City Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you God for the peace and security we enjoy today and the stability we often take for granted.

We pray for these you have placed in a position of responsibility. Give them wisdom and discernment to execute justice well. Guide them to honor and protect those living decently and productively and punishing those who do wrong. Help them to govern for the welfare of the city. I pray for open minds, listening ears, and all to engage wise counsel as they face issues requiring understanding that encompasses many areas under their care. I thank you for these leaders, your servants, and pray your blessing and protection for them and their families. Amen.

Amen. You may be seated. Thank you, Father. All right. We call to order this regular City Council meeting, Tuesday, September 1st, 2026, 6.30 p.m. in the City Hall Council Chambers. Item number two is public comments, community announcements and recognitions. We have one. We have a Joel Parks. Please approach the microphone.

Hello, everyone. Thank you for your time. My name is Joel Parks. I'm the new festival director for Oklahoma's International Bluegrass Festival. So it's coming up in about 37 days every year. The second week in October is our 29th year in the Cottonwood Flats here in Guthrie. So again, thank you for the support, Justin and Tenny with the city have been amazing support and getting it ready and getting, you know, we're hoping to have just another successful year. And yeah, please share it with your friends. We don't drive as many people to, to Guthrie and enjoy the music. It's all family friendly, you know, kids under 12 are free. We have a youth tent with competitions and crafts and then, you know, main stage from Oxford international acts like slow cane ramblers from Canada and Jens Kruger from from Europe. So yeah, we love what we do in the Cottonwood Flats. And thank you again for all that you do for the city to help us make it possible.

Yeah. But yeah, that's all I have for you guys. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Parks. I believe that's all we have for community announcements, recognitions.

Was there something I missed, right? Nothing on my side, man. On my side.

Okay. Thank you. Item number three is consent agenda items A through Y. Move approval of the consent agenda.

Mayor, I would like to request removal of item K. No, you don't have to read item for item. No.

Okay. Move approval of the consent agenda with the exception of item K. Second.

Okay. We have a motion and a second to approve the consent agenda with the removal of item number K. Okay, no further comments or questions, please cast your votes.

I'll vote screen.

Okay, unanimous approval to pass the consent agenda with the exception of item K. Agenda item number four were items removed from the consent agenda, which was item number K.

Yes. So discussion, consideration, possible action related to item K, which is the renewal of the contract between the City of Guthrie and Bobby Kane to lease the Rodeo Arena grounds for a term of one year and authorize them to execute a contract. To my understanding, the contract has been renewed yearly is that correct yes ma'am this contract has been in effect since may of 2023 when the city first issued an rfp for a radio operator and has renewed every year since okay um through some a couple of conversations um and discussions with a couple of folks um one in my ward and one not in my ward um i would like to make a motion that we table renewing the contract at this time until a later date. There's just some loose ends that I think that we as a council need to discuss a little bit further and look at the contract as a whole before we act on this tonight.

What's a later date, like next council?

Are we going to meet? We for sure probably will meet in two weeks. Yes, ma'am. I think that should, I think that'll give us enough time.

I'd like to know more about the operations, too, from the utility standpoint before we move on.

Well, Tracy, we were talking about the data side of it as well. Okay.

There's just been a lot of moving parts, I feel like, since 2023 that weren't addressed then because we needed an operator rather quickly. And I would like to address some more things, too, in the next couple of weeks as well.

Yeah. I have a few questions for Public Works. All right. Is there anything – I'm sorry, Councilwoman.

Oh, I was just going to say –

Bobby Kane is here.

Oh, there you go.

If you'd like to ask him any questions, you're welcome to do so. Or if there's anything that staff can gather for you and bring to the next meeting, we'd be happy to do that as well or schedule a special meeting in between to discuss. So we'll defer to the council as to how you'd like to proceed.

I have questions for Tenney, which is not here.

Tenney is not here. He's skipped out, I guess, so.

I do have questions on your, you do this weekly, monthly, what do you do? You can come up to the microphone, Mr. Graham.

Clarify what you, what you're.

You have a rodeo. The rodeo or what is it? Well. All facets of a rodeo.

There's a multitude of things that take place down there. As the temperatures cool off, we'll start back with our practice pens where we buck horses every other Sunday. We'll have rodeos throughout here. It's leased out periodically throughout here for different vendors to come in and put on their events. We've hosted barrel races. We've hosted a multitude of rodeos. I've started a youth rodeo organization.

Do you have the same numbers of attendants for these events or?

It, based on the event itself, like the Langston Rodeo, there was probably close to 5,000 people there. The Craig Smith Memorial Annual Rodeo, between 3,500 and 4,000. Eastside Rodeo was right around probably 4,000, 4,500 people showed up for that. 89ers Day, we probably had 3,500 people there for the weekend for that. You know, the 89ers is a four-day event that we put on.

So these events, are they pre scheduled? Where does the city have a list of these events?

I put them out on the Facebook page for the arena that we have. Again, right now we're having the flea market down there every Saturday. You know, so it stays relatively active. So I post them out. They go out on the Guthrie page. There's like 60 some pages that I put them out on. So

I really haven't been aware of it. Just tell you the truth.

Well, it don't surprise me.

Well, I mean, that's why we're tabling because there's a whole lot of stuff. A lot of questions. We don't know. So give us a little time to gather up some perspective.

But my understanding is you've been taking care of it and taking care of it very well according to when I talked to the city. I talked to Eddie about it actually.

Yes.

And so... That's a big plus. Big plus. I'm just curious if, you know, the last time we put this out, because I was part of the approval on that three years ago, we did put an RFP out on it. And there were some others at that point. There was one other. There was a horse group, I think, or something. Maybe not. I don't remember.

