City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening everybody. Before we get started, um Russ Wales from Houston Community Church is going to offer us with a word of prayer and we'll have a flag salute and then I'm going to call the city council meeting to order.

All right. Please join me in prayer. Lord God, our our desire is for you to lead this assembly this evening. So God, would you set our hearts and minds on the things that are good and pleasing to you? God, may the the good things of your kingdom be the things that we pursue. Uh we pray for your righteousness. We pray for your justice. Pray for your love, your joy, your peace. God, um may we pursue collectively all of those things. And God, we we just thank you for the many blessings we see in El Reno. God, you continue to lead our town. And so uh and and take care of our town. And uh we thank you. And Lord, may we uh continue to uh steward well um all that you have given us here. Lord, we thank you for these uh servants who have said yes to being leaders here in El Reno. God, would you guide them? Would you give them wisdom? Would you give them a spirit of unity uh would you give them the courage uh to make the right best decisions um for all citizens and ultimately that gives you glory. God, we lay all this before you and ask that you lead this time for your glory. We pray. Amen.

Amen. Russ, thank you. Join with me in the flag salute. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. It's now 5:32 and I call the Eleno City Council regular meeting of Tuesday, December 9th, 2025 to order. Roll call starting with No. No. We have swearing in before we have roll call. Judge King. Do you just do it right here?

Yeah. Where? Wherever you'd like to. Do his brothers first. Okay. You stand raising your right hand. I Heather brothers I Heather brothers do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support obey and defend that I will support obey and defend the constit the Constitution of the United States the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Oklahoma and the Constitution of the State of Oklahoma and will discharge my duties and will discharge my duties of my office with fidelity of my office with fidelity that I have not paid that I have not paid or contributed or contributed either directly or indirectly either directly or indirectly. Any money or other valuable thing

any money or any other valuable thing to procure my election to procure my election except for necessary and proper except for necessary and proper expenses expressly authorized by law expenses expressly authorized by law that I have not knowingly that I have not knowingly violated any election law violated any election law of the state of the state or procured it or cured it to be done by others on my behalf. to be done by others on my behalf. That I will not knowingly receive that I will not knowingly receive directly or indirectly directly or indirectly any money or valuable thing any money or valuable thing for the performance or non-performance for the performance or non-performance of any act or duty

of any act or duty pertaining to my office pertaining to my office other than the compensation allowed by law other than the compensation allowed by law. Congratulations Yes. I, Steve Jensen, I, Steve Jensen, do solemnly swear do solemnly do solemnly swear that I will support, obey, and defend that I will support, obey, and defend the Constitution of the United States the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Oklahoma and the Constitution of the State of Oklahoma and will discharge my duties of office and will discharge my duties of office with fidelity with fidelity. and that I have not paid and that I have not paid or contributed either directly or indirectly

or contributed either directly or indirectly any money or valuable thing any money or valuable thing to procure my election to procure my election except for necessary and proper expenses except for necessary and proper expenses expressly authorized by law expressly authorized by law that I have not knowingly that I have not knowingly violated any election law of the state violated any election law of the state or procur procured it or procured it to be done by others on my behalf to be done by others on my behalf that I will not knowingly receive that I will not knowingly receive directly or indirectly directly or indirectly any money or valuable thing any money or valuable thing for the performance or non-performance for the performance or non-performance of any act or duty of any act or duty

pertaining to my office pertaining to my office other than the compensation allowed by law other than the compensation allowed by law congratulations thank [applause]

Thank you. Marie, can you come up or I can come back there? You want to do the roll call? Okay. Yes. Yeah, let's do the roll call. I'm sorry. Councilman Ney here

proclamation.

