years of age or older. You have to meet one of the following criteria. You either have to be a resident of Bartlesville, employed full time in Bartlesville, or own a business in Bartlesville. And if you meet that criteria, we encourage you to apply at our website at Cityobartlesville dot org and you'll apply for the Citizens Academy.
And it's a very short application.
So the selection process or i'm sorry not the selection process, but the application process will end on the thirty first, so they have until Thursday to put in their applications and then the sessions will start on September fourth, so it's every other Thursday from one to five and it will last until November thirteenth, so we'll finish kind of wrap it up right before the Thanksgiving holiday, and then we will have a December council meeting graduation and so
it's an exciting time and I encourage anybody that's interested to apply. We will select twenty participants this year. We try to keep the class smaller, a little more intimate. That way, it's easier to go through all the different departments and it's very informal. They have questions, they can ask those questions, and it's easier to do that when there's just twenty as.
Opposed to a larger group.
And then of course I do have to give a shout out to Tri County Tech because we partner with them on the transportation, so they provide all of the bus and the bus driver to take everybody on the tours into.
All the different facilities.
So yeah, that's what we've got going for the Citizens Academy, and again I encourage people to apply.
You have them till July thirty.
First, next up we have a golf course update. So I've got d Roadman here.
He's our.
Sorry working out our mics. He is our golf director. And so what's going up golf course do Well, a lot.
Of things, a lot in a short amount of time to get open.
Yeah, we're just trying to get ready, trying to kind of going through our punch list, final detail stuff, you know, about three and a half weeks from our community day and then we're going to do a grand opening shotgun the following day, that Saturday.
So we've got a lot coming up here.
Pretty quickly, so we're trying to scramble to get as much done as we can before we get get the course back open again.
Very good.
Yeah, So the community Day, everybody's invited to that. That will be from ten am to one pm. And what can they expect that community Day?
We just want people to come out and we encourage them to do. They can come out and walk the course if they like, or just bring their putters and but on the few of the greens that are near the clubhouse, they want to walk out too far on the golf course, but they're more welcome just kind of check things out.
Meet the new staff.
Obviously, we have a lot of new faces including myself out there that people probably haven't met us before in our new staff as well, So give give an opportunity to meet some of the some of the golfers that'll be.
Coming out and also meet us.
And then we'll have food truck and drink and just let people kind of meal around and we'll have I believe the opening ribbon cutting ceremony as well that day as well to commenced the opening of the golf course.
Yep. So again that is on August twenty second, so that is on a Friday, and it's from ten am to one pm, and everybody's invited to attend that. Come out and get you some food, bring your putters, put around, meet the staff, and we'll also have a live radio broadcast that day from the course, and so it'll be an exciting time for everybody to kind of see what the course looks like and to meet d and all of his staff.
I do.
I'd seen some emails bouncing around that are new carts are coming in this week?
Is that the Yeah, they're arriving today. In fact, they dropped off before I got here. So there, we'll have all the carts here by the end of the day.
Then we got a uh, you know.
We have GPS on the carts as well, so we'll take us a few weeks to get all that set up for the enjoyment of the golfers.
So I have GPS available to put on my ball because I lose.
Yeah, maybe out of luck on that unfortunately, I ask me.
So with these I know that there is there's some benefit to having these GPS cards. Can you explain to us what what the GPS does for the cards or for the course and for the golfer as well.
As far as the golfer just gives them a gives them pretty accurate gardage from where they are to the location of the pen and the center of the greens. And also for the golfers haven't played out there before, it'll give them a layout of the hole when they get into the t box somewhere, how far out the bunk their way bunkers are, and you know, so they can have a good club selection they've never played there before.
As far as the golf course, it gives us the benefit of being able to communicate with the golfers each individual card or a Pacific cart. If we can get old somebody or there's implement whether coming, we can pull them in off the course. And also the main benefit it helps us control where the carts go as well. That way of say its car pass only that day we can control and keep the carts on the pass so the golf course doesn't get redded up from people
driving off the pass very much. So that's one of the main benefits of having GPS is having the control of.
