Call the Broken Arrow City Council meeting to order.

We have indication by Pastor Chaxi Forte.

Evening, sir.

Good evening, everyone.

Uh, let's bow our heads and pray.

Father, in the name of Jesus, we thank you again for the great city of Broken Arrow.

And we thank you, Lord, for all that you have done and all that you are currently doing here in our city.

We lift up our entire uh city council and all the leaders and employees that work for our city.

Father, we thank you for the wisdom that they all need to make right decisions for the betterment and advancement of Broken Arrow.

We thank you for continual prosperity and economic increase for our city.

We thank you for constant protection and that there will be unity in tonight's meeting.

We thank you for insight.

We thank you for foresight, and we thank you for actionable strategies for implementation, and we thank you for your sovereign will being done here at all times.

We thank you for hearing and for answering our prayers tonight in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Thank you, Sarah.

Roll call.

Green, here.

Ford.

Here.

Parks, here, Wimpy.

Here.

Please stand and join Councillor Ford for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Attention, salute, pledge.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.

And to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

I'll make a motion to accept the consent agenda.

I'll second.

Seven A is presentation of the annual report by representatives of Cox Communication.

Umor?

Come on down, sir.

Good evening.

Great to see you on that.

Hey, hey, good to see you.

Well, I always appreciate the chance to come in and make this presentation.

I know it feels like a quick year from the last time I was here, and uh there may be some things that haven't changed all that much, but it's a good chance to come in and chat about things and answer any questions, share some of the updates that have happened over the last year.

So you all know us well.

Um internet service provider here in Oklahoma, provider of uh your data services, traditional internet, video on the cable side, mobile, and then business services as well through Cox Business and Cox Media, our advertising arm too.

Um multitude of different things we do here in the community.

While we do those things, that's our our day-to-day, our business.

Um, we also really value uh our community engagement.

What to be a good community partner to you all.

Um I hope you all feel that.

We'll talk about some of those things tonight.

But one of the ways that we we do that is through our investment in the community.

Um get to my slides.

Yeah, so since 2021, in the past five years, we've invested 41 million dollars here in our infrastructure in Broken Arrow.

So that's just um network, infrastructure upgrades, relocations on behalf of the city, right?

Different things like that.

Um that at its core is how we truly partner with the city, right?

Investment in our infrastructure to make sure that we serve your your uh constituents every single day.

That investment today looks like a fiberage network which touches every corner of the city, right?

We've pushed five fiber deep into our network, every arterial street that you drive down in Broken Arrow is gonna have Cox fiber alongside of it today.

Because of that, we were the first provider in the region to deliver multi-gig speeds, so two gig speeds to all of our customers across our entire footprint.

When we turned that on a couple years ago, it was a two-gig service offering to every single customer here in Broken Arrow, not just piecemeal rolling different things out at different points in time, but that is something that we're proud of, right?

And two gig is where we're at today.

We're still looking at what that means in the future, right?

And that pathway to get to where customers are going to need those speeds of the future as well, too.

You know, that network does exist in the city's right-of-ways and easements, and the way we do that here in Broken Arrow, have access to that is through a cable franchise.

That's something that it's been in place for almost 25 years.

We're nearing the end of our cable franchise.

It'll expire in 2027.

Uh 20, yeah, 2027.

It's one of the few that we have that's a 25-year franchise agreement still in the region.

Um, not much has changed in the actual statute of what a cable franchise looks like, you know, what you pay on, but a lot has changed in in that time, right?

Back whenever we passed that, it was an exclusive franchise agreement.

We had the right to be here.

It may have been right after the exclusive piece happened, right?

But that went to a vote of the people, just like you do with a PSO franchise and ONG franchise today, because that's not exclusive.

It'll just be something that we work on with the city and that council approves ultimately at the end of this.

Um, so in the last year, we paid $815,000 in franchise fees.

That that is what we pay through our video service franchise, um, and something that will continue to go to the city moving forward.

So one other thing to note in this uh connecting the city, right?

And things to keep in mind, and something that's been pretty exciting for us.

Over the last couple of years, Cox has invested millions across the state and rural broadband expansion.

And and for most of the of the time, you know, Broken Arrow is a pretty well-served city.

We know that, right?

There's an abundance of providers here in town today and abundance of options.

You were definitely served.

But looking forward, I know you all are growing all the time into the east side, right?

Out into Wagner County.

Some of our grants were out in that area.

So we had about a 10 million dollar grant that we're working on.

Well, 10 million dollar project.

So in partnership with the broadband office and investment of our own, we'll serve about 1,100 homes that are out on the eastern side of BA, which really paved the way for future development out there.

We're really excited about that.

Um that'll be great when we get there.

So while we are partners with the city, right, and care about making sure that we're serving the city well, we also really want to serve our customers well.

That's um first and foremost our priority, and we know that that that's your priority too.

You want constituents to have a good experience.

Um, I know we've talked about this at different points in the past, but the one thing that we ask is if you ever hear problems, if customers have problems, bring them to us.

We can't always fix things that we don't know about, um, both on the service side and on the pricing side.

So today, you know, we we recognize that there's an abundance of competitors in town.

We have competitive prices, we can match prices, we can beat prices.

We still have great service too.

People just need to let us know, right, if they have any things that we need to improve on, and we we are happy to prove that out over the long run, our our commitment to service and our commitment to an affordable product.

Um, you all know well about this.

We talked about this a lot during the pandemic, especially, but we offer an affordable broadband product for households that are in government assistance.

So for a household who has a K through 12 student in the home, we have a 995 program that's still in existence.

And for a household that maybe is still on government assistance but doesn't have that student in the household, we have a $30 plan.

Um so still trying to meet those needs, even though some of those federal broadband benefits have gone away.

We still believe that that's a really important thing for us to offer and are always partnering with the schools, right, and other different social service organizations to make sure that they understand that that's an option still today.

Another thing to consider too is Cox Mobile.

We launched a new mobile product about two years ago.

Broken Arrow actually has higher on average adoption rates of our Cox Mobile product, which is great.

Um, that's another great way to lower your your cost overall, right?

If you can bundle together some of your different plans and you're not paying two different providers for a service, it makes it a more affordable product overall.

On the customer piece, one thing to note, and I the reason we care about our customers, I mean, there are many reasons, but part of that is because they're our neighbors, right?

We live in these areas, our customers are small business owners, our customers are the people we go to church with, um, our customers are our friends, right?

Um in Broken Arrow, while 400 Northeast Oklahomans are what we employ here in the Tulsa market, about 110 of those actually live here in the city broken arrow.

Those are some stats we pulled about last year.

Um was a great thing to know about as you went through the GoBon campaign this year, right?

Making sure we talked with those those employees to make sure that they understand what's going on, and other way we can partner and support the city.

Um but they care because they live here, right?

Almost a quarter of our our employees live in the city of Broken Arrow.

That's awesome.

Building community.

So while customers and serving the community well through our network are our core functions, right?

In the the day-to-day of our business, we also want to be good community partners, give back to the different uh things that are going on here in town.

Again, our employees live here in the future, as broken arrow grows, that only helps every business owner in town, right?

So that are those are things that we believe in.

We're strong supporter of the Broken Air Chamber and the EDC.

I hope you all have got to meet and work with Emily Brandenburg lately.

She's new to the Broken Arrow Chamber Board, fantastic.

Um I know she's already done great things for your community and are gonna continue to do great things in the future.

Um graduating from LBA just in a couple weeks.

Um also, I I know again you all are familiar, but our Cox Charities program, Cox Charities was uh an employee program, employee-funded charity program that we launched here in Tulsa.

So we're in 18 states across the country, but Cox Charities launched right here.

Um so 20 years we've celebrated the Cox Charities anniversary just this year of 20 years of Cox Charities, which is such a special time.

You can see up there on the screen.

Um last year we gave about 31,000 in contribution to uh teachers in the classroom, so grants that employees again paid out of their paychecks, the people that come and install the cable in your home or sell it at a retail store that take a service call, those are the people that have funded these charitable contributions.

Um we also were able to just a couple months ago give away 250,000 to celebrate Cox Charity's 20-year anniversaries, um, which was so special.

It was one single day we invited in 20 different nonprofits and gave out grants to everyone there with some special prizes to some folks in attendance.

Broken Arrow Neighbors was able to be there and got a 10,000 dollar grant.

We always love to support them.

Our employees love giving to them every year.

Uh, because that's one one important piece of this.

Employees give their money to it, but they decide where the money goes to at the end of the day.

So we uh really proud of that program and really proud of the legacy that we started here in Tulsa that that's changing lives across the country due to just the way we've we've given back.

Um and there are other other resources we're bringing to bring to bear too.

So just a couple weeks ago we were out at Anderson Elementary, we brought in the Thunder for a Thunder Field Day.

This is the second time we've done this in Broken Arrow.

