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Wednesday's Community Connection feature on KWON featured Vice-Mayor Alan Gentges giving us and update on the City of Bartlesville's business.

Gentges acknowledged the vote Tuesday to approve a contract between the City and Tri County Tech that will result in the opening of an east-side police substation at the Tri County Tech facilities, located at 6101 Nowata Road.

The move is designed to help improve local emergency response times and expand locations to better serve the community.

The substation will house an east-side patrol division and a special operations division, which will consist of a training unit, traffic unit, and an impact team. The substation will provide east-side residents with easier access to police services and reduced response times during emergencies.

Up to 13 police officers will be on-shift at the east-side substation at any time.

The location will be open on Sept. 16. The public can access the east-side substation from Tri County Tech’s west entrance.

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The conversation moved to the announcement of the approval by the council a contract to construct a new 40-foot hexagon-shaped pavilion in Sooner Park. The pavilion will be located in the northwestern portion of the park, where playground equipment was removed following the installation of new playground equipment in the park earlier this year. Funding for the pavilion, $107,855, will come from the sale of older playground equipment at Sooner and Johnstone parks and funds remaining from the Civitan Park Shelter and Daniels Fields lighting projects. The pavilion project should be complete by the end of the year.

Gentges then talked about thenew contract with Olsson for design services on the Hillcrest reconstruction project, set to begin next year. The project, approved by voters in the 2013 half-cent sales tax election for Capital Improvement Projects, consists of reconstructing Hillcrest Drive between 18th Street and the Caney River Bridge. Olsson will complete the engineering design on the project by Aug. 30, 2020, for a fee of $156,500.

The vice-mayor then told us how the council approved a change order on the Tower Center at Unity Square project following a recommendation from project manager and Water Utilities Director Terry Lauritsen. Approved by voters in the 2018 General Obligation Bond Election, the project consists of the construction of a community green space between the Bartlesville Community Center and the Price Tower.