CITY MATTERS

Good morning, good morning, good morning, and welcome, welcome, welcome. It is time now for the city matters. If it matters to you, it matters to the city, and point it doesn't matter. And I tell you what we got the trifecta. And hear how we doing there, Terry Lowt's good morning, Tom, doing well you bright guests? I did. I brought the heavy hitters today. So we got Keith Terry, who's our director of public Works, and then we got Brady Watson, who's the

fire Marshal I think his official title with the fire department. So we are we are the advertise speakers. You got to beat. It snowed, but it didn't snow enough, so you know you're getting overtime today. And it rained but it didn't rain enough. So in the water guy today and fortunately nothing got burned. Right, Brady's got He's pretty got some time. We're all happy. We're all happy, Terry, Brady and myself are pretty happy. But yeah, but time he just spoiled the whole show. I was

about that. That's it. I got a hankering for that. I don't know how that happens. But what we got cooking? What do we have going, guys, Well, we we do have a couple of items that's upcoming. So certainly we had Thanksgiving last week, which we had an abbreviate schedule, so if you missed your date, uh, you'll get another chance this week as far as it gets your trash out. But can you tell us about about what's coming up next week for the yard to breed? Well,

you guys stole my thunder already. I was we gona talk about holiday schedule, and I'm thinking, well, you've already figured that out because you already missed your trash day desk, I'm thinking more about snow. Yeah, we don't want to talk about snows. We talk about snow. Uh. As far as holiday trash collection goes, yes, uh, you know, be familiar with our holiday schedule, and I think some people probably figure that out. With a Thanksgiving holiday, we were off, of course Thursday.

City officers were actually closed Friday except for the sanitation, So that was the holiday schedule. And again it's it's behind the eight ball now and you've done missed it. But obviously, if your your trash day was on Thursday, we picked it up on Wednesday, and if your draft was Friday, We actually did come by on Friday, but people still get confused sometimes I think we're off or not, so they'll still miss it. So uh, just hang on to it, put it out this Friday. We'll be back by.

You would want to keep in mind that Christmas is right around the corner. Oh yeah, I believe Christmas falls on Monday this year, So again we'll collect your trash on Wednesday, so that one's not so bad because Monday, when you figure out you missed it, Hey, where's the city guys at they didn't pick up my trash. Well, we haven't come yet, so we've still got Wednesday, so you're still you're still in pretty good shape. Plus you'll have all that nice Christmas trash for so we'll be extra heavy

that day. We're a little bit busy on that day, aren't you. It's probably our busiest day of the year, actually one of our one of our busiest days. Then we'll have the same scenario again on New Year's It's falls on a Monday, the first, so again we'll collect your trash on that following Wednesday. So keep that in mind. As the holiday season is upon us and we're on a holiday schedule and along with that, we might mention we've got an upcoming leaf and grass collection. We do that a couple

times a year. We usually do it springtime and then again in the fall. So here we all are in the fall and looks like this year we've got it scheduled for December the fourth through the eighth, so that'll be next week. So if you've got leaf and grass that you've collected and bagged up and you want to get rid of that material, set it out at the

curb on your normal collection day. So whatever day you normally put out your trash for the automated truck to come around, bag that material up and set it along beside the polycart within five feet or so our feather away from the cart so the truck can still service the cart. We'll have another truck that

will come by and pick up those bags and collect those materials. If you have sticks, you want to bundle those up in links of no more than four feet and weighing no more than fifty pounds, we'll also collect those at the same time. So any yard waste you can take advantage of this and put those out with your normal collection at the curb next week and we'll be by to pick those up. Is for next week only, and it is for residential customers only, and we're not taking garbage per se. It is

for leafs and sticks and debris of that sort. So if you've got extra refuge, it needs to be in the cart or with a bag with a sticker on it sitting beside the cart, So keep that in mind. We encourage everybody to take advantage of that. It's a good program. It's a popular program this time of year. Obviously, people have been out scalping the yards and raking leaves and are blowing them over the neighbors were talking about earlier. Lee. I won't mention who, but one of the guys in here

is talking about blowing him on his neighbors kind of came in. It happens. But if you're the poor soul that got stuck with all those leves and you want to bag those up and get them out to the curb, we're going to help you with that. You get them bagged up and we'll come by and collect them for you. Wow, that pretty darn nice of you. You bet. We're glad to help and look forward to the holidays and a good season. We might notice downtown, we've had our street guys out.