We did one last year as well in Broken Arrow School District, but did it at Union this time and had a great time.

Rumble came in, the Thunder team, we had each kid walk away with some thunder swag and some different things.

They got to have a really awesome time in the gym and have a great field day.

Just that's part of our our partnership with the Thunder, and we want to make sure that they show up in our communities and engage with the students in these areas.

And then two, another great tradition that I think we've we've started.

Um Mayor Wempee joined us for the second time um at a Broken Arrow High School football game last year.

We broadcast Broken Arrow, we broadcast high school football across the market on Cox Channel 3, our year view channel.

Um, and started a tradition about two years ago.

Mayor Wembley came in came on and talked about some of the great things that are happening in Broken Arrow, but joined us again last year, which was a great sneak peek, I think, of some of the GoBond items.

I think we talked about that a little bit.

Yep.

Um other mayors are catching on.

We had some asks after you went on last year.

Yeah, but you're the trendsetter.

Yes, really.

We got it, we got it started with you.

Um, and we'll look at the schedule for this year and hope we can accommodate another option.

Um, common ground, again, we were proud to support that.

I know it was a great event that just happened a couple weeks ago, and Emily Brandenburg again put a lot of work into that through LBA.

So, and then as always, too, we we air all of this content just as a reminder on Cox Channel 24.

Um, and you all have your your rotating content on there too.

I hop on from time to time and see what's what's on there for your constituents.

I know Aaron does a great job of keeping that updated.

Um, but all of these just different ways that we want to bring the resources and things that we've operating in the community to bear for you all, right?

You have things going on.

There are ways that we can make our business support some of the great things that you all have running here too.

So as always, happy to answer any questions that you all have in the future.

If constituents have questions, please bring them to our attention.

We'd love to get them resolved and fixed for y'all.

Um, and just want to be continue to have this great partnership that we have with y'all.

So any questions?

I don't have any questions, but I do have a few statements.

Um I I do appreciate being if someone does call me, which I haven't got a call in a long time, actually.

I don't know if you all have or not, but I haven't got a call in a long time for anyone meaning to get a hold of you.

But it is nice to be able to have your number call you and say, hey, here's the constituent's concern, here's the number, and you get right back with them.

And that means a lot.

I mean, it helps us because nine times out of ten, the constituent will call me back and it's like, oh my gosh.

You know, I told someone from Clarkson now they're taking care of it.

Um and that that does mean a lot, and I appreciate that.

I I was at an event with you in Oklahoma City a couple of weeks ago, or it was right before the bond.

And when you told me that you were communicating with your employees that lived in Broken Arrow about the bond, you have no idea how much that meant to me.

Because I mean it does matter.

They do live in our city, but for you to go that extra mile to make sure that your employees knew about that.

I was very impressed.

I told you that night that I I wanted to just tell you again that I was very impressed that you told me all the efforts that you were doing to make sure they were well aware of what about the Go Bond and all the things that was included.

Um and then I was at a broken arrow seniors board meeting today before I came, and Cox is gonna come out and help uh the senior center with several things, it sounds like so.

We appreciate that as well.

So we also appreciate you coming and doing your presentation here.

We know you don't have to do that, but we do appreciate you doing that.

Um, and I that's all I wanted to say.

So many words, but that's all I wanted to say.

Yeah, we we love to educate our employees.

I mean, they care too.

They want to know more about what's going on.

So anytime we can bring people to a chamber event, right, and have them learn more about what's happening or um ed I mean again 110 employees live here, so these things matter to them, and if we can ever share information back to them, like we want them to understand.

Our company has a long history of community engagement.

Our founder was Governor James M.

Cox, he ran for president in 1920.

So civic engagement, voting, those kind of things are very important to us at our core, and we have all kinds of programs to support that.

Yeah.

Well, we appreciate you guys.

Thanks.

Yep.

Thanks, Connor.

All right, item B is a presentation and annual programming update by the Military History Center.

Well, the good news is tonight, not tomorrow night, so we don't have to miss the thunder.

I was going to I was gonna introduce him, but he he took the mic out of my hands, but took the thunder away from the city.

Yes, he did.

Um, but it is that time of year where the user groups are gonna start coming and presenting their um annual user group um updates, and so at this time I would like to introduce General Tom Mancino to provide the one for the Military History Center.

Who needs to know anyone?

No.

Uh I want to thank the council again for the work you did on the bond.

Um every one of you came to every one of those meetings, and that was impressive, led by the energizer bunny and the city manager who how many events did you I heard you say 50 some one night.

That's that's really amazing.

And I again I think the people of Broken Air again represent the the value of the museums and all the issues that were on the bond issue.

And I'm sorry the softball didn't make it, but I voted for it.

So I thought the best way to do this would just take us through a monthly calendar and add some things at the ad back, and I'll go fairly quickly.

We did add three new bond members or board members, uh Stacey Ray, who's a local insurance man, Dr.

Dwayne Vogas and Edward J, who's in Realty.

So we filled out our board.

Uh Mayor Wimpy's on our board, and so is Lori Hill.

We're thankful to have both those uh personnel on our board.

So Kenny Collins passed away two years ago and we have over 12,000 in a scholarship fund.

So we awarded a scholarship last year to a broken era senior.

The problem was that Kenny had idea that that that awardee would go to an Oklahoma ROTC, but the uh Broken Air High School didn't have a senior that went to Oklahoma ROTC class.

So we've expanded it, and if we don't have a broken era senior, we'll be looking at Bixby Union and some of the other locals for awards.

So we awarded a thousand dollar scholarship out of that last year.

We had our Vietnam Veterans Recognition Day, and we had the uh latest uh Oklahoma Hall of Uh Medal of Honor winner, Dwight Birdwell speak.

Uh so we we'll continue to do that on what we recognize.

President Trump changed the Vietnam vet veterans recognition day till the last of March, but Oklahoma recognized it as the third Thursday in March, and we'll continue to do it on the third Thursday.

Uh says Tom teaches class at Broken Era High School.

Well, I taught class for five years, but this one uh had an ulterior motive, so I made a presentation annually about experiences in Vietnam.

Not Vietnam, Afghanistan, and uh for that the school system let us use the Kirkland Theater for our salute to veterans at no cost.

Uh the bad news this year is that the theater's been booked, and so we're going to be searching for another venue.

But the good news is we've contacted the senior choir from the community center, so we're going to have the community center, and we told the community band to take hike.

No, we didn't.

We couldn't work both of them out, so this year we'll feature the choir from the senior center.

Rooster Day Parade, as you'll see as you look through there, we participate in almost all the parades.

We've got the airplane we run.

We're putting a 600 horsepower motor in it so that we can really fly down the street.

Nobody even looked up at that.

No, we are upgrading it from like a 20 horsepower to 25 horsepower because it died on us last year.

Your paper says May 17th, but it is the 16th.

Yeah, this was last year's.

Oh, gotcha, gotcha.

Okay, I was like, I just don't want you showing up on the rock.

Okay.

I didn't want to show up on the wrong day.

City Workers Luncheon.

We uh every year we host the city workers, especially the ones that put up the banners and uh do all the flower in the yard work for a luncheon, and we'll continue to do that again this year.

The golf tournament we have every year.

This year we've got the three new board members.

I've turned that over to them.

Be sure to come to it because the mayor's laughing.

It's gonna be a different kind of golf tournament.

Uh it will be expanded, it'll have a military theme, and uh it'll be fun.

So if you're a golfer or you want to come out there, it'll be a great time.

We'll continue.

What?

It'll be June 5th.

June the 5th, that's right.

This year.

Okay.

There's a flyer actually in the window, but it's not the fire I like, so they're gonna put the new one up.

The uh flag day is the event that uh Colonel Powell was the first event that the Military History Center ever, and we'll continue to have a flag day, different speakers, and it'll be uh at the Military History Center.

For some reason, last year Charleston decided they wanted to feed all our volunteers, so they came down there and and uh did a dinner, a lunch for us.

It was quite quite the nice thing, and they're gonna do it again for us.

Uh and I don't know why they did that, but we appreciate it.

Uh military trivia night, as councilman Parks knows.

I'm not sure he's been on a winning team yet, but we're still working on the we do have a good time at uh Battle Creek and uh invite all of you that it's a fun time, and uh uh I think your grandson enjoys it to come.

Be sure we'll invite him again.

The Hall of Honor Banquet, the Hall of Honor is a subset of the Military Hall of Fame, and for this was our second year, and we were proud to induct the mayor and city manager in the Hall of Honor.

We're gonna have it again last year.

We had it at the Elks Lodge.

This year I think we're gonna have it out at Indian Springs.

I just got that call the other day from Stacy.

So we actually have three three out of five.

Yes.

Well, yes, yes.

Johnny was a year before that.

He was one of the OGs.

Yeah.

So keep looking.