I would have to look. Three years, I've slept a couple times since then. I did go back in the file and look today, and I didn't see any other respondents. And at the time, I don't recall any other respondents.

So have you had any pounding your door saying, hey, I want an opportunity at the fairgrounds?

I think there's always opportunity to reevaluate what's ahead of us, and we can get with Mr. Kane and get back to the council and iron this out. at the next meeting.

No, I mean, has anybody, the question is, has anybody been hitting City Hall's door saying, hey, why can't I have an opportunity at the fairgrounds?

I've not heard anything since Bobby has had the lease agreement. Well, that goes a long way.

Tim, you've had it how long now?

This is the third year that I've had the lease on the arena. The fourth year that I've done 89s.

I did have a phone conversation today with one individual who did say that they expressed interest in possibly looking at renting it in the future. So again, I think we just need some more time to see if that is a possibility. And some of the other bullet points in the contract, I think we need to just take some time to review. before we just automatically... That's not uncommon.

We've reviewed others that were on, it seemed like auto-renew, and we came back this last year and reviewed a lot of those contracts and made some material changes to them. So this is not the only contract for material change at all.

Do you want to make a motion? Yes, if we could get a motion to table.

You already have a motion.

Just a second. What was it again? To table it to the next meeting. Well... We did that earlier to be doing it again.

One more thing. Would it be possible to get a list from you of the events you've had in the last year? I guess it grows every year, I assume.

It varies from year to year. I mean, it honestly does. I've had Eastside Rodeo there. This will be the third year that they were there. First year for the Smiths. Second year for Langston. Actually, Langston, they had their very first rodeo they've ever had here. And Not to pull them on chain, but it was, you know.

But you can verify numbers by ticket sales, right?

I don't get that information from them. Okay. They give me, we have an agreement. They pay me X dollars for my services in the facility. And then their ticket sales, I don't get anything from them on that. So I don't know what their numbers are. It's just, you know, guesstimation on that stuff. Okay. But I mean, yes, to provide you my sponsorship packet comes out at the end of the year or at the beginning of the year with the schedule for the year that I have put together. So and it's this time of year I start scheduling events for next year. So I'm always trying to stay about a year ahead.

Well, that'd be good information to have. So somehow before the next. Agenda item when it comes back. Could you get that to the city or somewhere?

Justin and I will work to gather all the information we can gather on the contract and try to answer any questions.

That would be good. As I expressed earlier, too, there's some stuff we would hopefully get reported from the utility work side. Not necessarily that I need to ask to any here today, but he can hopefully maybe get us some information too.

Absolutely. I think between Tinney and Kim's office, we can figure out whatever we need to compile.

For the second round, there's a motion and a second to the table. Okay. Table to the next meeting. Any further comments or questions from council? Okay. Please cast your votes. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

unanimous approval to table and move item number K on the consent agenda to next City Council meeting. Item number five Guthrie Fire Station number two guaranteed maximum price number one with Crossville Construction Company. Mr. Faulkner?

Yes Mayor and Council the day we have long awaited for. We're all excited and happy to move forward with the bids on Guthrie Fire and AMS station number two. Our folks over at Crossland, Aaron Stoops and Justin Lockwood are here, as well as Michelle Hayes with GH2, the architect on the station. I'll turn it over to them. Stoops, if you want to give a presentation, or Lockwood, either one, whichever one would like to run point, or both.

It's a very exciting day. Together, but yes, a long way today. I appreciate you guys' time. We've long enjoyed working with the city on this project and through the pre-construction. So yeah, August 27th, we took bids per Title 61 for the Guthrie Fire Station project. All that information is in that GMP document. So yeah, that's, we've got a few items that we're putting out for rebid, but ultimately we've got, what we feel is bids and information we need to proceed with the project.

So the total GMP is an amount not to exceed $4.8 million, which includes an estimate for the projects or the packets that need to be rebid. So that's already built into this. Once those packets are rebid, I assume we'll come back with an amendment to the GMP on the ones that need to be rebid. If it has to be rebid over 100,

Yes, so currently right now there's two packages that we'll have to formally re-bid through the sealed bid process. The rest are allowance packages. Again, that GMP amendment price of 4.8 should not be exceeded, so there should not be reason for an additional amendment. what will happen is we will balance those allowances with contingency for the project, and then at the end of the project, those contingency funds are returned if they're not used.

So on the budget side of things, we've got a little over between what was financed in CIP number two and the interest that has accrued on that note. Now we've got a little over $4.2 million and staff, myself and Shonda and Justin have secured $750,000 in P3 grant money through Department of Commerce. I don't have the grant documents yet. Literally, I presented last week to their board. They expedited that to get us on their agenda. I think we met with them first week of August, met with them on a Thursday, had to have it in by Monday. So we worked through the weekend to get that done. And then I presented last week. So I anticipate either your next meeting on the 15th or your first meeting in October, we'll have grant documents to sign and execute to receive those additional dollars. But with that, Crossland has taken care of the value engineering piece to cut this bid down and get it within budget. So we are within budget with the grant money, the interest that's been earned on the CIP note, and the original financing. We just, when you're purchasing land and starting from dirt, it's a costly, costly project. So with that, staff recommends approval. Happy to answer any questions. If Crossland has anything else they'd like to add, of course, you got both of them. And then Michelle is here.

In general, what do you guys feel the timeline is right now?

So we've got 10 months of construction now. The first, you know, obviously after today's approval, we'll order the metal building. That will really set that 10-month schedule. We obviously don't want to get out there and get started with that. But ultimately, within the next couple of months, we would get started. So I would say probably a year from now, given approval, that the project would be completed.

There you go, Chief.

Are you guys happy with the design of it? Okay. They should be.

Second. All right. We have a motion to approve and a second. Any further comments or questions for Crossland?

