CITY MATTERS

And good morning, good morning, good morning, welcome, welcome, welcome me. It is time now for our community connection right here on K one, the one you trust. And my golly, it is city matters. That's it. There you go. If it matters to the city, matters to you, It matters to you, It matters to the city, it matters to somebody. By God, that's all I got to say. How are you doing there, mister Bailey? Longtime? No, see, we're doing good so far. Anyway, we'll see yeah, well see God,

as I stop you I can, you'll be fine. We got to get through this radio program. Yes, yeah, that's the first trip wire of the week. We get through this one without saying anything stupid, then it's usually a pretty good week and good company. Let's see. I could never do radio. You do it all day long. I can barely get through thirty minutes without scrolling. Somebody's got a tiptoe to the land mine. I'm glad that's you. There we go, So all right, well, good

morning. So got a couple of quick announcements before we get into the meat of the program. We got, of course, got Thanksgiving coming up, and that has always changes our trash schedule just a little bit. So for those of you all who have a Friday pickup, no worries. We're going to pick it up on Friday, just like normal. But if you have a Thursday pickup, we will be closed that day. So we're going to pick that up on Wednesday. And this is always the hardest one, right,

It's one thing when it's on Monday or Tuesday. If they don't pick it up, you just put it back out on Wednesday. On this one, if you don't get it out on Wednesday, it's going to be a week. Give it. It's gonna be good next week. I expect there'll be some stinky trash. It'd be some in the neighborhood if you don't watch yourself. So anyway, everybody, just remember, if yours trash is supposed to be picked up on Thanksgiving, you got to get it out on Wednesday.

Go so and I So we had our council meeting. I guess that was a week ago. That was a week ago, like a month ago. It does seem like a month. It was a long week, dumb, it was really long week. So one of the one of the cooler things that has happened at a council meeting since I've been working for the city. Actually happened. Uh And if everybody, if you haven't seen the photo of miss Ella Wright, then you should go to Cityobartlesville dot org and look

at the photo of her receiving her award. So Ella is an eleven year old and Ella was honored for trying to the award of merit from Martlesville Fire Department was what her award was. And Ella received that award because she saw smoke coming from a house immediately went across the street to a neighbor and said, I need you to call nine one one And they said why and she

said, because that house is on fire. And so thankfully they called nine one one because not only did she save the home by reporting that there was also a family dog in the house. So Ella has officially saved the house and the dog. And it was very exciting and very cool to be able to honor her that night. She got her police her picture taken with the fire chief and with some of our firefighters and was and received that award. I'm looking at the chief topping there. Let's say he wants to sign her

up. This little lady has a future and fire service. So and she was. She was so cute, and she was dressed up for it, and she was absolutely adorable and so excited. And they had a photo of her and the dog that she saved. Well, a couple of great photos. Anyway, Cityobartlesville dot org or in your city beat you can check out

miss Ella and and if you see her, tell her good job. I think that's These are the kind of things that that I love for the opportunity for us to to actually recognize and to award our citizens for their for doing the right thing. Hey, mister Bailey, how's the water? How's the water? We got? Water? Is so? Good news? Is the water still there? The bad news is there's not as much of it as

we'd like, right and so at the lakes. I haven't gotten my update this morning, but we are still in or were as of last week. We were in stage two. We expect that we'll probably move to stage three, likely this week. It'll be close. And so unfortunately without rain in that area, and I know we had a lot of rain. And if I have, I don't think I've ever been frustrated by the weather in my entire life, not one time has the weather ever made me crazy? Former

meteorolog thank you. Until until two weeks ago, when it rained everywhere in the state of Oklahoma, everywhere in Kansas except where it needed to. It was tom. It is the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen. Been happening

a lot. It's been happening a lot. You're right, And so if you look, if anybody's interested in tracking the drought, there's actually a track you can type in drought Finder, and there's a federal website that shows the actual status of the drought in Kansas that started out as a band across southern Kansas, and then after this most recent rain, it is literally just a bulls eye. The only place in Kansas that is still in a drought is that bright, dark red right there over the top of our legs. And

it's just it's incredible. I mean, the chances of this are aren't astronomical, but yeah, here we are. This is what happens when everything aligns either good or bad. So but it was so we are still in stage two. We do expect to go into stage three. The good news is is that our water usage as a community is low enough right now to where we don't believe that there will be emergency water rates need now. If consumption