We'll probably look around the council for some others.

So in November, we'll have the broken the Veterans Day Parade, of course, which we'll participate again in Veterans Day Parade.

The salute to veterans, I touched on that this year.

We're looking for a venue, and uh, I think we'll be looking for one of the churches that could accommodate the choir and small amount of music.

And uh so you are still looking for a place.

We still are uh and our one of our docents is gonna be in charge of that.

Uh Veterans Day Parade be a Christmas parade.

We'll be doing the Christmas parade.

We have a holiday party out at uh Stacy Jones's house.

Uh if you don't drink, don't come.

But no, it's a it's a good party, and you're all invited, not a problem.

Okay, so I'll go down to the bottom and talk about some of the other events that we're we're doing.

We did change from a private foundation to public charity, and somebody said, Well, why'd you do that?

Well, it was because of that 12,000 that we got for the scholarship money.

The IRS wants to know what you did with the interest on the scholarship money, and they make you jump through so many hoops that it was just easier to change from private foundation to a public charity, and then they go away.

Kind of kind of at least on that issue.

We upgraded our flight simulator, as you know.

We give flight lessons, uh, flight lessons from nine years up, and we've actually had one of the original flight students get his pilot's license and and uh applying for admission in the Air Force Academy.

Five ten dollars.

So if you got grandchildren that want to take a flight lesson on an upgraded simulator, bring them down there.

It's a lot of fun.

We had well, as you know, we have veteran service officers.

Uh we lost two last year, but we gained back two, and we saw again over two thousand veterans uh for their service benefits out of the Military History Center.

You see, we added a new veteran service officer, Kathy Johnson.

I think that's our first female service officer in in this area.

Ghost tours, yes, we do ghost tours at the museum.

And we've had we had two a year, and uh they're happy to pay us, and I'm happy to take their money, and they claim they see all kinds of ghosts through the museum.

So if you're into that, we'll hook you up for one of these ghost tours.

We've been there.

Yeah.

Uh group tours for schools and other organizations.

We we get a lot of uh homeschoolers come through the museum.

We're hoping to try, especially when we get the new location to incorporate some of the elementary schools and some of the middle schoolers through tours like they do at the other museum.

Part of that, I think is issues about the fact that we exhibit firearms and at what level people would be comfortable with their children coming to the museum that saw firearms.

But uh, we're gonna try to incorporate some more school tours.

We did get a new Holocaust display, and if you if you haven't seen that, it's worth coming down there to see.

I got a call from the Sherman Williams Museum and uh the Jewish Museum in Tulsa, and they said, Did you want a display?

And I said, Well, sure what it is, it and it's a it's two figures, wood carved figures.

Uh one of them is a 45th division soldier holding an emaciated Jewish survivor, and they were carved by the famed carver that did the Mickey Mantle woods carving at uh down at Grand Lake.

And I said, Well, why haven't you exhibited this?

You've had it wrapped up for like 10 years.

They said the Jewish survivor is naked, and I said, Okay, we're taking it and we're exhibiting it.

And so we haven't had any any issues or any complaints.

Now the docents may stand in front of the museum depending on the age of the tour, but it's really an impressive uh wood carving.

It's amazing how they can do that kind of detail.

So if you haven't seen that, and as we expand, we're gonna expand our Holocaust display, and that'll be one of the centers of the display.

We took a trip down to the governor's mansion because the gut the first lady was doing something with the National Guard or Benefit Society while we were down there.

We got an opportunity to tour the 42 million dollar new 50,000 square foot citizen soldiers museum that they're building behind the Oklahoma Military Department.

Uh I didn't get an inner.

I'm trying to work the deal, maybe to get some of us to go down there and visit that.

I think the mayor wants to make sure she's on the phone.

Yeah, I know she does.

I'll throw her out of the helicopter.

But anyway, it's it's an unbelievable uh modern museum, and I hope we try to incorporate some of those things as we decide what our 2916 individual items that we exhibit will look like in a more modern museum.

Banners continue to be one of our biggest fundraisers.

We exhibit over a hundred banners on Memorial Day, and then approximately sixty banners on uh Veterans Day, and the the challenge is to get more veterans who sometimes don't want to put banners up for themselves, but to get their families.

I'm forcing the board to all buy banners, so we'll see the mayor's face up there on the banner.

Doesn't matter.

We can put Hall of Famer.

We can put a picture up there and put Hall of Famer if it's okay.

So in conclusion, I I think that we've had a great year.

We'll have another great year.

I I just sat down there and looked us up on Travelosity, and we're still the number two place to visit in Broken Era behind that damn Ray Harold part.

I need to get rid of them.

But uh, we are the number two, according to them, place to visit.

So if you had and there's quite about quite a few reviews on there if you looking for something to do in your spare time, pull up those reviews, and you'll get an idea of what people from all over the world think about the museum.

Are there any questions?

Um the Memorial Day banners, they can just go into the museum and and order those, and probably need to do it pretty quick, right?

Because we need to get them actually printed if it's a we fill up all of Main Street and most of the side streets on the Memorial Day banners.

If we continue to expand that program, we may be looking at New Orleans Square or other places for banners.

We still have quite a few poles on the off streets for for veterans' banners.

Yeah.

All right.

I was gonna ask uh just for the people that might be watching online that are new to the area for some.

Could you say what could you let's know what are your hours for the museum and how much is the admission?

Five dollars is the admission.

We're open from 10 till 4 Tuesday through Thursday, and then we're open 10 till 2 on Saturday, Thursday through Friday.

I'm sorry, Tuesday through Friday.

And if you're looking for a place to properly dispose of a retire of flag, you have a box over there to museum additional.

Yeah, I won't.

So we do have a flag box, and it was originally built with the understanding that the Eagle Scouts would empty it.

Well, that faltered.

So the city asked me if we'd take some flags, and I said, certainly we got 20 bags of flags from the city.

Which I thought was a pretty smooth mood.

I didn't open the CFO were American flags or they were state flags or school flags.

But we don't have a facility to burn flags.

So I've got a wanted poster on my face out at the Elks Club in Broken Eric because when you give flags desk, they go to the Elk.

They go there.

Okay.

No, they're happy to get them, and they do have a ceremonial pit where they can burn flags.

So we'll continue to take flags.

So there is a respectful way, obviously, to retire an American flag.

But I have searched everywhere.

There in Oklahoma, the Oklahoma flag.

There's no there's no property.

There's no unfortunately it doesn't require that ceremony.

The flags that are contained in the 20 bags we got.

I'm sure they disposed of them alongside the same way that they did the American flag.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

Thanks again.

Thank you, sir.

Yes.

All right.

Item C is a presentation of the reconnecting broken arrow.

Planning for multimodule improvements, raise grant project.

Charlie Bratt.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council members, Mr.

Spurgeon, Charlie Bright, Director of Engineering Construction.

Wanted to quickly present to you guys a status update on where we are with the RAISE grant and uh the planning for the uh all the work around the Broken Air Expressway that we got approved several years ago.

Um primary reason for doing the presentation tonight, let you guys know is just as a reminder, we're doing a public meeting on Thursday, which is required as part of our grant process.

And I really wanted the governing body and our leadership the opportunity to get to see and hear some of the things that we're gonna talk about the public meeting before the citizens actually get to see it.

Um brief background on the RAISE grant.

Um we were awarded 5.84 million dollars from the U.S.

Department of Transportation, um, and we have 1.46 million in matching.

Um the grant itself is for design only, up to a 60% design, so it is not for construction or anything at this time.

But the intent is when we're done, we'll hopefully roll that into a construction grant.

Um, you know, and typically the federal government and department of transportation, they're not really in the business of awarding a design grant that they usually won't follow up and help with construction.

So we feel pretty good about our chances.

Um the ultimate goal, the RAISE grant, as I said, is since it's a design one is to come up with multi multimodal level of services, recommendations of how to improve the whole area that the grant includes, um, a preliminary design up to 60%, and then we'll stop, identify what the right-of-way needs are for the improvements that we're gonna do so we can start working on those right-of-ways if we want to, and what real utility relocations will be needed at the time, and then we will start the environmental approval process.

Um, you know, if it's our own project or own funding, we don't have the environmental stage, but if we do end up getting federal dollars, we'll have to go through an environmental process and we can start that.

Um multimodal level service.

This just again shows you all where the area is that we're talking about.

So we go all the way to the west, um, Rosa Parks Elementary and Union School District, include Aspen and Omaha intersection, some improvements down absent aspen, and then we're really following the broken air expressway corridor there.

We're looking at sidewalks and trails along Kenosha, um, primarily vehicle traffic around uh Elm and Elm and Lyn Lane crossing the Broken Air Expressway, and then trails all in between as well.

Um it is interesting.

I'll just make a note of like why it's multimodal, why we include all these areas in the grant, and really the way this grant was structured is to be competitive, and just so you guys understand like this grant versus maybe the next one.