The golf cart good.
And then these are going to be the easy go electric or lithium.
Yeah, lithium ion, which is kind of the latest and greatest. The old Avil battery days are pretty much becoming extinct, so the lithium ions will last up to fight over five years. So they go you can go over about twenty eight over twenty eight miles on a single charge, so they hold their charge for a very long time, so they're real nice and efficient.
So again, community Day is August twenty second.
The day after which is August twenty third, on a Saturday, we'll have our grand reopening shotgun that will start at nine am. It is limited to one hundred players and so these would be the players that we'll get to be the first to play.
On these new greens, and.
So we will have when can they expect to be able to register for that event.
We'll have some information posted later this week as far as how they can sign up and get registered for that, So we'll get that here next few days and get that out to everybody.
So then from the twenty fourth through the first of September, we will have limited tea time. So for those that want to play the course and maybe don't get an opportunity to do the shotgun reopening, they can maybe sign up for one of these limited time spots after August twenty fourth, and then we'll have a full reopening of the course on September second. So lots of cool things happening at the golf course and so we hope to see everybody there at the August twenty second event.
And do you have anything else that you want to.
Add or Yeah, we just look forward to having people come out and see all the changes.
The staff and Jones.
Plan, who was our contractor, did all the heavy lifting of all the stuff that's been done out there.
They've worked really hard over these last several months or opening.
Everybody won't come out and really enjoy all the changes at the golf coursing if it's a chance to meet everybody as well.
All right, thanks Duve. So next up, I wanted to talk about the airport.
And it's funny because these are kind of some they've got some really cool things going on at the golf course and the airport, and I get the benefit of overseeing both of those departments. So it's been kind of a cool experience to be able to see all the the changes and all the new things going on out there. So we've got Mike Richardson here, he's our airport director to give us an airport update.
Thanks, Laura, appreciate it. It feels like a Monday man. It's it's a roaster out there again.
Today it does.
Yeah.
Yeah, we're really excited about a new hangar bill. It's been made possible by the BDA, the Bartlesbell Development Authority and a grant from the Oklahoma Department of Aerospace and Aeronautics. They're funding forty percent of this project. No cab, so we're looking at about two point three eight million for the grant and about three million on the BDA side of it.
This was.
A project to develop on the new taxi lane and it's developing on the east side of the airport. It's going to be a one thirty large box with a thirty eight foot door opening. Could probably house an aircraft up to the size of about a Nimbryer one seventy, which was a pretty good sized aircraft.
The uh.
I wanted to talk to also a.
Little bit about I got a question the other day, did you have any questions about the hanger?
I don't think so.
What do we have do re envision what we're going to use that hanger?
For what Yes, So I was primarily designed as an m RO hangar, which is maintenance, repair and overhaul, So that was kind of the envisioning. Re envisioning of the east side development for hanger development would be support maintenance, repair and overhaul activities. We currently have an m RO on the field Phoenix Rising Aviation, and they're looking to expand. We might attract an outside business that it looks like they have some interest in the new hangar, so we'll
see where that goes. There's it's this taxi lane that was built into the east side of the airport was a fifty foot wide and a thirty five foot wide. The thirty five foot wide south was built mainly to support private hangar development. So we've got some interest from a few individuals already about building private hangar development. So we'll be developing ground leases to support those type of builds,
projects and operations. I got an interesting call the other day from it was actually an email, not a call, but somebody asked about what is the benefit of the airport to the average martins Martinsville citizen, and I thought, you know, that's probably something that we should probably talk about. The airport is an economic driver connects to the national and global market as well through the ease of travel. The airport supports upwards of probably fifty to sixty employees
pilot's mechanics line service, there's pipeline patrol. There's a numerous activities from different various groups supply in and out of the airport. The USDA actually flies up here and hunts coyotes and wild pigs during the ranching caving season to protect the ranchers animals. We have two ag sprayers on the field. The spray a lot of the local ranches, crops and things of that nature. Like I mentioned the
pipeline patrol. Yeah, Conoco Phillips has resumed their shuttle operation and they're they're in UH two or three times a week every week. Aerial surveyors. The UH texture on Aviation is used utilized our airfield for hangar storage. Air EBAC is another big big user of the field. Vance Air Force Base, the T six, They do Sordi flights, They do approach instrument work on our airfield. So there's a there's just a and there's a lot of use for
the airport that really doesn't get talked about. A lot and a lot of people don't really fully understand happens in Martinsville.