We put up some Christmas decorations, so we're all getting in the Christmas spirit. And this time of years when we get out with the street guys and start you mentioned the four letter word, I think it's snow, and we've been prepping for that a little bit. We get our snow equipment to kind of serviced out and ready to go, kind of double check everything, make sure it's all ready to be used. We had a little scare this weekend you mentioned. We got a little sniff of snow on the ground,

but mostly it was just pretty. It didn't cause us any problem like that. Yeah, we were fortunate. So it made a nice Thanksgiving for us on a pretty weekend. And we're we're looking forward I guess to the winter as much as we can, but again we're prepared for it, so we're ready to go, ready to go. I like when we let's say that in the future, obviously they'll likely be a snow event or some sort of event that we'll have to potentially mobilize out to treat and to take care of

that effort through there. So what's kind of the protocol as far as how how much snow do we need before we run? Where do we target first as far as salt, sand and potentially the you know, the snowplows or how does that work right? The City of Bartlesville actually has a snow policy, and I'm sure it's still out there on our website, but if not,

we'll double check that and make sure it gets on there. Mean as we're approaching that time of the year in that season, So we do have a snow removal policy and it prioritizes the areas how we work them, and when we work them. We primarily dispatch out of the PD out of a police department, So if we're off hours and the road conditions get to the point where they need treatment, the PD will dispatch us. So we'll either go out at that time and typically we just salt and sand. If we

get over two to four inches, we'll start plowing that material. So we start out prioritizing the thoroughfreyers in town and the arterial streets, and then once we get those treated, we'll move into residential neighborhoods. We only treat as far as salt and sand. In the residential neighborhoods, we don't plow in those areas. Too many problems are caused when you start plowing snow into the

residential areas and blocking driveways and intersections. And we don't have the staff from the time to open all those up, so we can't go in there and plow big windrows up in those areas. We will, however, do the like I said, the arterial streets and commuter streets downtown district. We will appow those when needed. So we monitored ourselves when we're on staff our you know, normal working hours, and again as I mentioned, we'll rely on

the police department to help us dispatch out whenever we're needed. Sometimes they'll get calls from citizens and that'll you know, kind of alert us too that there's problem with the bridges or areas like that, and then we'll just dispatch crews out. We do have a crew member that is on call twenty four to seven that they rotate through the street department. He would be our initial call out person, and then it's helps needed past that, we dispatch whatever we

need. If the condition's worn and they last long enough, we'll convert to a twelve hour shift where we'll have half the crew working twelve hours. The other half will switch out, come on twelve hours and rotate through twenty four hour day. So we're prepared and ready to go. So you know, we hope we don't get those type of ends. We wouldn't mind a white Christmas loans that stays off the roads. Well we can move it to the lake absolutely, just have it snow up north there. So all right,

well, thank you Key. So again, the free yard waste is next week, so it's on your normal collection day for next week. So just as Key talked about, go ahead and set that out by the curb for that date. If you miss next week, you're gonna have to hold it until next year sometimes. All right, So Tom, we've got Brady with

us. He's gonna walk us through some fire safety. So certainly this time of year we like to to get warm and use different devices to do so, so body's gonna give us some tips and tricks on how to do that safely. Yeah. Absolutely, Today we're going to talk about holidays, safety and the residents as friends and families start together this time of year. We just had Thanksgiving, now we're heading into the Christmas season as well. Kitchen

becomes a popular spot for family and friends together. One of the downside of that is children. We do have to keep kids away from any cooking appliances at least three feet. Parents, keep an eye on that. That's a good way for a kid to get burnt. To come in there, reach and see what's happening with what's being baked, want a quick taste of something. Distance is going to be your friend on that one. Stovetop fires, be sure to keep a lid, a metal lid by for the pots and

pans, or a cooking sheet to cover the fire up. That'll smother the fire to extinguish it. For an oven fire, keep the door closed and turn off the fuel for that turn the natural gas off or the electric off to help keep that fire contained. If need be, you can use a fire extinguisher and work over that here in a little bit as well too. Candles for decorations are another leading cause of fires. We asked that you do a one foot radius around that for combustible items, do not leave those unattended.

Extinguish before you lead the house or before you go to bed for the evening, and monitor your alcohol. That's exactly right too, Yes, that can be a leading cause as well. Yeah, good point. We do recommend considering battery powered candles for decor versus the flame. Those are going to be much safer for you. Portable space heater's always pop this time of year. For smaller areas, we asked that you plug those directly into wall outlets.

