City Council - Regular Meeting

Hello, good evening.

Welcome to the February 23rd, 2026 meeting of the Stoer City Council. At this time, I will call the meeting to order and I'll ask that you all stand and join us in the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic [groaning] for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right. First up, proclamations and presentations. It is February. It is Black History Month, and I have a proclamation in recognition of Black History Month. And then I think we're going to talk a little bit about our um school project, the Washington School Project as well. uh with which has got an event coming up this week. So, first up, Black History Month, February 2026. Whereas, Black History Month is a time to honor, recognize, and celebrate the rich history, culture, achievements, and enduring contributions of African-Americans throughout our nation's history. And whereas the contributions of African-Americans have shaped our country and community in profound ways from advancing civil rights, strengthening unity, enriching culture, driving innovation, and expanding opportunities for generations. And whereas throughout Oklahoma and within the city of Stillwater, black leaders, educators, entrepreneurs, veterans, public servants, faith leaders, and families have been vital in building and sustaining a vibrant, resilient, and forward-looking community. And whereas Black History Month is an opportunity to reflect on the struggles and injustices faced throughout history and to celebrate the perseverance, leadership, and achievements that continue to move our community and nation forward. And whereas recognizing black history is essential to understanding the full American story and to fostering a community grounded in respect, inclusion, opportunity, and unity. Now,

therefore, I, William Joyce, mayor of the city of Stillwater, do hereby proclaim the month of February 2026 as Black History Month in Stillwater and encourage all residents to honor the legacy, celebrate the contributions, and reflect upon the history of African-Americans in our community and across the nation. Well, also I know we've got some representatives from our Washington School Foundation as well uh here because we've got um I think the event coming up this this weekend, right? Yeah. I saw I saw an email from Mr. Beum today. It was good news here that the gala is sold out, officially sold out uh for this Friday evening. And so that's exciting and it's a it's a great way to honor the Washington School and the foundation and that just the heritage of of the uh school. And so anyway, um there is if you still would like to make a donation, that is definitely needed. And Jim is shaking his head. Yes. Yes. Because there's a lot of great work as you can see the progress happening right now on 12th. We're all really excited to to finally see the original school and its beauty and just um and I think we all see the potential of that project. So, if you would like to give um the funds are going to the the restoration and the rehabilitation of that structure, you can find information at the Washingtonheritagefoundation.org and there's a link to give there. Is that correct, Mr. Spectrum? So, such an important part of the history of Stillwater and and it's a great way to honor it. So, we're excited for that that gala this week.

All right.

All right. All right. Well, let's uh we've got for representatives from the foundation or for folks that are here. We want to do a picture with our proclamation here. Hey, coach. I see you back there. [laughter] [applause] If you haven't been down 12 Street lately and seen the demolition work that's happened around uh the Washington School site um to expose that original 1938 structure which will be the the centerpiece of of the restoration effort. Uh you should go by there because it is a a really cool building and it's going to be a great uh great opportunity for us to bring that back into the life of our community. Mhm.

All right. Counselors, consent docket on item four. Questions, comments uh on the consent docket. I would like to pull item four item 4G. Item 4G is removed from the consent docket. Questions, comments, or action on the remaining items. Motion to approve the consent docket minus item 4G. Second.

We have a motion and a second to approve consent minus item G. Please vote with a vote of five to zero. Those consent docket items are approved. On item six, items removed from the consent docket. Councelor Clark, uh, this is an item to uh, approve a memorandum of understand or agreement with FEMA and the reason I asked to pull this is the document's not in the packet because much of it is subject to um, being exempt. it's it's uh for official use only and not subject to the Freedom of Information Act and so we can't allow the public to see the document. However, uh I think we have an important topic here. People understand what we're doing, why we're doing it, what it's going to cost us and the back the benefit we're going to see from this. So I asked if it could be pulled and Rob Hill is here.

All right. Good evening.

Good evening. Rob Hill, emergency management director. So, iPaw is the integrated public alert warning system. That is the same system that you receive amber alerts, silver alerts, blue alerts um on your phone, you see on TV, you hear on the on the radio. And as a result of March 14th, 2025, um we looked at mitigation measures that would help us better be connected and communicate with our community. And one of the things that we said was we need to be able to activate iPublic safety had disability for quite a while. Um and we wanted to tap into that. So we reached out to them and asked them, "How do you do this? um what are the requirements? So, our office staff um went through, we took the classes, we took the tests, we learned how to operate, how to activate, we learned who the players were in the process. Um submitted our certificates to um Motorola Solutions, what is now owner the owner of the Rave mass notification system that we currently possess with a small setup fee of $1,200. Um, we will take this agreement, we will submit it to FEMA with signatures. They will turn that feature set on for us in our mass notification system. Now, I want to be clear this this our mass notification system doesn't go away. We still use it. It still functions as we currently use it, but the participants that will benefit from that are the opt-in participants. We can't force that on people. But with iPences, we can alert the community. Um, we can be very targeted in where we activate this system. So, basically, you you log

in, you go to a map, you geoence an area. So, for example, referring back to March 14th, we would target that entire area that was um under threat of fire. We would notify them and send this message out to them. And then basically it tells them who's sending the message, what the threat is, what we want them to do as a result of it, where we want them to go if it's an evacuation notice, and um we can continue to update them through the process through this and then even to the point that the event is over. Um then in addition to communicate better and quicker, we can notify our entire community. So we notify the people that are most at threat first. Then we go back notify the entire community and let them know what is occurring to avoid those areas. Stay away from that location. Um we can notify them of shelter locations. We can notify them of of of many many things. Whatever we feel is necessary for them to protect themselves and their property in the future.