Um, keep in mind the uh administrations that are in so in in the federal government at the time.

So with the past administration, we won won this under the Biden administration.

Um they were very much focused on uh connect reconnecting corridors at the highway separated with multimodal transportation.

So our grant was very much geared towards how do we reconnect these corridors around the broken air expressway.

Um the next administration when whenever we do the application may be a little bit different, and so we may have to structure it a little bit different, but our goal is to do as much of the improvements we can around the broken air expressway.

Um so as I said, study goals um enhance safety for all users, uh reconnecting, as I just said, is to reconnect the corridors around the broken air expressway, um, provide provide accessible transportation in the area, improve connections to schools, parks, employment, and retail, and propose solutions that give impact or input from the community.

Currently, we've had an advisory committee that is made up of city members, school members, county members, both school districts, NCOG members.

So we have a pretty large advisory committee that's been working on it and kind of just get preliminary gathering data and getting ideas, and then we're moving into the stage where we actually go out and get public input.

And that public input is required by the federal grant the grant part and the federal government.

And so that's the start of what we're doing this week.

And then once we get the public input, we'll move into preliminary design.

And as we said, we won't go into construct, we won't do we won't go into final design, we won't go into construction, but we'll finish up the preliminary design.

Really, after this public input point, we'll start nailing down what we call our final study report, which is gonna be like this is what the intent is.

And my staff will come in with a recommendation to you all in the leadership about what you want that final intent to be, because some of the changes are pretty dramatic, and that's really why I want to talk here tonight.

Um public meetings is Thursday, Nien Heist, 6 p.m.

And then with that, I want to talk about um quickly some of the changes that might be more controversial, and that's really my point of being here tonight.

Um at this point, we're asking for public input.

Nothing that we show is the fact of what it's gonna be.

Um my staff will work through what we think it should be, and then we'll make a recommendation to council in the future.

So any real changes will be decided later, but right now we're suggesting ways to improve these corridors, and we want the public to give us input on some of those ways.

Um the reason I'm kind of saying it might be controversial because I'm going back to our New Orleans Square process, and I'm gonna get the number on.

But how many drives that we have in New Orleans Square?

22.

So we had about 22 business drives going to New Orleans Square, and we want to dramatically reduce it to like 10 or less because those drives cause traffic problems.

And I think some of y'all might remember we had businesses outraged, you know, they're losing their drive, we're gonna kill their business, the business will never flow.

Well, we know business is better than it's ever been today.

Yeah, um, but it's very, very scary when you hear that as a business owner that we're cutting drives.

But for example, the reason I bring that up is because cutting drives is one of the things that can improve traffic the most in those corridors.

Um, you don't want what you see in the picture right here.

You do not want drive after drive after drive after drive.

So you have to start closing those if you want traffic to get better, and that's one thing that'll be suggested in the public and asking for input.

And I know business owners will see that, they'll get scared, they'll probably reach out to you all, us, everybody else, just want you to be prepared.

Um, that nothing's finalized at this point, we want that input.

The other thing beyond closing drives is limiting left turns.

Um, so you think about Memorial and Tulsa.

We don't have that many roads in Broken Air that are that busy, but the Kenosha Lin Lane owned corridors are our closest ones.

And you think about Moriel, they have those medians, the concrete medians that block left turns.

It's because those left turns is what causes the traffic problems.

So the more we can limit those and control them where we want them, the better we can force traffic to flow in the area.

Um so those are the things that are gonna be talked about.

And then the other one is Elm, and this is really an um pretty outside the box way of looking at it, and I want to reiterate to you all and the public, this is not finalized, it is for discussion purposes.

But again, one of your problems with Elm is it was the original part of the town, I think it was the first area that was platted and developed.

Um, but there's really no planning on the east side of Elm where those business the way those businesses came in, and it's not conducive to great traffic flow.

So, what you see on the east side of Elm is us potentially putting a parallel service road next to Elm, um, which would ultimately collect all those businesses and drives off of Elm and then and then bring them to two access points back onto Elm.

So you get rid of all the drives, all the entrances, put them on a service road.

There's a few areas, maybe not everybody's familiar with it.

There's a few areas in old parts of Oklahoma City that have done this where you have like an arterial road, and then you'll see a service road next to the arterial road, but it dramatically improves the traffic on the arterial road.

So that's the idea that what you're seeing here.

And then the other thing you're seeing is um ultimately a realignment of Queen Street and Queen's Drive to connect some of those streets and combine them to get over there because one of the big problems you have over there is the traffic signal next to Taco Bueno leading straight up to the traffic signal of Broken Old Expressway.

Ultimately, your goal is to reduce traffic signals and increase distance between traffic signals, and so the realignment of some of those roads would allow us to potentially reduce one and a minimum get them further away from each other so you have less impact.

Um, like I said, tonight's not the decision making point.

Um, this is really about input.

I'm happy to take any of your guys' input tonight, but this week we're getting for input from the public, and I wanted you guys to be aware of it before we get that input.

Um, but there'll be more time where we come back and actually talk to you guys about what final recommendations are later.

So with that, I'm happy to answer any questions you guys may have.

Does this have anything to do with the uh five lane and elm place that was part of that bond issue uh at least that middle turn lane absolutely uh so yeah, for Kenosha to the Broken Air Expressway or Albany, Albany, we're we are saving that money from that bond for this project.

Okay.

Um that'll be part of our match money for the grant.

But it'll have turn lanes in the middle of the year.

Absolutely.

So it the what it looks like will depend, but the turn lanes may be that concrete median like we talked about with landscaping where we control where you can turn left and stuff like that.

And you don't want to put anything where you're gonna tear it out in the future anyway.

Correct.

So uh I I can certainly see that, but I just want to make sure the public knew that there still is going to be a turn lanes in the center of uh Elm Place there.

Absolutely.

So Charlie, I know Thursday is for the public.

So is there a way that we could maybe try to meet with the business owners and try to kind of give them a little like this is why we're doing it, and we did it in New Orleans Square, they were concerned too, but it ended up being a lot better.

I mean, because not only does it help the traffic flow, it's a lot safer too for I mean our the our residents as well.

I mean I know that's extra work, but I think sometimes if if you can just kind of get ahead of it, so they don't know absolutely, and it's not too much extra work.

We've already tried to do some public engagement and reach.

Um almost all of this, I think is already available online through QR codes and people can see because the federal government requires us to do that, make it public.

So we've tried to get it out there as much as possible.

I think what we've already talked about previously is probably partnering up with the TED team.

I haven't even talked to Mr.

Spurge or anything about this yet, but potentially partnering up with the TED team and having the TED team go engage some of these folks and help us talk with them.

That makes sense.

Yeah, because they probably already have a great suggestion, Counselor.

Uh obviously the TED team is is a good example.

We just have to make sure we're breathe them well enough that they can answer you know majority of the questions and then follow up if there's something that's super technical.

Yeah, and letting letting them know what the six success we had with New Orleans Square, that may ease some you know stress on them.

As a business owner, your mind immediately goes, Oh, you're limiting turns on my business, it's gonna kill my business.

The reality is we're improving traffic in front of your business, and that improved traffic makes people want to be there more.

Which makes your business more exposed.

Um but I I get the fear so can yeah.

Uh could you talk a little bit about uh Lynn Lane at your micro M51?

Is there being discussions about that area as well, Charlie?

Yeah, it's a great point.

Um so I didn't show any depictions of it really tonight because um it's very similar to what you see here, um, but the areas around Lin Lane were better planned because they were developed more late, but you still have the same issues of signals close together, multiple drives.

Um so we don't have any drawings per se that were gonna be anything crazy on Lynn Lane, but it's gonna be following the same concepts of maybe potentially limiting business drives, circling them all to one area and and that, and then more importantly, what's gonna affect Lynn Lane is the interchange itself with the highway.

Um that's partially being looked at in the study, but that's also being combined with ODOT's project to their interchange itself.

So the same consultants working for us, Garver's doing a great job who's also doing the ODOT study, so they're kind of pairing those pieces together.

Um so we're gonna be focused on the arterial road, the drives, the signals around the highway, and then the ODOS study is gonna be focused on the interchanges, the ramps.

Um the ramps are definitely gonna get in the way over there, but between the two studies, we're gonna get it addressed.

Uh just to follow up is that in the 2018 bond, we included funding for uh the the Lin Lane Kinocha area right there, and we heard a lot about during the the bond package public education.

Was there funds included in the bond package for Lin Lane?

Because obviously I would say a major majority of the concerns that are presented are from residents uh regarding Lin Lane and Highway 51.

And I just want to make sure that we are going to be looking at that, and we do have uh some match available once the final design is is is made, presented to council or the options I should say, and you select the final design, and then we start working with the Oklahoma Department of Transportation.