Is there a motion?

Yeah. There was a motion.

From May. Councilman Bothmer. Yes.

Who's the second?

Seconded by Erie.

Okay.

Any further comments or questions from down here? Okay. Pass the votes. It's going to be easier.

Start pouring concrete, guys.

NMS approval for Guthrie Fire Station number two, guaranteed maximum price number one with Carlston Construction Company. Thank you, guys. Appreciate it. Item number six is resolution number 2026-24 for school year 2027 non-bargaining employee pay plan. Mr. Faulkner?

Yes, Mayor and Council. This is an amended pay plan from what you approved at the last meeting. The We had amended the steps to a 2.75% spread between the steps. By doing that and adding a step to the pay plan, when we went to replace employees, we ran into some formula errors. So what's back in front of you today is a 2.5% pay plan step, and staff would recommend approval. Happy to answer any questions.

We have approval of resolution 26-24-FY27, non-marketing. Second. Second.

Okay, we have a motion in two seconds. Pick one. All right. Further comments or questions, please cast your votes.

All votes are in.

Okay, unanimous approval for resolution number 2026-24, fiscal year 2027, non-bargaining employee pay plan. Item number seven is renewal of medical, dental, vision, life, and AD&D insurance. Mr. Faulkner.

Yes, Mayor and Council, along with budget season, you have the items like we've approved the pay plan, contract negotiations. An additional item that we work diligently on every year, which we have spent many hours on this year, is our health insurance premiums. So between myself, HR Director, and Justin, really the entire department head team, we've hammered out a plan that is a net zero increase in costs to the city. We are switching from a PPO plan with UHC to an HMO plan. So if you'll recall during my budget presentation in August, we were at a premium to expense ratio of 108%. After some negotiations with UHC, willing to make some concessions on their end. They started a 27% renewal and we played within those confines to get down to this HMO plan, which essentially means that anything out of network that is not an emergency is on the cost of the patient. So we will be communicating that to our employees as well as an option going forward of direct primary care providing services with Remedy Health Our broker has negotiated that option as well as the HMO plan through UHC. I'm happy to answer any questions. I will say thank you to the team that helped me work through this. It's been a very heavy discussion as you negotiate from a 27% increase and make concessions on both sides to get to where we can afford it. I will say at this point, A 10 year goal of mine as city manager was to get us on a plan where we're self insured and no longer fully insured as those premiums continue to grow and we approach the one and a half million dollars an annual premium and or city expenses. That 10 year goal probably became a five year goal and I bet next year it's a three year goal. So, knowing that going into next budget year will be will be starting to tee it up.

uh for you know 2030 2031 moving us away from having um outside coverage so i'm happy to answer any questions if you would like any questions for the city manager i would move approval of the united health care plan for medical dental and vision and standard to provide life accidental death and disability insurance coverage for same employees for fiscal year 2027. Second.

And I do want to say I appreciate your viewpoint on that and your plan on that and the work you guys are putting in. Thank you, sir. Thank you. We have a motion and a second. Further comments or questions, please cast your votes. All right, unanimous approval for the renewal of medical, dental, vision, life, and AD&D insurance. Item number eight is public hearing on the fiscal year 2027 budget with the general fund and miscellaneous funds. Mr. Faulkner.

Yes, Mayor and Council. We're finally here. After tonight, I can take a deep breath. The staff, myself, we've spent many hours over the last four months just hammering this budget away. So I'm excited to present it to you and just kind of recap where we are and where we're headed. So if Aaron will put my presentation up. Public hearing.

Eddie. Oh, sorry. Eddie, I think I'm supposed to open the public hearing right before you start speaking. Yes, I'm sorry. Go ahead. No, I didn't even catch it. Good job. Thank you. Yes, you do. Okay. All right. So this will be open public hearing, item A, under the agenda number eight. Say it all again, Eddie.

