Kingfisher residents and businesses will see changes in certain fines and fees pertaining to city code in the future.

City commissioners approved the updated fee schedule Monday during their regular March meeting.

Linda Garcia, community development coordinator and building inspector, was on hand for the meeting and was available for questions regarding the discussion on approval of Ordinance 2025-003.

The ordinance updates the fines and fees schedule of the city code to modify fees related to certain permits including building, electrical, mechanical, plumbing and fireworks display and sales permits.

City Manager Jim Thomas said the update was to “tighten up the ambiguity of the language” of the ordinance.

He commented that the city doesn’t intend to generate high income from the changes, but the updates were needed so Garcia could show property owners “in black and white” understandable wording what the city’s codes were so that they could be enforced properly.

As an example, Thomas commented that if an electrical meter box was required for a resident’s project, the city needed to charge for it rather than absorb that expense.

The commissioners approved the ordinance unanimously with a 3-0 vote.

Voting were Mayor Geoff Covalt, Vice Mayor Jeff Wittrock and Commissioner Debbie Burpo.

Commissioners Dawn Taylor and Kyle Mecklenurg were unable to attend the meeting.

Also in attendance were City Attorney Jared Harrison, City Clerk Brittney Hladik and City Treasurer Anita James.

Similarly, the commission approved Ordinance 2025-004, which amended the Kingfisher City Code pertaining to the rules and regulations for the parking of boats, trailers and travel trailers on the streets.

Kingfisher Police Chief Travis Gray was available for questions on the discussion of the ordinance.

Gray, Thomas and Harrison all commented that police officers would use their discretion regarding enforcement of the revisions.

Thomas said Kingfisher’s street widths were never designed for trailers to be parallel parked on them for extended periods of time.

“There’s no way traffic can flow well along a street with trailers parked on both, or even one side,” Thomas said.

He added that Kingfisher’s police officers patrol the streets daily, spotting the problem areas, and he said they then contact residents of homes and businesses if the trailers remain parked on the street for extended periods of time.

Gray commented that his officers patrol the city daily and would use their discretion to point out the problem of continuously parked trailers to the homeowners or renters who reside there.

The commissioners also approved a resolution regarding the land and water grant that John Gooden is in the process of securing on behalf of the Kingfisher Airport Authority in which wetlands are being secured to be relocated to the “Harry’s Hole” area directly east and across the railroad from the Kingfisher Atwood’s store.

The move was made necessary to clear government hurdles so the current airport runway can be extended to accommodate larger airplanes.

The federal government has designated the area north of the current runway as wetlands, so to do the work to divert water runoff and extend the runway, the airport authority was forced to locate another wetland area of similar size to replace that area.

Gooden and airport authority representative Bill Reitz were in attendance. Gooden said the grant budget was $504,000 of which approximately $25,200 would be the City of Kingfi sher’s responsibility.

In other business the commissioners approved the purchase of fireworks for the July 4 celebration from Western Enterprises for $17,680, which was the same amount as last year’s expense.

The commission also approved the payment of $182,720 for the Oklahoma Municipal Assurance Group protection plan. Hladik commented that the insurance was 15 percent higher than last year’s payment.

Also approved was a contract with Parkhill Engineering for work with the city’s waste water treatment regarding source assessment.

In her treasurer’s report, James told the commissioners that expenses were very close to budget so far for the fiscal year, with no surprises regarding expenses and income. She said the cash in the banks for the city was currently $11,367,833.

Thomas commented that he had recently attended a meeting with several city managers across the state and most commented that slightly lower than anticipated sales taxes were being collected so far in the fiscal year.

He said that was not a surprise as residents across the nation are worried about budgets due to inflation.