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City Beat
Your city, your news
March 8, 2022
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Welcome to City Beat, a free weekly e-newsletter containing the latest news and information about the City of Bartlesville and related topics. Get yours delivered each week! http://bit.ly/2eaFETx
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Bartlesville Police Department officers (in uniform) Steven Letterman, K.C. Jackson, Cpl. Ryan Deshields, Patrick Ballard and Shawn Caudle were presented with the department's Life Saving Award during a City Council meeting Monday. Also pictured are Mayor Dale Copeland, right, Police Chief Tracy Roles, left, and Capt. Troy Newell. |
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Officers receive BPD Life Saving Award |
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Five Bartlesville Police Department officers received the BPD Life Saving Award during a City Council meeting on Monday. In two of the cases, the life-saving drug Narcan was administered to individuals who had overdosed on heroin, while another incident involved saving the life of a man who had attempted suicide.
Officer Steven Letterman responded to a call for service in November 2021 and encountered an unresponsive, apparently lifeless man on the floor of the residence. Letterman applied a series of "sternum rubs," a painful technique used to revive unresponsive individuals, which had no visible effect.
"Officer Letterman then administered a dose of Narcan nasal spray and continued the sternum rub until the man became responsive and alert," said Police Chief Tracy Roles.
Roles said the man said later that he had used heroin prior to police arrival.
In a separate incident, Officer K.C. Jackson responded to a residence in January of this year where a man was reportedly having a medical issue. Jackson approached the man, who was lying on the floor of the residence.
"The male was on his right side with a small amount of blood coming from his nose," Roles said. "(He) was not responding to Officer Jackson's voice and had very slow delayed breaths. Officer Jackson was able to feel a faint pulse and could hear the occasional moan from the man. He attempted to wake the male with sternal rub while (talking to him). When the man's color began to change and his lips began turning purple, Officer Jackson administered a dose of Narcan."
Roles said the man "took a deep breath and shook a little," and that Jackson resumed the sternal rub until Bartlesville Fire and EMS personnel arrived.
"Once the male was loaded in the ambulance and was stable and awake, the man told authorities he had used heroin," Roles said.
Officers Patrick Ballard, Shawn Caudle, and Cpl. Ryan Deshields received the award for saving the life of a man who had attempted to hang himself at a local hotel.
"In the early morning hours of Feb. 12, night shift officers were dispatched to an area hotel in reference to a possible suicidal subject," Roles said, noting that Caudle, Ballard, and Deshields quickly located the hotel room and attempted access with a room key card supplied to them by the hotel management.
Roles said the door was unable to be opened all the way due to a physical lock holding the door in the closed position, so officers kicked the door open, finding a man who had hung himself using a belt.
"The officers acted quickly and were able to cut the man down," Roles said. "They administered first aid to the man until EMS arrived on scene."
Roles said the man had no pulse and was not breathing until receiving medical attention after the incident.
"It is clear that, had the officers not responded in an appropriate manner to the call and took the necessary action of forcing entry into the room, cutting the person down and administering aid to them, this person would have certainly died," he said.
"These are great examples of leadership and proper response to situations that could have ended in the loss of life. The quick response and actions taken by these officers are a testimony to their dedication, not only to the Bartlesville Police Department but also the citizens of Bartlesville."
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Bike, hiking trails headed for Hudson Lake
Council says Yes to citizen-driven, multi-phased trail project
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The Bartlesville City Council gave a thumbs up Monday to a group of local citizens volunteering free labor and planning to install mountain bike trails, which will also be suitable for hikers and trail runners, at the City-owned Hudson Lake.
Community Development Director Lisa Beeman outlined the group's proposal, which involves the initial installation of a 1.2 mile round trip trail beginning at the lake's east, hilltop parking lot, with subsequent phases to include an additional two-to-five miles of trail further north, or on the west shore.