One more time. No, I'll spare you that. So public hearing, Title 11, OS 17, Paragraph 208. Municipal governing body shall hold a public hearing on the proposed budget no later than 15 days prior to the beginning of the budget year. We're always early on that. Of course, we start our fiscal year on October 1. Notice of the date, time, and place of the hearing together with the summary shall be published on the website and, if available, in a newspaper of general circulation of the municipality's It was published in the Guthrie Newsletter last week on August 26th, which meets the statutory deadline for publication. Of course, it is also available on our website. I won't spend a whole lot of time on our score analysis and our council priorities because I went into great detail on those previously, but I'm happy to share them again just as a recap. When folks ask, what guides your budget? Well, the council guides the budget. So everything that we do ties back to the vision and the policy that you have set for your team. Looking at our SOAR analysis and our strengths, largest historic district, our proximity to I-35, low crime rate, the parks and recreation availability, our financial stability, which we have worked diligently to be there, and this budget is a reflection of that. It's also a reflection of the many investments that we've made these last few years and the next year ahead, which have been, for lack of a better term, neglected for a number of years. So great schools, housing diversity, festivals, healthcare system, airports, opportunities, economic growth, our centralized location, I-35 corridor, rail opportunities on the west side, the airport, access to undeveloped land, the shops, leveraging our federal funding, and then our proximity to Oklahoma City Metro without losing our hometown historic Victorian feel. Aspirations, as we continue to grow, enhancing our amenities, recreation, road improvements, more parking downtown. I hear that every conversation we have, right? Building improvements, funding for businesses, more retail, more occupancy, diversifying that economic opportunity, and then improved relations with county, city, and private sector for job opportunities. What kind of results have we seen and do we hope to see in the future? We've had great increased citizen engagement and participation. We've seen a decrease in retail leakage due to quality options. And again, we continue to grow those options. Improving our parking downtown, building revitalization, increased emergency services, tourism, sales tax, resident population, and business development downtown. Council priorities for fiscal year 27. We'll be very clear, this is what guided your budget, okay? Between this and the capital improvement projects that we've been planning for for the last three years. Since I've been here, since this council has been seated, This is what guides our budget. It's not on this list. It's got to get on this list before we can plan on it, before we can implement it, short of an emergency, right? Number one, evaluate and prepare long-term water system availability and future infrastructure goals. Prepare and maintain GIS records to support infrastructure operations and capital improvement planning. Evaluate and explore sustainable revenue opportunity support to support police and fire. As the community grows, the need for those services grows. Item number four, evaluate animal shelter staffing levels and facility options to meet community needs. Evaluate the existing parks board master plan, identify funding strategies to support future improvements, and enhance our entry points by updating our Welcome to Guthrie signage at all three existing locations. Your team, myself, we are already working on four of those six. As we continue to get into fiscal year 27, we'll pick up the next two and get that ball rolling. So we've already taken this and ran with it, and I'm excited to bring you the progress on that as we move forward. Quick budget summary, which we talked about at the draft budget presentation. This budget as a whole is one of the largest fund balance numbers we've ever inserted into a budget. The main driver behind that is the grant match requirements that we have across the city. When you look around at $15 million in federal or local funded projects that are taking place, you don't get that kind of progress without investment. And this council has set that vision and we're implementing that investment. When you see the budget and you see that number, that's a direct result of that. Property and auto insurance premiums are on the rise. As I mentioned, we continue to see that with increased valuations in property, you also see increased premiums and replacement costs. We've seen that. The city is not exempt from that. Health insurance premiums, of course, on the rise, but we've been able to find a happy medium there. A couple of policy things that we'll be bringing as a result of this budget, increasing postage costs and credit card processing fees, which are becoming unsustainable on the Public Works Authority side for utility billing. The convenience center must be evaluated to ensure we're not operating at a loss. We're running into commercial traffic coming in and they've got a resident in their passenger seat and they say, well, this is all coming from my house. And it very well may have. but your 30-foot dump trailer is not really what the convenience center was set up for. So when we have a couple of those come through a day, we lose the ability to service the rest of the community. Operating costs, of course, just like we're not exempt to increased property valuations and auto premiums, we're also not exempt from increasing fuel costs and energy costs. all of those things which are things we can't do anything about. You know, when we have traffic lights, street lights all over the community and that electric bill's not getting any cheaper, there's nothing we can do about that except plan to be more energy efficient and look for ways to address that as we go through and look at the corridors, do roadway improvements, et cetera. But until we have an opportunity to do that, we're faced with that increased cost. This budget is a living, breathing document. It will change. I promise you it will change. It can only change with this council approving an amendment outside of inter-fund transfers. Your council priorities have served as a guiding principle. This budget represents the priorities that you've presented. Heard it many times from several of you on the council, we can do anything, but we can't do everything. This budget is a testament to that. When you have a community of our size with needs that far exceed our resources, we can't do it all in one year. But we've got to start somewhere. And we have. And we've made great progress over the last three and a half years. I do greatly appreciate the council and staff as we've worked diligently to present this budget to you. I'll tell you that I've got a lot of hours in, a lot of weekends, a lot of late nights, as well as Kim and your department head teams. With that, your revenues, fiscal year 27 revenues total $81,894,742 across all funds, which includes grants, capital improvement, inter-fund transfers, et cetera. And your fiscal year 27 proposed expenditures total $77,590,720. With that, Mayor and Council, I'll be happy to answer any questions if you have them.

Let's open this up for comments from the public and council members, which would be item C. Anybody?

No.

So we need to make a motion to approve this project.

No, you can close the public hearing. We'll close this item, and then the next item we'll adopt. Okay.

Thank you. All right, so no comments or questions. Nobody named Dan. Okay. All right. Okay. Then item D is we will close the public hearing. And then item agenda number nine, resolution number 2026-22, adopting the fiscal year 2027 budget. Mr. Faulkner.

Yes, Mayor and Council. This is the resolution formally adopting the budget that has been presented before you.

I move approval of Resolution 2026-22 adopting the fiscal year 2027 budget for the general fund and miscellaneous funds. Second.

Motion second. Any further comments or questions about adopting the budget? All right. Ask your votes, please. Okay unanimous approval for the resolution number 2026-22 adopting the fiscal year 2027 budget. Item number 10 is the approval final plat right Mission Hills section 2 phase 5. Mr. Kasich Planning Director.

Thank you, Mayor, City Council. As indicated, this is the final plat for the Mission Hills Section 2. It's Phase 5. The final plat will have 25 lots on 6.16 acres. It's located in the very southeast part of the development. It'll actually abut the existing Mission Hills Section 1 properties right off of Prairie Grove Road. So in total with this phase, there'll be 235 lots of the 307 and 80 acres of the 95 acres that the project has. So they'll basically have one phase left and everything will have gone through the platting process. The planning commission approved the phase five final plat and all of the reviews for drainage grading, utilities and that were all reviewed and approved through Meyers and our Public Works Department. So with that I give it back to the council.

So moved. Second.

Okay, question or second? Any comments or questions for Mr. Casey? Ms. Gasker-Boots?

Oh, that's right.

Any unanimous approval for the Final plot, Mission Hill Section 2, Phase 5. Item number 11 is a special use permit for manufactured home at Oakwood Drive. Mr. Kasich, again.