Never use extension quards because those will overheat on you. If you do, leave those three feet away from furniture, curtains, bedding, clothing, stuff of that nature. Anything combustible when you're not using it, go ahead and unplug it. Just unplug it from the device. There's no chance of something turning on or tipping over and causing a fire. For us, real Christmas trees, if you're using a real Christmas tree, we ask that you

water it daily. Keep it hydrated. Dehydrated trees are known to go up in eleven seconds to be fully involved, so that's really quick. Keep them hydrated. If you see the needles start to fall off, it's dehydrated. So every day, keep that thing hydrated. If you are going to decorate it with lights and decorations, use a power strip that way. If you overheat those were kickoff and cut the power to those. Same thing with your

Christmas lights outdoors, make sure those are rated for outdoor use. Don't overload the circuits. We've all seen the Clark w Griswold where they overload those uh ten times over what they should be. So if you are going to use use a power strip, stick to manufacturer recommendations on how many are supposed to be plugged in together. Uh, don't overload those three times. Christmas season kicked off in a big bang. I saw the Christmas tree glouton flames and

yes, that's right. Wow. Fireplaces, if you have a fireplace, we asked that you get an inspected annually your chimney. They can go inside there and take a look at it. Make sure everything's intact and cleaned. Uh. Use season wood, it will clean, it'll burn cleaner and longer. Smoke detectors, this is a big one. I want to make sure everyone has a smoke detector in their sleeping quarters, their bedrooms, their hallways, and their living rooms. Testos once a month. Simply push the button

for three seconds. It'll chirp at you to say it's working properly. Twice a year we actually change the batteries on that. Usually when you spring springtime and fall time. When it's when the time's changed, go ahead and check your batteries and change those out. The same thing with carbon monoxide detectors. Anything with a byproduct of gas could produce carbon monoxide, so you do need

a carbon monoxide detector in your hallways, in your sleeping quarters. Those can be plugged into the wall on the ceiling, almost like a spot detector. But check those as well too, make sure those are working correctly. The next thing that'll be a big value for you as a fire extinguisher. They're considered a type ABC that put out multiple different types of fires, from wood to paper, combustibles to even your kitchen fires. Have one of those readily

available in your kitchen. We asked that you don't store too close to your stove. You need to be able to back away, get extinguisher and come back and use it. If it's too big, don't try to put it out, Get you and your family out and call nine one one and we'll come put it out for you. We also asked that you keep one in your garage. The kitchen and the garage of the two number one places for fires, so an extinguisher go along the way for you. One more thing

is vehicle safety too. Is we'll travel this time of year, have your vehicle checked out. Check your tire pressures, make sure they're inflated to correct pressure. Check all your fluids, your wipers, and your battery levels. Make sure those are all working properly. If you do take long drives, please stop and get rest where you can. Those are the safety tips from

my side. There you go, Brady, very good. So on the fire extinguishers or your smoke infector if it tests out and you replace the batteries, will those things last forever? Or is there some a shelf life? They usually have a ten year shelf life. Your manufacturer have it written on the back back there too. You need to check that to make sure, but usually ten years is your window years. Okay, saying with the carman, if you have a combo carbonoxide correct kind of summer? Yes, okay,

all right? Now, does the city still have a program where you guys will come out and do an inspection or is there anything along there you do We can, Yeah, if you'll call one of the fire stations, we can come out and take a look at it. If you don't have one, we still have some available. We can install those for you. Yes, we do have that program. We'll check us for you gladly, very good, very good. And then on fire, I know this time

of year there is a little bit more incidents for fires. Bizarre call out runs go up. Sars have been up here here recently, we have had an increase when the temperatures go down. You can do it by clockwork, you'll see them. We get more fire calls. People get more creative with heating, they leave extension cords plugged in, stuff of that nature. Yes,

they definitely go up this time of year. Okay. And the last one, if you like to have a fire pit in the backyard or kind of those portable fire pits for s'mores or different things, do you need to be watching for burn bands or what's kind of the recommendation we do on those? Those are designed for a smaller fire. The manufacturer have recommendations on those. Two. Those are usually an ambiance fire. There's going to be smaller

logs distances your friend on those as well too. Try to stay away from your house anything combustible wood porches. Try to do it over a noncombustible concrete surface. Keep the leaves away, keep some kind of extinguishing agent with you, even a garden hose, a extinguisher, a shovel, something to help put the out in case they do get out of control. But usually with those there's a lot of issues. It's a smaller ambiance fire, so just keep an eye on them. Okay, yeah, okay, Brady, we

were joking around earlier about outdoor burning. Is there actually a policy on that through the fire department? As far as burning leaves and debris here in the city limits, we do. You cannot do that without a burn permit. Is there quite a criteria you can get from our fire stations that show you what you have to meet to match the requirements to burn on your property.

