Good morning, good morning, good morning, hand welcome, welcome, welcome. It's time now for our community connection right here on K one to one.
He trust.
Mike Dunlap is with us here, Commissioner. Good morning. How you doing today, Oh? Doing well, Tom, Thank you very much for having me up this morning. Beautiful morning, shunshining, temperatures perfect. If it just stay like this all day and all, you'd be wonderful, wasn't it? Sure would, sure would. Things are busy with the county and they never stop. You got a bridge of a bridge project or two going on.
Well, and I appreciate you asking about that. This was a project I actually hired an engineer for in twenty fourteen, and I finally funding came through. And believe or not, I've got to give credit the Cherokee Nation, They're the ones funding the project. It's a one point three million dollar project. The bridge is a function was functionally obsolete. Actually, two large trucks coming to the bridge and opposite directions, one is gonna have to give away to the other.
And usually most people driving cars gave right away, you know, let one go across the time. So I'm more than happy to get this bridge built. It'll obviously meet all federal standards, hold a bus, fire truck, anything that would possibly be on it. Bridges one hundred and forty foot long, so it's a pretty pretty big project. It was way too big for us to build, so that's why we never never tied into it. And it's moving along really well.
The headwalls on the north and south end have been poured and are set, and actually the last pier, there were four piers in the middle last pier should be poured this morning. Those are going about forty feet deep to get the four four foot in diameter and forty feet deep rebarn, and you pour concrete in it and then come up and they will put a cross beam on those that will hold the run the main running beams, and they'll be nine of those forty foot long, probably
eighteen to twenty four inches tall, pre cast concrete. So now I'm excited. It's fun for me to watch projects like this. I used to go and spend some time every day because it's just it's what I used to do building bridges. But it's a lot like building a building, I mean, same skill sets involved, So it's fun for me.
To watch watching it go in just a little bit at a time. It's got to be kind of exciting.
Well, it is.
They're pulling concrete every day, pump trucks there, They're you know, obviously pulling the tests in their concrete. There's always an inspection engineer on site all the time, and the contract and supervisors always there. So yeah, I just this is something I've always enjoyed.
We've got the big EOC going up over there on Bison Roads. Yeah, that's a that's a project.
It really is. It's being built with arp of money, federal money.
I don't know.
I would never felt comfortable asking the taxpayers to fund something like that locally. But this is quite a facility. It's actually what we were talking about, the surly above ground tank for all practical purposes. Because the walls are concrete, the roof is concrete, and the twenty two thousand feet inside, we could actually easily set up our entire county operation out there if we had to county government. Yeah, we
could easily. He'll have servers, enough servers out there. But the main function he carry teaches a lot of classes. He's got a classroom out there that he can put eighty people in comfortably. Uh, there's just a lot of space and we'll obviously, uh firefighters out of there are the people who go fight fires.
He can be able to they'll store their gear there to be able to shire there.
There'll be trucks there. There's just everything you could possibly think of. I've got to give Carry credit and his crew. They've just done a fabulous job of putting this together and it will be beneficial for many years after.
Work on well, you know, after kind of being in tight quarters and I mean not not kind of type, very tight quarters.
Well, and obviously that was donated too. We were so fortunate to have that facility out there and really kind of risky. But now if you get a chance to see want to carry his program sometimes when he's out in public, he actually has some video of when the storm came through how they were functioning out there at EOC, and that's really pretty fascinating to watch out there tracking the storm and and you know the information that goes
back to there too. Obviously I was listening to k w O entering the storm.
And we're watching their feet.
Nathan Thompson saidn't go to the basement. So Paula, let's go to the basement and we did the same thing. Oh guys, but carrying his crew. They there there's something else. I mean, they think of just about any kind of contingency that could fall into play.
They really are very well prepared.
And I mean there's no perfect response to anything like that, obviously, but I mean the intent there's and the efforts there, and I really do appreciate the work they do.
Now, Yeah, we were talking off air when the tornado hit Barnstall and then came to Bartbleville. Just how fortunate we were. I know that you were privy to a little bit more information than the average bear. Well, we were a commissioner the pathway.
Unfortunate.