And to to be clear, this is not an opt-in opt out thing. You're if if you're in the geoenced area, you're going to receive these messages and we're not going to use it for, hey, we've got a big activity in the park this weekend. This is for emergency purposes. For emergency purposes. That's correct. Now, I I say this is for you that um we can send this to you, but you can turn Amber Alerts off. You can turn silver alerts off. So, if if the recipient has those features turned off in their phone, they will not receive them, but they can't opt in or out of Still Water messages. They're they're all in or all out. That's right. Okay.

That's right. I'm glad you pulled that because that is a good explanation and it's a good uh I think there were a lot of folks in town last year who felt like we were surprised that we didn't already have that and we all learned a little bit about how these systems actually work and um it's not something that is automatic and the fact that you all have put in the time and effort and the training to be prepared so that we can utilize this system going forward is is really important and we appreciate that. So, just a little tidbit here. This is just one of two big steps that we've taken in our office. You'll see the second step next month when we present to you. Um, and you'll see um something else additional that we've done as a mitigation measure in the community that will bring in Dawn's component. It'll bring in leadership's component. It'll also bring in public safety's component to better keep the community aware more in real time. But we're going to save that one for next time.

All right. Very good, Rob. Thanks. Thank you, Rob. Do you have action on the item, Council? I do. I approve approval of item 4G. Second. We have a motion and a second to approve item 4G. Please vote.

It's approved with a vote of 5 to zero. That takes us to item seven on the agenda, resolutions. 7A is resolution number CC-2026-3, a resolution of the Stoer City Council approving the submission of an application for fiscal year 2027 highway safety grant funds from the Oklahoma Highway Safety Office to be used by the Stillwater Police Department for impaired driving enforcement and authorizing the mayor or vice mayor to execute any related grant documents. This resolution approves submission of a grant application for federal fiscal year 2027 highway safety grant funds for equipment and personnel overtime expenses for impaired driving enforcement for the Stillwater Police Department. Approval of this resolution will authorize a grant application in the amount of $37,218 for that program and it also authorizes the mayor or vice mayor to sign related grant documents. There is no required cost share for this grant. I find it um well, this is great. I'm glad we're doing this. I'm not sure why we have to get council approval to ask for $37,000 with no match, but I'm happy to approve it or I'm happy to hear if the council would like to. Counselors, questions, comments, or action on the resolution.

Motion to adopt resolution number CC-2026-3. Second.

We have a motion, a second. Please vote. Resolutions approve with a vote of 5 to zero. And I'm glad that we approved the ability for us to go ask for $37,000 and no match. Item 7B is resolution CC-2026-4, a resolution of the store city council and the city of Stillwater approving I'm sorry, resolution of the city council of the city of Stillwater approving the bookend hotel redevelopment agreement by and among the Startwater Economic Development Authority, the city of Stillwater and Republic Properties LLC. So this resolution will approve the bookend hotel redevelopment agreement between the city CEDA and Republic Properties LLC. This redevelopment agreement is in connection with the action taken by CEDA on January 26 to approve development assistance financing to Republic Properties LLC in an amount not to exceed 1 million paid in a rears. Approval of this resolution approves the redevelopment agreement and also directs um the mayor and um and center for economic development law which is our economic development special counsel to prepare, negotiate, finalize and execute any other necessary documents to implement and carry out the terms of the redevelopment agreement.

Counselors questions, comments, or action on the resolution? Motion to adopt resolution CC-2026-4.

Second. We have a motion and a second to adopt. Please vote. The vote 5 to zero. The resolution is adopted. Item eight is ordinances on first read ordinance number 3593 an ordinance amending the store city code by amending chapter 29 motor vehicles and traffic article one in general by creating section 29-18 prohibition on the use of dynamic braking devices repealing all ordinances to the contrary and providing for severability. So this ordinance um is a new code provision. It would prohibit the use of dynamic braking, also known as Jake braking, except for the purpose of avoiding imminent danger or in the case of a wheel brake failure. Um passing this ordinance is the first step for the city working with ODOT to identify areas on state highways that may require signage and enforcement of this ordinance.

Thank you. I will just note that um in speaking with one of our hotel or hotel one of our homeowners associations here in town, they asked for no Jakebreak signs around their neighborhood and we have to pass this ordinance first so that we can put those up. So questions, comments on the ordinance or action counselors. Motion to advance ordinance number 3593 to second read. Second.

