Kingfisher City Manager Dave Slezickey is exploring ways that the city’s unused share of CARES Act reimbursement can be put to work helping local businesses and citizens impacted by the pandemic.

After some discussion at last week’s city meeting, commissioners agreed that Slezickey should investigate options for the unused funds.

Under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, municipalities and counties may be reimbursed to a total of $77 per person for expenses incurred as a result of the pandemic.

For the city of Kingfisher, total reimbursable expenses amount to about $387,000, while only around $40,000 in direct expenses (personal protective equipment, sanitizing materials, etc.) have been incurred to date, Slezickey said.

“An option for the balance is to create a small business grant to give funds to businesses who have been struggling,” Slezickey said. “We would have to establish a criteria, process and pay the grants and then request a reimbursement.

“I can connect the dots for just about any business in town that this hasn’t been a banner year.”

Another option being explored by other cities is to use the funds to discount utilities for commercial as well as residential accounts.

“I had hoped to hear back by this meeting whether that was something that the state had approved for other cities, but I still don’t know that,” he said.

Slezickey intends to develop a couple of proposals for how the remainder of the city’s CARE reimbursements might be utilized, working in conjunction with City Attorney Jared Harrison and then vetting the proposals with the state to make sure they would be reimbursable before bringing them back to a future meeting for approval by the city commission.

Planning & Zoning Reappointments

After a lengthy discussion concerning reappointment of planning and zoning board members, threeyear terms, commissioners voted to stagger appointments to preserve a body of knowledgeable board members in the complicated zoning arena.

Slezickey said many of the planning and zoning members have served for years without an official reappointment to what are supposed to be three-year terms.

Carolyn Flood, the board’s longtime chairman, announced she would be resigning her post.

Commissioners adopted a motion to seek applicants for a new member to replace Flood for a new three-year term, and stagger reappointments for the remaining members as follow: Judy Whipple, one-year expiring in August 2021; Eddie Payne and Reggie Redwine, two years, expiring in August 2022; Neal Brown and Jean Crosswhite, three years expiring August 2023.

The seventh board member, Ray Roman, is already serving a term set to expire in November 2021.

As each of the scheduled terms expire, a new appointment will be made for a three-year term, so that members will continue to be appointed on a staggered schedule.

Little League Agreements

Contributing to the nearly three-hour meeting was about 40 minutes of questions from Commissioner Kyle Mecklenburg concerning three contract renewals for Little League use of city parks.

The contracts were included in the preliminary consent docket, which also includes other routine matters such as minutes of the last meeting and expenditures for the month.

Mecklenburg questioned the contracts in some detail and expressed concern that they included provisions that were not being enforced and which he said should be eliminated if not necessary.

The discussion ended with the three agreements being removed from the consent docket and tabled for a future meeting after Harrison has a chance to make any necessary changes in wording.

Other Business

In other business, commissioners voted to:

•Approve Sept. 11, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. as the date for commissioner training by the Oklahoma Municipal Assurance Group.

•Approve renewal of the promissory note with InterBank for 13th Street improvements, with a remaining balance of $180,000 which will be paid off by the end of the fiscal year.

•Declare as surplus and authorize the sale at auction of a 2006 Ford Crown Victoria formerly used as a courtesy car at the Kingfisher Municipal Airport.

City Manager’s Report

In his report to commissioners, Slezickey said that the city had received preliminary plans for the first phase of the Cheyenne & Arapaho community center and Casey’s General Store.

The tribes are constructing the community center on the site of the old Kingfisher Regional Hospital on South Ninth Street.

Casey’s General Store, which operates at 2,000 locations in several case, is a convenience store which also carries limited groceries and fresh food items.

It will be constructed at the corner of Main Street and Broadway Avenue at the site of the former First United Methodist Church.

Slezickey said that former children’s librarian Diamonique McCarty has transferred to a new position as assistant recreation director. She has been replaced by Audrey Sanders as children’s librarian.

Giving the treasurer’s report in the place of vacationing city treasurer Anita James, Slezickey reported that the amount of revenues over expenditures for the month of July were higher than the same month last year.

“We’re moving in the right direction and that gives me confidence going forward with our capital improvement sales tax election in November,” he said.

For more information about the proposed one-third cent sales tax, see the story in Wednesday’s Times and Free Press.