Thank you, Mayor, City Council. Oakwood Drive is probably the most southern part of our community. It's right off of Forest Hills Road, kind of the Liberty Lake area. There was a subdivision in there that's been there for quite a while, the Forest Park. I think it's actually called the Forest Hills. Yeah, Forest Hills subdivision. It's an area that has some stick built homes, but a good portion of them are actually manufactured homes. But per our code, as you all know, regardless of where you're at in the city, it requires a special use permit. It's not a permitted right. The council had approved two previous special use permits for manufactured homes back in 2022 and most recently in 2025. The Planning Commission recommended approval of the special use permit, and there were no comments at the Planning Commission, nor were there any written objections or comments that I received.

So moved. Second. Motion to second, any questions for Mr. Kasich? All right, if there are none, please cast your votes. Thanks, Dan. Thank you. Thank you, Dan.

All votes are in.

Okay, unanimous approval for the Special Use Permit for Manufactured Home at Oakwood Drive. Item number 12, City Manager's Report.

Yes, Mayor and Council, this is our annual fiscal year city manager report recap, so I have a presentation for you. I will try to be brief, but please ask any questions as we go through. As we go through, it's interesting to see the things we accomplished this year that we don't recall being in this fiscal year, so that far back. This is not inclusive of all accomplishments over the last year. Inevitably, there's going to be something that is not included, and please know that I'm not deliberately leaving anything out. This is just major projects. As a quick review of the great accomplishments we've had in fiscal year 26. First, we cut the ribbon on the pocket park, which was a 50-50 matching grant through the Department of Commerce, which total cost of $49,000. Crossland helped us out with that project. first project for the Department of Commerce through that grant program that was completed in the state. So we were actually the poster child for being a recipient of that grant program because of our quick turnaround and our efficiency and effectiveness on a staff level to get it implemented. So appreciate the council and the Historic Preservation Commission for allowing us to take that space and expand the shops there. The shops also earned their state certified retail incubator status through Department of Commerce. We've had eight program graduates to date, which has moved into a brick and mortar retail location. We've had several communities come and explore the shops, either with the Department of Commerce or with their team, including not limited to the City of Muskogee, Shawnee, City of Tulsa, Phoenix District, Veneta, Fairfax, and several others. So we are really setting the standard for retail incubation in the state of Oklahoma. Something we take for granted in our community is we get used to the winds. We get comfortable with the expectation when our best day is somebody else's dream, somebody else's wish. You've heard me say that at State of the City. It rings true today as we continue to receive grants and certifications. Congresswoman Bice, through myself and Chief Swigert, we were able to receive $1.4 million in federal funding to upgrade our dispatch consoles, as well as the handheld radios, not only for our department, the fire department, but also a couple of handheld radios and or in-car radios for the number of agencies outside of Guthrie, inside Logan County that we serve. Appreciate Congresswoman Bice for that. We also received $1.489 million in state funding to thank you to Senator Hall and Representative Duhl. Again, something that we have been working on, I've been working on for over a year and a half when that finally came to fruition. So a lot of questions about where that money came from. Those were interest... dollars accrued on the original ARPA dollars the state received. So really appreciate Senator Chuck Hall and Representative Duell having those conversations year over year and keeping our projects in front of them. Every time I see them, hey, how can we take a bite of this elephant? What can we do without being, now I don't want to come every time and ask for something, right? But definitely appreciate their advocacy on behalf of us. Things like that don't just happen. It's multiple years of conversations and telling our story to get to that point. So I want to send my appreciation to them. Westside Booster Pump Station, we cut the ribbon on that in January. Project total $671,000. And that was a CIP project, replace the oldest booster pump station in the distribution system. We've really taken a big bite of these things, infrastructure related that had been neglected for decades. Airport taxiway project, again, another multimillion dollar project where we cut the ribbon in, let's say early June, maybe July, on realigning 3,750 feet of taxiway to meet the new parallel requirements through FAA standards and guidelines, that $5.7 million project costs you 2.5%. So that's what your staff is doing with our local dollars. That's a huge win. And that's something that we shouldn't take for granted as we see those improvements out at the airport, which is the front door to our community for the folks who use that. Street overlay project, if you've ever driven down East College, you knew that it needed to be fixed. We worked diligently on that. Again, that's another project we worked on for several years and hoped to see a potential interlocal agreement with the county. That didn't quite materialize, but we did get it done, at least our portion, from I-35 to Midwest Boulevard, Harrison Avenue, of course, downtown. You've seen Oklahoma, Harrison first, Wentz, and then Oklahoma all the way to Brock, Chestnut University, and College. Great project. It went quick. We didn't have any complications. Appreciate Denny's team and the contractor on that, as well as the street committee for recommending approval for that project. Coming up, we're in progress. Owen Field, of course, earthwork is complete. Site utility is currently under construction. We are still on track for an estimated completion date in February of 2027. I want to reiterate that This Phase 1A project, which is three fields, the new expanded parking, the ADA parking, as well as the concession stand building and restrooms for that first Phase 1A, would not have been possible had we not received supplemental funding through OTRD and Land Water Conservation Fund. So as a reminder, that original grant was a million dollars. The city's match was a million. There's a 50-50 matching grant in 2020 due to some Section 106 hangups They got us pushed out a little ways. We were able to, in fact, Tenny, myself, and Bill Myers worked through a holiday weekend to get our request in to amend that grant dollar from a million dollars to 2.3, which we then matched, of course, with CIP dollars to get that project completed. So we do continue to see a few hangups here and there as it relates to Buy America, Build America compliance and getting our contractor to get the certificates needed from the supplier that we have to turn in to receive reimbursement on the federal dollars. However, we're still on track for completion by February of 2027. Another major project that we've been working on, I think, since I got here, you know, first day here, Councilman Aguirre said, I want to take you up in the plane. Second day we went on flight, we've been working on the terminal ever since. Council, Congresswoman Bice has been key in securing that federal funding. We worked on that for many years, carrying that baton to try and get this across the finish line. We had Congresswoman Bice out to the airport with both the City of Guthrie and City of Edmond and explained that this airport actually touches two communities and it's a unique partnership. It's one of only two in the state. After that meeting, we were successful in our CDS request Call it in your marks on your marketing work to be congressionally directed spending. We do have a groundbreaking thought we had it scheduled for October 8 that we are working with the Oklahoma Department of Aerospace and Aeronautics to get that date rescheduled. So