goes up, then it is possibility will have to enact some rates. So for right now, it's watering twice a week is the only restriction, which shouldn't be a problem. There's not much water and going on anyway, so we're fortunate that it's the time of year that it is. Once we go to Stage three, you'll be limited to watering outdoors once a week, and so again we're fortunate that it's not going to be if this time of year that's not should not be an issue. So the Water Resources Committee has been

meeting regularly. They met last week to hear an update on some projects that they had assigned the city staff. In particular, we are scheduling a meeting with the Osage Tribe. We're very interested in seeing if they're if they are interested in collaborating with us on a water supply project, either from Kaw Lake or in construction of a new lake. It's hard to say what they're what their reaction will be, but we're we're certainly interested in exploring that if there's

there's something that we can collaborate and both of us can gain. Uh. The we're also exploring some interesting ideas there is of course, we're looking at the aquifer which is in Osh County, and they believe the osages are going

to bring some information to a meeting about that Auckford. They know more about it than anybody else, and we're looking The council passed a resolution that will actually we're going to ask the corp of Engineers already have asked Corps of Engineers to perform what's called a Planning Assistance to State study, and that is where they use their resources and federal dollars to match hours and they come in and do a very detailed engineering study, hydrological study. And so they're going to

study Heula and Coopine Lakes and the possibilities of reallocation there. And reallocation means basically raising the level of the lake. And you can add a whole lot of water to a lake if you raise it up a couple of feet, and so that is they're examining that right now or they will be. We hope. We just requested the study i think last week after the council meeting.

And the final thing that Terry updated the committee on is sort of an interesting idea that, first my knowledge, was first used in New Orleans. It's actually Jefferson Parish, and so Jefferson parr of course, if you're familiar with that, they're having salt water intrusion that's coming up the Mississippi River, so they need to get water farther up the river to avoid getting salt water into their system. And so Jefferson Parish actually laid a series of what they

call lay flat lines, there are collapsible lines. They laid these all I believe it was fifteen miles upstream. They installed diesel pumps along the way, and they were able to supply their entire water plant off of this, and they used thirty million gallons a day. By contrast, when we're talking about podtable water from the Tulsa region, we're only talking just a couple of million gallons a day. And that would ensure that in an emergency we would always

have water. So that's something that we're exploring to see how much that would cost. Is it available with short notice? Do we have to purchase the materials and have them on hand, or is it something that we can lease. Jefferson Parish actually leased theirs and so they didn't have to they didn't have to purchase purchase those so they don't have to have them laying around, which is great news. So anyway, those are all things that we're going to

explore, thinking out of the box just a little bit. Former Mayor Tom Gorman was the first one that brought that to Terry's and my attention, and we've been exploring it since he's on the Barslwater Resources Committee. So it's always good to have these people that have been involved in this process for well more than a decade. He's been involved for about twenty years, he and Senator Daniels both. So anyway, we're excited to continue that process. So water

is we're making process. We're making progress. That's all we can do at this point in time. And last week at the council meeting, David Wood also announced an expansion of ABB, which is great. ABB is a very important partner for our community. They have a lot of very high quality jobs and they're looking to expand those by consolidating additional functions. ABB functions from around the country into Bartlesville and they're looking to add another sixty full time job.

So that's great. Who's we're providing an incentive to them and some some real estate. And then we also, of course have our resident recruitment program where we hope to ensure that those people moved to Barlstville. I'll just take a job at Barstowe, but we want them live in here. So that is that was approved and we're very excited about that. And let's take a look what else we got going on. Tom So a lot talked about Stage two. Oh pickleball, Man, pickleball. Well, there you go. They

just had the national championships this weekend. It is it truly is a growing sport. I can't wait to see you play pickleball. By the ways, We're gonna build some pickleball courts, and it's we're hoping to build some of the best in our region. It turns out pickleball courts are fairly expensive and they're really in high demand right now. So I remember when everybody laughed, Sure, it's always like this year one the last, you're PDC, how did you do that? Yeah, let's do this, And that's like,

yeah, well look at that. How you like me? Now you're correct, it's been It really is taken off. We have some courts right now, but it's really just the tennis courts at Sooner Park and they're they're not in great condition, and yet the amount of people using them for pickleball are absolutely incredible, and so we're very excited. That is the location we'll be building these new ones, just the north of that. Our bids came in

high. Unfortunately, they actually came in to where we can only afford six pickleball courts without lights. So we have been in discussions with the Pickleball Association. They hope to raise some money and ideally we would build eight courts with lights, but our goal at this point is to build six courts with lights,

so we really hope to get that going. We did award the contract, which is the base contract, so right now the contractor he will be building six courts without lights, but we will add lights if we can raise the funding for that. As we go through this process. For all of those out there who are interested in this, and I promise you there's a

bunch of people that are interested in this. Were are there are a bunch of people that are interested in this, We will will be getting underway as quickly as we can, and we hope to have lighted courts for everyone's enjoyment. Uh. Yard debris collection is coming up also, that's December fourth through the eighth, and this is your normal yard debris annual collection. And no no special bag needed, no tags, just bag them up, set them near your cart. I'd say near, not on, not next to.