Absolutely.

Yeah, that's a really hard spot to be put on, and we talk about this a lot.

So the biggest issue is around any people that we haven't applied for and been approved to the second part of the construction grant.

And there's a world where maybe we get denied a year or two, and so that gets harder.

Um but I think the most important piece is we get through this, we get approved of the plan, and then we get put on ODOT's eight-year plan to also support it.

Um if I had to best guess, best case scenario is five years, worst case is ten, it's probably somewhere in between.

Um but that's that is a very large guess at this point.

The reason being, Charlie, because uh obviously other projects, but also the the amount of money this like a Lin Lane could cost.

Yeah, I mean I know Garver will do a great job at helping us with cost estimates once we start finalizing some of these ideas, but I mean preliminarily we've talked about all this scope of work could be in the 50 to 70 million dollars range, which you've seen the size of our bond that would kill the ability to do all the other great projects that we want to do.

Um so it would be really really difficult for that to be something we fund ourselves.

Um so it's getting the federal government on board coming with us.

But what we do have through the funds that Mr.

Spurgeons talked about, and you've mentioned what we do have is enough match money to participate if we can get the federal government on board with us.

So I mean, at least there's the movement.

You know, at least we know we're gonna get there.

Yep.

Yes, I mean I want to thank our our state legislators, especially not because he's your your husband, but Ross Ford, representative Ford worked really hard with the Department of Transportation to help us make sure this this is a priority for the for moving this forward.

We've seen Norman and we've seen other large metropolitan communities receive funding.

Uh Norman's got some great projects that they were able to get the federal funding for.

Charlie was was involved in uh directly and indirectly, and so we want to work really hard to try to bring some of those dollars back from the state and the federal government, and to get a five point eight million dollar planning grant is unbelievable.

And they usually don't give uh funding for uh planning and not follow up at some point.

So we'll have to write a really good application for the funding for the project council council chooses.

Absolutely.

You know, Hillside Drive was built as a uh access road, you know, to try to keep the traffic off of uh 71st Street.

Sometimes I wonder if it worked because it just kind of doubled everything.

But can you imagine what the traffic would be like on 71st Street if you didn't have Hillside Drive?

We've done a good job of filling both on them up.

That was the council's intention then was to try to take some traffic off of 71st Street.

Yeah.

All right.

Thank you.

Thanks, sir.

Thanks, Charlie.

All right, item D is presentation regarding requested road closure of East uh Houston Street.

Uh Travis Mike, not Travis, not Travis.

We've got multiple Travises here now.

Um good evening, council.

Uh Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council, City Manager, Travis Small Engineering Construction Department.

Happy to be here tonight to present to you um a notification about a upcoming road closure on Houston uh between 23rd and highway old Highway 51.

Uh as you know, that project is in construction right now.

The contractor submitted a request to close the road down to install a storm sewer across the road.

Uh staff worked with the uh contractor to make sure that this inconveniences the traveling public as little as possible.

So we're gonna do that closure at night starting on April 27th and also on April 28th.

It will start at 7 p.m.

each night and be opened back up by 6 a.m.

the next morning again to try to inconvenience traffic traffic as little as possible.

Excuse me.

Um but uh we will also get uh notification boards out to the public to let them know about this closure ahead of time so they're they're well aware of it.

If you've got any questions, I'd be happy to answer.

Okay.

Any questions?

Discussion?

Yep.

Thank you, sir.

You bet.

All right, item eight is citizens' opportunity to address council.

There is none.

Item nine on general counsel business, nine A consideration discussion and possible approval of and authorization to execute resolution 1740.

Counselor Ford.

Um, yes, so this is a resolution.

Um I uh we've spoken about this many times, so I don't want to keep boring people with it, but it is exciting.

Um, since I am the president of the National Leagues of Cities, women and municipal government, this will be a resolution for the council to support that effort to bring well, I mean it's coming to bring that um conference uh to our town at Broken Arrow at the last week of June.

And this will just allow us to get support from businesses and that type of thing.

So we we as a city won't be supporting it all by ourselves, and so um that's what this resolution will do is be bringing probably at least a hundred, if not more women from across the nation.

Yes, and what's really exciting too is the first half of the week will be the Oklahoma municipal and government women and municipal government, which thank goodness at first I didn't think it.

I thought ah we could do both, but we're not really planning any of that first part.

Like they have their own committee.

We're just we're just letting they're in our city, so we're gonna be good hosts or whatever they need, but like they're doing all the planning, thank goodness, because the national um national part is is a little heavier lift than I thought it was gonna be.

Yes, uh, but it's gonna be great.

And so um, yeah, so then we'll have a little break and then get right into the national uh think of cities, and we have a great we have a great committee, our turnal, you know, we have a lot of women within our organization, um, the city of Broken Arrow that is on our committee, and we just kind of get a curveball every once in a while.

We have a lot of women within our organization, um, the city of Broken Arrow that is on our committee, and we just kind of get a curveball every once in a while, and we just we just readjust and we're gonna make it, but it's gonna be great.

So I would appreciate uh for the council to um support this.

Um I do know at the uh last National League of Cities uh conference.

I really felt like I was somebody because I didn't get off escalator because somebody wasn't hollering.

We're coming to your town, we're coming to your town.

And uh so uh they're excited from coast to coast.

Uh the people came up or ladies come up and excited about coming to Broken Arrow.

So uh I appreciated uh all the effort you guys have put into it.

Has the NLC or um come to event in Oklahoma?

Come to us Oklahoma City.

Have they?

I don't know if they have NLC hosted in Oklahoma and Broken Air.

Um they've been in Oklahoma City.

I do know I don't I don't think so.

In in my time, I don't I don't remember, you know, and the fact that NLC wants to bring it talks about how great your community is and how how how how much uh we're recognized as as a quality community.

So I I think that's worthy of passing this resolution and promoting it because it just it's another example of how those outside our city view us as being a great city.

Yeah.

I I will say we um we did push NLC a little um harder than I think they're used to being pushed on, and we wanted to really nail down a date, and you know, of course, nail down the location.

Uh we did that um earlier than any other any other conference had been done before, but that also allowed us when we were at um Washington a year ago, actually in March, to start promoting our city.

So we showed our tourism um our video because my intent was to make sure they knew we didn't live in TPs and that we had water, you know, like all the things you don't, you know, people may think because most of the people probably that saw um Johnny as well, they're like, I've never been to Oklahoma.

I've never really even thought about coming to Oklahoma.

And they're and they will say, I am so hyped to come to Oklahoma.

I just can't wait to get there.

Like we've marketed it so well, that's their exact words.

We've marketed it so well that they just can't wait to come.

And then again, we incorporated a lot of our city, you know.

Our partner, our women, you know, doing they've done little bits in their, you know, added on to our um tourism, you know, welcoming them and can't wait to see them.

And so it's definitely been a group effort.

It's not Lisa, believe me, it's been we have a whole committee that is totally engaged, and I'm super excited.

So I've been a great president this year, though.

So yes, I'm I I am excited to be president.

Is it has been fun, but it's it's been great support.

So and Deborah's on the as well.

I'll make a motion and we approve the resolution.

A second.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Approved.

I guess I don't have to sell you all on how wonderful.

You already know.

They had already sold me on it.

Yeah, a lot of the things.

Item B consideration discussion and possible appointment of three trustees to the Oklahoma municipal assurance group board.

Mr.

Spurgeon.

Thank you, Mayor.

Members of council, good evening.

Uh, before you tonight is a recommendation on the nominees or trustee appointments.

Uh let me give you a little background here.

Since 1982, the city has been a member of the Oklahoma Municipal Assurance Group, also known as the acronym OMAC, a provider of general liability, auto workers, compensation, property and management, risk management, excuse me, services for Oklahoma cities and towns.

It is governed by a seven-member board of trustees, nominated and elected by its members.

The terms of three trustees expire on June 30th, 2026.

Seven individuals were nominated to fill the three vacancies after a review of the nominees, which I know many of them and have and work with them in various capacities.

A review of the biological summaries.

Staff recommends the ballot be cast for Justin Battles, who's the incumbent, assistant city manager of Mustang, Tim Lyon, the incumbent, city uh city manager of Midwest City, and Pam Polk, who is the incumbent, the city manager of Durant.

Very tough this decision because there were some very qualified folks.

Any discussion.

Um motion to approve.

Second.

All right, item C consideration, discussion, and possible approval of and authorization to execute a professional consultant agreement with Knapholt Construction for Construction Management Services.

Shannon.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council members, and Mr.

Spurgeon.

My name is Shannon Marshall with Engineering and Construction.

Before you today is a professional consultant agreement, or excuse me, a professional consultant agreement with NAP Holtz Construction Corporation for Construction Management Service for the Municipal Services Administration building.

We're super excited to select NAB Holtz as a partner.