You guys can This is a proclamation in honor and recognition of Mr. Herman Dipmar. Whereas Herman Dipmar was an exemplary member of our El Reno of our Elno for community serving in the army in the Philippine campaign during the SpanishAmerican War, he became a founding member of the SpanishAmerican War Veterans Camp. And whereas Mr. Dipmar was one of the original incorporators to bring the inner urban line connecting Oklahoma City to El Reno and served as secretary of the corporation in 1907. In his decades of work for Canadian Mills and Elevator Company and the Enid Milling Company, Herman created a nationally adopted system for accounting for mill operations. And whereas Mr. Herman Dipmar served El Reno as its first city manager in 1926, mayor from 1933 to 1939, state representative, president of the El Reno Chamber in 1926, and was a member of the Elks Lodge. Herman used his salary given for work as Arino city manager to build a park and purchase a resuscitation resuscitator for the fire department. And whereas Mr. Dipmar supervised the building of the El pool house and built the water tower that still stands at Rock Island and Elm. Herman's work on the water tower caused him to suffer severe burns requiring hospitalization for several weeks. He supervised the building of the sewer treatment facility at Mustang Field at the El Reno airport in 1943 and donated his salary to Elno charities. And whereas Herman Dipmar secured the elimination of the toll on the Bridgeport Bridge, providing great savings to Eleno residents, Mr. Dipmar

passed away February 14th, 1944, but his contribution to Elno can still be seen today. and whereas the city of Elen desires to honor past and present Elen residents who are devoted to the city's improvement and those who give back to the community. Therefore, be it resolved that I, Steve Jensen, by the powers vested me as mayor of the city of El Reno, Oklahoma and its citizens do hereby recognize Mr. Herman Dipmar and his contributions to the city of El Reno. And to receive this is his daughter, Marie. Thank you. Thank you.

I want to present a key to the city [applause] to you. Congratulations. I'm sure a lot of you guys have seen Marie and her Diane walking all over town and we know patrolling our neighborhoods and we appreciate that and it's we're so thankful to have you guys here this evening. Hometown. I've moved away for a lot of years and there's no place like home right now. That's right. No place like home. Thank you. Thanks for coming tonight. Congratulations. the chamber. Yes. Go ahead. [snorts]

And they've been supportive at a lot of our events. So, thank you again. But I want to also give you a token and it is of the water tower. [applause] Okay, that brings us to nominations and appointments. Nomination appointment of the vice mayor. Nominate David Black.

Second. Nomination and second of David Black for vice mayor. Roll call vote starting with Dr. Brian Schaefer. Yes. Council Black. Yes. Council. Yes. Council. Yes. Mayor Der. Yes. Nomination appointment of four city council members and mayor to fill trustee positions of the El Reno Air Park Authority. I nominate the four current council members and mayor to serve as trustees for the airport. Second. Motion made and seconded. Roll call starting with councilwoman Ney. Yes. Counciloman Brothers. Vice [clears throat] Mayor Black. Yes. Council Schaer. Yes. Mayor Jensen.

Yes. Nomination appointment of four council members and mayor to fill trustee positions of the recreational authority. Nominate the four of us from the mayor to serve as the trustee positions of the record board. Motion made and seconded. Uh roll call start with Councilwoman Nether. Yes. Council brother. Yes. Vice Mayor Black. Yes. Councilman Schaer. Yes. Mayor Jim. Yes. Nomination [snorts] and appointment of one council member slash either mayor to serve the El Reynold Convention and Visitors Board for a term set to expire in November of 2026. Nominate David Black.

Second. Motion made seconded. Roll call. Dr. Schaefer. Yes. Mayor Black. Yes. Counciloman Brothers. Yes. Councils. Yes. Mayor Don. Yes. and nomination appointment of one member as primary and two as alternates to the ACOG board of directors ACOG 911 board of directors ACOG MO policy committee and on the Garber Wellington board of directors for a one-year term set to expire November of 2026 nominate Amy Nether is the primary second

and Steve uh mayor Mayor and David Black has alternates. Motion made and seconded. [clears throat] Roll call start with Dr. Schaefer. Yes. Vice Mayor Black. Yes. Council brother. Yes. Council N. Yes. Mayor Jensen.

