Good morning, good morning, morning, welcome, welcome, welcome time now for our community connection right here on Kwando one you trust, and it's brought to you in part by Arnold Moore Kneecamp at funeral home. We've got our friends in herey Quinn Sheppard, how you doing. I'm fantastic today and you brought friends a friend friends, Yes, good morning, I'm delightful. Thank you. All right, Jessica is here with us today, and this is
a Republican and other Conservatives of Washington County otherwise known Rock Rock. Yes, now, we got a big event coming up here on the twenty fifth. Tell us a little bit about it. Well, this is our monthly meeting from March March twenty fifth, six thirty two, round seven forty five. We're going to be meeting at Crossing second with the theme of charter water and voting voters. Oh my, well, there you go. And it's all top of mind very much of these days. Yes, it is. Oh
my goodness. You know when we when we talk about the city charter h some folks would kind of scratch their head a little bit. They say, well, what is that? I understand We've got an expert coming in, Well, we have a couple of experts coming in and talk about that and to frame the conversation a little bit. Today, Tom, the city has what it's called Bartlesville Next, it's a strategic plan yep. And Martians all know that the city Hall is downtown, and so one way to describe the
strategic plan for this city. It's more internal. So it has to do with you know, city services, city management, city government and the things that happen, policies, all those sorts of things. Whereas the comprehensive Plan I think of it as more external to all of that is the long range plan for everything from roads to water to housing density. All kinds of stuff are covered in that. So if we narrow it down to the strategic plan,
the city has been very diligent to follow that plan. They give updates at city council meetings. You can watch those or attend live you can. City beat comes out, Yes, city beat if you don't have that, encourage listeners to go to the City of Bartlesville and sign up for that and keeps people informed about that process. So part of that process is reviewing policies,
best practices, all those sort of things. The difference with the Charter is that's governed by state regulations, as are many things that we do as a government as a city. State regulations statutes, certain requirements, and that's why amendments to the Charter have to go to a vote of the people. Now I understand we're going to be bringing in a couple of speakers to address this. We will, yes, we will. We've got our city manager, Mike Bailey coming in. He knows a lot of words, and our
mayor, you know, even more words. And while they've been doing some presentations around about these things, it's just another opportunity for people to come hear the rationale behind some of this while they're proposing these amendments. And those are going to appear on a ballot on April tewcod as ten different propositions, so there's a reason they are separated out. A little bit later today on our website on one Little Radio dot com, we're gonna have the sample ballot out
there so folks can take a look at it. And you got it right there. We're going to have that posted so that everyone can see what that looks like. So you don't walk in there and go, oh my goodness, I don't know what I'm doing, and you'll be able to go through it and be more familiar with it. But also with this charter, there are things like city elections and recalls and things like that that they're going to
be addressing in this election as well. Yeah. I don't want to get into all the particulars that here, maybe, but they are going to be addressed saying a number of various things. Yeah, ten things that in their overall review. And people also need to understand that this just doesn't come out of a vacuum. There have been citizens that have been talking to the manager or the mayor. If you've got a city council member, you've got questions
about it, talk to them. All these people are very approachable and they'll answer your questions. We want people to be informed voters, because everybody's got a voice and a vote, and we want to encourage that. So part of our objective is to really educate and inform people about issues about candidates coming up. And it's kind of important fact is electorate yes active to be bare act there you go get out and vote yea good. Don't shut on your
duff because if you sit on your dough. You can't complain, You're just going to be a def center. We don't want that. No, you don't want that. That's kind of what this organization is about, is becoming an informed and a participating, active voter. Right. And I got to ask you, Jessica, what drew you to this? Well, this was my major in college was politics and history. But I like to be active,
like you said, and informed on what's going around. And sometimes we feel like we can't make a difference or we have no impact anywhere, but in reality, we honestly do, especially at the local level. That's where they say all politics is local. Yes, it starts on your sidewalk in the street where you live. We don't want to talk sidewalks here because right now Larry Curtis and going I know he did it, he did it sidewalks again. But we are going to talk water resources, are we? We
aren't going to talk water resources. No. We are an association of people for Washington County, and our utilities director Terry Lawrenson is going to come into a presentation. All the water resourcing in Bartlesville is not just for Bartlesville. We provide water for fifty five thousand people, which is actually about one thousand more than the population of Washington County. So when we talk about, you know, drought readiness, when we talk about where the resources are coming from,
what's been going on in the drought this year. Actually with the comprehensive plant plan, one of the top concerns that citizens have expressed is about dowgoing water concerns that don't just affect us. So Terry Lawrence's presentation is really going to be for the entire county. Will be part of that presentation because we provide water for a lot of people. Now you're on the Water Resources Board.
