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The Bartlesville City Council is set to take up business stated on Monday evening's agenda as an economic development agreement between the City of Bartlesville and the Frank Phillips Foundation relating to the Frank Phillips Home is in reality a proposed transfer of the home to the city.  According to the city's website, budget cuts have prohibited the Oklahoma Historical Society from maintaining and operating the Frank Phillips Home into the next fiscal year.

 

Wording on the property deed specifies that the site is to become property of the City of Bartlesville in the event that the Historical Society becomes unable to maintain it. The website states city staff members have determined the City cannot afford maintenance and operation of the facility and quotes city attorney Jerry Maddux as saying the city has no expertise to do so.  Maddux goes on in a memo to say if the City of Bartlesville is unable to maintain the property, under the literal reading of the deed, the property is to be torn down.  City staff began working with the Frank Phillips Foundation, which owns and operates Woolaroc — another area tourist attraction and Frank Phillips-based museum — which has agreed to take ownership of the Home.

 

Maddux says the property will be transfered to the city with the understanding it will in turn be deeded to the Frank Phillips Foundation with restrictions that they will continue to operate the home as an historic site.

 

The City Council will consider the measure during its regularly scheduled meeting on Monday.  The city council will meet at 7 at the city center building.