"The trail would be a natural, hard-packed dirt trail with minimal tree removal that would be a single track, 18 to 36 inches in width, and suitable also for hikers and trail runners," Beeman said. "The trail, built to International Mountain Bike Association Standards, would create a corridor that is 10 to 15 feet high and four to eight feet wide, paying attention to sustainability, slope, drainage, and preventing erosion."
Construction, which will utilize volunteer labor and private funding with assistance from the City where appropriate, is set to begin as soon as possible, with a goal for completion in less than two years, Beeman said.
While the idea isn't a new one — another group pitched a similar proposal in 2014 but failed to identify funding for the project — the proposal was made recently to the Park Board by Adam Pratt, representing a group of people in the community interested in the project. The Park Board voted to recommend the project to the City Council for approval.
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"This is very similar to what the City has done with other non-profit groups, such as the Bartlesville Disc Golf Association for the Shawnee Trail Disc Golf Course and the Bark Park Buddies for Cooper Dog Park," Beeman said.
If the volunteer group is unable to maintain the trail after it is built, the trail will revert back to its natural state unless another entity takes over, she said. The local group will work under the umbrella of the Oklahoma EarthBike Fellowship, the Oklahoma Chapter of the International Mountain Bike Association, which has provided a liability insurance policy naming the City of Bartlesville as an additional insured.
Hudson Lake facts:
- Located five miles northwest of Bartlesville
- Serves as a water supply for the City of Bartlesville
- Recreational lake for boating, fishing, hunting
- Located on 1,430 acres
- Built in 1949
- 250 acres of surface area
- 8 miles of shoreline length
- Average depth of 16 feet
- Part of the Oklahoma Fisheries Management program and sampled by the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation with some frequency to determine fish population trends and enhance density.
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Council OKs contract for feasibility study
Study to determine need for conference center in Bartlesville
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The City Council on Monday voted to approve a contract to conduct a feasibility study regarding the need for a conference center in Bartlesville. Hunden Strategic Partners was selected for the job following the recommendation of a review committee established to oversee the matter.
Talks regarding the need for a conference center have been ongoing for some time but ramped up considerably late last year when representatives for the First Christian Church, located at 520 S. Osage Ave., offered to donate the facility to the City to house the center.
A non-binding letter of intent was ultimately approved by the council in January, pending the results of a feasibility study to determine the need for the center. The FCC location will be included in the study as a possible location for the center, if the feasibility study indicates one is warranted. (FCC must approve any alternate uses for the facility prior to donation.)
A committee consisting of officials and staff representing the City of Bartlesville, Bartlesville Community Center, and Visit Bartlesville reviewed and ranked six Request for Proposal responses and interviewed the top three, of which Hunden Strategic Partners was selected for the recommendation.
The study will include:
- Analysis of state/regional conference/convention market
- Survey state and regional planners, etc.
- Estimate total market demand for Bartlesville region
- Needs analysis
- Analyze ability of current regional facilities to meet demand
- List limitations of current facilities in capturing unmet demand
- Estimate size of facilities and amenities necessary to capture unmet demand
- Site analysis for potential conference center locations
- Determine preferred region(s) of Bartlesville to locate a conference center
- Identify advantages and limitations of each region
- Identify advantages and limitations of possible FCC site
"Now that the council has approved a consultant for the study, City staff will execute a contract with Hunden Strategic Partners and begin the study," said City Manager Mike Bailey. "The review committee will oversee the process and present the findings to the City Council once the study is complete."
It is anticipated the study will take approximately 15 weeks to complete.
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Luigi's expansion incentive gets go-ahead |
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The Bartlesville City Council on Monday approved a request from the Bartlesville Development Authority to provide development assistance of $30,430 to Luigi’s Italian Restaurant, which recently opened for business at their new and expanded facility,
BDA President David Wood told the council the incentive is part of the City's retail recruitment program, which began in 2014.