We'll leave us about five feet between these bags in your cart and we will pick it up on your regular collection day. It will be picked up with a separate truck. So if it's not gone when you leave for work and we have picked up your trash, it doesn't mean we missed it. It just means we're coming with another truck. So for sure, we moved here. We thought something was amiss. That was and that is a natural assumption. And so we get a lot of calls right out of the gate in

the morning. You didn't you didn't pick up my leaves. I thought that was day, And that's we always have to tell yes, yes it is, it's today, and we're coming. Trust us, So trust us. We're with the government, right So, but anyway, there's a lot of a lot of great things going on Johnstone Park. If you will look at that, it is now closed and this is part of the Fantasy Land of Lights. This is the time of year when they start setting this up.

They do. They do a fantastic job. If you have never witnessed Fantasy Land of Lights, then you're one of the few people within one hundred miles who hasn't. And I'd encourage you to go out there this year and drive through. I don't know if if our lady down at the at the visit Bartlesville Maria has a tracker on that, but yeah, by god, like one hundred mile radius is about it. That's got to be about right, right, And it is fantastic. And this is free to our community.

They do request donations, which I always gladly provide, but help the scholarships. That's right, it is. It is actually free, free to our community, and free to anyone who would like to witness it. Their opening day. More will come on that when they have their opening day, they actually have a day that you can walk through. I do too. Typically it is a drive through event, but on opening day they have they have

for donations. You can walk through. You could look at your leisure you right, move along, You're correct, and I have I've actually adopted one of the those out there. So and Tom, I think you should. I think you should adopt the one next to me. We can go out, we can build them together. There we go. I don't know if you all can see the look at his eyes, but that is not the look of a man that plans on building one of these next to me. Someday you will if I'm lucky, if I'm all right, And with that,

I'm gonna kick this over to our police chief. We've actually got one thing that we have done, a forum that we've done very recently that we want to share with the public, very good when it was good for them, well attended. And then we've got another forum coming up that you will you can talk about as well. Sure, I'll turn it over to our police chief, Miss Kevin Ickleban. All right, Well, the forum we're

talking about that just occurred was the Homeless and Unshouldered Form. We held that at the Center or formerly the Borlswoo Community Center as a well attended event. We had probably around two a little over two hundred people there. A lot of those I recognized as those people trying to help with the homeless issue. So it was very nice to see those collectively in one spot and you know,

supporting each other. The panel was an informational panel. We can't solve the problem obviously by ourselves, and so we want to show people what We wanted to show people what were what's already been in play, what's been in place for years. So we started with a panel that had a lot of years experience, starting with the Lighthouse. They've been here for many, many years and have been dealing with the homeless issue for years, and so they

were part of our panel. Earl Hayden and UH. They address what they do for the homeless population. They stay pretty consistent with seventy five people in their housing there. We also had Grand Mental Health as part of that UH

form. Grand Mental Health is a partner of the Barswelle Police Department SEE of Borsville UH in addressing the mental health issues of the community with our Crisis Intervention Response Team UH and UH they are very active with us, and you know, a lot of the homeless and unsheltered or are those that have some mental

health issues and so we're working together. We're trying to not only address those mental health issues, but to also find housing for those people that can successfully UH get into housing and so it seems to me that I have conversations with a lot of these unsheltered folks, because this is kind of like their little track between the US seventy five and downtown about the time I come in,

which is four am. And well, they stopped by and visit the friends at the launder and pat and then they come over here and anyway, nice as folks you want to meet, but they seems to me that most of them just want to be left alone. And I might be misreading that, so I hope, I'm not sure sure, And that's why we're trying to reach out and find out what's going on in their lives and how we can

better serve them and what they need to be successful. And if we can't help them, we can't help them, but we want to at least put that hand out there to give them a hand up. And then other others at the forum that we felt were very involved with this is Sherry Sherry Smith, YOUGOPI mission. She feeds you know, between two and three almost four hundred people depending on the weather, and that's that outreach has been going on for years, many years, I believe she said twenty four years to be

exact. So it's only grown and as has their facility. It's grown from where we used to just used to be to the new facility they have now. So Sherry's really stepped up. Those those church organizations that back her have really helped helped, you know, with that issue as well. And that's not just the homeless, but that's for the less fortunate in our community. That that's where they eat every day. I mean, that's what they do.

