Sadie Bier was elected president of the Alva City Council Monday night. She will serve through next year. The office was vacant after Daniel Winters resigned last month. Bier’s principal duty will be to lead meetings when the mayor is absent. She seemed surprised when nominated by Greg Bowman and seconded by Troy Brooks. The election was unanimous. Mayor Kelly Parker is still looking for people to fill the Ward 1 and Ward 2 vacancies on the city council.
Most of Monday’s three-hour meeting was spent on a sanitation presentation and public hearing, covered in a separate story. The council also met in executive session for over an hour to evaluate City Business Manager Stephen Ford and to continue negotiations with the firefighters’ union on a contract. No action was taken on either topic when they returned to open session. Parker said the business manager’s performance appraisal was favorable with opportunities for improvement in some areas.
Financial Manager Needed
With Sandra Ott retiring at the end of April, the city is looking for a new director for the public library. Now they are also seeking to fill a city financial manager position.
The city has been using the services of Crawford and Associates to prepare financial statements each month, but the person handling those is retiring. Crawford informed the city they can no longer provide that service. Mayor Parker said for about the same amount of money, the city should be able to employee someone locally as financial manager. They are seeking applications and resumes.
Business Manager’s Report
Ford reported that waterlines are finished and in use in the 700 and 800 blocks of Locust Street. The company doing the waterlines in the 900 and 1000 blocks should be finished soon, and those will be tied in. Then the city will be able to finish the street with asphalt. Unfortunately, the weather is not yet warm enough to do the asphalt work. Ford said the first step will be to install concrete curbing on those blocks. Since the city machine is not working, a machine will need to be rented.
The Lady Rangers softball team has been able to play a few home games since the synthetic turf installation was finished on their field at the Alva Recreation Complex. The remainder of the turf work there will be done soon. Work on the swimming pool is on track, Ford said.
The city is working on the telemetry bid specifications to trim down the project to something they can afford. Then the bid notice will go out again.
Council Action
Councilmembers approved a bid by Innovative Fueling Solutions in the amount of $540,272.50 to install a new Jet-A fuel tank with self-serve features at the Alva Regional Airport. This bid was approved by the airport commission in February but left off an earlier council agenda. On the project, the council approved a grant application to the Oklahoma Department of Aerospace and Aeronautics that is advertised as 50/50 but capped at $300,000. If approved, this would go toward the Jet-A tank installation. The airport’s engineering firm, Parkhill, did extra work on the fuel tank project that led to an amendment to their agreement. The council also approved that amendment.
The council looked at a list of candidates for the Oklahoma Municipal Assurance Group trustee election. At the suggestion of Mayor Parker, they voted for the city manager of Ponca City and the mayor of Enid with Brooks abstaining on the vote.
A REAP grant for $75,000 was accepted for the waterline replacement on Locust Street.
The council accepted a bid of $26,000 from Northwest Electric as the lowest bid to retrofit LED lighting in the Professional Building. The city was approved for a larger grant, but this will complete LED lighting in all city buildings, so the remainder of the grant will be returned.
After the lease-purchase of a new ambulance, the city council has voted to declare as surplus and authorize the sale of an EMS 2003 Ford ambulance.
Councilmembers approved two resolutions for budget amendments. One is to recognize a grant received by the library. The other was for correction of the tourism tax budget.
In the consent agenda, the council approved minutes of the March 18 and March 27 meetings, claims of $467,213.15, payroll expenses of $231,138.22 and two ASAP aircraft fuel invoices of $25,484.82 and $37,224.57.
The usual public comment item was moved to the end of this meeting’s agenda. However, everyone left before that part of the agenda was reached.
Alva Utility Authority
After adjournment, council members met as the Alva Utility Authority. They approved the minutes of the March meetings, claims of $244,683.43 and payroll expenses of $54,136.90.
A resolution amending the current budget was approved. Apparently $1 million of loan forgiveness on the Oklahoma Water Resources Board (OWRB) loan was wrongly budgeted as revenue. It was just a reduction of expenses.
Alva Economic Development Authority
The Alva Economic Development Authority (AEDA) meeting was opened as the final part of the session. Minutes of the March meeting, claims of $276,790.12 and payroll expenses of $19,173.75 were approved.
Trustees approved a resolution amending this year’s budget. A grant from OWRB was put in the AEDA budget that should have gone into the utility authority budget. This amendment corrects the error.
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