rendering there and they're ready to break ground as as soon as we can get all the dates signed together. Downtown streetscape, again, another example of Pocket Park went so well when we went back to Department of Commerce, we were able to receive funding in 50-50 matching to upgrade some wayfinding signage downtown, as well as add planters, benches, and some trees. Been downtown in summertime, it's awful hot. We'll continue to work to try to combat that with trees and landscaping, et cetera, so. Fire station number two, there's your rendering there. The team, again, we've been working on that. We've had some challenges since we started that. We cannot find GH2 in Crossland enough for the hard work on that from trying to find a location. We started with a different spot, ended up with this location, and then get the budget back, came in, you know, $4.8 million. This is 4.9. We didn't get that updated in time. Securing that $750,000 additional money through the Department of Commerce is a testament. If Congresswoman Weiss and her funding opportunities aren't a testament to the relationships that we had built and that we work hard to maintain every single day, the fact that we were able to call the Department of Commerce and I was able to say, Jeremy, I've got a $750,000 funding gap. What can you help me with? So, well, Eddie, it's Thursday. If you can have it in by Monday, we'll see what we can do. We knocked it out, we got it done, we presented their board last week, and I hope to have those documents to you soon. We will do groundbreaking hopefully by the end of September with Crossland's approval tonight. They'll move forward with drafting contracts, getting their subcontractors ready to go. And as soon as we can get that scheduled, I'll be reaching out to get everybody's calendar availability. So super excited for that project that's gonna be another key entry point to our city from the south off of I-35. In police department news, we've got the training facility. We've had some really good wins in August, guys, and I've got to talk about them because it doesn't happen every single day. It's a reminder that training facility was a 50-50 matching grant that started out at $464,000 through the Department of Emergency Management. We went to Dr. Major at Meridian Technology Center said, is there any way we can partner on this project? Dr. Major told me, well, Eddie, I'm not quite ready. I've got to build a training facility in Stillwater because it's going to prepare employees to work at the Google Data Center. I said, well, we've got some grant funding. We've got some additional funding we can pitch into this. Do you think you can move your timeline up on the Guthrie facility if we partner on it? And I gotta hand it to Dr. Major. He made it happen. He moved his capital improvement planning projects around to get this training facility off the ground. So to give you some context, we had proposed a thousand square foot facility inside our grant application. Training facility rendering you see there on the left is 13,000 square feet. It also has a second offsite dispatch center. So we went from a thousand square feet to 13,000 square feet for a partnership with Meridian Technology Center. That's huge. Not only do we have that partnership, but we'll have classroom space just across the way. If we need it, we've got a big group, we can utilize that as well. After Dr. Major and Meridian Tech opened bids on the training facility, we were anticipating about a $3 million construction cost. Got bids back, Dr. Major called, said the bids totaled 4.1 million. I said, hey, we're still in at 1.5. We've got a fire training tower we wanted to have as part of this project, but unfortunately was not going to happen. That's a $4.1 million number. So I've made a phone call to our senator. I said, Senator Hall, I've got a request. So we've got a project that's ready to go. It serves not only Guthrie, it's going to serve all of Logan County. It's going to be a secondary EOC, Emergency Operations Center, offsite dispatch. really need to make this happen. We asked for an additional $500,000 in July when those bids were open. We found out last Tuesday that's been awarded. So again, just another example, in the last 30 days we're 1.2 million dollars in grant funding to go towards these projects to make them happen so that we can deliver the top level of service to this community. That's huge. Construction has officially began as of last week, got their permit issued. The perimeter fencing is out there, and they have broke ground. Look for a construction timeline of about 10 to 12 months. We cut the ribbon on that. So it's going to be exciting to cut the ribbon on the training facility, the fire station, the airport terminal, back-to-back-to-back, and on-field as well. All projects that have been long overdue and long neglected in our community. Animal Control, as of last week, both full-time positions as well as the part-time kennel tech position have been filled. Remember the budget you just approved included an additional full-time supervisor position. We will advertise for that position late September, 1st of October, because it's funded in the next fiscal year. So we'll continue to grow those employees. The first new employee we have We were able to get him into the animal control training that takes place annually, the first week of August. So he started just in time. Unfortunately, the second full time employee didn't start in time to make it to the training, but we will get him to the next one, which is required for that position. I'd also like to congratulate Officer Quinlan on her promotion to sergeant. As a first female Sergeant, the Guthrie Police Department has had since 2004. So we look forward to Sergeant Quinlan. She brings a lot of great experience to the force and we look forward to seeing her in this new capacity. As it relates to tourism, we have some updates coming to Guthrie Tourism or guthrieok.com. We've got a complete overhaul of the website coming, which will update travel itinerary options, professional design. If you've seen it now, we've kind of been working on a really strict budget that Justin and Shonda have been updating in-house. Luckily, we've got a local guy that has been able to help us out with this at an extremely discounted rate. And he had actually had some conversations with the mayor, and they kind of got this teed up where the mayor brought it to me. And we're really looking forward to it. They kicked it off design last week. We think it would be complete and ready to roll out before Territorial Christmas, which, as you know, is one of the largest tourism draws in this community itself. Lots of upcoming events. Claytarder Memorial Cross Country Meet will take place in the flats next week, September 10th and 11th. Of course, all year long, you've got the flea market out at the Cosworth Flats, as well as the downtown market, which takes place at the shops and the pocket park there on the corner of Winston, Oklahoma. Liberty Lake, we've continued to see tourism grow out at Liberty Lake. And let me tell you, if Seward was paved to the lake, we'd have problems. We would have problems. OSU had a cowboy shootout last year there at the lake. They loved it. So they'll be back again this year, September 18th and 19th. Homecoming, Jungle Jam out at the jungle, which blocks off Harrison, 18th and 19th. And of course, Bluegrass Festival, Again, this list is not inclusive. Lo and behold, I will leave somebody out. I promise you it's not intentional. This is just trying to hit the highlights of things as we move into our festival season to wrap up 2026. Bluegrass will take place down in the flats from October 8th to the 10th. The Wine Festival will take place on October 17th. And then another event out at Liberty Lake, the OKC Trail Running Festival. on Saturday, October 10th. Thank you for indulging me in this recap of everything that's happened this year. I will say again, this is not supposed to be fully inclusive. This is the high notes of the things that occupy the most time. There's a lot in there that I will tell you that doesn't make the list or isn't bright and shiny every day, but it does still take place and it does still matter. So I'd be happy to answer any questions let that parent turn back to you. All right.

