I want to express my appreciation to Mayor (Geoff) Covalt and the city commission for allowing me to come and labor with the good citizens, businesses and employees of Kingfisher these last two years.

Together with dedicated, loyal city staff and business leaders, we have started to address deferred maintenance and repair issues. Our city departments are meeting in staff meetings and assisting each other with project development.

Our work is just beginning. Yes, it has been a journey to focus on improvements with our departments’ infrastructure, but “Rome was not built in a day” and we can’t fix Kingfisher’s challenges in a day.

Past administrations have debated a new fire station for 10 years. Well on Aug. 15, 2025, the city will go out to bid on a new facility that is 2½ times larger than the current station.

The elected leadership is 100% behind this new fire station. Is it more expensive than the public was told in 2021? Yes, but it is needed and the citizens supported the additional funds with the extended half-cent sales tax through 2041.

We have built four new restrooms at Shaw Park to complement the splash pad, tennis and pickle ball court and an Eagle Scout project, and we are looking at additional activities at the park.

The administration has supported improvements at Briscoe Park for the Little League baseball fields, soccer lights and girls’ softball fields, all quality-of-life improvements for the athletes.

K-town Kove has been upgraded. We addressed much-needed street repairs on Will Rogers, Starlite, Meadow and Robin Lane.

The Public Works crew removed more than 100 dead, decaying trees from the military memorial lane along Highway 33.

The city now has GPS locaters for our water, sewer lines and cemetery head stones.

We have an open line of communication with our county commissioners to work on projects together to save taxpayer dollars.

Our relationship with the Chamber of Commerce is outstanding as I use the boardroom on a regular basis, having my own key to access the building 24/7.

We are not done yet. Mayor Covalt spoke to the Kingfisher Rotary Club last week and he shared the challenges of deferred capital needs which must be addressed over the next 10 years, totaling $36 million on top of the estimated total expenditure of $14 million for the new fire station.

We have a lot of work to do and I am confident that before my tenure is done, we will have a strategic plan to address these needs.

Finally, these past 24 months, I have visited with citizens, business leaders, state senators and representatives, U.S. Congressmen, economic developers, ministers and pastors as I have come to understand the Kingfisher Culture.

This is a community that has a quality of life that ranks with much larger cities than ours. This is a great community to raise a family.

I have one regret…I should have come 10 years earlier. Thanks for your friendship and prayers.

Jim Thomas City Manager

(The thoughts expressed in this letter are entirely those of the author and not of this publication. Letters to the editor are welcome from those who will sign their names to them.)