Well, and even for myself spending more time out there, you see all the traffic coming in and out of that, you know that airport, and so I don't know that the average person realizes that there's that much traffic at an air a musical airport.
I guess it's a really good place to flight train because we don't have a you know, tallso behind one hundred tales trying to take off, you can get in and you can get out. It's not a high traffic airport, but it's busier than you might think. A lot of charter service, cargo haulers doing tech stops from coast to coast. We're just in the right spot for amid continent refield.
So yeah, it's just.
A lot of uses at the airport.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
I would like to say thank you to park Hill, our Airport Engineering Group, and the ODAA and the Commission for their continued support for Bartlesville Airport and a two point three eight million dollars grant that the project probably would not have happened if for not their benefits.
So that's a significant investment into the airport.
And the community as a whole. So we are very appreciative of that.
All right, Is that all you got, Mike?
I think so at this time.
All right, well, thank you, thank you. Next up, switching gears.
We're gonna we brought HR in the room, and I know that that's scary for some people.
Yes, that's why we brought HR.
So I've got Robin Betts here, she's our HR director and she's going to talk to us about what's going on in HR, maybe some open positions that we have.
Yes, and let me start, Mike, do you have an intern coming for this school year?
That's another.
Tell them just to smidge about the internship program because this I love, absolutely love that they do this.
Yeah, so we we have excuse me, we have partnered with the Bartlesville High School for the city, probably longer than I have, but since we have been become a part of the city for the last three years, this will be our fourth school year with an intern and uh, it really provides a unique opportunity for a high school student to get some firsthand knowledge and experience in whatever
interest that they might have going forward in college. So for us, it's Airport Operations FBO management, are airport management and or exposure to flight training and maintenance, so it really gives a unique perspective that you wouldn't get otherwise. Yeah, it's been really great. We've had some great, great kids. One of our interns is has gone on and he's flying in the ROTC program Shout out to the Jack Auschwitz at o Issu.
So it's really.
Really interesting to see where the possibilities can take our young folks.
Yes, I'm sorry to put you on the spot on that, but when you were talking and then looking at job openings, it's not a paid position, but it's just so cool to me that we can partner with the high school and these kids get exposure to all kinds of different things. We have had one in our department each year too, and so that's a lot of fun paid jobs that we have posted. Let me go over those really quick. So for D at the golf course, we've got beverage
cart server, which that one I find really interesting. If I was younger and wasn't working here, I would be applying to that job.
It's very social.
You're out there doing big events and the busiest times selling beverages off that cart. Greeting the public, getting to meet people, visit with people. Just it's great. Tips are involved. That's always actually eligible for tip it is which is very exciting. Yes, so that one's at the top of my list. It is a part time position, so benefits don't apply. The hours are going to be roughly what twenty hours a week max.
Type of thing. It's great for a college student.
They do have to be eighteen years or older because of the beverage server's license they have to have, but really good job if someone is looking for that part time work. We also have, for Larry Curtis over here, abatement officer in his department. That is the person that takes care of properties that need to be cleaned up and things like that. So that is opening up. I believe next Monday is when that person transfers to another department.
And so we also have some maintenance worker positions the parks department. It's still mowing season. Bobby needs help out there, so parks for mowing, weed eating, all of that.
We also have.
Utility worker for water distribution and wastewater. Both are accepting applications. The water going in, the water going out.
We all like that water so back to the parks when we actually have temporary and full.
Time positions there.
So if it's just a student looking for some work through the the busy mowing season, then we've got something for you. Or if you're looking for a full time job with benefits, we've got that too.