Obviously it wouldn't extremely destructive, but there was some you know, we did a lot of clean up down the county crew came in. We helped from like twentieth Street to twenty second, twenty third Street down there. Dewey and o Sage I believe were the worst hit areas. We were in there a week and hauled off well over one
hundred loads of large nup truck loads of brush. And that was what people, you know, what the other volunteer agencies had brought to the streets that we could help with, so you know, it was the was a lot of damage.
Yeah, significant significant.
You know when people think of of county commissioners and we just had.
The race here with two very qualified guys.
And mister Chivell, you're you're going to be losing a guy, but gaining a commissioner.
This we are and I'm you know, Michael Cole's great guy. Knew him and liked him, and Corey's great guy. Uh, Corey's I think probably the advantage he's you know, he was my road foreman for fourteen years. He absolutely there will be no zero transition from him to district too. The only transition will be you know, I will appoint a new road forman which we've been operating with so many yeah, with so many good people for so long.
This isn't going to be an issue, won't We won't miss a be very good, Yeah, very good.
Now I'll do things that the commissioners do.
It's everybody hears about the roads and the bridges, but it's everything. You guys have a control of the budget. You make a lot of decisions that three people make that a lot of folks really just kind of take for granted.
You know, one of the and one of the things that's surprised or been really interesting to me is, you know, all the counties in the state of Oklahoma, for instance, of jails, you just can't go out and buy private insurance for these jails. The risk are way too high. There's not a there's not a private insuran on the
planet that would cover insure one of your jails. So we, you know, as commissioners, we've in the late nineties, they formed their own risk pool, uh and I happen to be the chairman of that for state, the State of Oklahoma County Commissioners. And it is just extremely interesting in our litigious society that we now anytime something wrong happens in a correctional facility, you know, these these guys end
up in a lawsuit. And so we've really had to focus and you don't think about stuff like this when you're running for count of commission but we've really had to focus on making sure there's policies and procedures in these facilities that you know, inmates are handled properly and that our people are properly trained. And that's really a challenge because the revenue we have and the salaries we pay are not real competitive, and we really have a lot of trouble losing. We lose good people to cities
who municipalities who can pay better. And I understand that people want to, uh, you know, improve their quality of life, and that's that's what work is all about, is moving to better paying positions. But it's it's a challenge. It really is. That the correctional facility in the jail, you know, that's well over fifty percent of the cost of our operation and I didn't know that. Yeah, and it's going to you know, it's always going to be managed by
the commissioners, who aren't necessarily law enforcement trains. So it's a it's a challenge.
You got a lot of collaboration with the sheriff owning it.
I tell you what, I've talked to commissioners across the state of Oklahoma, and we are I have been so lucky to have a good relationship with your sheriffs. It's just essential, and so many counties don't, and they really really struggle.
That's too bad.
Well, it is, and it's a budgetary issue because a lot of these sheriffs just want more and more and Scott works with us so well, you know, to make all you know, make sure all the other officers have hunting to where they can function properly also, So it's a challenge and Scott's I just really appreciate the voters of Abortioning County. That's a very important position and they've always done a great job selecting sheriffs in this county.
Well, he and John Copeland do great on getting.
The really brands, you know, really they work hard. It's just there, you know, and it's really a challenge.
You know.
I've got a facility over there, and that hard to believe, twelve thirteen years old. Start starting to have some maintenance issues, you know, not significant ones, but notice you can move into a brand new building and have maintenance issues.
You know how that is I've done.
Yeah, yes, sir, Hey you ever buy a house that was built too quick? Yeah, But we were talking with the commissioner Mike Dunlap here on our community connection and tell us a little bit more about what's going on at the county level that we're going to probably see or hear about maybe perhaps in the next several months ahead.
Well, nothing significant that I you know that pops on the top of my head. Our revenues have been steady and it's a revenue stream that we could function off of which is important to use. Taxes helps significantly and we've dedicated virtually all of that to help with with making the salaries in the correction facility more competitive good so we can actually keep those people online.
And then you know, even.
For my road crews, uh, you know C d L drivers, they could probably leave me and make twice the salary tomorrow if they wanted to. So I'm really you know, you.
Try to get to go home to their own bed, and that's the upside of that.
And we actually have lost one and then I know he's probably making significantly more money, but he's not in his own bed every night.
You're absolutely right, there is. Uh.