We have a motion, a second to advance the ordinance. Please vote. With a vote of 5 to zero, ordinance 3593 is advanced to second reading. On second reading, we have ordinance 3590, an ordinance amending the store city code, chapter 23, land development code, article 1, general provisions. Section 23-7, definitions. Article 5, use categories and limitations. Division 1 generally section 23-96 definitions. Article 6 land use classifications division 3 residential districts. Section 23-140 RMI multif family intermediate district. and section 23-141 RMU multif family urban district and article 9 landscaping screening and environmental standards section 23-230 generally repealing all ordinance to the contrary and providing for separability counselors

I move adoption of ordinance 3590

second motion a second to advance or excuse me to adopt the ordinance please vote ordinance 3590 is adopted with a vote of 5 to zero item B is ordinance 35 592, an ordinance amending the store city code by creating a new chapter 30 municipal code lean enforcement creating section 30-1 adoption of the municipal code lean enforcement act of 2025 creating section 30-2 definitions creating section 30-3 code violation fees and cost enforce in REM owner occupied property exception priority creating section 30-4 inrem foreclosure of municipal code leans creating 30-5 code enforcement identification of properties petition Notice repealing all ordinances the contrary and providing for severability. Counselors

motion to adopt ordinance number 3592. Second. We have a motion and a second to adopt the ordinance. Please vote with a vote of five to zero. That ordinance is adopted. That takes us down to reports. Miss Carley,

request for an executive session pursuant to 25os [clears throat] section 307B4 for the purpose of confidential communications between the city council and its attorney concerning all aspects of litigation in Hosterman versus city of Stillwater at all United States Federal District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma. Case number CIV 24976 SLP. It is the opinion of the city attorney that disclosure of this matter will seriously impair the ability of the city council to conduct litigation and or proceed in the public interest. Thank you, Mr. Moore.

Yes. Uh mark your calendars for the city of Stillwater's annual trash off community cleanup event on Saturday, March 28th from 9:00 a.m. to noon. Uh this event empowers our volunteers to help uh keep Still Water clean. So, uh, work gloves, safety vests, and trash bags will be provided, and participants may receive a verified community service hours if if they wish. Um, an award will be presented to the group that collects the most trash. I wonder what that award looks like. Um, is it a trophy? Trash trophy. All right.

Individuals and groups who wish to participate must RSVP by March 25th. And to register, you can contact Chris Frank's um great city employee at 405-5338482 or complete the online RSVP form at stillwater.gov/trashoff. Always a good event. Councelor, excuse me, Vice Mayor Jowski.

The water wershed quality division is currently hosting its annual rain barrel event, giving residents the opportunity to purchase a rain barrel for conserving water and reducing storm water runoff. Rain barrels collect and store water from your roof, which can later be used to water lawns and gardens. Orders must be submitted online by April 26th or by April 24th if ordering by mail. The pickup event will take place on Saturday, May 2nd from 9:00 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the public works facility located at 707 East 8th Avenue. For more information, call Zach Henson at 405-5338436 or go online to stillwater.gov/rabarrelar.

I always like to point out on this when this comes up every year that rain barrels fill up faster than you think when a when a roof full of water is filling them up. So, be sure to be thinking about overflow planning so that uh you don't just have water gushing off the top of your barrel all night long. I feel like you speak from experience. I do. Yes. Good advice, Council Hawkins.

Uh, the city is accepting applications for various committees, including the Board of Drainage Appeals, Stillwater Public Art, Building Trades Board, and more. Committees are essential for development and infrastructure projects within our community. If you would like to get involved in local government and make Still Water even greater, please consider serving on one of these comm one of these committees, excuse me. For more information or to apply, go to stillwater.govcitizen boards. And I would say one um I'm always grateful for the citizens we have that um do serve on these boards. They are so important. And for people who ask, how can I get involved with city government? This is a great way to um learn more and and be involved.

Absolutely. Thank you, Councelor Clark. With the arrival of wildfire season, we want to remind residents that weather conditions in Oklahoma can change quickly and increase fire danger. High wind gusts, low relative humidity, and elevated temperatures can all contribute to rapid fire spread. Before conducting any controlled burn, we strongly encourage you to contact the Stowater Fire Department. This simple step can prevent unintended wildfires while protecting lives, property, and natural resources. For updates, safety information, and seasonal fire guidance, follow Stillwater Fire Department on Facebook and Instagram at STW Fire or call one of our stations.

Really, really good information. Appreciate that. And I think we one of the things we saw this week or within the last week or so, the fire department posted some um on social media about avoiding burning if you could. Um we don't have control of things like burn bans at the city, right? Uh but hopefully people understand that just because there's not a burn ban doesn't mean it's safe to burn things. Uh so that advice about contacting the fire department if you're going to do a controlled burn or if you want to you do need to do some sort of burning check. Even if there's not a burn ban, please council hard.

It is that time of year to file taxes and the Still Water Public Library is offering assistance. Community members can schedule appointments for free for free tax prep services from the American Association of Retired Persons, which is AARP, online at stillwater.gov/ library taxes or by calling 4053723633 extension 8103. Appointments are available now through April 7th. Stillwater Poke Library is located at 11:07 South Duck.