Absolutely they are looking for both on that one. So and then one more thing really quick. Our applicant tracking system that we use, it's been a little bit clunky and hard to navigate for both the applicants and for the hiring managers. We've spent a lot of time the last few months looking at different softwares out there. We have chosen one We've gone with Neogov. We'll be launching that in the next over the next two months be live with that. We'll do some testing in August, probably
in live in September. That should make it so much easier for the applicant for that process. They'll be able to upload documents such as their resume, which currently they cannot do right now, and so that'll be really nice. But also for the hiring managers, they're going to have cleaner access to it, the ability to look at it real time and see as the applications are coming in and that kind of thing. It'll help facilitate the interview process, the setting up.
We're really looking forward to that.
And Karen Tanner, our HR manager's head, and that project up.
She's been very busy with it, but we're excited.
Yeah.
I think it'll be a better experience for everybody involved, applicants and have city staff as well, and so it's a win for everybody. So before before you step away from the mic, let's talk about benefits. One of my favorite benefits at the city is our zero Card and my favorite let's talk about that for a second.
Yes, so zero Card is a medical benefit.
Anyone that's enrolled in our medical plan is automatically enrolled in zero Card at no cost.
Zero Card covers.
Diagnostic services, MRIs, cat scans, lung scans, you name it. And it also covers most surgeries, not all, but most. If an employee opts to go through Zero Card through that network for the those services, it costs the employee
absolutely zero, no deductible, no copay, no nothing. It was it's been a game changer for our employees that were milking an injury along maybe a knee, a shoulder because of the expense you go through traditional insurance, you're looking at fifty five hundred dollars out of your pocket for a surgery for something big zero card. It costs them absolutely zero. Our employees were on our.
Fourth year of it. They are so much healthier now.
We've had so many people go get those things repaired and fixed and going through the process and we see it. We've seen happier, healthier employees, and that is to me, it's a game change and benefit.
Absolutely we've got well.
And it's a win for the city too because it's at a reduced cost and so we pay directly instead of going through the insurance company. And so it's also a win for everybody involved when it will use the zero card, and so I always want to share that benefit.
So, if you're looking for a job and you want.
To work someplace that's a fun work environment that's got excellent pay and benefits.
The city is the place for you.
And so you can go to Cityofbartlesville dot org and there's a careers I believe it's careers or Job Opportunities button that you can select and apply through there.
And so if you have.
Any trouble with that feel free to give us a call. Our numbers there on that website too, so we'll walk you through it if you're struggling with it, because we understand it's a little hard to use sometimes.
And it'll be better in a couple of months. Absolutely, just hang with us. Okay, Well, thank you, Robin, thank you. So next up we're switching gears here to community development. We've got our community development director Larry Curtis here and.
He's going to talk to us about maybe.
Business licenses, code enforcement, all things community development.
I guess I was supposed to talk about community development. Oh okay, okay, I thought I was here talking about something more interesting, though, I'm caidding. So one thing I want to talk about first and foremost is that some citizens may have seen a few changes around the city. Most notably, I think the biggest thing that has been kind of eye catching has been.
Along Nuada in Silver Lake.
For those that are passing that intersection on daily basis will definitely have seen some orange colors out there.
Shout out to o issu.
I have to regretfully say that as an ou grad, but I will say how wonderful it is to see the wildflowers going up. So that was a Keep Barsweld Beautiful Initiative. That is a new committee that was created by council last year and has been in existence for about a year now, and they have they started off by creating some ideas and short term and long term goals that they have for the community, some immediate ones,
one of those being planting of wildflowers. And so at that intersection, the committee got together, went out there, dug up a small area of that of that triangle intersection and planted wildflowers. And we were, you know, hoping to have a growth and see green this year more so than seeing flowers.
We just didn't really know how it would be.
