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The Board of Osage County Commissioners met for a regularly scheduled meeting Monday morning at the courthouse in Pawhuska and it was determined that a building in downtown Fairfax needs to be torn down because it poses a safety threat to citizens who walk by. It has also forced the health clinic next door to close until the problem is solved.

The building is three stories tall and it also houses a basement. District three commissioner Darrren McKinney doesn't want his men working on the project because if something were to go wrong, the county would be at fault. This is why McKinney has decided to bring in some engineers to demolish the building. There will also be a temporary structure put up between that building and the health clinic so that they can begin operating again.

Osage County Emergency Manager Jerry Roberts was at the meeting to let the commissioners know that the state of Oklahoma did receive a Presidential Emergency Declaration. Osage County will be eligible as soon as Roberts and his team have completed all of the assessments across the county, which he expects will be by Wednesday. Once assessments of homes are complete, they will move on to infrastructures, roads and bridges.

Osage County is in year five of an eight year road and bridge plan. John Blickensderfer of Guy Engineering was at the meeting to inform the commissioners which bridges and roads needed the most attention at the time so that they could make well-informed decisions on where to spend that money for the project.

The County Commissioners also approved a road application form that will help make improvements to Holt Rd. The estimated costs for those improvements is $900,000.

The next regular scheduled Board of Osage County Commissioners meeting is scheduled for next Monday at 10 in the morning.