You know, we've kind of kept up with our maintenance issues pretty well. We've replaced two rough top units in the last year on the on the old courthouse did a beautiful job downstairs. I thought the wayns coning some old quains coding. If you get a chance to go buy their look at it in the new courtroom's pretty well.
I just I love that old building.
Uh, I think it can be functional for many, many more years. I think the maintenance on the outside has been has done very well, and of course that we it's not new to the scisions. Bottle built the parking lot between the few two structures, which has done four or five years ago, has really been beneficial to all of us helping them. A lot of people were paying for parking off site, so that's helped our budgets a
little bit. It just I really feel good about where we're going in the direction we've gone the last few years.
So those the building sturdy, very sturdy.
Yeah, but oh my gosh, yes, that uh building twenty four and the structures aren't built like that anymore. It's it's it is true fascinating for me to be inside that facility and get up above the drop ceiling sometimes and actually see the precast concrete ceilings. It's it's it's a it is a shelter. Well, it was a civil defense shelter at one time when they had those. Yes, yeah, I had to remember the old yellow tags they would put on building and the black sign the other black
fallout shelter. For a long time, it had that sign on it.
With the more you know, Yeah, there you go.
So it shouldn't surprise me that, Hey, that looks pretty sturdy. Yeah it is, Oh man, anything else you like to show.
Well, just you know that if you get a chance to go free fair this weekend, I'm break on my watch. She got three blue ribbons or whatever. I don't know what she turned in, but she turned in something she did in the sewing room upstairs. Today. For those of you are competitive, there's a donut eating contest at five pm up there. I think you, if you're if you have the urgent one could be competitive. You might go check that out.
But they haven't told me just what kind of donuts they're serving yet, And.
I don't think it's I don't think it's donut holes. I don't know.
I don't think it's that. But I wonder, you know, if you had the powdered donuts, that could be.
Fun to watch. It could be fun to watch.
If you had jelly filmed, that'd be even more fun.
But I know it might be more entertaining than the hot dog eating contest. We may be onto something.
I think that we are.
Hot dog eating contest was pretty first. It got kind of messy once, but you know, watching people eat donuts, you know you got to say, yo, one of them is good, two of them is great. Yeah, but when you get to four or five should with coffee?
Do you chase it? Well? Water? What do you chase I wouldn't know how to deal with that.
Sky was strong, I would be I would be hitting that bull Martin Blum out there for ice cold milk.
That's what I would go. There you go. But then again, I'm not a dietitian.
Look at me.
Come on, anything that could go wrong will go wrong. Then I put in my mouth.
But anyway I go out to the Free Fair, I'm going to be back out there here in a little bit checking in on the exhibitors and on the kids and the other kids always make that happen.
Yes, I would like to one more point.
We've had an opportunity to overlay approximately three miles of blacktop this year, another mile off of twenty nine hundred going into Ocelida, and then a couple of miles actually off county line Rogers County Line on thirty nine hundred west back towards the little town of Vera, and a lot of this the Ocelida project was done there again, the Cherokees contributed. Cherokee Nation contributed significantly to that project,
and I'm very appreciated of that. But really, I feel you'll never get perfect, obviously, because there's a lot of traffic and we're picking up a lot of semi traffic even now on our.
Roads, just on the county roads.
Oh yeah, And I mean we can't monitor it. There's no way to control it. But it's just the fact when you have a good road, people find it and they use it, they use it, and it's become a cut through from one sixty nine to seventy five. A lot of residential construction going on south end of the county, which is all good. I mean, that's all future revenue, it's all activity. We're in a really good place right now. And as a county, I feel like I like our leadership.
I like our new leadership coming on Corey and the Jane coming into the county, the county clerk's physician over there, so things going in the right direction. Tom really feel good about it.
Well, something to be all that is for sure. Mike, thank you very much for being with no time. Thank you. How's the family doing over there in the Middle East?
Well, got one obviously, got Travis and his wife, Sophie, and Leora, my granddaughter, and Israel. Another granddaughter coming in October, and Paul is going to try to get over there. But I understand the Tel Aviv airport's been open and closed. I don't know where that stands.
So, yeah, it's kind of dicey right now.
Kind of dicey, but they seem really confident where they're at that.
Yeah, well that's that's great. Yeah, thank you, thank you for asking
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