There are so many people that fall between the cracks and you know, you've got to eat, and it's a blessing that they're there to help folks that are in that situation. Oh absolutely, and the kids on the weekend too, they packed those little backs for them. They do a lot more than people realize. And they also have a seniors program that they delivered to kind of like the meals on wheels, but there's really a few people they

delivered to that can't get out so they're home bound. So you know, those are things that a lot of people don't recognize we're going on in the community and very fortunate to have them in this community, dedicated, you know, And that's that's not to mention that the people like Mary Martha who Mary Martha's Out Catholic Charities Fund. I mean they are constantly involved in the community trying to help people up well. Also, I had Sarah Rowe from Bartimboo

Public School System. I talked about the children in the schools that are they consider they count their homeless a little different homeless. There is couch to couch where they stayed in school, and and of course all these resources leading on each other to try to help each other out because their main goal is to try to help the people in need. And so so that was a great form. We've got Keith and Christy mcpell who were in the process of trying

to get to be the Light Mission open. They talked a little bit about what that looks like, what they're hoping to accomplish with that. So it was overall it was a great, great forum. A lot of people got a lot of information out of that, and so we felt like we took a step in the right direction trying to answer some questions. Can we end homeless, probably not, but can we help We can do our park, you know. I said that the forum that once they hit the city limits

of borders, will there are our citizen. We have to take care of them, and that's why we leave. So if we can take care of our citizens, is either they're going to be protected citizens or they're going to move on at some point. We want to make sure they're successful if they move on, but we want to help them any way we can so,

and this was a big part of our strategic plan. One of our focuses was on collaborating with the community on homelessness, and so that's one of the things that I like about this is that this forum allowed us to pull those resources together and to help to convene people and to help them to collaborate. We cannot do this. This is not a this is not the city is

going to solve homelessness. We just don't have the resources. We do have a role, and through our search team, we have been participating in that, and then this forum also helps us to convene and collaborate with people.

So I was really glad that you all did that. I was really glad to hear the results of it, and I think ongoing our community are off for these efforts absolutely, and playing part of the Barsville Next, which is our strategy plan, is also the neighborhood Watch program and to enable people to take care of our own community a little bit better. So in January January twenty fourth up correction January eighteenth, at six point thirty hopefully at city Hall,

we will host a Neighborhood Watch forum. That forum will try to enlighten people on neighborhood Watch and show them how they can get involved in their neighborhood. And we've got the national program we're going to be highlighting, the National Neighborhood Watch. It works hand in hand with the next Door application. Those you were familiar with next Door. It's it's kind of they've neighborhood watched nationally is taken on the next Door program, and so just another way of getting

information out and uh uh being on the cutting edge. I guess I I can speak of the neighborhood Watch a little bit because back when I was a young man, I was involved heavily in the neighborhood Watch program in the in the original township Bartlesville for about five years before I became a law enforcement officer.

So so I I understand how dedicated people need to be if they want to start up a program and what that looks like, uh, so we're excited about that and just decided to keep things moving forward and we just want to keep keep Bartlesviill next. Right, It's good, thank you chief. It's all I got. All of all of those things are happening and more, of course, but we wanted wanted to share those those two items we

also have and this is tied in with our strategic plan as well. It is an update to our Camp Comprehensive Plan, and the Comprehensive Plan I think is probably the least understood plan that the city has, because when I tell you we have a park plan, park master plan, or if I tell you that we have these these other plans, it's all it's something I can envision, right, right, So the comp plan, what what exactly does a comprehensive master plan for the community look like? So, Mary Curtis,

community Development director for the city, tell me so. But you know, the complan is probably like you said, uh, City Manager, is that it is the least unknown plan within anything within the city. You go to most places and you know, people will look at you lankly with like what does that mean? It's erectly the most important plan it is, you know, Conferhensive plans have been a part of this state for a very very long time. It has most cities within within Oklahoma have one and have had one