Thank you very much, Eddie. It's been a heck of a year. Thank you, Eddie.

Good job.

All right. Item number 13, request comments from members of City Council. Councilman Williams.

Well, good job, Eddie and staff. It's mind-boggling the things that I've seen occur, come and go, and coming since I've been on the council. It's just... So thanks to everybody involved.

Councilwoman Dinnick.

I'd just like to say as well, and we're probably going to, I could probably speak for everybody sitting up here. Thank you, staff. Eddie, city manager, city council. I am obviously still, I'm gonna call myself new in this position until it's time for me to leave. So I'm still new. The accomplishments are just phenomenal. And I drive through little podunk towns all over Oklahoma. lot for my job going from place to place and I think sometimes I'll speak for myself we especially being up here now you you kind of take things for granted like oh well this is happening everywhere and this really isn't anything unusual or out of the box but this is above and beyond and so everything that you guys have gone through numbers crunching numbers and needs priorities and Just doing that all year long because it's not something that just happens during budget season. I definitely know that. So I kind of have to put it in a realm with speaking to anybody that's watching on TV as well. I want to kind of just put it in a little quote that I found just because it is overwhelming that says, a budget is not just a collection of numbers, but an expression of our values and aspirations. So it's not just where we are today. It's where we're headed. And it still is all-inclusive of where we've been, which some years, not a lot's been happening in Guthrie, America. But it is just very eye-opening and exciting. And thank you to everybody. And here we go. The ball's rolling. Thank you.

That was a great quote. We need to have that in a frame, like on the third floor.

Oh, yeah. I can do that.

I can do that.

That's going on a wall. Yeah. Thank you.

Vice Mayor Taylor. I don't know what to say, guys. Thank you. All of you. I mean, from Eddie on down, I appreciate all of y'all's work. Councilman Aguirre? Nothing.

Thank you. Councilman Bothroyd?

It's pretty much been said. I know the budget's a monumental task, and you guys have done a great job at it, Alia. And, you know, when you look at the grants, you know, we hear about them in council. You hear about a grant here, a grant there. But when you look at them in its totality, I mean, you know, to me, just in looking, it's pushing past 10 million. Absolutely. And that's huge. for this community, and I'm proud of all of you for that. Thank you, sir. That's it.

Councilwoman Gibbs.

Absolutely. I ditto everybody else's setup here. I do, and I am able to, thankfully to Eddie, I am allowed to call another city employee and ask them questions when He's given permission to do so when I've had questions about certain budgets certainly so I've appreciated that very much And I do sometimes have a lot of questions, but we all do and I hope that I'm facilitating the needs of my constituents and the rest of the community when I do ask so so I Appreciate all the hard work that goes in because it is a lot You know they take time out to answer our questions the community's questions and and even more than that. So it's definitely appreciated from all staff and Eddie included. Thank you guys very much.

Thank you. And as for me, I wanted to, you know, as being mayor, I get to go last and I just repeat everybody. But I do want to thank Eddie personally. You have done a tremendous job. And I admire the fact that you give all the credit to staff and And staff deserves it. But I do want to separate that and thank you personally, Eddie, for the work that you're doing. Thanks. What people don't understand is that when they get here in the morning and they're working until 5 o'clock, that's not when they're working. That's when they're answering phone calls, having meetings, talking to city council members and staff. That's when that occurs. They're working from literally 4 or 5 in the morning when they get up and then later when they leave at night. Okay, there's a lot of logistics that goes into what they're putting into it, and I appreciate that sincerely. And I understand you guys are doing that. So I know that. It's not lost on me when I call and ask you guys questions and demand more of your time. So I want to thank you, Eddie. I want to thank all the staff. I want to thank Kim Biggs for handling our money. I appreciate that. As well as being the clerk. So With that, we have a few things going on in town. This Friday, everyone will be happy to know, I think we're having our ribbon cutting for the new McDonald's. Isn't that right, Chris? Yeah. 10.30. 10.30. Okay. New McDonald's. I heard it was built in record time. For those who find that stuff kind of interesting, literally record time, I think, in the United States. Fastest McDonald's built. Kind of a fun piece of trivia. Hope they have ice cream. Yeah. Let's hope for the ice cream machine.

If you ask my teenager, it's taken forever.

Yeah, it's taken forever for some of us who are counting.

Or as Chris would say, McCoke. McCoke, yeah.