You told me something that is incredible about what could happen to our river if well the river if yeah, if Hewle and go penn La likes dry up, the river dries up a lot, that could be a real big problem. It could be a real prob you know, I'm thinking, Okay, well, I wasn't sure where the river started now I know. So this is going to be very very informative. You know, when we talk about Washington County, which is this is all about, is Washington County?
A lot of people who live in Bartlesville say, yeah, well we had it rough, well, you didn't have it as rough as Dewey. They couldn't do their ductory on fourth of July because that river was dry. It was it was cond great, it was you know, you had to take a chisel, it was you. We couldn't let the ducky float. And on top of that, you go up to Canye just north of there.
You know, they had more troubles than you can ever imagine. And just thinking that we were kind of lucky in comparison, but luck ain't gonna do it in the future because we never know what our numbers of exactly, and as well aware, there are no quicker, easier, cheap solutions. However, the Water Resource Committee is exploring all that. Oh boy, I got to tell you, it's going to be great having mister Lawrence in there.
He's an engineer on top of being a pretty darn good communicator too, and he can put that into into words that everyone's going to be able to understand. You're not gonna have to take you know, an engineering this are but it's going to be great. And I love the fact that experts are going to be on hand here. You're always very good at at doing that and having them help facilitate our meetings and stuff. And one thing I like to
emphasize Tom is our meetings. Most of our meetings are very non partisan. You know, they're very old and waters for everybody. Everybody come out and learn and be prepared for the vote. For those who'll be have an opportunity to be part of that. This is really pretty cool. And you know, being a part of this has to be a lot of a lot of fun but also a bit of a challenge there. It can be time consuming at times. Yes, but you look like you're enjoying yourself though. I
should hope so, and I am. I hope Quinn is as well. Right, we have a lot of fun. We're going to commit our time and energy to something. We want it to be something that we enjoy and be fulfilled with and believe it and believe in. And yes, yeah, and like you said, you know, the doors open, it's going to be a crossing second. The big room in the back. There have been times when we've had the overflow we had to go into the game room and open it up. But oh, there they are. We usually have people
in the game room. Yes, yeah, I think I remember when the Lieutenant governor was there. It might have been a little bit of standing room only there for a little bit. But by the way, get there early, Grab yourself some food because it's delicious, yes, and then and then get ready for the information. Some would say get ready for the show, but it's information, but it's done in a way that you know you're going to be You're going to be asking questions. Will we take questions from the
US Yes, yeah, they're going to be taking questions. They're going to do presentation, take questions, and I think it will be beneficial for everybody to be there. Good. And do we have a website or Facebook or we do have a Facebook. If you go and you search for Republican and Other Conservatives of Washington County or roc WC, we will pop up. There's any comments, questions, concerns, anyone can always contact us at our email
info at ROCWC dot com. Wow, okay, that works. There you go, and if you want to sign up for a newsletter, you can do that through info at ROCWC dot com. But you won't find them at TikTok racts yet. Anyway, We're not gonna do those that For the look on your face way what I wouldn't do that again. It's not nice. But anyway, it's going to be a great time and it's going to be
once again. It's going to be on March twenty fifth, and that is going to be a crossing second and you just make six thirty, six thirty thirty thirty. We encourage you to come early, like you said, grab some dinner, enjoy friendships, make new friends, and we can also, you know, enjoy a meal during the presentation. You can do that too, and I'll tell you what. They'll be happy to see you, the people there at the restaurant. Of course, your friends and neighbors will be
there as well. It's also a great way to kind of get re acquainted with folks if you haven't been out in a while. You know, some people in winter time they kind of retrieved a little bit, so you know, if you got a little cabin fever, this is also take care of that too. I want to thank you very much for coming in. It's always so informative. Anything that I might have missed, well, I would just encourage people to go to the Okay Voter portal. There you can register
to vote, you can change your party affiliation. You can download the ballot. I know you'll have it as well. There's all kinds of information on there to help prepare people so they're not just going in vote knowing everything. Vote yes and everything you know. Don't just listen to the coffee shop gossip like be informed and learn with some of these issues and candidates got a lot of that to talk about this year as we go on. Who they are,
what they stand for. Give your voice and vote an opportunity. No, do we do this monthly. We do do monthly. It's usually on the third Monday and every month. That's a good way to remember it. It is. The spring break is coming up next week, and so we adjusted to encourage people to come out. Oh thank you. Once upon a time I had seven at home. Well bless you. Yeah, a little
holding them to be positive members of society. All right, Thanks again, folks, you've been listening to and watching our community connection on K one.