Thanks, sir. Uh I will let you know and remind you that the annual Midsouth Endurance Festival and the affiliated events will be here in Startwater March 2nd, March 12th through 14th. Uh and will include the half marathon and a 50k ultra run for crazy people. [laughter] We are excited to welcome all of the Midsouth visitors and friends and west wish them all the best of luck. There will be road closures in various areas of town during the race and traffic may be congested at times. We ask that everyone allow additional travel time and keep an eye out for cyclists, runners, and walkers in and near roadways. Many thanks to Bobby and Crystal and their entire team for organizing this annual event and all the hard work they put into it. Thanks to our city departments and the county, the county um county sheriff's office and so many others who help uh make sure this is a fun-filled and safe weekend. Uh for a schedule of all the events, you can go to midsouthgravel.com. Uh, I'll also note that as part of that, uh, there is a documentary screening. Actually, they're doing it during the event, but, uh, you can all go see, uh, a documentary on March 1st at the Stillwater Community Center called Together We Are Heavy, which is about last year's wildfires and the response. Uh, they did happen during Midsouth weekend last year. And so, there were a lot of folks from outside of our community that were in town, a lot of people, a lot of media that was here, a lot of people that were filming as part of Midsouth. And so they've got a lot of um really interesting footage and been working a lot over the last year on putting together a featurelength documentary that I'm I'm really excited to see. Uh and I think our community will be u very proud to see as well. So March 1st 3 p.m. at the community center in the um uh in the theater uh there's a screening of Together We Are Heavy. You can see it again during Midsouth weekend as well. All right. At this time, I will move that we recess the city council prior to item 11 on the agenda.

Second. We have a motion and a second to recess city council. Please vote. With a vote of 5 to zero, the story city council will now be in recess. And I will call to order the store economic development authority meeting for February 23rd, 2026. Trustees, there's one item on the consent docket. Is there action? Motion to approve consent docket.

Second motion and a second to approve consent. Please vote. The vote of five to zero. The consent docket is approved. Under general orders 5A is the visit to water semianual report. We're blessed to have Christie and uh the team Nicole here to uh to do the report. Usually we have one of your your board members here. Would you couldn't corral them into the the meeting tonight? Well, they were out of town or out of the country. And um also out of Still Water, I hope. Do what? Yes. Actually, yes. [laughter]

And uh Okay. And also, it's the first time to do a report for the airport. Do what now? Push the mic a little further away. There you go. Move it over a little bit.

It was It was a little hot. It's the first time he's told something. [laughter] Most people we have to ask to speak up. That's fair. [laughter] Okay. So, I'm Christy Morrison with Visit Stillwater. I'm president, CEO. Nicole Horn is vice president and director of sales. [clears throat] I'm so sorry. I feel like I have the sneezing attack really welling up on me. So, I'm trying to hold it in here. I know most of you, well, I know all of you know, most people know that we're an economic development organization that also contributes greatly to the local quality of life. We attract thousands of visitors a year for state, regional, national events. We um help about 250 local hospitality industry businesses with their marketing as well as over 2,000 events a year. We do that through our website. We invest a lot of resources into our website which is time and money but also it's where our local calendar lives. It's also where we have a very interactive map system that we have put together for all of the core commercial districts. We also have a lot of landing pages for various organizations and events. We also if you've gone to the calendar or to the website you'll see that every page has a lot of pictures. Those pictures are actually pictures from our visitors and our residents that hashtag visitstoater. We have a way to aggregate all those so that our visitors and residents are also telling our story on our behalf which has a lot of value to it. We are very active on social media. We have over 40,000 followers. We uh distribute a e newsletter every month that has about well all we're getting close to 10,000 subscribers which is outstanding. We do a still in the then no postcard which is

mailed to our retailers and our res and our re um dining establishments because they want to know how many staff they should have. They're not going to know off the top of their head if there's 5,000 extra fifth graders or 2,000 people in for one of Carolyn's uh baseball tournaments. So, it's how they plan their hospitality, their hostess stand, their waiters, front desk clerks, uh convenience stores, people that are working because it doesn't do us any good to bring in tons of visitors if they don't have a great experience when they're here. We um co-host a live local television show most weekday mornings. We do radio three mornings a week. We write several blogs and get those out. We write a monthly column for the news press. We produce at least four rack cards. Those go in racks every every year. And um we also this year produced one for the one for the Still Wonder Children's Museum on their behalf. Uh we're excited to probably do another couple of those for some other organizations that have some children's activities and some other things that are going on that will help visitors as and residents alike. We produce a monthly 60-second uh promo video that Nicole stars in and that features usually seven to eight different attractions, businesses, hospitality related businesses. We produce a quarterly 30-se secondond commercial and that's for the city, the chamber and visit to use also the airport to use and it's to help get the word out. Also, there's times where we might get a call from ESPN, Fox Sports, any of these people, and they're like, "Hey, do you have a 30 second commercial in the can?" And at any given moment, we do. So, we're able to pro provide those at at a moment's notice. And a lot of times, we get some free publicity as a result of just having those ready to go. In the last six months, we've displayed

