By Mindy Ragan Wood
Staff Writer
It did not take long after new town board members were sworn in Monday night for citizens to declare their wants and wishes.
After Matt Blackwood and Joe Frisby took the oath of office, Town Board member Jeff Sadler was appointed mayor and Frisby as vice mayor by the three-member board.
Citizens filled nearly every seat Monday night and requested an additional roll away dumpster to collect large items such as furniture. The city’s contract with Oklahoma Environmental Management Authority includes a dumpster the last Saturday of the month behind town hall, but people from surrounding towns as far away as Union City and Minco have been using it.
“Mr. Chairman I would like to have the board consider having two dumpsters for at least from spring to September,” Carol Willcutt suggested. “Because if you’re not up there as soon as that dumpster comes, you can’t get anything in it. I don’t know where it comes from, it’s like it just grows.”
Sadler said the town has tried to discourage people from abusing the bin. The cost is $375 for each additional dumpster.
“I think most of the town, the majority would be willing to pay a little extra,” Willcutt said.
“A lot of people were really frustrated this weekend, especially if you had any really big item.”
Board members agreed to pursue a second dumpster with OEMA as soon as possible through September.
WEB PAGE
Other residents spoke up about the need for a city website and social media page where community events can be posted.
James Nance, who lost to Frisby in the April election, suggested the city have a website with a link to social media accounts.
“A web page would be a good landing page,” Nance said. “There’s agencies that do that for like $200 a month, they’ll manage the page for you.”
Blackwood and Frisby made campaign promises to bring the city up to date with online utility payment and codes posted. Sadler was not opposed to the suggestion.
“It’s not super expensive,” Sadler said. “Everybody can think of their ideas and maybe we can decide on that in the next meeting. I think probably, if we have a webpage and it’s a city webpage then it probably needs to be maintained by a city employee and it probably needs to be fairly static and not change a lot. Because you or me could spend our whole life updating the website.”
Town Clerk Dana Reese said she would look into the legal requirements for information that would have to be provided on the website and maintained.
“Are there rules that once you start that making sure everything is on it,” Reese questioned.
Town Attorney Bryce Kennedy said there are rules to follow such as making sure all codes are on the site.
“Everyone else does it,” Kennedy said. “I can give you those (laws).”
Nance mentioned Premier Media which specializes in city websites.
“They’ll set it up and they (would) make Dana the webmaster so she can manage it maybe one day a month, make any changes. It takes like 15 minutes and they train you how to do that,” he said.
MEDICAL MARIJUANA
During staff reports Town Administrator Richard Raupe said the town will need to turn its attention to medical marijuana dispensaries.
“I’ve had some inquiries for medical marijuana dispensaries,” Raupe said. “I’ve had one guy with a landlord and another guy dropped by and got a phone call. For the most part under state law they have to be 1,000 feet from a school so that limits them quite a bit in town, but we don’t have anything on the ordinances. I don’t think we want to fight that fight because we’ll probably get sued. Everybody else is.”
Raupe said medical marijuana processing and production could be zoned. There are six licensed growers in Okarche and three licensed processors for medical marijuana.
CASTING VOTES
New board members cut their teeth on a few agenda items which required their vote. Board members approved purchase orders, last month’s minutes, approved swimming pool hours and the hiring of new employees.
Blackwood and Frisby were elated with the results of their first meeting as elected officials.
“A lot of people called me after the meeting,” Blackwood said Tuesday. “They said that board members are actually going to listen to them and that was the main excitement. People feel like they’re going to be heard. Regardless of the outcome, their feelings will be heard.”
Frisby said it was a good feeling to get started.
“It felt great to get started,” he said Tuesday. “We had quite a bit on the agenda and worked through several proposals and finished up a bit of old business. I was very happy with the turnout for the meeting.”
Frisby referred to the discussion from citizens regarding trash bins as an example of why it is important for citizens to participate in government.
“That was a great example of how small towns can truly serve their residents,” he said.
Blackwood and Frisby will complete their town board training June 6 with the Oklahoma Municipal League.