There's quite a few. I think there's probably ten to eleven different steps on their weather conditions, what you're burning, how close you are to structures, fences, sheds, utilities. So there's a criteria that must be met before you are off the permit. If they're wanting to burn outdoors in the backyard, that is correct. Yes, absolutely, thank you for bringing that up. I think most of them are really geared toward large acreage type of that's

crisis, so not somewhere that in your residential neighborhood. I can burn something that's really geared more toward a larger acreage or something that's a more agricultural type thing. That's exactly right, correct, Yes, okay, well, very goody. Thing else that you want to add for fire safety, well, we just asked, want to stay vigilant, stay safe, keep an eye on it, leave, don't leave anything unattended. That goes for your kitchen as well. To set a timer if you're cooking or baking, set a

timer on your phone. Sometimes we get busy with family and friends and we walk away and we forget we're baking something, So set a timer. That's another way to keep a mind of what you're cooking. All right, very good, good tips. So hopefully we'll have you won't see a fireman this this winter. So welso invited guests for your that's your enjoyment. Well, but they're there in case you need it, which is a great benefit to have. More thankful for them to corovide that. Sero Stewart's there. So

we'll talk a little bit about water. So we did have water. Water, Yeah, we did get a little bit of rain up north of us. So as many people know our watersheds up in Southeast Kansas for both Hula and Copan Lake, which Hula is our largest reservoir for water supply, but that rain was somewhat negligible and that it did not produce much runoff unfortunately.

So as of this morning, we are at just over fifty seven percent of the overall water remaining and then roughly just under seventy four percent of the water supply the weighted water supply based on water right and so those two numbers are kind of metrics that we're using to gauge how much water we have left. So we have four water sources, Hula, Copan, the Caney River, and Hudson Lake. Hula and Copan Lake are both owned by the Core of

Engineers. Sixty percent of our water rights comes from Hula Lake, nine percent comes from Copan Lake. We have the Kenny River that has just over twenty percent, and then Hudson Lake has about twelve thirteen percent. Roughly as far as the water right, so the overall water remaining is if we drained every one of those sources, that's how much water we have in the system. But if we wait it based upon how much we store at each one one

of those locations. That's the weighted water supply based on water right number. If that maybe just added to the confusion instead of hopefully clarified it there, but we are in stage three, so we do have stage four stages of water restrictions and through the Water Shortage Ordinance, so we are in stage three. We have not enacted the emergency water rates because we are still holding below the threshold that really triggers that. So we have been averaging about four and

a half million gowns of water use today. The threshold that would trigger that emergency water rates at four point seventy five million gowns of water day. So consumptions down, which is good, but we still need to be mindful of what we're using Waterford to try to preserve and conserve that as much as possible there but predominantly predominantly this time of year, it's really all indoor water use.

There's not any really outdoor water use, and so we just ask you to be a good steward and to conserve that water supply, and hopefully we will get quite a bit of rain and potentially a little bit of snow over

the fall and winter here to help punish that water supply. So I understand right before, the federal government actually does a mandatory release out of both lakes, out of Copaine and Hewless, So in essence, we can serve water as far as in our storage lakes because of the water in the river is mand released from the federal government, so we're able to pick that up so we can conserve the lakes right right, So, both Copine and Hewlett Lake

discharge a minimum amount every day of the year, and that's set by federal policy and federal statute. So what that results is about ten million gallons of water a day goes by us in Johnstone Park and that's what we're capturing through our river pump station. So really since April, we've been running solely off the river and not off any of the lakes. But those lakes will continue to decline in a road just because of that minimum daily release that they're doing.

So it's good that we're able to capture that, but it's bad that those lakes are going to continue to drop just because of that release in the way that those lakes are set up there. So rain is truly the answer as far as there replene those lakes, but the Water Resources Committee didn't meet

a couple of weeks ago looking at that very issue. So this was a committee that was created back in the early two thousands when we had the drought in two thousand and one two thousand and two, they came up with a lot of options and things that they looked at as far as the area water supply, and so it was basically reformed or reorganized. Back with this latest

drought last year, they've met several times over the last few months. The latest one is back in November eighth, but they've done a couple of things already. Is that they've recommended changes to the water Supply Ordinance, which alcil adopted in October, So it changes some of the metrics and different things that