49 banners and 312 event flyers in our 247 event uh information center. We've coordinated already two of our four shop locally, fly locally campaigns with uh crazy days last July as well as over the holidays that generated $85,000 in sales and $77,000 in sales. In fact, we have a bonus one going on right now for America 250. We started it on President's Day last Monday. So, if you did any shopping in Stillwater, that's any shopping that generated a sales tax. So, groceries, gasoline, any of the local shops last President's Day through Sunday. If you submit those receipts to us by Friday at 5:00 of this week, um you're eligible for to enter in for one for one entry in for every $50 spent for one of five 250 American Airlines gift cards. This is just a really good way to remind people of the importance of shopping locally, but also to fly in and out of the Stillwater Regional Airport. We are super excited about all the activities over the holidays. Visit Stillwater was a proud sponsor of all the candy before the parade. We also purchased the Christmas tree at Chris Semon Plaza. We uh also ch uh partnered with the chamber to split the cost of the drone show. We have some really good ideas of how to expand virtually all of those things for this year. So, we're excited to be able to tell you about those things coming up. We also are a primary economic development partner and work closely with Carrie Moore at the chamber. We worked with her as well as Kelly Reid with the airport on Oklahoma Department of Commerce community marketing partnership program grant. And primarily that's going to be used for several different things, but one that I'm very excited about, this was Car's idea, is that we're going to use a lot of that money to offer incentives to local workforce to fly in potential employees if they fly in and out of the Stillwater Regional Airport. They're eligible to be

reimbursed for some of that cost so they can bring in that talent, but also we're going to help make that happen. Visit Stillwater is also now the breakfast sponsor of the quarterly manufacturers count manufacturers council meeting to once again remind them of the importance of utilizing the Stillwater regional airport. And then uh Carrie was nice enough to move the economic development meetings. Those were set during um when the visits to water board meetings have been occurring for four decades now and she moved it off that date so that we can attend those and so we've been really getting a lot of out of those meetings. Super excited. Don and I received a kind of a confirmed logo today. The OSU and the OSU athletic department are going to brand the week of the boys from Oklahoma concert stoked musicfest.

It's a cool really cool logo. We're excited about that. And at the board meeting last Thursday, the board approved money to for visit Still Water to offset the cost of transportation so that we can get our visitors and our residents from Boonpicken Stadium and the three core commercial districts easily around the community the whole day on April 11th. So, we'll be uh securing that transportation so athletics and those core commercial districts can coordinate the drop off and the pickup locations. But we think that'll make it a lot easier for people to experience a lot more of our community. Last year they came and were predominantly at Boom Pickin Stadium and this year there's a concerted effort to get those visitors in and all around the community while they're here. Tomorrow we have a meeting for wayfinding then signage project. We're super excited about that. We have a preliminary list of locations. So super excited to be able to talk about where that first set of signs need to go. We're really um looking forward to really enhancing that appearance and I think once we get the signage changed up. That's going to be a very positive outlook or a positive reflection of our community for visitors who are coming in. The visitor tax looks a little skewed because it's showing at the end of December 19% behind the same time last year. That's because last year in December, one of the um companies collecting visitor tax, they were about two and a half years behind on the new new amount from 4 to 7%. So, it's going to take about 10 months for those numbers to actually be reflective, to be able to compare them a little bit month-to-month, but if you kind of look at what the previous years were doing, we're probably on trend. Um, since since uh that tax was increased fiscal year 23, uh the visitor tax has generated over $7 million. Over $2.1 million of that is for visitor

development and residential amenities. And then the amount over the contracted amount for Visit Stillwater, we're anticipating, well, right at the end of last fiscal year, it was $818,000. But by the end of this coming um fiscal year, it's going to be over a million dollars, which is great because then that could pay for the wayfinding. So basically, the visitors are paying for a positive experience for future visitors. And then on top of that, the city was able to collect $4 million in sales tax. So clearly visitors make a big impact on on the local economy and our quality of life through being able to contribute to toward essential services, infrastructure, and those types of things. So far this year, we've approved almost $60,000 in grants and sponsorships, which equates to about 11,000 day visitors, about 2,000 overnight visitors, and about $3 million in visitor spending. And those numbers are just for those groups I'm referring to that received the grants. On top of that, we we assisted about 775 events. That's sometimes just entering their event on a calendar, but majority of the time it's also promoting them on radio, on TV, our website, providing visitor guides, providing a welcome to their event, and many other things. The geoca the geol location information is really interesting to us. It shows that 30 that $35 was the average daily spend by visitors. And while the visitor spin is on a is actually down nationwide, I know we're all hearing that we actually were above the market trends. While lower than last year, it still was not near the impact as it was for other communities. So, this is what's really cool to us. If you take out the big box stores, gas stations, um, uh, hotel chains, and it's just the locallyowned businesses. Visitors been at local businesses. all of those local

businesses was 60%. And then visitor spend at restaurants was 27%. At retailers was 59% and at the arts, entertainment and attractions which makes sense is 67% because that's majority of visitors. So that shows us that visitors are very very important to the success of our local businesses especially those mom and pop shops. Hey Christie, um talk a little bit because we're a college town and we have college students that make up a a significant portion of the population for at least nine months. Um talk about how college students are included in that particular metric.

No, that's an excellent question. So this is this is what is a unique for uh college towns is with Zardico the company that we use you are a visitor until your device has been in market for two weeks. So our numbers will be skewed in August and January for two weeks because they're still considered a visitor until they've been in market for two weeks. Now having said that those that Nicole put up there those numbers they're actually low because a visitor is also defined as somebody who originates outside 50 miles of Stillwater and in reality Perkins Cushing Drumright Yale they're visitors to our community they're not residents so those numbers are really low. We're work we and some other smaller communities where we are kind of the metro for Pang County. We're we're working with them to come up with some other ways to really do some measurements that show that those communities those are visitor dollars to our community. So you you just have to eb and flow. Now also the zarico data is geared 100% to the travel and tourism industry. In fact, we spent a lot of hours inputting um different districts and what we consider an attraction and points of interest and and so it's um it's fascinating to watch that eb and flow, but it's also important, Christy, like you said, to know when you're a visitor, when you're not a visitor, and what is considered a visitor.