Expect a full story, Chris. September 12th is the 43rd annual Guthrie Road celebration at Mineral Wells Park. The spectator admission is free. That's it for the next two weeks that I can see for the events. With that... Item number 14, would somebody like to make a motion to go into executive session?

I would propose that we convene an executive session under Title 25 of the Oklahoma Statute 307B1 for the purpose of discussing employment, hiring, employment, promotion, promotion, discipline, or resignation of the following employees, city manager, city clerk, treasurer, city judge, and alternate city judge, city attorney. And under Section 307B2, for the purpose of negotiating concerning employees and representatives of the Internal Order of Police Lodge No. 105, and under Section 307B2, for the purpose of negotiating concerning employees and representatives of the International Association of Firefighters, Local 2145. Second.

Motion and a second. Go into executive session. Please cast your votes.

Oh, that's right.

Okay, now it's approval to go into executive session. Stay tuned, folks.

I'm hungry. Gee, it's 9 o'clock.

Me too.

And my daughter is going, let's get something to eat. No, forget it. We're going to go to the stables and take something home. Not now. It's 9. Yeah. Okay.

We're going to go here. You've got one more.

Oh, okay. She's probably playing with the water in the bathroom. Turning it off so she doesn't have to run. Oh, let's get my daughter. You need to get the smart water. Somehow I don't think she likes that, though. I don't know why. I move that we reconvene from executive session.

I move that we reconvene from executive session.

Motion to second, please cast your votes. Okay, unanimous approval to come out of executive session.

Item number 16 is the employment of the city manager. I move that we retain the city manager as discussed in executive session.

Second.

Second. Go ahead.

Okay, motion and a second. Councilwoman, please cast your votes. I'll turn. Okay, unanimous approval for the employment of the city manager as discussed. Item number 17 is the employment of the city clerk slash treasurer.

I move that we retain the city clerk treasurer as discussed in executive session.

Second. Okay, motion and second. Cast your votes.

All votes ran.

Okay, unanimous approval for the employment of the city clerk slash treasurer as discussed in executive session. Item number 18 is the employment of the city judge and or alternative judge.

I move that we retain Billy Wheeler as city judge and Julie Kelly as alternate judge. Second. Go ahead.

Okay, there's a motion and a second. Let's cast your votes.

All votes ran.

Okay, unanimous approval for the employment of the city judge and or alternate judge as discussed in executive session.

Item 19, employment of city attorney. I move that we retain Marble E. Lewis as the city attorney as discussed in executive session. Second.

Okay, motion to second. Please cast your votes.

All votes are in.

Okay, unanimous approval for the employment of the city attorney as discussed in executive session. Good job, Marble.

Thank you.

Item number 20 is the Fraternal Order of Police, FOP Lodge, 105, fiscal year 2026-2027, collective bargaining agreement. There will be no action. Agenda item number 21, International Association of Firefighters, IAFF, local number 2145, fiscal year 2026-2027, collective bargaining agreement. There will also be no action. Item number 22, we are adjourned. Can't go anywhere, Chris. We will call to order our Guthrie Public Works regular authority meeting. Item number two is consent agenda. Items A through K. Mr. Chairman, I move approval of the consent agenda.

Second.

We have a motion and a second. Are there comments or questions? That's not okay. We don't need to remove anything, do we? No, sir. I don't think so. There was nothing. There was nothing on it. Okay.

I'll go to Saran.

All right, unanimous approval for the consent agenda items A through K. Item number three are items removed from the consent agenda. There were none. Agenda number four, public hearing on the fiscal year 2027 budget for the Public Works Authority and miscellaneous funds.

Mary, you'll need to open the public hearing. Yes.

All right, A on. Agenda four is opening the public hearing. And then B, will be presentation by city manager Faulkner.

I have nothing different from what I've already done. Do you want to do it again? Yeah. I can if you'd like me to.

Okay. Comments from the, or will you see comments from the public and or council members? Tenny?

Chris.

Chris. Oh, really? You really got up. Oh, my gosh. Oh, my God. Sit down. Okay. All right. If there are no comments from the members of the gallery, and how about the council members? Anybody? No. Okay. All right. D, we will close public hearing.

Mr. Chairman, I move approval of Resolution 2026-23, adopting the fiscal year 2027 budget for the Guthrie Public Works Authority. Okay. We have a motion. We have a second.

Second. Either one, I don't care. I'm happy either way. We have a motion and a second.

All votes are in.

Cast your votes. Okay, unanimous approval for Resolution No. 2026-23, Adopting the Fiscal Year 2027 Budget. Item No. 6 is to the award of the bid number 2026-09-0. I think it's South Highway 105. State Highway. State Highway, sorry. 105, Waterline Relocation. Threw me off there, how the initials were. Waterline relocation. Do we have a motion for that? Mr. Medgar? Do you have something for us, Tenny?

Sure. First off, I apologize for stepping in a little bit late today, this evening.

Three hours.

Public notice for this was in the Guthrie News Leader July 15th and the 22nd of 2026 for bid number 2026-9. We had five bids received. They were read aloud August 6th, council chambers. Arrowhead Excavating, Guthrie, Oklahoma, put in a bid for $323,643.50. Heartland Utility Services out of Oklahoma City was $428,164.50. Luckin Bill Construction out of Edmond, Oklahoma, $437,000, excuse me, $95.00. Davenport Construction out of Edmond, Oklahoma, $459,421. And Marsu Enterprises out of Enid was $615,932.30. Recommend award to Lois Bitter Arrowhead Excavation out of Guthrie, Oklahoma. That's half of what the other guy, that last one you just read. So moved. Second. Okay, motion and second.

Further comments or questions for Mr. Maker, please cast your votes. Unanimous approval for the award bid number 2026-09 ODOT State Highway 105 waterline relocation. Item number seven, we are adjourned.