Alva Review-Courier -

City Business Manager Angelica Brady could not attend Monday’s Alva City Council meeting so Mayor Kelly Parker gave a brief update of city projects on her behalf.

Work on the street at the intersection of E. Flynn Street and Meno Street started Monday. After spring rains washed out the underlying culvert structure making the street unsafe, the city had to dig out the old culvert with the help of the county. Larger culverts replaced the collapsing ones with concrete work around them to stabilize the structure. The roadway was smoothed out, and gravel added until a more permanent street could be poured. Parker thanked Woods County District 1 Commissioner David Hamil and his crew for all the help they’ve provided.

Parker said the street department ran into a delay when the zipper machine had problems Monday. As of Thursday, asphalt was finally being laid. East Flynn at Meno will be closed to traffic until work is finished there.

The city has approved a contract for waterline work to the high school, but the contractor has not yet given a starting date.

The same is also true for the replacement of the roof and other work on the Pete and Ruth Leslie Fieldhouse at the Alva Recreation Complex.

The city expects work to begin soon on drilling of a new well at the water wellfield. That project must be completed by September to qualify for the REAP grant received.

As for his own report, Mayor Parker said he recently attended the summer mayors’ conference in Lawton. One of the topics was funding for cities from the American Rescue Plan. Like Alva, most Oklahoma cities and towns are still waiting for the state to issue guidelines on how the money can be spent. Parker said it is fairly certain Alva’s share will be in the $800,000 range but how the money can be spent is still undetermined.

Reporting on the water and wastewater committee meeting, Randy Stelling reported on the waterline replacement south of Alva. Some of the pipe was damaged and had to be replaced. Also, the city had agreed to mark a start point and an end point for the waterline replacement. Stelling said, “Somewhere that got slipped up so the contractor used more pipe than what we expected, so we had to try to locate some pipe.”

There would have been a two or three week delay if ordering pipe from the manufacturer but the contractor located some in Owasso. Parker said Brady told him the waterline should be completed within the next ten days, and they’ll test it after that.

Because the end point was not marked, Stelling said the contractor kept digging. Troy Brooks said the overrun on the installation and replacing the damage pipe cost about $16,000 more.

Committee Appointments

After Mary Hamilton resigned as a Ward 3 councilmember and Sadie Bier was sworn in as her replacement, Mayor Parker needed to make changes in city council committees. Hamilton served on personnel, public safety, and parks and buildings.

Parker appointed Bier to serve on public safety and on parks and buildings. He appointed Greg Bowman to the personnel committee because of his previous human resources experience with Ryder Trucking.

The three-member council committees handle some of the preliminary research and discussion before items are brought to the full council for action.

Investment Policy Revised

Usually the annual approval of city investment policy is a routine matter for the council. Resolution No. 2021-008 for this years establishes an investment policy authorizing the city treasurer to invest monies of the city as limited by law.

In the past, the policy authorized the treasurer, in consultation with the city business manager, to make the investments, usually a reinvestment of certificates of deposit (CD) with local banks. After the 2018-2019 audit showed that pooled cash from other funds was used for general fund projects, the city decided to change the investment policy.

This year’s resolution authorizes the city treasurer to invest based on the direction of the finance committee and reinvest available funds on a continuing basis during the fiscal year ending June 30, 2022. Members of the city council’s finance committee are Brandon Sherman, Connor Martin and Daniel Winters.

Mayor Parker said the city also puts commissions and boards in the loop if they request it. For example, the Airport Commission can be notified when a CD is nearing the end of its term so they can be involved in deciding how long the reinvestment term should be.

Since City Treasurer Trent Goss is an officer at Hopeton State Bank, the question was raised about a conflict of interest. Parker said Goss polls all the Alva banks about interest rates before investing or reinvesting in CDs. Hopeton State is excluded. Currently the city has CDs with all four Alva banks: Alva State Bank, BancCentral National, Community Bank and High Plains Bank.

Winters made a motion, seconded by Sherman, to approve the annual investment policy. The vote was unanimously in favor.

Library Budget Amended

In quick succession, council members approved three amendments to the Alva Public Library’s budget for this year.

The first change was to increase the library’s budget for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2021, by $793 to finalize the total amount received from the Oklahoma Department of Libraries.

The second amendment to the FY20-21 budget was an increase of $552 to account for a grant that was used to purchase a web cam and headphones for the library.

The third change was also for the FY20-21 budget, increasing the amount by $1,000. This recognizes the CARES funding received by the library and used to purchase hand sanitizer stations, plexi-glass guards, gloves and facemasks.

Other Business

The Alva Planning Commission answered questions for an intergovernmental review consultation for the Alva Arena Authority. This is part of the site review needed to secure financing. Council member approved the form with Brooks voting no.

An executive session was held to discuss contract negotiations with IAFF Local 3782 representing Alva firefighters. Upon return to open session, the council voted to accept the contract as discussed in the executive session.

In approving the consent agenda, the council members accepted minutes of the regular meeting June 21 and the special meeting July 7, and approved claims of $270,609.41 and payroll expenses of $202,656.99.

In the Alva Utility Authority meeting that followed, trustees approved minutes of the June 21 meeting, claims of $100,432.62 and payroll expenses of $65,440.02.

That was followed by the Alva Economic Development Authority meeting. Trustees approved minutes of the last meeting claims of 29,157.75 and payroll expenses of $16,717.97.