Yes. At this time, we'll before we go into the consent agenda and any others, we'll recess the city council meeting and proceed with their park authority. All right, it is 5:43 um Tuesday, December 9th, 2025. Call the Alino Air Park Authority regular meeting to order. Roll call vote starting Trusty Black here. Trusty Jensen here. Trusty brothers here. Trusty Ner here. Here. Uh item C, nomination appointments. Nomination appointment of a chairman. Nominate Dr. Brian Schaer.

Second. Um motion made seconded. Roll call vote starting. Trusty Black. Yes. Trusty Jensen. Yes. Trusty brother. Yes. Trusty. Yes. Yes. And nomination appointment of a vice chairman. Second. Uh roll call vote starting with trusty black. Yes. Vice or trusty Jensen? Yes. Trusty brother. Yes. President, yes. Chaper,

yes. Very good. Brings us to item D. Consent agenda. Following items are considered to be routine by the Elino Air Park Authority will be enacted with one motion. Should discussion be desired on any item, that item be removed from the consent agenda and considered separately, there are four items. Move to approve items one through four. Second. Motion made and seconded. Uh, roll call vote start. Trusty Black. Yes. Vice Chairman Jensen. Yes. Trusty brother. Yes. Trusty N. Yes. Yes. No items pulled brings us to adjournment. Second may mo motion made. Maybe maybe not. All those in favor? I

I [clears throat] know. It's 5:45. I call the Elino recreational regular meeting of Tuesday, December 9th to order with pardon here. Trusty Black here. Trusty Johnson here. Trusty brother here. Not here. Okay, moving on to nominations and appointments. Nomination for an appointment of a chairman. I nominate uh David Black. Second nomination. Yes. Trusty block. Yes. Trusty Jensen. Yes. Trusty brothers. Yes. Trusty Ner. Yes.

Nomination and appointment of the vice chair. nominate Heather Brothers. We've got a nomination in a second. Can we have a roll call starting with Trusty? Yes. Trusty Brothers? Yes. Trusty Jensen? Yes. Chairman Bluffs? Yes. Trusty Shaker? Yes. Moves us to the consent agenda. The following items are are considered [snorts] by the [clears throat] Authority and will be enacted with one motion. Discussion is desired on item. That item will be removed from the consent agenda and considered separate one through three. Motion to approve consent items one through three.

Yes. Trusty Jensen. Yes. Vice Chairman Brothers. Yes. Trusty Nutell. Yes. Yes. Move to second. Second. All those in favor? I

It's now 5:46. I call the Elen Municipal Authority regular meeting of Tuesday, December 9th, uh, 2025 to order. Roll call starting with Trusty Nether here. Trusty Brothers here, Vice Chairman here, Schaffer here, Jensen here. Uh, brings us to the consent agenda. The following items are considered to be routine by the Elno Municipal Authority will be enacted with one motion. Should discussion be desired on any item, that item will be removed from the consent agenda and considered separately. We have items 1 through seven. Move to approve items one through seven. Second. Motion remain second. Roll call starting with Trustee Schaer. Yes.

Vice Chairman Black. Yes. Trusty brothers. Yes. Trusty Nether. Yes. Yes. Nothing was pulled. brings us discussion items number eight, discussion, consideration, action and/or possible amendments regarding the approval of a contract with compliance solutions incorporated for launching voice services through Elrenal fast connect and allow the city manager [clears throat] andor technology services director to sign documents associated there too.

This is our phone service discussing [snorts] regarding [clears throat] fast connect. So this is a compliance solution. They take care of the tax rating with voice services. There are over 40,000 different tax taxes that could be applied to voice. And I'm sure Tim doesn't want to sit and do that in his office. So they will they will take care of calculating all that, putting it in the billing system, and then allowing us to bill the customer the appropriate tax rates. And then they will take that and submit that to federal, FCC, USF, and the on the state level, too. So they will handle all that. That way we don't have to worry about it. So that's it.

We do have a couple of proposed changes to the contract that we're working on sending back. Nothing major. Um Matt needs to be the one to sign the the contract. Um it has a choice of venue and choice of law of Florida. Of course, they're probably not going to change that, but we're going to propose that it be Oklahoma. So it appears to be a pretty standard form contract. So um the motion probably needs to increase [clears throat and cough] authorization for Matt and I to continue to negotiate that contract and for him to questions.

Thank you. I'll make the motion to approve the contract with Compliance Solutions. um allow city manager and city [clears throat] attorney to continue negotiations and city manager to sign off on approved contract. Second. Motion made and seconded. Roll call starting with trustee ney. Yes. Trusty brother. Yes. Vice. Yes. Shaker. Yes. Jensen. Yes. Brings us to adjournment. Move to adjurnn. Motion made second. All those in favor say I.

I. for a journ. Um it is now 550 and we'll reconvene the El City Council meeting. Uh moving to item G, consent agenda. Following items are considered to be routine by the El City Council and will be enacted with one motion. Should discussion be desired on any item, that item will be removed from consent agenda and considered separately. We have items 1 through 11. Move to approve consent agenda items 1 through 11.

Second. Motion made and seconded. Roll call. Stern with Dr. Schaefer. Yes. Vice Mayor Black. Yes. Brother, [clears throat] yes. Council, yes. Mayor J.

Yes. No items were pulled. Brings us to item I. Audience participation. Anyone having a bit item of business to present to the city council that does not appear on the agenda, please come to the podium at this time, state your name. You're requested to limit your presentation to three minutes. Any item being presented must pertain to the city of El Reno business. The Oklahoma Open Meetings Act prohibits city council from taking official action on requests made during this portion of the agenda unless otherwise noted on the agenda. Anyone? Anyone? Seeing none, we'll move on. Discussion items. Number 12, discussion, consideration, action, and/or possible amendments regarding the final plat of Seven Bruise El Reno located as a property described as a track of land in the southwest quarter of section 17 Township 12, Range 7 of Indian Meridian, Canadian County, Oklahoma. Address known as 2415 South Country Club Road, formerly known as Pizza Hut. Um, this final plat is for the redevelopment of the former Pizza Hut site into a new seven brew location. The approximately halfacre property will be platted as a single commercial lot and we're excited to support the revitalization of the site at the request of the city. Um, we requested additional 17t ride ofway to accommodate any future potential expansion on country club and um the applicant made those accommodations. um existing water and sewer services already are available to this site and the building plans for the new development have been submitted and are currently under review. Um we just have one remaining coordination item regarding the sewer connection. Um we've been working with the applicant and we have some further coordination with the utilities director and um the reviewing engineer, but other than that um we would recommend approval contingent on the agreed upon plan. Um as we said, the sewer is already there. It's just trying to figure out the the best easement

connection source. Okay, questions. So that [clears throat] includes working out that final final utilities whatever hurdle connection or does it mean? could be approved as [clears throat] but then the the utility connections could be worked out affect well the figure

so we could come back with the east just apply an additional ement later approved by the council that would just not be the flat is [snorts] your [clears throat] um the staff comments found in the November in this packet made part of the planning commission file. Does that include the easement? Yes. Okay. So, I would recommend you make the motion according to the action recommended on the staff report and then that gives then we don't have to bring it back as another item that gives some flexibility. Okay. Well, I'll make that motion to approve the uh plat as recommended on the staff action report.

Motion made and seconded. Say it again. We weren't in public hearing. No, we were just discussing.

We've got a motion in a second. Roll call. Start with Dr. Schaer. Yes. [laughter] Council. Yes. Vice Mayor Black. Counciloman Brothers. Yes. Counciloman Nether. Yes. Mayor Jensen. Yes. Thank you for coming. I could I could use a cup of coffee. Thank you. We're excited to have that site redeveloped. I'm glad you didn't make me stand up. This is my first No, [laughter] but that's exciting that you guys are going to redevelop that site. Mhm.

Item 13, discussion, consideration, action, and/or possible amendments to the naming of the walking trail in Reinhardt Park to be Crider Trail in honor of the late Dwayne Krider. This is a recommendation that came through the parks board in honor of the late Dwayne Crider. I think that uh Dwayne probably used that trail, that walking trail more than anybody else. Um certainly used it at least once a day most days twice a day. So um we had a also a support letter from Roger Ry um in support of renaming the trail to Crider Trail.

Move to rename the walking trail at Rinart Park to Crider Trail. Second. Motion made second. Roll call start with Councilwoman Nether. Yes. Councilman Brothers, yes. Vice President Black, yes. Councilman Schaer, yes.

Yes. Motion passes. Brings us item 14. Discussion, consideration, action, and/or possible amendments regarding resolution number 26-034, resolution of project sponsor sponsorship for a transportation alternatives program application and maintenance commitment for the downtown streetscape project phase two, including authorization of the chief project sponsor to ex execute application and/or assurances to the Oklahoma Department of Transportation. So this is a resolution to make application for the transportation [clears throat] alternative program for streetscape downtown streetscape. It's going to be phase two been [snorts] approved for phase one. Um those the phase one is still it's quite a long process and there's still several steps for phase one but the way that the the grant monies fall and and you have to apply for it's best if you can apply it for multiple phases and stack them as you go. So this is for phase two and so it would is a resolution of of support to apply make application and to commit to um maintenance if we do receive the grant and then um also commitment on the local match which is 20%. It's an 80 8020 um grant program so it's approximately [snorts] 1.2 2 million in grant funding. And so that would put our match at 240,000. [snorts]

Move to approve resolution 264. Second. Motion made and seconded to approve resolution 26 uh- 034. Roll call starting with Dr. Schaefer. Yes. Vice Mayor Black. Yes. Council brother. Yes. Council. Yes. Mayor Don.

Yes. Motion passes. brings us to item 15 discussion discussion consideration action and or possible amendments regarding a resolution number 26-035 resolution of project sponsorship for transportation alternatives program application and maintenance commitment for the lake trail phase 4 project including authorization of the chief project sponsor to execute the application and asurances to the Oklahoma department of transportation

so we've already received several phases of funing through the recreational [clears throat] trails program. This is actually the transportation alternatives program that goes through Oklahoma Department of Transportation. This is for uh additional funding and we can utilize it to extend our trail and to finish out our trail around the lake. Again, going to be very similar to the previous application, the resolution of support to make application, the commitment to maintenance and commitment to the um local match 1.2 2 million total um grant award with $240,000 local and phase four closes the circle.

It closes it and it also includes some other design elements that are included in Adam Park master plan um which you know there needs to be some additional engineering but that boardwalk across the south end is one of those um design elements that we're hoping to accomplish with if we receive this funding. Motion to approve resolution number 26-035. Second. Motion made and seconded. Roll call started with Dr. Schaefer. Yes. Vice Mayor Black. Yes. Council. [snorts] Yes. Council. Yes. Mayor D.

Yes. Motion passes. Brings us to reports. U. First of all, I want to congratulate Heather for getting elected [clears throat] to the council and joining us here and and look forward to working with you serving this community and moving the rental forward. It's um honor to have you up here and so and I want to say thank you to El Reno. I'm very humbled and honored to continue to serve as your mayor. I love this community, its people, and will do my best to continue to represent Elno. Great days are ahead of for all of us. As we celebrate Christmas, let us remember those who are less fortunate, may be in need or may have lost loved ones. Let us be sensitive to their needs and show each other love and affection this holiday season. I just want to wish everybody a merry Christmas and God bless each and every one of you. And thank you. That's all I have. Thank the city workers and volunteers for successful parade and tree lighting. Um, beautiful downtown decoration. Remind [snorts] everybody, shop local, especially in the holiday season. While the kids are out of school, check out the library schedule. They have a lot of events every month, but including in December and when the kids are a little too underfoot while they're out. And then if you decide you need a four-legged friend in your family, think about the shelter before you.

Okay. I just want to say thank you for the warm welcome and easing me in with a relatively easy. We're very thankful for that. [clears throat] I'm really excited to get started. So, thank you. Yeah. Thank you. I just wish everybody a merry Christmas. I surprisingly don't have much to say.

City staff city staff donated donated over 3,000 food items to a local nonprofit organization. So I think we had a little friendly competition uh here within the city itself. Um code enforcement, community development, pl service. They How many What was the final number? 1383. 1383 [laughter] despite public opinion.

Anyway, [laughter] [snorts] um other good news, Route 66 commission granted us $725,000 for our hub project. um across from the station. So, very excited about that. Ready to get going and move on that so that it's no longer just blank dirt. But meanwhile, OK Oklahoma Corporation Commission continues to work on the phase one, phase 2 environmentals, which they 100th remediation project. They're very excited. That's nearing the 100th anniversary of Route 66. So, they're excited about the remediation project work too because we don't have to pay for that. So they will if there's any contamination take care of that for us. So uh and then finally we have our RV park at the lake won best of the best award in 2025 for from the RV life organization. heads up the parks and we have a really pleasant nice RV park out there that other people are recognizing as well. And then I have some numbers on EMS call volume. It's been up the last two months. We added additional truck and I don't know if we have the stats available. Yeah, we do. Okay. EMS call volume last couple of months have been up. Total uh EMS calls is in blue. So 355 360 pretty consistent and then transports are tracking right there with go back one slide there Zach transport tracking right there with total EMS calls really so call volume is up. Okay, next is the average response time. Priority one. Um, our our folks are responding very quickly during October, November, right

around six and a half, six six uh minutes 25 seconds, 6 minutes and 44 seconds respectively for October and November and then priority two calls are in the seven and a half range. Okay, I just might throw there with that slide, these numbers are for the entire corporate boundary, not just the developed part of downtown Arena over here. So, they are moving in some cases. I mean, they they will there will be some anomalies out there that would skew the data that they may be running on a call that's several miles away, but overall guys doing a great job.

Can I add just one thing? Um, it's important to note that the national average is 10 minutes. Um, so it's it's pretty impressive that we're, you know, staying well below that national average. That's off to the city, everybody involved. That's it. That's all I have.

Okay. Um, on sales tax, uh, we got the numbers and we missed our monthly budget target. uh we brought in 1,27,86.73. However, for the first six months of the year, we are still 3.4% above where we were this same time last year. And when we look at the chart up there, we are right at our target for where we budgeted for this year. So, we definitely would like to see more, but we are the target at the moment. Use tax numbers look a lot better. We brought in $327,635.17 which is 26% above the same month we brought in last year and that puts us at 7.49% above where we were this time last year. Hotel tax also numbers look great. brought in $41,988.75 which is again about 29.78% above where we brought in for the same month last year. So

on broadband we're at 670 active service lines. Um the Rock Island shelter construction is underway. Almost all materials are here. Inside work will start after Christmas. And then we're going to start uh blowing fiber down Rock Island, Elm, and Shepard starting tomorrow morning. So things are moving along. Getting closer to my house. That's what I'm thinking.

Make a motion to executive session. Second. Motion made and seconded. Roll call starting with Councilwoman Ney. Yes. Council brothers. Yes. Councilman Schaer. Yes. Mayor Jensen. Yes.

Make a motion to come on executive session. Second roll call. Yes. Counciloman Brothers. Yes. Vice Mayor Black. Yes. Council Schaer. Yes. Mayor Jensen. Yes. Move to second. Second to adjourn. All in favor say I.