City Beat March 2, 2021

City Beat

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March 2, 2021

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Council Action

Ward 3 rep Jim Curd Jr. elected vice mayor

Ward 3 Representative Jim Curd Jr. was elected vice mayor by his fellow City Council members during a regularly scheduled meeting on Monday.

The appointment comes following the resignation of former vice mayor and Ward 4 representative Alan Gentges, who resigned from the council to pursue the City's open municipal judge position.

The owner of local restaurants Dink's BBQ and Sterling's Grille, Curd is a longtime Bartlesville resident, business owner, baseball coach and parks advocate and volunteer. He previously served on the City Council from 1993 to 1997, which included a stint as vice mayor. He was elected to represent Ward 3 in 2016.

Curd serves on the Bartlesville Development Authority and Park Board, and he co-chairs committees for such notable projects as the Tower Center at Unity Square design oversight committee and the Downtown Landscape Task Force. In addition to his many duties as the Ward 3 representative, he continues to be intricately involved in planning and funding identification for many other projects, including the ongoing Price Fields Renovation.

Alan Gentges appointed as municipal judge

The City Council has named former Vice Mayor Alan Gentges to the open position of municipal judge following the passing of long-time Judge Steve Conatser last year.

The council announced the decision following an executive session during its regularly scheduled meeting on Monday.

Gentges served on the council as the Ward 4 representative since 2016. He was elected vice mayor by his fellow council members in December 2020, the beginning of the current term. He resigned from the City Council this month to avoid any conflict or the appearance of any conflict as he pursued the position of municipal judge.

Gentges attended Southwest Missouri State University and earned his juris doctorate from Tulsa University College of Law in 1985. He is a private legal practitioner and serves as attorney for the towns of Ramona and Vera in addition to his previous work as an adjunct professor with the University of Tulsa College of Law and Rogers State University.

In his role as City councilor, Gentges served on the City Planning Commission, Downtown Landscape Task Force, Tax Incentive District Review Committee, Tower Green Design Committee, Transportation Committee and Water Resources Board. He has also served and continues to volunteer with several boards and committees representing a variety of interests in Bartlesville.

He was one of five applicants interviewed for the position. He will begin his duties on the court next week.

Applicants sought for Ward 4 appointment

Resumes, letters of interest accepted through March 26

If you're a Ward 4 resident looking for a way to serve your community and work toward the betterment of Bartlesville, the City Council might be looking for you.

The council will move immediately to appoint a Ward 4 representative to fulfill the unexpired term of Alan Gentges, who recently resigned from the council to pursue the position of the City's municipal judge.

To be eligible for the position, in accordance with the City Charter, applicants must:

Be a Ward 4 resident for at least six months prior to the appointment (For more information about Ward 4 boundaries, see City Ward Maps and Ward 4 Map.)
Have no felony convictions
Be at least 25 years of age
Hold no other position in the city government by appointment of the city manager or public office which would constitute a conflict of interest.

City Council members work on a “volunteer” basis, receiving only a modest monthly stipend ($10 per meeting, up to $40 per month) in attendance fees.

Resumes and letters of interest should be submitted to the city manager’s office, located on the second floor of City Hall, 401 S. Johnstone Ave, emailed to rebanes@cityofbartlesville.org or mailed to City Hall, attn: City Manager's Office, 401 S. Johnstone Ave., Bartlesville, OK 74003.

Resumes will be accepted through March 26, after which interviews will be held by sitting council members. The appointment will announced in April or early May.

The current term will expire in November 2022, at which time all five City Council seats are subject to election.

For more information about this position, contact the City Manager's Office at 918.338.4282.

News & Updates

Hillcrest Drive project to start next month

Reconstruction of road planned between river, 20th Street

Work is set to get underway soon on the long-awaited reconstruction of Hillcrest Drive after the City Council approved a contract for the work on Monday.

The $2.2 million project, approved by voters in the 2013 Half-cent Capital Improvement Project election, involves reconstructing Hillcrest Drive from the Caney River to just north of 20th Street.

"The new roadway will be constructed parallel to the existing alignment to maintain traffic flow throughout construction," said Director of Engineering Micah Siemers, noting the new alignment will be located on the southwesterly side of the existing roadway.

"Fortunately, the City of Bartlesville has 100 feet of right-of-way on each side of the centerline of the existing roadway which allows construction of a new alignment rather than having to replace the roadway in its current location," he said.

The new alignment will transition to the existing roadway just north of the Caney River on the south end of the project and just north of 20th Street on the north end of the project. The new roadway will consist of two 12-foot-wide drive lanes with 6-foot-wide asphalt shoulders. Turn lanes will be provided at Shawnee and 20th Street.

Siemers said bids were in excess of the budgeted $2.2 million but that staff had worked to reduce costs where possible.