"In addition to a massive amount of research to identify desired brands that were expanding, and supported by our demographics, we needed an incentive policy that would effectively concentrate our finite economic development sales tax revenue to entice targeted brands to take a risk and locate in a smaller market," Wood said.
"Based on the results, we got it right," he said, pointing out retail additions to the city that include Silver Lake Village, improvements to Eastland Shopping Center and, most recently, the Shoppes at Turkey Creek. "Success begets success, and Bartlesville is continuing to ride that wave even as brick-and-mortar retailers have pulled back — most recently Bricktown Brewery, Schlotzsky's, and Tropical Smoothie — with more on the way."
But while pursuing those national brands, Wood said, care was taken to assure that the city's existing businesses — "our friends and neighbors that had been serving our community and collecting sales taxes on our behalf for years" — could also benefit under the same financial terms.
"In short, new incremental sales from an expanding existing business would, under policy, qualify for exactly the same incentive as an “outsider," he said.
Luigi's Italian Restaurant qualified as one of those businesses. Formerly located at 3822 S.E. Frank Phillips Blvd., the restaurant recently relocated to 1409 S.E. Washington Blvd.
The restaurant opened in Bartlesville in 2005, Wood said.
"Vito and his brother-in-law, Affrim, were originally operating in Texas but desired a smaller, 'family friendly' community to raise their children," Wood said. "Luigi’s has been good for Bartlesville, and Bartlesville has proved to be a good choice for Luigi’s, too. With the opportunity to acquire the tract adjacent to Stride Bank on Highway 75, Vito reached out to BDA to see what assistance might be available if he were to invest in a new, expanded facility."
Wood said that all things being equal, a 60 percent increase in seating would allow for an incremental increase in revenue of $600,000 annually. The addition of a full bar (previously limited to beer and wine), along with a new outdoor seating area, "are reasonably expected to produce an additional $295,000 in annual revenue."
"In total, BDA anticipates an annual sales increase of $895,000," he said. "Discounting for substitution sales, the City of Bartlesville is expected to receive an additional $6,086 in net new annual sales tax revenue resulting from the Luigi’s expansion.. Under policy, one-half of that net new increase is available to the expanding business, and assuming our standard 10-year horizon, Luigi’s is qualified for $30,430 in development assistance upon Certificate of Occupancy."
The incentive was approved with a unanimous vote of the council.
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Pickleball court funding status; strategic plan, ARPA funds unrelated
By Kelli Williams
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Is there an update on the pickleball courts scheduled for installation at Johnstone Park?
This project, approved by voters in the 2020 General Obligation Bond Election, includes the modification of two existing tennis courts at Johnstone Park, next to the Richard Kane YMCA, to allow indoor tennis and pickleball play. The courts will be enclosed with a steel structure designed for future expansion of the indoor space.
The project is currently slated for year two of the three-year GO Bond. The City expects to receive funds on the first tranche sometime this spring, so it is likely funds for the tennis court/pickleball project will be available late this calendar year or early 2023.
Strategic plan, ARPA funds not connected
Is the Bartlesville Comprehensive Strategic Plan in place to spend funding from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021?
The Comprehensive Strategic Plan, which will get underway later this month, is not being conducted for the purpose of spending American Rescue Plan Act funds, nor was money for the plan itself taken from ARPA funds. However, there is approximately $2.8 million in ARPA funds that the City will receive which has not yet been allocated. How this money is spent will ultimately be determined by the City Council, which, I suppose, could allocate funding for a project or projects identified in the strategic plan. So while there is no obvious connection between the two, one cannot definitively rule out a potential connection in the future.
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Jobs/open positions
The City of Bartlesville is currently accepting applications for the following positions:
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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 available 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 openings on the following committees/boards:
- Two openings on the White Rose Cemetery Board
- One opening on the Park Board
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Kelli Williams, Editor
401 S. Johnstone Ave.
Bartlesville, OK 74003
918.338.4132
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