Council hears presentation on water
The Cherokee Development Authority met at 6 p.m., Wednesday, May 26 for their regular meeting.
The meeting was called to order with Mayor Kolby Arnold, Adrienne Wessels, Chris Padilla and Luke Hague present. Jeremy Hickman was absent.
The consent agenda was approved first as follows:
• Minutes from May 12.
• Claims list.
• Revised the authorized bank account signatures on all bank accounts. The council removed Hickman and Karen Hawkins and added Arnold and Wessels.
Next, City Manager Mike Jones gave his report:
• A new trash pump for the Southgate lift station was ordered for a price of $6,900 plus installation. An insurance claim was filed on it.
• The swimming pool will open on Saturday, May 29 and there would be a free swim on Monday, May 31.
Arnold brought up the need for extra patrol at the pool to stop people from throwing rocks in the pool.
The council then heard a presentation of water line issues at the Cherokee Sale Barn.
The Sale Barn will take a break from sales for a three week window in June and they would like to update some waterlines.
Currently their water meter and shutoff is on a property to the east. The property and sale barn were at one time owned by the same people, but when the property was sold and then the sale barn sold a couple of times since, the sale barn isn’t sure there is an actual easement there.
The Sale Barn would like to have the water meter moved west to their property. Jones was against moving the water meter outside city limits. The Sale Barn is outside city limits but receives their water from the city.
The Sale Barn’s engineer said the sale barn would need a three inch water meter with a six inch line feeding it to have adequate gallons per minute to keep water to the livestock.
After some more discussion, the council will review it possibly at the next meeting. No action was taken due to it being an informational piece only.
After hearing no new business, the meeting adjourned at 6:25 p.m.
The City of Cherokee meeting was immediately called to order.
The consent agenda was approved first as follows:
• Minutes from May 12.
• Claims list.
• Revised the authorized bank account signatures on all bank accounts.
• The construction bid to install perimeter fence and gates as determined in the airport improvement contract and awarded the bid to the lowest responsible bidder, as subject to the receipt of the federal grant associated with the project.
Royse Construction LLC, dba of Platinum Fence and Supply was the low bid at $141,973. The grant to be used is a 100 percent grant.
The council took no action
Next, an ordinance was discussed on adopting an ordinance increasing the city manager’s spending limit from $7,500 to $20,000.
After some discussion, the council took no action on the item. They also took no action on declaring an emergency.
The council is going to wait until Hickman can be at the meeting to discuss it more. Some of the council members are okay with increasing it, but only to $12,500, while others were okay with the $20,000 mark.
The following resolutions were approved:
• Adopting resolution 2021-003 authorizing participation in the OMAG recognition program.
• Adopting resolution 2021-004 accepting a Federal Aviation Administration grant offer for airport improvement project at the Cherokee Municipal Airport for installing perimeter fence and gates project and to authorize the city manager to execute the grant agreement and all necessary documents.
Jones gave his report:
• Memorial Day Service will be at 10 a.m., Monday May 31.
• The street carnival was a success and planning has begun for next year’s carnival.
• Jones met with Oklahoma Department of Transportation on Monday, May 24 in reference to the Safe Routes to School program. Phase I of the project is scheduled to be complete by July 2022. The 100 percent plans are due in October.
Also going on will be an ADA grant that will install new sidewalk from East Washington to Dollar General. The city may try to bid the projects together to help lower the cost.
• City Hall will be transferring to a new phone system to include automated answering. The new system will allow selected employees to make and receive work phone calls on their mobile devices.
• Two staff members will take annual leave in June.
• New officials institute webinar training will be from 8:15 a.m. to 5 p.m. June 3 and 10.
There will be an in-person training on Sept. 30 in Woodward or Nov. 4 in Lawton.
• The Cherokee Police Department hosted a taser instructor course on Monday, May 24. Fifteen personnel completed the training. This training served seven police departments from Oklahoma and Kansas, as well as one security company.
• City Clerk Amber Wilhite gave the license and fees update. The city sold one contractor, two plumbing, one electrical, one daily peddler, one cultivation, two annual aerial applicator, one building, five animals and two UTV permits.
No new business was discussed.
Padilla brought up mosquito spraying for the City of Cherokee and Jones said he would check with the City of Fairview. They sprayed in the past for approximately $800-900 per spraying.
After hearing no new business, the meeting adjourned at 6:52 p.m.