Thank you. So, if I go on vacation for two or three weeks and then come back, am I a visitor or am I Does it recognize that I've been here for 23 years? You will be a visitor until you've been back for two weeks. Okay. Yep.

Which I mean, it's going to take you two weeks to get back into [laughter] But I mean, there's there's no other way to really do it. You have to stay consistent. So, it that's true of any of these data data point systems. Does anybody else have questions on that stuff? Do you want me to go ahead and start with the airport information? Okay. So, it's been a pleasure working with Kelly and her staff at the airport and with Dawn Dodson with um the city and the because we've just had a really good time with this. We know how to promote the community as a whole, but the airport market is a whole different ballgame and it's been great to be able to it's always been a part of our marketing plan, but to really ingrain it into absolutely everything we do. We weren't quite sure how to construct the the report and and to track everything that we're doing. So, we thought the best way to do it and the easiest way to do it would be to divide it up into advertising, promotions, public relations, social media, website, and campaigns because that was really the best way we could figure out how to be able to track everything that we're doing. In fact, the minute we printed this, we thought of about a dozen other things that we forgot that we need to add, which will be in the annual one. but it's the first time to put one together and so I thought um Meline and Nicole did a really great job putting all that together. We can we continue to do the visitor information stands in both the inbound bound and the outbound terminals. Also pro provide the free gourmet coffee bar which we know people enjoy because I get texts about 5:30 most mornings. Hey, thanks for the coffee. So I think that's pretty fun. We helped with their SWO home for the holidays events over over Christmas. And while the kiddos were meeting and having conversations with Santa, the parents were entering in to win one of $500 American Airlines gift cards. But it was great because it made them more aware that we were the option or we the best option to fly in and out. Obviously, the event's going to be even more amazing this year in the new

terminal. So, we're super excited to be able to expand upon that. We host a quarterly what we call a marketing team and kind of brainstorming session and in that we have obviously Kelly in the airport, we have the city, we have OSU, OSU athletics, uh, Cowboy sports property, the alumni association, and really Nicole and I are like, okay, what are you guys doing to help us market and promote the airport that's important to all of us? And we've had some really great brainstorming sessions that I don't think we would have come up with if we weren't all in the same room having these conversations. So, one of the ideas we had was we worked with Cowboy Sports Properties and they donated two tickets to the Iowa OSU wrestling duel last night. We provided a $500 American Airline gift card. It was online for 30 days and there were over 4,000 people who entered to win. That is a lot of reach for 30 days work. Um, they had another promotion last year that was with a Oklahoma based business for 12 months and they had fewer entries than we had in 30 days. So, we're not competitive or anything, but I think that shows a lot about [laughter]

I know we are.

That shows a lot about OSU uh OSU wrestling, but also about I think getting the word out to people and they like any excuse to come to Still Water. So, we're excited about that. through our uh partnership with the alumni association. We're also doing their we did their um and still doing it for another week their February app appreciation month. So anybody who joins the alumni association online, they're entered to win American Airlines gift cards, but that was another excuse for us to let alumni know that you can fly directly in and out of Still Water on American Airlines. Then also they are hosting a an alumni event down in the Dallas Fort Worth area and the alumni association donated two um sweet tickets to the Texas Tech game and we are providing the roundtrip airfare. So because of that it's not a silent auction item. It's going to be a live auction item. So we're going to the um Still Water Regional Airport is going to be mentioned from the podium many times throughout that evening with decision makers and people in that market. So we're super excited about that. And then also the Posi auction that's coming up in April. So, we'll do a a carry-on piece of luggage and then, you know, the neck pillow and the blankets and the munchies and the travel packages and put in a um gift card in that as well. So, once again, all the people from out of town that attend that auction, if they didn't already know, they will definitely know before leaving that they could be flying in and out of Stillwater directly from the Stillwater Regional Airport. One of the things that we came up with last year that we're super excited that we were able to launch is something called Win Your Wings. And we made that available to all 15 chambers within the Stillwater Regional Airport catchment area. And we've already had five agree to partner with us. That's Guthrie, Cushing, Sand Springs, Still Water, and Enid. And basically those chambers are promoting our air service on our behalf to their entire membership. When they collect a 100 boarding passes, which is

