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Bartlesville has done it again: a new record for citiy sales tax collection for September.

 

Appearing on CITY MATTERS on KWON AM 1400/FM 93.3/FM 95.1, city manager Mike Bailey and City Clerk Jason Muninger made the announcement. Munninger said, "The city was up 19.3% over prior October collections --this is 13% up on the year. This equates to about $860,000 the prior year's collection. We're sitting at about 13-14% over budget anticipation."

 

City manager Mike Bailey reminded the audience that the City Council on Monday declared Oct. 11-15 Code Enforcement Officers Appreciation Week to recognize the dedicated, well trained, and highly responsible individuals who are committed to preventing neighborhood deterioration, enhancing and ensuring public health and safety, and preserving property values by responding to over 2,500 requests each year from local citizens on a wide variety of nuisances.

 

 

Bailey the brought  Water Utilities Director Terry Lauritsen in to talk about the agreement between the City and Ken-Ada Ranches that will facilitate the ongoing water reuse project was approved by the council on Monday.

 

*A little background: In February 2019, the council approved a professional service contract with Tetra Tech for design services for a pump station and pipeline for water reuse, which will take treated water from the wastewater treatment plant and pump it approximately 3.5 miles north to discharge into the Caney River, upstream of the City’s raw water intake in Johnstone Park. The water can then be recaptured and retreated for consumption.

 

According to Lauritsen, "The proposed pipeline alignment requires the acquisition of an easement from Ken-Ada Ranches, for easement that starts just north of County Road West 1775 to the Caney River, which is approximately 2.8 miles of the 3.5 mile pipeline. City staff and the property owner have reached an agreement for the easement. The City will pay Ken-Ada Ranches $200,000 and enter into a separate water purchase agreement."

 

Lauritsen said $8,970,000 has been budgeted for the construction of the pump station and pipeline portion of the project. The funding is through a Bureau of Reclamation Grant ($750,000) and financing through the Oklahoma Water Resources Board (up to $8,220,000 available). The estimated construction cost for the project with contingencies is $7.5 million, $128,800 of which has been spent on closing costs and attorney fees for the OWRB financing, leaving up to $1,342,000 for easement acquisition and professional services. 

 

A condition of the agreement requires a separate contract with Ken-Ada Ranches to be treated as an Industrial customer with a flat volumetric rate and ties the water purchase contract to the existence of the pipeline easement.

 

Construction is anticipated to begin in early 2022 and will take approximately 15 months to complete.  

 

City Engineer Micah Siemers recapped the Sooner Pool project agreements and scope. 

 

*A little history: A discretionary project included on the voter approved 2013 Half-cent Sales Tax extension ballot, the council awarded a contract to Kimley-Horn for the design and master planning last October. But the expansion hit a major snag last summer when the lone bid for construction came in nearly half a million dollars over budget.

 

Siemers said the bid was rejected by the council during a July 6 meeting, and City staff went to work to rebid the project — this time with the intention of attracting more bidders and possibly making modifications to the project to bring down costs.

 

"This project was originally bid earlier this year but the lone bid received was $462,831 over the available budget," said Micah Siemers. "The council elected to reject the bid with the expectation that staff would make some modifications to the project scope and/or bid documents to hopefully gain more interest in the project and thus receive more competitive bids as part of a rebid of the project.

 

But after digging into the project scope with the design consultant, it was determined there was nothing that could be cut from the project scope, Siemers said.

 

"The project is already straight forward, with three slides, associated mechanical equipment, three group shelters and associated concrete deck space required for the complex," he said. "There really isn't anything to cut and still have a viable project."

 

Bailey reminded all about theCity of Bartlesville's free residential yard debris collection the week of Dec. 6-10.

 

During this special collection week only residents may place their leaves, grass, lawn clippings and other yard debris at the curb in bags on their normal trash collection day for collection by Solid Waste Department crews.

 

The collection is for the following items only:

 

 

During the week of Dec. 6-10, yard debris bags will not require yard waste stickers and clear or colored bags are allowed. The collection is for private residences only; no commercial collections will be made.

 

*Courtesy of CIty Beat/Kelli Williams