"While the final amount that could be extracted will have to be finalized and coordinated with the selected contractor, staff believes that the project can be reduced to within approximately $25,000 of the budget," he said, noting the extra funds are available through saved costs on other street projects.

"The approximate $25,000 shortfall estimated after value engineering the project can be covered solely by savings from other street projects rather than tapping into project budgets that have not been bid yet," he said.

The council voted 4-0 to award a contract to Brent Bell Construction Co. of Bartlesville in the amount of $2,455,218 with the understanding that $255,218.25 in budget shortfall will be covered by savings on other street projects combined with funds set aside for Fiscal Year 2020-21 street projects that have not been bid yet.

Construction is likely to begin in April and will take close to a full year to complete.

Water plant refinancing to save $1.3 million

The Bartlesville Municipal Authority and Bartlesville City Council took actions on Monday that will allow the City to refinance its loan for the Ted D. Lockin Water Treatment Plant, saving taxpayers roughly $1.3 million over the remaining 14-year loan period.

The BMA, which consists of City Council members, met briefly on Monday to approve the matter, as the BMA action is required to incur debt on behalf of the City.

The water treatment plant was constructed in 2004 utilizing a $40-plus million loan from the Oklahoma Water Resources Board. The plant was refinanced last year in an effort to save money, says CFO/City Clerk Jason Muninger.

"Back in November of 2019 we refinanced the original OWRB water plant note of $40,445,000. At the time, only $29,670,000 was remaining on the loan balance," Muninger said. "This initial refinance was done with RCB Bank and was a taxable note that had a 2.75 percent interest rate, saving taxpayers an estimated $100,000 per year."

On Monday night, the BMA approved refinancing that note with a non-taxable note with RCB Bank, Muninger said.

"This will allow us to obtain the interest rate of 2 percent, saving taxpayers an additional $90,000-$93,000 per year on the remaining $27,966,000 note. This is a total of about $1.3 million over the remaining 14-year loan period."

Consultant Jon Wolff of Municipal Finance Services told the council Monday the City has benefitted over the past decade or so in obtaining low interest rates for its infrastructure needs.

"With all of the capital infrastructure you've had to address, you've addressed it on the very low end of interest rates," Wolff said. "That translates into some significant savings for you. With everything else you have had to address in providing services to your citizens, this has been a good decade of financings and refinancings. You've essentially dropped your rate in half to save your citizens millions of dollars."

Mayor Dale Copeland commended City staff and others for their role in the savings.

"It has been a decade or more of very careful management and maintaining our credit ratings and all those pieces that made this possible," Copeland said. "Everyone deserves credit for that — City staff, former councils and all of our supporting groups.

"The citizens pay for this, and it does save $1.3 million-plus that would have gone to debt service/interest that can now be used on other ways."

Search for new fire chief to get underway

Fire chief John Banks announces plans to retire this summer

The City Council approved a contract with Strategic Government Resources to assist in recruitment for a new fire chief. The move comes following the announcement that current Fire Chief John Banks will retire later this year.

"We received notification that Fire Chief John Banks will be retiring on June 30 after 42 years of service," Human Resources Director Laura Sanders told the council Monday. "I want to make sure I take a moment to thank him for his dedication, loyalty and sacrifice to the city of Bartlesville. We appreciate him and wish him all the best in his next chapter.

"But with his upcoming retirement comes the responsibility of filling his shoes. After exploring options and looking at what we did when we hired our police chief in 2018, we would like to take a similar approach here and work with Strategic Government Resources to accomplish this."

Sanders said SGR will help in garnering a competitive applicant pool while streamlining the hiring process. The company will conduct digital marketing to post the position and accept and review applications, narrowing the field to the top candidates. Further narrowing will occur with the use of a questionnaire as well as online and in-person interviews. SGR will conduct background checks as well.

The application process is expected to open within the next week, Sanders said. It is anticipated the final selection will be announced in late spring or early summer.

For more information, contact the Human Resources Department at hr@cityofbartlesville.org or 918.338.4221.

Land transfer for BPS ag program gets OK

Deal contingent upon school district financing for facilities

The City Council on Monday approved a tentative agreement to deed land to Bartlesville Public Schools for its agricultural program, contingent upon the school district securing funding to construct the necessary facilities.

The council voted 4-0 in support of a memorandum of understanding with BPS for the use of a 5.5-acre tract of land located adjacent to the Bartlesville High School campus in the 1800 block of South Shawnee Avenue for the construction of an agricultural sciences facility.

"The Bartlesville School District is interested in expanding the academic offerings of the current agricultural sciences program and, to do so, would need to construct a new facility," Community Development Director Lisa Beeman said in a memo to the council this week. "Such a facility would potentially include additional classrooms, laboratories, an arena, livestock pens, a greenhouse and other related facilities."