They've done great work in the community working with the school district and other local businesses.

And so we're excited to work together with them.

They do great quality work.

This contract is just the beginning.

The services for this contract include pre-construction estimates, reviewing our drawings provided by our design team and architect, and providing suggestions on schedule and help with project management with our staff, as this is a very large project.

Hopefully, in the future, we plan on going out to bid through their services, and then they will provide a guaranteed maximum price amendment to this original agreement, which would be like the construction contract that we sometimes bring forward to you all.

So for this first phase of those estimates and project management services, and we've negotiated for 49,000, and city staff is recommending approval.

I am here to answer any questions you may have.

Okay.

Any questions that we approve the uh request?

I'll second that motion.

A second roll call.

Thank you, ma'am.

Item D is consideration discussion and possible approval of PR 689-2024, PT 2681-2026.

Rocky, I'll let you go through all that.

Good evening, Madam Mayor, Mr.

Vice Mayor, members of Council, City Manager, Mr.

Spurgeon, and Community Development Director Rocky Hinkle.

PT 2681-2026 is a conditional final plat for Oak Creek Crossing, which contains 118 lots on approximately 39 and a half acres.

The property is located one quarter mile south of East Houston Street and east of County Line Road.

This property is being platted by right under the R2 zoning.

The single family lots meet the minimum standards of the R2 zoning district.

The planning commission recommended approval subject to staff comments with a vote of 4-0 at its March 12th, 2026 meeting.

Did anyone speak for or against?

No one spoke in favor or opposition.

I would just make a point if I can, Mayor.

Obviously, this this application came before the council a couple of times.

And as a result, I asked Rocky to pull it off of the consent agenda to see if council had any questions because uh there were questions in the past about the development and instead of the PUD they're going the what the zoning by right.

I want to make sure if the council have an opportunity to to uh discuss it if if needed.

Right.

If if I'm not mistaken, it was one of those where we denied it, but then by right they could do ours too, right?

That's correct.

And so they came back and just went straight zoning for ours too.

Yes, ma'am.

I know that we had some citizens that had some concerns with it going there and some of the drainage issues, but it's my understanding those have been addressed or will be addressed going forward.

Yeah, I believe one of the concerns was a sanitary issue that some of the residents brought, but I believe there's a plan in place to remedy those as well.

Yes, Mr.

Robbins talked about that.

We identified some issues several years ago and actually working to implement that plan to help address the situation.

I think the other concern was the fact that county line is not widened or prepared for this, but yeah, traffic was the other issue.

But they have to do that.

If I can just add, there's in the in the proposition number one, council included funds to actually deduce to do some widening of that two miles from 81st to underfirst with the actual design still to be decided.

I mean, we're actually looking at making improvements to the intersection at at Washington and County Line as a part of the 2018 bond package.

There was funds for Washington from Lynn Lane to County Line Road, and so obviously council gets to decide when those funds are going to actually be programmed.

And so this is just exciting that we we will have funds to be able to make some necessary improvements.

And if you look at the development all along there, it may not may not be necessary to actually uh to do more than three lanes, except making sure there's proper turn lanes because of the inability to develop certain parts of those those two miles.

So I kind of feel like too if we didn't have any residents speak against it, they must be satisfied with you know, now knowing that the road will be widened and that the sewer issue has been taken care of.

Because I think that's the one that we didn't even know about the sewer issue until they actually came to us, and then we were able to take care of that.

I'd make a motion we approve the conditional final plan of oak creek crossing.

I'll second it.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Item E.

Consideration discussion and possible approval of and authorization to execute public highway at glance at grade crossing agreement.

Sorry about that.

Oh cool.

Thank you, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Counselors, Mr.

Spurgeon, uh Kenny Schwab assistant manager of operations.

I asked Charlie if I could present this one because I felt like most of my career has been working on this.

So thank you, Charlie, for letting me do this one.

Um let me see if I can point some things out.

Will that work?

Yes.

All right, let me give you an overview real quick.

Amphitheater under construction.

Here's the school.

This is 43rd Street.

I'm gonna talk about here's 219th.

We'll talk about upper part of the sports complex.

Um, and here's the railroad running this way.

So that's kind of this is a 2025-2026 picture.

The amphitheater is coming out of the ground a lot more than in this picture.

But back in 2020, the school went in.

It opened uh the school opened in 2020, and immediately you got calls.

I got calls because we had connected the road, Gary Street.

For the audience, this is Gary Street.

We connected it to the east side, Arrow East Industrial Park, and put a gate right here to separate the traffic.

As I said, you got plenty of calls, I got plenty of calls.

Mr.

Spurgeon said, fix it.

Um I did it six years.

So let me turn to the next one.

Let me kind of give you an overview of the time.

February 24th of 2022, it was a snow day.

Uh, we were closed.

Broken air streets were good.

Thank you, Rocky.

Thank you, Tim.

I came to work.

Travis Small came to work.

We had a teams meeting, and I said, Do you see what I see?

Turn the slide one.

Uh yeah.

A little hard to see.

Right here is an existing at grade crossing.

It's been there for years, it's an agricultural crossing.

You can go back.

Thank you.

And uh talking to Travis, I said, there's a crossing existing.

What if we expand that crossing?

If you've ever worked with Union Pacific Railroad, any railroad, uh, if you're gonna get a new crossing, you have to close at least two, possibly three.

We don't have any we can close except 219th.

Best we can do is a swap out.

So uh I was very excited talking to Travis.

I can't wait to uh Mr.

Spurgeon comes back in because I got a plan.

He's been on my case for a couple years.

I got a plan.

Uh meet with Mr.

Spurgeon, he says, go with it.

Let's see what we can do.

We get a contract in place uh July 20 uh on the 20th of 2022 feasibility study.

We run different options with HDR.

We chose them because they founded their company in Omaha, where Union Pacific is headquartered.

They started as a transportation railroad company.

I said, Let's get somebody that knows the railroad.

They came up with several different options.

About a year later, August 3rd of 2023, the railroad comes out and says, Yes, we can do this.

And I'm like elated, we can do this.

August of 2023.

Guess what else was happening at that point in time?

The amphitheater was talking.

Um we're talking to the railroad.

I didn't know about the amphitheater.

I'm talking about the school, the industrial park, the softball complex, and just the events.

October the 3rd of 2023, we have a final design contract after talking to the road with HDR for almost $600,000.

On your agenda, October the 3rd of 2023 was your amphitheater contract.

Both of them at the same time.

We start moving forward.

Early January, the railroad says, hey, wait a minute.

What's this 12,500 seat amplitude?

What are you what are the plans here?

I said we need traffic in and out.

Uh that really slowed the process down because we were really moving forward at that point in time.

They needed the traffic study from the amplitude.

They needed to know what was going on because traffic patterns completely changed.

Uh moving forward, it took quite a while.

You can see almost two years from October the 3rd of that contract, the design's done, working with them.

They're having to reevaluate.

They're they're still in, still moving forward.

December the 16th of 2025, we have a resolution.

The governing body passes a resolution 1727 that says, yes, we will close 219th.

That that crossing that I showed you.

If you'll go right back to the very first slide, that's probably a good one.

Thank you.

Slide over.

This crossing right here.

That's in your resolution to close.

That crossing is very challenging for semis going in and out of an industrial park.

That's why they want the gate open so they can come through.

With that resolution, that crossing will close after the railroad builds their crossing and we build our road.

Let me show go north.

The crossing will go here, and then we will go north and tie up to 91st, which is a signalized intersection with the highway.

It's taken us quite a while.

Railroad has been diligent in going through this.

If you'll uh go through, I'm gonna show the last couple of slides here.

One more.

Okay.

So this is the railroad that the final design.

This is what they've approved.

Um real quick.

Schools over here in the bottom right, Continental Industries in the upper left.

Sorry, north is to the left here.

Here's the railroad, here's the crossing.

This is the northern bypass loop coming out of the parking lot.

Here's the loop road for the audience.

This is the school continental industry.

Here is the crossing.

It'll be three lanes.

Go to the next sheet.

Um let me see the section in the bottom left.

There we go.

Three lanes, it's kind of hard to look on this one.

Uh, northbound traffic right here.

Double stop bar, two lanes out, one lane in, two lanes out, one lane in.

Talking to Venue and their traffic engineer that says makes sense only one lane in coming from 91st south into the park.

Staggered people come at completely different times.

They leave at the same time, they come at different times.

Two lanes out will greatly help the flow.

Uh the signals are all set up for that.

So let's go to the last slide.

Uh yeah.

Cost-wise in the agreement.

There is a grant of right.

The railroad grants a right to actually use a crossing, uh, construct a crossing, a fee of 21,888 dollars.

It's a one-time fee.

Estimated cost of construction, uh 681,625.

This is the railroad's cost.