are in those water Shortage ordinance. But the tasks that they're looking at now is really the long term options to revisit that plan with that was done in two thousand and six two thousand and seven, to see what applies, what needs to be tweaked, or if there's somewhere other water source that we could be going after to potentially secure through there. So they're looking again at Hula Lake and Copan Lakes. Since those are two existing lakes, they are looking

at the reallocation of flood control to water supply. So both of these lakes when they were developed were developed primarily for flood control, so they have a lot of storage within the dam for a rain event or for flooding, and not very much for water supply. And so one of the options is to convert some of that flood control to water supply, which is an essence she raised the normal water surface of the lake so it impounds more water which is

available for water supply. So we have applied or done a request to the Core of Engineers through a Planning Assistance to States program that will partner with the Core to perform a study that looks at not only the environmental aspects if you pursue that type of water supply or that increase in water supply, but it also looks at the benefit loss of flood control, the potential downstream effects for that loss of flood control, and then some of the other incidentals that may

be required to facilitate that option with property ownerships and other mitigation through recreation loss of recreational type of facilities. There So we're pursuing that both with both the lakes. We've applied with the core to the core with that Hopefully within the

next three or four months we'll hear back if that project's funded. It will probably take about six to nine months to complete, so probably this time next year is when we anticipate having that of Beni at least that study complete to see how viable either or both of those options may be at coke Quela and Copan Lake. Another item that we're looking at as the aid of a Musa

aquifer, which is an aquifer in central O Sage County. It is considered a major aquifer at least with the United States Geological Service, but we know

very little about that aquifer. There's a lot of residential uses with it as far as homes and different small draws through that through agricultural or residential titusis not many on an industrial threshold or industrial size, and so we are looking at some federal grants to pursue investigating that aquifer a little bit more to see how much it would yield or produce and what type of water quality that it contains

through there. So that one is looking at probably mid the next year for the next round of federal grants to facilitate that, and so we'll will be in line to make that request to move forward with it. And then the last thing that the Committee is looking at as far as the long term water

supply is Call Lake. So currently Call Lake has forty million gawns of water day that's available right now, and those the cost of those water rights, at least the storage rights, is fairly inexpensive, and that we could buy that thirty or forty million goawns of water day for probably close to about fifteen to twenty million dollars. From a water storage standpoint, that's fairly inexpensive. But the big cost would be getting that water from Call Lake over to Bortosville,

which is roughly about sixty five plus miles to get to us. And so we are looking at partnerships with possibly the Osage Nation or maybe some other communities or water districts along that route between Bartoshil and the Call Lake to sharing that cost to help potentially offset and not only mitigate the costs of that infrastructure, but obviously provide some security and long range water that would benefit those entities

fairly significantly. So we are scheduled to meet I think in early December with some of the components with that, with the Ostation Nation and potentially some other communities through there, and depending on how those conversations go, will probably drive which are what we do next as far as the engineering to determine how much that's going to cost, the alignment that it would take, and then we'll just have to wait to see what that results in and then go from there.

Hecked a lot. That's a lot of information, a lot of information. So all of this is available online at the citybarsl dot org. So if you go, and if you're not a subscriber and city Beat, I would encourage you to do so because Kelly does a fantastic job and keeping everybody up to speed as far as the Water Resource Committee is on, as well as all the other activities uh and and different functions that's available and and and

you know that people need to know. So if you didn't catch all that, or you want to reread that or just get up to speed with it, certainly go to the City at Barsville's dot org website. It's going to be on the front page. As far as the water supply, Kelly has done a number of articles as well as far as where we've been, what we're looking at. So there's a lot of information online there that you could

bruise at your convenience. Very good. I was told by a certain lawmaker that when you deal with the Army Corps of Engineers, you're really dealing with the Army Corps of lawyers. That's uh, that is the kind of our inside joke. That's maybe not so inside as the Army Corps of Attorneys. That's kind of what everybody calls. Yeah. Yeah, he said he's yet to meet an engineer, so but I'm sure there's one in there with with

a dual diploma. Alrighty, well, thank you gentlemen. I really appreciate you being here with us today and of course getting it's all caught up on everything that we need to know and in order to keep safe and to keep hydrated and to keep things looking good everything between. I think we covered it all. Thanks again, and I hope you guys had a great Thanksgiving and I'm looking forward to you guys also having a great time with your families here

for the Christmas holidays ahead. So be well and thank you folks. You've been watching and listening to our city beat right here on K one. Thanks for listening to one. I'm a professional, paid present