for many, many decades. And so our Conferenceive Plan we currently had was written back in nineteen ninety four, and so it's a little bit out of date, and so it's time for the city to move forward with a new plan. And so the comp plan takes the Parks Master Plan and the Streets Plan and every other plan and put them together into one document, but also do future planning in the sense of trying to plan for what we expect our

growth to be over the next twenty twenty five years. And so recently a city council approved a contract with half An Associates who are based out of Richmond, Texas to help guide city staff and of course our illustrious council on drafting that plan. And so this week we're actually going to be meeting with a Comprehensive Plan committee to decide on the logo and the initial message that we'll be starting out before we kick out our website and doing our social media posts and

things along those lines. And so we hopefully have that decision by the end of this week for council to approve on next month's meeting. But the comp plan is going to be a very, you know, a year long process on the creation of that document. It'll have a lot of good insight from

the public. As one of our accountsmen stated, you can't get enough infut from the public, and so we'll be doing a lot of public outreach through public forums and also through social media and gather a lot of that information from them. So in the next coming weeks, we'll hopefully have a schedule out for the public to see, so that way they can see the schedule as it moves forward and start honing in on those dates for those public meetings.

But this document is going to be key for good growth for our city as it moves forward. And you made the point of the public outreach. Once we have that, I think that will be important for us to communicate with with our citizens about what to expect because we want as much participation as possible. It is that is a key component of this and it's but you made the point that this is going to be a process, yes, and as we went through the strategic plan, one of the things that we kept in

front of the council and staff. Is that a lot of the value isn't in the plan or in the product, a lot of the values in the process, right. And so this process, especially as it relates to citizen input, will be incredibly valuable. It helps to align the community. It helps to get us informed about what the community wants, what we want to be, and you say, what do we want to be when we grow

up? Exactly? And that's the thing I want to truss the most about is that this is not my plan or staff's plan or anything like that. This is the public's plan. That's the reason why we need that public input to get all the information from them. And as you said, as we grow up, as we continue to grow, you know, to make sure that we have those items in place. That way we can guide because most likely we're going to see things that are going to other things that need to

be changed, like ordinances and things like that. That this plan will help guide us on the short term, medium term, and long term goals associated with that, and then our department and Community Development will help you the departments to ensure that they stay on task with those goals as we go through the next twenty twenty five years. And that's the critical part. Then once we have the plan, once we go through the process and we experience this sort

of alignment of thinking, then there are concrete steps. It doesn't do any good to create a plan that that just dies exactly. And that's the other thing is that a lot of people think, like, you know, this

is going to be the plan, just like the ninety four plan. You know, okay, we stuck to that for that complan is that need to be reviewed and updated because things are yeah, exactly, you know, we may see things like, oh we didn't we did not even foresee that, like you know, new technologies or things like that that need to be incorporated within the comp plan. That that gets updated as we move along. So it isn't stagnant. Isn't like we're going to be stuck in twenty three twenty

four. It's going to be an ever growing and ever changing document as well. And similar to the strategic Plan, this exactly, it'll be updated on a regular basis. And I reviewed and yeah, absolutely. And that's one thing I'd like to commend is that whenever I came on board, it was so wonderful to see that leadership at the city had already taken the steps to create a stategic plan, which is great for the short term, and to

incorporate the complaint as a part of that. But it's it's so nice to have that guy because then you know what you're going to be doing, you know, for the next two years, and can work on those accomplishments. And that's what the complain does is that that way the public can see and know what we're going to be working on for the next twenty twenty five years. That's that's a big part of it. And a new city council members,

so exactly I'm on board they can be given this. So these plans live beyond staff, yes, and beyond councils, and they helped to align our organization into the future. So I do think they're incredibly valuable and I'm glad that you came on and wanted to do this fun. It's so much

fun fun. The value is in the process. But I look forward to this and it will be it will be quite a process over the next year, but I appreciate you taking that on as this is something else that was identified in our strategic plan, and if anybody is curious We keep talking about Bartlesville Next in our strategic plan. If any of our listeners are curious, it's on the City of Bartlesville dot org. You can look up Bartlesville Next

and it will come up with that plan. So that is our organization's guide in the short and medium term. This comp plan is a huge part of that, and from that you'll see links as we move forward for the COMP plan. Yep. All right, well, thank you Larry and Tom. Thank you, my friend. I appreciate it as a thank you chief. All right, take care everybody. You've been listening to City Matters right here on Gay what American Heritage Bank now serving the usage region of Portolesville