Uh, I think the RFA had it a little higher because the railroad came back and reduced it by about 80,000 in the agreement.

Uh those two added together.

A total cost of construction is just over 700,000.

Now I want to talk about the last two items.

Signal maintenance and then the surface, the actual crossing itself.

The railroad wants uh an annual maintenance fee on that for the signals of 13,000 and an annual maintenance for the surface, the crossing itself of 2,000, a little over.

So you have basically 15,200.

Starting in year, I believe, three, uh, they'll reevaluate in year five.

This is not a broken error thing.

Uh Charlie and I don't like it.

Staff doesn't like it.

Uh no one really likes it.

They're treating the railroad as a utility, which I understand that, and they are starting to put cost in for communities everywhere.

Oakland City, Tulsa.

We've talked to Tulsa, Tulsa's getting some fees back, that there is a cost to maintain up, you know, every so often they've got to come out and fix the the surface, they got to do stuff with the signals.

So this is a continual annual cost of a little over 15,000.

For them to maintain the charging, yes, ma'am.

Perfect.

They're charging you as the street owner to cross their railroad basically 15,200 a year.

Just in case they may need it.

Yep.

Right.

They may not even need it.

We're still having but we don't have any other crossings that we pay on or today.

We do not.

Okay.

We do not.

But uh, this is something that they have started as a business model.

As I said, Broken Air is not the first city in the United States to do this.

We won't be the last.

Um, it'll be something that we'll have to address moving forward.

But today, $700,000 to build this, they'll get the crossing a little bit outside of the railroad ties, a few feet, and then we still have to connect with the roads.

Bottom line is it's taken us many years to get here.

Uh this helps the entire park, not just amphitheater.

It helps the school.

Now your parents can come in and out of that um park and use a signal to get on the highway.

It helps the industrial park to the east.

We can make it where they turn down 43rd.

They can get in and out at a signalized crossing.

219th has had several accidents at that location because it's not signalized and it's on a curve.

This is a huge public safety win.

This completes our effort.

So I am very excited about it.

Don't like the 15,000 a year, but I am very excited to present this agreement to you.

Timing of it.

Still the railroad, they're ready to go.

I think the plans are approved.

They have to put it on their schedule.

I they haven't given us a time to do the actual construction of the uh crossing is not a long duration.

It's just when will they get to it?

We don't know that timing yet.

They have to sign the agreement and then they'll put it in their schedule.

Are we not wanting it to be done before the amphitheater opened?

I wanted it to be done about six years ago.

But I'll just go with yes, ma'am.

I want it done as soon as we can.

We're kind of committed to them.

Uh, if you'll go back to that first slide real quick.

Can we make it a toll road by pass?

Thank you.

To pay the $15.

That crossing is just at the railroad.

We still have to build to the north and connect to 91st.

Engineering is still working with the two property owners.

I think we're getting pretty close to working that out.

Charlie's done a good job of getting us to close to that finish line.

And then will we build that road or will we put it out for construction?

We still have to discuss that.

We still have a little bit left to do.

Is that a Wagner County?

That's in Wagner County.

So isn't Wagner County getting some money from our amphitheater?

Yeah, we have an agreement from with them for 10 years that we switched Evans and we get a portion of their sales tax for 10 years, starting 100% for a couple years in a ratchets down.

I was wondering if we could just tag a little bit more on their since it's a Wagner County street.

I will say this.

Uh I think Rocky may have started it, but Tim Wilson and the streets crew, they built 43rd from Gary Street by the school all the way up.

They did a remarkable job.

Best roading.

There's just oh sorry.

I was just gonna ask if until that gets opened, will they be able to exit out the 219?

Yes, ma'am.

Okay, yes, ma'am.

They'll have to make arrangements for traffic control because that's again has to be left open to get that other form of address egress.

Great point.

They'll probably complain about that being closed.

You know what I mean?

Uh the gate open and everything.

There'd be something fun to complain.

Say that jokingly.

Uh, my comment was though there's only one track through there.

So when the railroad company starts it, they'll have to do it pretty fast.

Yeah, correct.

You know, not to hold up.

They're used to doing that.

But um, we have had a couple public meetings in that time with the uh business owners, and everybody is aware of this, and we know everybody's what knows that we're waiting on the railroad.

So the everybody's aware of it and they're looking forward to it.

I think it's a good solution.

So the uh railroad company hires their own their own people to do to do the crossing.

That's how it's set up.

The agreement's a little hard to read, but that's how it's set up that they would actually do it.

They'll send us monthly invoices to pay back.

Question.

Um, once this is done, the traffic from the industrial park will be going up that way.

Will the semis and everything be allowed to go all the way through the park, or will they have to go this way.

We have to still work that out.

We really don't want the semis going through the park uh still because of school traffic and stuff.

Uh, and I think if they can get to highway 51, that's fine.

Maybe after hours they could because they can get on a direct connection to the turnpike.

I'm just I'm just thinking wear and tear on our there is a lot of work to still be done on an operational plan.

Okay, good question.

But I would request approval of the agreement.

So move.

Second.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

Someday this will wrap up, Kenny.

You definitely cannot retire here.

All right.

Item F consideration discussion and possible approval of award to the lowest responsible bidder, Cherokee Pride Construction for the Steeple Farms Project.

Charlie Bright again.

Uh good evening again, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council members, Mr.

Spurgeon.

My name is Charlie Bright, the Director of Engineering Construction.

Um, a lot of things on here tonight, getting a lot of projects getting done, which I'm excited about.

Um, this one in particular is more of our residential street rehab.

As you know, we added a bunch of that money for the 2026 bond, but right now we're still utilizing and finishing up the remaining funds that were in the 2018 bond for residential street.

We are working on a lot of neighborhoods.

I think so.

This is just the next one in line that we've been working on the design for a while.

Um, because of the size of the projects, they weren't very weren't very large.

So we actually bid Steeplechase Farms with East Houston Industrial Park Roads together just to get some uh quality of scale a little bit.

Um so we bid the two projects together, followed the state bidding process.

Cherokee Pride construction was the low bidder for 823,152 dollars.

Engineering construction is recommending a war to them, and I'm happy to answer any questions you guys have.

Any questions or discussion?

Okay.

Roll call?

Motion to approve.

Motion.

It's getting late.

Yes, very late.

There we go.

All right.

Stay put, Charlie.

Um, item G, consideration discussion and possible approval of and authorization to award the lowest responsible bidder uh for oak tree states.

Uh good evening again.

Um ditto of everything I just said.

Um so uh once again, it's just uh same thing residential street rehabs, uh 2018 bond money.

Um we bid them actually, I believe on the same day, followed the state bidding process, and again, Cherokee Pride construction was the low bidder.

Um I put these back to back, and I kind of wanted to address.

I know we probably get questions about Cherokee Pride.

Um, you know, the work they do is good.

I've talked and I just kind of preempt the question, I know it's coming.

Um you know, they get a lot of work.

Um, and the thing is they're the low bidder and they do the quality of their work is good.

We do get complaints sometimes about cleaning and everything else, and uh the one thing they are is responsive to that quality.

Um the one thing I would like to highlight to this council and why um the work that they do is good for the city, and it's a positive to us.

Um when I heard that they were the two low bidders, one I talked to their owner and made sure that they had the resources to do these projects, but I also went back and looked at all bids over the last two years that they've won.

Um based off their competitive pricing that they brought to the city.

We have saved over 3.5 million dollars in the last two years because of their bids.

These two projects alone add up to 2.4 million, and so it's like we're able to get to multiple more neighborhoods because they are in our neighborhood, because they're in our city continuously competing on our projects.

That 3.5 million is direct savings from them, but that's not even talking about the indirect savings because every other contractor bids the price lower when they know Cherokee Pride is bidding against them.

Um so 3.5 I can prove to you in direct.

There's probably another couple million in indirect savings that we've gotten from them.

So I'm not ever a big Cherokee Pride defender, but just want to highlight A, they have the resources to do the project, B, they are a benefit to us and when it comes to value.

So Mayor, whenever uh Charlie brought that to Kenny and myself, I ask him to comment on this so council would have an opportunity to provide some feedback on exactly the quality of the work they do, the the pricing, and how well our citizens are benefiting from the work that they're doing.

So if you have any questions, we'd love to try to answer them.

Well, I mean, I've had a couple of um constituents reach out and complain, but the more you dig into it, sometimes people are just hard to please.

You know what I mean?

It's not always what you're presented.

Yeah, and so I did appreciate Charlie when I spoke to you about some of those issues, taking the time to explain to me and and um letting me know your thoughts on those.

So yeah.

The one thing I'll say to the whole council, I'm not a defender of them, but to defend them.

Um they're not perfect.

There's definitely contractors out there that are better than them, but that's why we take the lowest qualified, it's a factor of two.

Um, but the one thing they are good at, and one that reason we don't ever turn them away, is because when those complaints do come in, they're responsive to the complaints.

