Alva Review-Courier -

The Town of Freedom's regularly scheduled meeting was held on Sept. 12.

Shad Brackin, Terry Smith, and Rolando Galindo were present, along with clerk Cindy Reed, Bonnie Greer and Dawn Wares.

The group discussed city ordinance letters that were sent out before moving on to review and ultimately approve minutes from last month’s meeting. Purchase orders for the general, fire and ambulance funds were accepted for approval as well.

Before moving on to the discussions on the small cell tower, members talked about the retention of records for the Town of Freedom. The length in time for business records is determined by a retention schedule that balances each record's usefulness with the legal requirements outlined in Oklahoma statutes.

Next, the board hashed out details on Ordinance 2018-01 (Freedom Small Cell Tower).

Brackin said it seemed pretty straight-forward, but he and others agreed with Reed when she said a modification may be needed to some verbiage regarding the permit/agreement with Pioneer Cellular. Brackin made a motion to adopt the new small cell tower ordinance and it was approved.

The Pioneer Cellular Agreement for the mini-macro tower had no action taken, as a few more steps needed to be completed to clarify the agreement from Pioneer Cellular.

The 2018-2019 appropriations and budget for the Town of Freedom was approved and very similar to the numbers from last year.

The group moved on to talk about the 2019 REAP Grant projects. A notice to proceed in August was received, because paperwork previously submitted (twice) had been lost. The grant application must be received by Oct. 31. Interest in fire hydrant replacement was expressed with Galindo saying that was probably the best avenue to pursue.

The Rural Economic Action Plan (REAP) Grant was created to assist small communities, towns and counties (with populations under 7,000) that have little or no funding capabilities. REAP grants fund a variety of projects that help with economic development, and promote public health and safety. Eighty percent of REAP funds must be spent for things like rural water quality projects, rural solid waste disposal or treatment, sanitary sewer construction or improvement projects, etc.