really 50 people if you're traveling round trip, they're going to collect all those and every quarter after they collect a hundred, they're eligible to to draw one winner. So that chamber member in their chamber will win a $500 American Airlines gift card and then Visit Stillwater will cut that chamber a $500 check for marketing and promoting our air service on our behalf to go to whatever program they want to go to. I got to tell you, these small chambers, Cushing is blowing it out of the ballpark. If I had to pay for what she's already done, it would have cost us easily, I don't know, $3 to $5,000. It's everywhere. So, some of I think some of the smaller communities are going to open it up to all of their residents. Some of the communities, it's just going to be for their chamber members, but that's up to them because they are doing the marketing for us, and we love that. We're going to be going to a lot of their events. we're going to be draw doing the drawings at their communities just because if if they know that that flying in and out of Still Water is available, I think that they'll choose us over maybe going to one of the metros for sure. So, we're super excited about that. I had no idea that Langston had a chamber. It's kind of a kind of like Perkins. It's not a bricks and mortar, but because of this, found out about it, found out they're having a second annual rodeo in April. So, we're going to put a banner on the rodeo arena reminding people at Langston, their staff, faculty, staff, students to fly in and out of Still Water. It's a whole lot easier than Oklahoma City. So, they're super excited about that partnership as well. Then Kelly and I, we traveled to two events over the past six months and really to learn from other um airport personnel and and employees and from my standpoint about marketing, but also we met with American Airlines again and a few other airlines about our current service and and maybe any sort of potential service in the future. But being in front of those folks and I'll tell you going to those I realized Kelly is very well respected in this industry and we're super lucky to have her. There's no doubt about it.

And of course we all know I could go on for a long long long time. Um when we added it up what we did is we we have what we paid and what we earned. So there's we we put a value to a lot of the things that we've done very conservatively. So over the past six months we provided uh about $400,000 in marketing services both paid and earned for the airport. So, we're super excited about that trend and I think a lot of it is due in great part to Nicole's 10 years and my more than 10 years of partnerships that a lot of people are really happy to partner with us and I think they want to be part of the success of the airport as well.

Excellent. Counselors questions, excuse me, trustees questions. Christie, there's a lot of really good information in these two reports. Um, and you know, we are as as as a a board of trustees, we're investing in the community through our partnership with Visit Stillwater. I think the community would really benefit from seeing these reports. Are they available on your website someplace? They are. If you go to You want to show them?

Uh, we always keep the current year and the previous two years on our website. If you go to I always just go to the you can go there or even just the homepage at the very bottom about us and you click on if they're all at the very bottom you can click on them at any time. It's always going to have our business plan semianual report annual report and of course moving forward I'll have the airport reports as well. Terrific.

I also noted Go ahead. Sorry you're so excited. We're excited too. Thank you so much for all the work that you're doing. Something else I noticed that if it was in here before, I didn't notice it. You and I talked about this this morning, is is still out of Minnesota. There's a reference to the confusion that always happens between the two communities and you've actually reached out and tried to partner with them a little bit. Can you talk about that?

Yeah, we have. So, they're they're structured much differently than we are. Um, we're very small, but they're smaller. There's one person there. Um, and she she runs it a little differently than we do, but what we're trying to come up with is maybe um a trip from from Stillwater to their Minnesota and vice versa to kind of just keep doing it, making it fun. Um, I think it will also since we have direct air service into Still Water, theirs is about 30 minutes outside of Still Water. But we we've been doing some videos. We sent them a whole box full of all kinds of orange stuff and vice versa. They got pictures in our in theirs. We the same thing. So, we're trying to build upon that for sure because we just think it'd be fun. We do get calls for them all the time. So, we might as well play upon that.

Well, I met the mayor of Soda Minnesota at a mayor's event in Washington DC earlier this year, uh Ted Kazowski, and uh I'm friends with him now on Facebook. So, we've talked a little bit. We've talked about having a, you know, doing some exchange kind of things. It's really confusing because he puts stuff on Facebook and it doesn't say like Sto Minnesota. It just like the other night they had fireworks downtown for Winterfest or something because they actually have winter there. Um, yes, they do. And I was like [laughter] fireworks at Still Water? What is going on?

Oh, Still Water, Minnesota. So, it's confusing me now, right? When we were [clears throat] finally able to connect with them, it was a little late in the game, but we really really want to give away a pair of tickets to their January, which is probably where those fireworks were happening, but or was it February, but they have a huge ice sculpture contest, and it's not just it's international. So, I mean, it is humongous. And so why would we not want to piggy back on their success to get people more knowledgeable about Stillwater Oklahoma and the fact that you can fly directly in and out of here as well at the same time. So we're pretty excited that I think she's open to any suggestions we come up with.

Uh I was surprised that the report doesn't include our um Lyall Love it posting about the store airport on his Instagram page after he was here a couple weeks ago. I thought a good win for both. He mentioned how great the people at the airport were, but also had a picture of the mural. So, the power of public art and the mural on the outside of Stillwater Airport, but he posted about how that's awesome. Flew out of Still Water. So, that was

So, just because we're talking here, we're we're getting testimonials. So, if any of you would like to provide us a testimonial, we're finding individuals that have flown in and out of Still Water who will do a radio commercial for us, we'll write it. All you have to do is provide us bullet points. We'll write the radio commercial. Then we're going to want to head shot and we're going to start doing social media posts with basically the verbiage from the radio commercial. And then we'll probably also be doing some head shot with kind of the bubble combo in some of our advertising. So we really want other people besides just Kelly, Nicole, Meline, and me. You know, we want people who've used the service to also help us. We've we've already run four of those testimonial type radio ads and people really liked it. In fact, Santa Claus recorded one for us and he he said that when the sleigh was down and the reindeer needed some some help and some rest that he used to Regional Airport. So, if Santa will use it, anybody will use it, right, Kelly? [laughter]

I I'll add one thing real quick before we wrap up. As I say this often to people, but you hear, "Well, there's nothing to do in Still Water." Go to the visit Stillwater calendar. They have the best calendar on their website. I just counted as you're talking. There's 97 events this week uh listed on your website through Sunday. So, and that doesn't capture everything. So, I I bookmark it in my Safari as one of my pages. I I clicked you. I recommend that because it there is so much going on in Stillwater and your website and the uh calendar is terrific. Thank you. And great resource for people who are new to town and trying to get involved in things and that brings up a great point because organizations can add their events to your calendar. Can you talk about how they can do that?