Beeman said that in looking for sites, the school district hoped to find one that could be integrated into the existing high school campus and began to discuss options regarding the adjacent, City-owned land with City staff.

"The City of Bartlesville owns approximately 112 acres of real property on the east side of Shawnee Avenue south of 18th Street," Beeman said. "This land, all located within the Caney River floodway and floodplain, was donated to the City in the 1970s by the Jackson family for the construction of Pathfinder Parkway through this area."

She said the City currently uses the westerly portion of the site for a Pathfinder Parkway trailhead and the path itself, as well as an 18-hole disc golf course.

"In discussions with the school, it became apparent that the tract necessary for the proposed agricultural sciences facility could be accommodated on this 112-acre site, without substantially interfering with the City’s existing land uses on this site," she said.

Oklahoma State Law permits a municipal governing body to make gifts of any real estate belonging to the City to any institution in the Oklahoma State System of Higher Education or to any school district which is located in the municipality.

The conveyance of the tract is contingent upon the School District receiving funding approval to construct said facility. The agreement includes certain conditions, including a shared parking lot, re-establishment of the Pathfinder Parkway Trail, and re-establishment of the Shawnee Trails Disc Golf Course.

Free yard debris collection set for May 3-7

The City of Bartlesville’s free yard debris collection is set for the week of May 3-7. Residents may place their leaves, grass, lawn clippings and other yard debris at the curb in bags on their normal trash collection day during that week, for collection by Solid Waste Department crews.

What you need to know:

Collection is for leaves, grass and lawn clippings as well as limbs and branches, if cut in lengths no longer than four feet and bundled.
Yard debris bags will not require yard waste stickers
Clear or colored bags will be allowed
Collection is for private residences only; no commercial collections will be made
There is no limit on the number of bags a resident can put out for the collection
Yard debris will only be collected once, on your normal collection day of the week
Extra bags or items of household refuse outside the cart must have the Red Refuse sticker attached
Residents should comply with all other standard refuse regulations.

Yard refuse will be collected separately from trash, “so don’t be alarmed if you see a truck pick up your trash but not your leaves,” said Public Works Director Keith Henry. “They’ll come back for those.”

For more information, contact the Solid Waste Department at 918.338.4130.

Jet fighter-themed Veterans Park complete, open to public

The City Council officially closed out the Veterans Park project Monday by completing the last two grant requirements: holding a public hearing and passing a resolution accepting the project as complete.

The jet fighter-themed park, located near Frank Phillips Boulevard and Virginia Avenue, includes a playground and two sidewalks, interactive musical instruments and an additional sidewalk along Fifth Street, which closes a gap in the sidewalk system.

The project was funded utilizing the Community Development Block Grant, Small Cities Set Aside Program and matching City funds following several other improvements in the area.

In 2019, the Oklahoma Department of Commerce awarded $78,882 in grant funding from the Fiscal Year 2019 CDBG Program to the City. The funding was matched with City funds in the amount of $79,066. The CDBG grant is specifically for projects which serve low to moderate income areas of the city.

Frank Phillips lane closures to facilitate waterline project

Eastbound lanes on Frank Phillips Boulevard near U.S. Highway 75 will be closed for approximately one month to facilitate work on the waterline reconstruction project in the area, Director of Engineering Micah Siemers said recently.

“The contractor will close the eastbound right turn lane of Frank Phillips on the west side of Highway 75 and the adjacent eastbound through lane,” Siemers said. “These lanes will be closed from Highway 75 to a point approximately 450 feet west of Highway 75, stopping just east of the entrance into the old K-Mart building. We anticipate these lanes will be closed for the next month.”

The project consists of replacing two older waterlines with a new 20-inch diameter waterline. Siemers said the majority of the alignment will be on the north side of Frank Phillips from just east of Silver Lake Road to just west of U.S. 75.

“In the vicinity of the lane closures the line crosses Frank Phillips to the south side of the road and continues east across Highway 75,” he said. “They will bore under Highway 75 to make the final connection on the east side of 75.”

The project is expected to take around 10 months to complete.

Airport lease agreement to revert to City

ConocoPhillips announces termination of airport management

The City-owned Bartlesville Municipal Airport will soon be back under management of the City following an announcement that ConocoPhillips will terminate its lease-operating agreement with the City in August.

On Feb. 22, 2021 the City of Bartlesville received official notice from ConocoPhillips that the company would terminate its lease-operating agreement with the City to manage and operate the Bartlesville Municipal Airport, effective Aug. 15, 2021.

While the airport is owned by the City of Bartlesville, management of its operation has been provided by ConocoPhillips and the preceding Phillips companies for several years. The termination of the agreement will transfer operations back to the City beginning Aug. 16, 2021.