So if you all get a complaint, Mr.

Spurgeon gets complaining, I get a complaint.

The owner will pick up the phone and he will say, I will take care of that right now.

Yeah, um, so it at least he's willing to work with us, he's willing to address issues that come up with the citizens.

Well, just like we said to Cox, it's nice to be able to pick up the phone, talk to someone that can take care of business.

So and that's what you have with Cherokee Bright.

So one more question of the mayor.

So the savings that's at that allows us to do what, Charlie, additional work in the neighborhoods.

Well, to be honest, if we hadn't had those savings, we probably wouldn't be doing these neighborhoods tonight because we'd be close to running out of 2018 bond money.

So those savings is literally why we're able to do three more neighborhoods.

It's from those savings.

Um, I I don't know the exact numbers.

Travis could probably tell me because he remembers everything.

But uh, but I think without those savings, we're probably out of money at this point and not able to award these until we have 2026 funds.

So that that's the real difference it makes to our city.

Yeah.

Thank you for being honest.

All right.

I'll make a motion to approve project SD 24150.

I'll second that motion.

Thank you all.

Thank you, sir.

Well call.

We have no preview ordinances or ordinances, uh remarks and inquiries by governing body members.

Um I got to go to Wagner County podcast this morning and talk about Tulsa County finally preparing to widen 51st from Lynn Lane to County Line, which I'm I know everybody gets really they think it's the city street, right?

It seems like it should be a city street, but it's a Tulsa County street, so they are actually gonna start that soon, which will be great, and then it will be a little crazy because we will be starting our Albany to Omaha widening on county line as well, but it's better to just get it all done, right?

Like let's just let's just tear it all up, get it done, and then instead of making it five years, we can just make it a year and a half, right?

A year and a half.

Sound good.

Um you said the Wagner County podcast is oh, I mean, sorry, Tulsa County.

Okay.

Well, I was gonna say if I was interested in go to Wagner County talk about it.

I don't know about that.

Toss County.

Yeah, to not go to Wagner County.

Just kind of appreciates that.

Yeah, Tulsa County.

Well, I I think it's um, you know, I again I feel like we're the leaders in transparency, and I I like seeing that other governments are following our footsteps.

Um it's important.

It's important for for any government agency to be more transparent.

And I do appreciate that they're doing that.

For sure.

Yeah, and they're putting in the first uh roundabout at 51st as well.

And so they're gonna do a lot of uh public education and videos and talk about it.

And it'll be a two-lane uh roundabout, not just a single lane roundabout.

Oh crazy.

Let's get some video.

Um then the only other thing I was gonna talk about, we have bounce BA this this Saturday in New Orleans Square.

So yeah, and it's free.

People have been asking me on my social media how much is it, and then they want to know who the vendor is.

So um thank you, Christa, uh, because Krista is doing that with um her organization with the events, being the our events coordinator, um, and free face painting and free balloons, and so hopefully the weather will hold out and bring the kiddos out.

It's gonna be a great time in New Orleans in our beautiful New Orleans Square.

So you can go to the farmers market, then go out to New Orleans Square.

Yeah, have fun.

Yes.

Anyone else?

I wanted to make a uh comment uh on the uh uh military.

Those of you that are not in the military, you need to recognize who's in charge of the military, and that's the generals.

Uh as you see, General Mancino knew everything he was gonna say, and he said it, and that's the way it is.

That is the way it is.

He is a great, great guy.

I just love him to pieces.

But uh I knew him as a captain back when I had to serve uh two weeks with the Oklahoma National Guard after I served my first two years.

He was a captain that time.

But he he's a great leader, and he's a real military person.

Always appreciate him.

He's wanting us to go to Oklahoma City to see their 40 million dollar building that they built to see if we can come close to it with his building.

But uh just compliments to him, but I had to smile because that's the military, the generals lead it.

He's the one doing all the talking and the pointing.

And he's not used to anyone telling him no.

So yeah, you're right.

Well, and then a son is our adduct general for so it's one of the only uh father-son generals that we have here in Oklahoma.

And he takes care of the military people, the general does.

I mean, really do.

So you know his delivery and because of a service to our country, like his delivery, it doesn't bother you.

You know the way the way he is, it's just it's fine, it's just as it is.

And he's used to doing it, so he does it.

Yep.

I'll just throw out that since uh this happens before we meet again, camp bandage is gonna be on May the 2nd on at uh Central Park on Maine.

So come out for that.

Smoky the bears coming at Smokey the Bears kind of making another appearance.

Fantastic.

Uh thank you, Mary members to council.

I do have just several things.

Uh, first off, on behalf of the council, I'd like to thank all the residents who came out to vote on April 7th and had their voices heard with regard to the to the uh bond package that was presented, as we know, seven propositions passed, uh, one did not.

Proposition number eight.

You know, what is exciting about one through seven is the fact that the percentages that we received for this the six, which were uh essentially the exact same six in 2018, uh all were equal to or exceeded what we received back in 2018.

And obviously the the uh the library proposition number seven was right at 70 percent.

I think it was just a a tick or two below that.

So you know, you can actually be able to say is that when you get those type of percentages for for propositions, is that the the community uh the public education that uh we all did and participated in says a lot about how they feel about the direction and the vision of our community when you receive those kind of percentages.

Uh proposition eight, obviously I wanted to point out it was around 40, it received around 42, 43 percent.

There were three other cities in the state of Oklahoma that also had sales tax initiatives that did not pass either.

So the residents spoke loudly uh with regard to uh how they felt about any type of of uh of taxation, and so uh we respect I respect their opinion very much.

Uh the next step will be for during the budget process, and I'll be actually doing some communications about this, is council will have to make a decision, and this will be the first time for a couple of council members about putting together the tentative ten-year uh sell of the bonds and what projects will go with that, and that'll be another step.

Normally every year uh we see what's going to be recommended.

You see what's going to be recommended, and you approve what will be sold.

So this this year it'll be looking at that that uh that proposed sell and what projects council would like to actually uh go in each but each particular year, knowing that it's even though it's a plan, you're really looking at that probably first three or four years are the most important, and then so that's gonna be a great opportunity for more transparency to talk about the 91 projects approximately that were in uh one through seven.

So it is a very exciting time, and I want to thank the citizens on behalf of the council.

A couple more items.

I'm I'm pleased to announce that the citizens uh advisory committee known as the downtown master plan advisory committee is going to hold their first meeting.

It's going to be on May 13th.

Uh it's gonna be at the public safety complex at 6 p.m.

This is the committee made up of businesses and citizens that the council appointed uh several months ago to actually start the reviewing the downtown master plan.

Look at where we had successes, where there's opportunities for for improvement, and also come back with recommendations to the council members.

And so uh led by our community development department, and it we'll be working with the consultant that we we selected, uh a great group uh could call design workshop.

And so we'll keep the council members uh informed uh of what's going on, but that's probably gonna be about a year, a year to 15 months, I would think, and we should have those recommendations uh for the council to look at in terms of uh how how they think about what codes may need to be looked at with regard to the downtown or zoning, as well as what other uh what other type of improvements they would like to recommend for public infrastructure or or actually types of businesses we should look at just like we did you know back in the early 2000s.

So that's the second thing.

Two more is uh speaking of the budget, it uh we are nearly uh finished with uh actually wrapping up and then putting the putting everything together.

We have a workshop scheduled and in the month of May as always to go over the budget.

So council will be receiving that early next month.

And once again, it's gonna be a great opportunity to go over and present to you for final final discussion and approval the the spending plan for FY uh 2027.

And then finally, I want to let the council know that uh the the community uh maybe some may be aware is that Jamie Otter, our emergency management director retired, and as a result, we advertised and we have narrowed the the candidates for the position down to about 15.

So that just tells you I think there were close to, if not over a hundred candidates that were interested in that position.

Uh HR working with Kenny Schwab narrowed the the uh the number of qualified candidates down to about 15, and then we'll go through that process and hopefully I'll be able to to actually uh name and appoint a emergency management director uh probably by the end of May, early June or so, and that person I would start probably within a month or so after that.

So I think Kenny wants them to start before tornado season.

Yeah, I look forward to that dude.

He gets some good updates, doesn't he?

Yeah.

That's all I have, Mayor Council.

Mayor, I do have one thing.

I'm sorry.

I too eight button.

We are gonna have uh the senior center um hosts a senior fair, health and safety fair.

It'll be this Friday at um central at the Central Community Center on Main Street from nine until two.

It's free.

A lot of free information, and um it's a great time.

So you're gonna look at their website.

There they have like over a hundred vendors that'll be there.

So come on out.

See us.

All right.

All right.

We have no executive session, so entertaining.

I make a motion to adjourn.

Second motion.

Motion and second roll call.

Call the broken era municipal authority meeting to order roll call.