Yeah, super easy. If you just Nicole will show you, but all you have to do is click on events. It'll let you enter in your own event. What's great about this too is as a visitor or a resident, you can you can search events by date, date range, type of event, area of town, and you just enter it in there. In fact, it'll allow you to enter your own event and a graphic for your event. And we would really encourage people to do that because then it's just fed to Nicole and Meline. they go in kind of change it sometimes into our voice and then it we shoot it on there. And so it just the more people that would do that the better it would be for us because it gives people more incentive to come to Stillwater but also it really helps sometimes when we have visitor events in town it gives them a knowledge base of what's going on for local events and a lot of times we can merge a visitor event with a local event and really help those local events become more successful. And if your event is a three or four day event and you put in that range, it'll drop it on every date, not just the first date.

Exactly. That's Thank you. That that's a good clarification. And a lot of different DMO calendars won't do that. So, we wanted to make sure it would just because we know our community pretty well and some people don't come in when it starts. So, you have to have it for every day that it's occurring. Did I forget anything, Kelly? Okay. You want to say anything? It's kind of awkward sometimes representing her airport.

Hi there, uh, Kelly Reid, airport director. I just wanted to thank Visit Stillwater, to thank Chrissy and Nicole and her whole team for the outstanding support they've been giving us this year. It's a new transition to having them support our airport marketing and they've just I'm blown away monthly with what they do and the new ideas. um and specifically with Christiey's outstanding support when we go to air service development events um helping us gear what we're looking for and u speak to and build relationships with American Airlines and with other airlines to help us build that service. So, we're very grateful for what they do and the um the outstanding development it's bringing and I'm confident that our um airport marketing and advertising is what's going to help us grow our air service and sustain it into the future with their help.

That's great. Excellent. Thank you, Christy Nicole. Thanks for being here. Thank you. Appreciate the report. Appreciate all the hard work. Trustees, that takes us to item six, resolutions. Resolution number CEDA-2026-1, a resolution of the store economic development authority approving the bookend Hotel Redevelopment Agreement by and among the Startwater Economic Development Authority, the city of Stillwater and Republic Properties. This is the sister resolution from the council. Questions, comments, or action on the resolution? I move adoption of ordinance CEDA 2026-1. The resolution, sorry. Second.

We have a motion and a second to adopt the resolution. Please vote. The vote of 5 to zero. That resolution is adopted. With nothing further on the agenda, is there a motion to adjurnn? Motion to second. We have a motion, a second to adjurnn. Seeda, please vote. With a vote of 5 to zero, the store order economic development authority is now adjourned. This time I will call to order the store utilities authority meeting for February 23rd, 2026. Trustees on the consent docket. Questions, comments, or action. Motion to approve the consent docket. Second. We have a motion and second to approve consent, please vote.

Vote of five to zero. The consent docket is approved. And there is nothing else on this agenda. Is there a motion to adjurnn? So moved. Second. We have a motion and a second to adjurnn. SUA. Please vote. With a vote of 5 to zero. The store utilities authority meeting is now adjourned. At this time, I will reconvene the store city council meeting at item 11 on the agenda. Is there a motion to enter an executive session for the uh purpose requested by the city attorney? So moved.

Second. We have a motion and a second to enter executive session. Please vote. The vote of five to zero. The Sor City Council will now enter executive session. [clears throat] Is there a motion to reconvene in regular session? Motion to reconvene. Second. We have a motion and second to reconvene store city council. Please call the role. Mayor Joyce, yes. Vice Mayor Jowski, yes. Councelor Hawkins, yes. Councelor Clark, yes. Councelor Harden, yes.

The vote of 5 to zero. We're now back in regular session toward city council and we have recommended action from the executive session. Uh, yes. Recommend action to appoint council representatives for participation in a judicial judicial settlement conference regarding Hustman versus City of Stillwater at all. I move to appoint Mayor Joyce and Vice Mayor Jalowski as council representatives for the judicial settlement conference in the matter of Hosman versus city of Stillwater at all. Second. We have a motion and a second. Please call the role. Mayor Joyce, yes. Vice Mayor Dowski, yes. Councelor Hawkins, yes. Councelor Clark, yes. Councelor Harden, yes.

The motion passes with a vote of five to zero. Any further action? Is there a motion to adjurnn? So moved. Second. We have a motion and a second to adjurnn the city council. Please call the role. Mayor Joyce, yes. Vice Mayor Jalowski? Yes. Councelor Hawkins? Yes. Councelor Clark? Yes. Councelor Harden? Yes. With a vote of five to zero, the store city council is now adjourned. And that concludes our meetings for the evening.