“We certainly appreciate everything ConocoPhillips and its predecessors have done over these many years to ensure the smooth operation of the airport by providing qualified personnel and ongoing cost assistance," said City Manager Mike Bailey. "We look forward to working with the company in the coming months to review more specific information regarding these practices. At that time we will evaluate our options and decide how to best move forward."

Bailey said City staff has begun reviewing the matter and that information will be become more available in the coming weeks.

"There will be a lot of information gathering and even more discussion regarding the airport and how we proceed," he said.

Your Questions

Stats: February water main breaks total nearly half of annual average

By Kelli Williams

With the below-zero temperatures, Tulsa had hundreds of water main breaks with water flowing down streets all over town and backhoes digging holes and closing streets. Every TV newscast

showed them digging and adding another 50 or so breaks to the growing total. My question is, how did we compare in Bartlesville? I did not see publicity on this issue. I’m sure we probably had some, but not like Tulsa. Is our infrastructure better than Tulsa’s? I don’t remember hearing about an excess of breaks and street repairs. Are we doing something right?

According to Water Utilities Director Terry Lauritsen, the City logged a reported 19 main breaks between Feb. 10 and Feb. 26 — a fairly substantial number considering the city normally averages 40 main breaks per year, or approximately three per month.

All of the breaks have been repaired, and crews are currently working on the restoration of these areas. Water Department and Street Department staff are working together in this endeavor, with Street Department crews assisting greatly by fixing the higher traffic streets where leaks occurred.

"Due to the volume of breaks, it will take us several weeks to clean up all these areas," Lauritsen said.

Overall, though, Bartlesville did fare better than its metropolitan neighbor.

"Overall, we were very fortunate," Lauritsen said. "I’m not sure why we did so much better than Tulsa and other communities."

He also pointed out the City's water treatment plant was able to keep up with the demand, pumping out around 10 million gallons of water a day — well over the four million gallons per day average for this time of year.

"This also includes usage from the surrounding municipalities and rural water districts we serve," he said.

Look ahead: Watch upcoming editions of City Beat for more information about the number of call outs, water meter freeze-ups and other information relevant to the unprecedented winter event.

Look back: Services continue despite frigid temps, snow

COVID-19

Council votes to extend COVID-19 resolution

Public awareness campaign to switch focus to vaccinations

The City Council voted 4-0 this week to extend a resolution that put into place several COVID-19 provisions including a requirement that masks or face coverings be worn by anyone visiting or working at enclosed City-owned facilities. The resolution, adopted by the council on November 2020, was set to expire at 11:59 p.m. on Monday.

"The good news is that things are much, much better than when we looked at this the last time," City Manager Mike Bailey told the council Monday night. "We're starting to see a flattening of the curve across the state, and that is very good news.

"Since October, which is really when we started to see a significant spike in the cases, we went from under 100,000 at the beginning of October to over 400,000 cases as of yesterday. So we certainly do need to continue to pay attention, because while new cases are decreasing in Oklahoma compared to what they had been, they are still significant. We are actually at the same point now as we were when we decided it was appropriate to take action."

Bailey said Washington County remains in the "orange" category based on the Oklahoma State Department of Health's risk level assessment measurements.

"We would have to get under 14 infections per 100,000 people to get back to the 'yellow,' or lower risk category," he said. "We are experiencing a nice decline in cases and are now into the 20s. So we're on a

good path. We're not there yet, but we are closer than we've been in a very long time," he said.

Nearly 4,500 Oklahomans have died as a result of the disease, according to Oklahoma State Department of Health records, though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention places the state's death rate closer to 7,000.

Bailey said that in light of improving infection rates for the state and growing availability for COVID-19 vaccines, the COVID-19 Public Information Campaign plans to switch its focus from awareness of "the three Ws: Wash Your Hands, Wear a Mask, Wash Your Hands" to CDC support of the vaccinations.

"You authorized and funded a public information campaign that revolved around those CDC recommendations," he said. "One recommendation that has been added is to get vaccinated, so we've added that to the list of CDC recommendations the campaign will promote."

Bailey said that given improvements in infection rates, the ongoing awareness campaign is starting to wind down but is poised to pivot to focus on vaccinations when appropriate.

"Assuming enough of the vaccine becomes available to where people are able to get it at will, we can begin to pivot towards encouraging people to get vaccinated," he said.

The resolution will expire May 3 if not extended or terminated before that time.

Volunteer Opportunities

Board, Committee & Commission Openings

The City of Bartlesville has numerous boards, committees and commissions that are driven by citizen volunteers. All citizens are encouraged and welcome to apply.

Board applications are located online and in the city manager’s office, located on the second floor of City Hall, 401 S. Johnstone Ave. Applications are kept on file for two years. To view a complete list, see Boards, Committees & Commissions.

The City currently has the following committee/board openings: