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Property west of U.S. Highway 81 and north of State Highway 51 in Hennessey was rezoned to highway commercial last week after two public hearings on the change.

The property, owned by Scott Hajek, has been used for agriculture, and includes 25.76 acres north and west of the Dollar General store.

Hajek said the property was previously zoned for residential.

The Hennessey Planning Board voted to recommend the change to the town board at its 5:30 p.m. Thursday meeting, then Hennessey’s Board of Trustees approved it at the 7 p.m. meeting.

“No plans yet,” Hajek said after the trustee meeting. “Just getting it ready for future development.”

Rezoning documents also list these area landowners in that area: State of Oklahoma, Oklahoma Department of Transportation, Elizabeth Black et al, Ernest Matousek and Denis Matousek et ux.

Hajek applied for the zoning change earlier this year, then the COVID hit, said Town Administrator Tiffany Tillman.

Sewer line project

The town put in a sewer lift station on the north side of S.H. 51 at the Seaboard truck wash and awaits a DEQ permit for eight-inch lines.

Past boards have discussed providing utility services north of S.H. 51 for several years.

The town now has

$220,000 in loan money left for the lines, which will run west toward the Dollar General store, Tillman told the board last week.

Hajek gave the town right-of-way for the project.

Sales tax income is “even”

“We’re even (with the budget) now,” said Trustee Richard Simunek who’d worried that sales tax income had dipped much lower than their estimated 2020-21 (July 1-June 30) budget of $91,000 a month.

Sales tax returns to the town this month were $99,522 and use taxes were $26,872.

“That’s based on June sales when business were starting to open up,” said Mayor Bert Gritz.

The July return was $86,976; June was $84,433 and May was $90,786. All but two months during the 2019-20 fiscal year were more than $100,000 and July 2019 was $170,654.

Dilapidated Main Street building

The board agreed to table action on declaring property at 220 S. Main St. as dilapidated since the item wasn’t on the agenda for a hearing, but only called for action.

“We also need Doug Moore with IBTS here to explain the health and safety hazards,” said Tillman.

She said tin from the roof has landed in the middle of Main Street.

The property is one of three buildings on South Main north of Second Street

owned by the Goucher family, the board was told.

The building in question once housed Frakes Produce Co. and is on the west side of the street. That building has a front garage door, and is the third building north of the former Champlin Gas Station and hospital buildings restored by Simunek.

Tillman said if the property is declared dilapidated, it would need to be torn down.

Simunek said if someone purchased the property after that declaration, then they’d be able to fix it.

Tillman said, “No.” Simunek asked her to check that out with the town’s attorney.

Used building frames

The board again this month tabled the sale, or use, of two used steel frames purchased in 2017 for $20,000.

However, this time the board tabled it until January.

That’s when members plan to have a Saturday town board planning session.

The vote to table was 4-1 with Trustee Keith Meek voting no.

He’d said before the vote that he thought the board should cut its losses since Tillman told them that the man who sold the frames to the town might have a buyer.

Vice Mayor Clif Vogt said he thought it could go either way.

Tillman told the board in a “memo” that she’d contacted John Deutchendorf about costs to put the frames up and add a roof.

He said it would depend upon the plan, then he could estimate if it would be cost effective to use the frame, or go with new, Tillman reported.

Gritz said they might be able to use them at one of the other town structures and he wanted to wait to decide what to do with them.

Trustee Wes Hardin agreed.

January planning session

Tillman said she wants the board to have a Saturday planning session so it doesn’t interfere with work and “we can do some future planning.”

She said she’d get with staff beforehand and find out their needs and wants for departments so they could come up with some capital projects.

Tillman said she also wanted to “bring in a facilitator to help us stay on track and focused.”

Gritz suggested they wait until after all of the holidays and January was selected, but no date set. He also said they should invite the public for their input.

Simunek has pushed to have planning sessions on the agenda for the past few months.

Pump repairs at lagoons

After the mayor put Farmer’s Electric owner Kaleb Hladik on speaker from his cell phone, the board voted to repair a lagoon pump instead of buying a new one.

The electrician said they could get 100% out of their old pump for about $12,000 in parts, repairs and shipping. That was opposed to spending $23,000 plus shipping on a new pump, Gritz said.

From the audience, Wastewater Superintendent Bryan Burch said the old pump had been working at about 50%.

Other public works employees at the meeting said they’d understood repairs would only get the pump up to 60%, which is what prompted Gritz to call the electrician.

Tillman wrote in a memo that if the town bought one, there would be one at half-power for a backup.

Pool revenue

Tillman said she was happily surprised that the July revenue at the new swimming pool was $27,000.

She didn’t have the August numbers, but said it was more than she had budgeted for the entire season.

Why no Wine and Chocolate Festival?

Tillman said she’d had three wine vendors call that week wanting to come and asked why it was canceled for this September.

United board member Hajek said he was for having it.

Trustee Hardin, also a United board member and chairman of the festival, said he knew that vendors would come, but he was afraid they wouldn’t be able to get a crowd.

“They even canceled the state fair this year,” said another trustee.

Other business

Doug Moore with IBS was named floodplain administrator for the town to replace Public Works Director Curtis Turner, who was fired in June.

Tillman said there is a small area in the northeast corner of town in the 100- year floodplain and an administrator is required.

Unless there is a problem there would be no pay and Moore agreed to serve, she said.

Assistant Police Chief Ed Cangiano was named emergency management director at the recommendation of Tillman.

She said he is trained and agreed to do the job at no additional pay.

Cost to install sod around the swimming pool went from 27,000 square feet at $8,100 to 34,800 square feet at $10,350.

“There was more land there than David (Fuksa) thought,” said Gritz before the board approved the new quote.