But it has really if you get a chance to go by there, it's just blossomed out there. And so that initiative really showed something that was easy, quick and
really added something beautiful to that corner. In addition to that, KBB got a donation from Phillip sixty six to plant some trees, and through their working internally reviewing ideas, they decided, you know, unfortunately, we had the tornado that went through in May of last year that took us some trees along Washington or Highway seventy five, and so they decided to plant those along with more trees along that intersection
of Washington and Frank Phillips Boulevard. And so that'll actually be through a partnership with Up with Trees, which is a nonprofit based out of Tulsa. And what's so great about that is that Up with Trees will come out, they will prepare plant them. They are trees that they
know will work at those intersections. We got approve finally wonderfully from O DOT to go through and plant those and Up the Trees will actually come out and maintain them for three years and they will provide maintenance associated with them, so if the tree dies, will replace it. They'll water them, take care of them, all those things associated and make sure that they're well established. And so really excited by that. We'll see those going in in
October roughly or fall this year. Because we missed the spring growing opportunities, they'll be the fall that they'll be planted. In addition that some citizens may have not noted at a couple of intersections, most notably at Keeler and at Johnstone, some plantings went in into the planters downtown and so you know those planters were put in a number of
years ago. They've had some maintenance issues associated with them, most notably the water systems have broken, but some of those have been fixed, and so KBB took the initiative to do some plantings out there. I know some citizens may think that they're kind of looking a little ragged, but the plantings that are in there are really supposed to be planted this year in order to really start
growing next year. So it takes a little time and some initiatives out there, and so the plantings wouldn't place, most notably on the south side of frank Phillips, and they're established as a little sign in the planters that people can go to and read about KVB, about it and about their initiatives associated with that. Some additional activities that citizens will see over the fall is that the committee is looking to replace twelve of the benches that
we have downtown. They're actually owned by the city. We went through and did a evaluation of all the benches that are owned by the city and what statuses they are in, what it would cause to replace them, and things along those lines, and so KVB will be looking to replace all twelve.
This fall.
They will be at their next meeting, which I believe will be tomorrow, they will be looking to make a decision on what kind of benches to go in and we'll pull the trigger on that and then get those ordered and then hopefully have those in this fall. But in addition to that, they are very much interested in also doing some type of murals in the downtown area, working with potential artists and or people who want to donate funding for that, and of course building owners not
just downtown but throughout the city. There could be opportunities throughout the city for this, and so they're exploring that opportunity most Sooby. They're looking over on the west side along along Atoms near Highway WON twenty three to kind of show a location that would be kind of coming into the city over on the west side. So they're
kind of looking into those elements as well. But they're also looking at opportunities for partnering with the park's board about doing some lighting or other initiatives along those areas, and then also partnering with nonprofits to do cleanups. They actually did partner with one group, Lighthouse, to help a citizen that had and working with our co enforcement team. There was a citizen in an overgrown yard and our
co enforcement team had identified it. The citizen had reached out, and that citizen is an older citizen, much older citizen, and just was not able to do it. And so by partnering with nonprofits, we were able to partner them together to help alleviate that issue while also taking care of the issue at the same time. So really KBB is really taking an initiative to reach out and get these things done. Another thing I'll talk about our department
is it is that time of year again. It is a new fiscal year for the city, which means that we are having to deal with business licenses, and so it is important for us to get out there and let everyone know. We've been reaching out for all of our businesses that are currently that will registered us. They got an email and so it's important for them to come through and get re establishing them with their business license.
One last thing that I'll add before turning back over to you is that I'm very excited that Amanda Yamaguchi will be joining our team. She is currently the Planning and Development manager for the City of Broken Arrow, but she will be joining our team on Monday, officially, really excited for her to be joining us. Very sad that Micah or Micah Snyder not Seamer. Sorry, don't want to
scare anybody, Snyders. Yeah, I had to leave us due to family moving out of town, and so we're just really excited that Amanda will be joining us and she'll be doing a fantastic job for us.
All right, So I said, lots going on at the city. If you're just now tuning in you can. I'm going to give us a shameless plug to our city Beat. If you go out to Cityobartleswell dot org, you can subscribe to city Beat and get all of your city news there.
All right, thank you very much. Once you get