The Elk City Commissioners met for their regular monthly meeting Tuesday evening instead of Monday due to the Labor Day holiday, at 7 p.m., in City Hall. Mayor Cory Spieker opened the meeting with the invocation, and Rod Carver led the flag salute. All commissioners were present, along with City Manager Tom Ivester and City Treasurer Jennifer Rainey.
The commissioners addressed four structures in the public hearing, prior to opening the meeting to the agenda. Those structures were located at 321 W. 7th, 114 Merritt, 516 N. Madison, and 409 N. Madison. City Inspector Jackie Addington was present to speak about each building.
Addington told the commissioners about Make Community Shine (MCS), who came into the building on 7th Street. In three days, two people cleaned out the house and shored up the structure. He said that they go into dilapidated structures and make them ready to sell for banks or others.
“I finally got in there to look at the insides of the house by a company called MCS. They’re located around Louisville, Texas. What they did was very impressive. It liked a little bit on the soffit and on the outside,” Addington said.
The house on Merritt has been vandalized, and Addington said that the owners did not respond to him, but they were aware that it would be discussed at the meeting. He noted that there is a mortgage on the property.
The next structure, located at 516 N. Madison, is a trailer house that is in poor repair. Addington described the condition and referred to Carolyn Padron to give the commissioners more information on the title of the house. She said that there is a problem with being able to purchase the house, and that there is a mortgage. At that point, Ivester said that the house will need to be tabled during the agenda.
The final house addressed in the public hearing, 409 N. Madison, is one that is not secure. The owner is not able to return to the house because of electrical issues. Addington said it is not livable.
After the mayor closed the public hearing, the commissioners approved the minutes from the last meeting. They then voted on each of the structures addressed in the public hearing. They voted to disapprove the structure at 321 W. 7th, which would take the house off the dilapidated building list.
The commissioners voted to table the structure at 114 Merritt until the Nov. 6th meeting because they need to notify the mortgage company about the issue. They also tabled the house on 516 N. Madison until the Oct. 2nd meeting. Finally, they voted to approve the structure at 409 N. Madison as being dilapidated and detrimental to the public health, safety, and ordering the removal of the structure.
The next item on the agenda was the approval of a bid, received from Axtell Roofing, LLC, for roof repairs on the Gravel Storage building located at 1319 S. Eastern in the amount of $19,250. Ivester said this was the only bid received, but he added that it was reasonable, and they have done business with this company in the past.
Joe Shepard was appointed by Spieker to serve from Oct. 1, 2023, to Sept. 30, 2026, on the Elk City Housing Authority. He will be replacing Sandy Werner. His appointment was approved by the commissioners.
The Pay Application #16 to Joe D. Hall General Contractors, LLC for CAPP project – Aquatic Center in the amount of $386,462.75, a budgeted item, was approved. Purchase Orders FY 22-23 recurring invoices for Sept. 5, 2023, were approved, as were the Purchase Orders FY 23-24 and recurring Invoices for Sept. 5, 2023.
The City Manager’s Report was next on the agenda. Ivester began by talking about the Drug Task Force. He said that it has basically been reestablished. They reestablished the board, which is made up of the five-county sheriffs in this judicial district. This includes Beckham, Roger Mills, Ellis, Washita, and Custer Counties. The five sheriffs and then the police officers with Weatherford, Clinton, Elk City and Sayre are included in the task force. The district attorney will be the legal advisor.
“The reason why this is integral to Elk City is because Elk City took over the administrative portion of that way back under Guy Hylton, with Bill Putnam and Larry Damron, retired FBI. They put together the drug task force for the City of Elk City, so we do all their administrative work, including their budget and we house them,” Ivester explained.
He continued to say that with a Memorandum of Agreement, the City of Elk City will work with the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics to cross deputize the officers that are working under DTF. There are two OBN officers, and they hope to hire another one in the next 60 to 90 days.
“We will have a four officer Drug Task Force. One of which will be an Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics officer, and they’ll have tactical control of the drug task force. We will have three Elk City police officers who are cross deputized with OBN to run that drug task force, so that’s about as simple as I can put it right now,” Ivester said.
The next item he talked about was the Aquatic Center. He noted that they will be building a wall on the north side of the pump house that will be louvered, all to maintain circulation when it is in use and close them when it is not in use.
Ivester also addressed the new airport design. They are moving forward with the terminal design and working on the design for the hangar. He also talked about the water and septic system at the airport, which will need to be enlarged. The utilities are also being engineered.
The fire and police departments are continuing to meet about the remodel and design. Ivester said that they are doing an environmental assessment with the borings on the lot behind Homeland. At the Oct. commission meeting they will be presenting the findings.
The city is involved with two lawsuits. Ivester said that one is concerning an alley easement, and the other one is concerning an injunction about drilling water wells south of Sayre with a grow house. There is a hearing scheduled to obtain a full injunction later in Sept.
There was nothing to report by Rainey for treasurer’s report. All the financials will be presented at the next meeting. There were no public comments and the meeting adjourned at 7:37 p.m.
