A resolution to increase building permit rates went down in flames at last Thursday night’s Hennessey Board of Trustees meeting.

That was after Doug Moore of Institute of Building Technology and Safety (IBTS) presented his proposal to charge $2,000 for a mobile home permit versus a $400 fee for a 2,000 square foot new build residential house.

“I feel like that would be sticking it to those who want to move to Hennessey,” said Trustee Keith Meek. “No one would ever want to move here...Those fees are astronomical!”

Mayor Bert Gritz and Vice Mayor Clif Vogt agreed and Trustee Richard Simunek said, “Two thousand dollars is outrageous.”

Board member Wes Hardin was absent.

Moore said those rates are “competitive in Oklahoma City and Tulsa, probably in Enid and I don’t know what they are in Kingfisher.”

He said Jones and Locust Grove have about the same population as Hennessey and they had adopted those permit rates.

“We have already set up zoning areas restricted to mobile homes,” said Gritz.

Moore said many towns “discourage those types of structures.”

“We don’t want to penalize someone for having a mobile home,” said one of the board members and another said he thought the inspection fees were too high.

Moore town doesn’t have an onsite building inspector, board members need to figure his travel time and costs into their fee schedule.

Moore said the town has to recoup its actual costs and that’s what IBTS would charge as its actual cost, plus 10 % to the town for its time and paperwork.

“Some people don’t realize it, but it is to their advantage to live inside the Hennessey town limits,” said Gritz, who is also the fire chief. “We’re in an ISO (Insurance Service Office) Class 3 fire rating, which means the insurance on a Hennessey home that may be five times less that insurance if you’re living outside town.”

“Just let me know what you want to do for the community,” Moore said. He then asked the board to red line any items it had questions about and give them to Town Administrator Tiffany Tillman so they could go over their changes for approval next month.

Tillman said the board has been looking for other sources of income and, other than sales tax, it has no other income source except water rates.

Other staff at the meeting were Clerk Kati Walters, Treasurer Teresa Weber and Police Chief Ed Cangiano.

Billing clerk resigns; no replacement planned

Brandi Bedford’s resignation as a utilities billing clerk at Town Hall was accepted. Her resignation letter said she’d been offered another job.

The mayor said Tillman is going “to try not to replace” that position and have the other two clerks do that work to save money.

“Our sales tax was way down this month,” Tillman told the board. It had been up last month due to quarterly sales tax payers, she said.

November’s return from September business was $82,482 compared with $109,919 last month and $92,664 in September. The town’s November 2019 return was $101,741.

Tree limb pickup continues for a week

Curbside tree limb pickup started last Wednesday and will continue until the day before Thanksgiving in Hennessey.

The service is free to in-town residents and businesses unable to get last month’s ice storm limbs to the town’s temporary disposal on South Cemetery Road.

Only tree limbs will be picked up, said Tillman. No trash, furniture, or any other items are allowed, she said.

The board hired Bullis Enterprises for $12,500 for up to 50 hours of curbside pickup.

On the day after the board meeting Gov. Kevin Stitt asked for a federal major disaster declaration from the ice storm that caused an estimated $27 million in damages in 13 central Oklahoma counties, including Kingfisher County.

If approved, Hennessey could get up to 85 % reimbursement from FEMA and another 12.5 % from the state Office of Emergency Management.

Tillman said the town received a $172,000 reimbursement this month in CARES Act funds for PPE items due to COVID-19.

Water pump repairs

A $10,166.16 quote to repair a service pump at the reverse osmosis water plant was approved. Rush Pump Co. will pull the pump, take it to its shop in Noble and replace the bearings, mechanical seals and install laser align with upgraded stainless steel impeller “to fight breakdown of chlorine on existing bronze impeller.”

“This should provide us some backup,” said Gritz.

South Cimarron Street repairs

There is a huge hole at the entrance to the South 40 Mobile Home Park on Cimarron Street and the concrete needs to be replaced, Tillman said. “If we don’t, there will be a swimming pool there.”

The board approved the work to tear out a stretch of street about 38 feetby 20 feet and replace it with six-inch paving and three-eighthsinch rebar by Daniels Construction for $6,680.

Employee health insurance

Board members took their time looking over employee insurance renewal plans with Blue Cross Blue Shield, then decided to stick with the current plan instead of going with higher deductibles. Tillman recommended renewal of the current program and board members said that’s what they would want if they were an employee.

The cost is an 11.18 % increase and will go into effect in January. The current yearly cost is $171,078 and it will increase to $190,203, “but it did go down last year,” said Tillman.

December meeting date up in air

Tillman told the board it needs to come up with another date for the December meeting. It’s scheduled for Dec. 10, but the Lions Club has scheduled its Mistletoe Magic Christmas parade and Santa visit that night.

She said members couldn’t meet the Monday before because that’s the same night as the school board meeting.

Vogt and other board members said they were happy that employees were working together on projects. Tillman said she has been having monthly breakfast meetings with the supervisors and they have been positive.