(Ed. note: This is the second installment on the Hennessey Town Board’s five-hour meeting on future plans for the community prepared by town employees and discussed by town board.)

If the town board’s discussion about the need for a stoplight at State Highway 51 and U.S. Highway 81 in Hennessey isn’t elevated to the top of its to-do list, then it would be a surprise after last week’s planning meeting.

“The state has done traffic counts and says we don’t have enough traffic. We need to lean on our legislators,” Mayor Bert Gritz said during the Saturday, Feb. 5, meeting.

The only stoplight in Hennessey is at Main Street and Oklahoma Avenue.

“Hennessey is a growing town,” said Vicki Eggers, the moderator for the fivehour planning session.

With all of the development going on north of town, there will also be more traffic, said Eggers, who is the economic development director at Northern Oklahoma Development Authority (NODA) in Enid.

There are several nearmiss accidents at that intersection every day, said Police Chief Ed Cangiano.

“We’ve had to sweep up a lot of safety glass there,” he said.

The state Department of Transportation placed a four-way stop at that intersection many years ago and came back later and added flashing lights.

Eggers said the town will have more traffic at that intersection with the new truck plaza on U.S. 81 and the Dollar Tree construction that’s underway on S.H. 51.

She said road repairs east on S.H. 51 will also bring more traffic.

“Check with ODOT,” Eggers said after a comment that the state did a traffic count five years ago.

1/4-Cent Dedicated Street Sales Tax

“The street department only gets about $50,000 a year in its dedicated sales tax account,” said Town Administrator Tiffany Tillman.

That department gets 1/4-cent of the town’s fourcent sales tax, she said.

One-half cent was taken from that account and put into the ambulance service account a few years ago, she said.

That ambulance account is now in an emergency services account that includes police and fire.

Hennessey’s four-cent sales tax is split this way: 2 cents to general; 1 cent new pool; 1/2-cent emergency services; 1/4-cent streets; 1/4-cent capital outlay.

The sales tax is the town’s only direct source of income for the street department. However, the town’s sanitation, sewer and water revenue is generated through town and out-of-town customers.

The head of each town department presented their 1-5, 5-10 and 10-15 year plans.

Street Dept. Plans

Street Department Superintendent David Treanor got the stoplight discussion going when he said safety is the first item on his criteria for his 15-year plan.

His other criteria listed, in order, were: current and anticipated traffic loads, current road conditions, truck routes and aesthetics.

Treanor said keeping rights-of-way clear and clean is important and they spend plenty of time mowing it.

That’s why he said they should soon replace their 61-inch mower (and that cost was $9,300 in January).

1-5 Year Street Projects

• Chip and seal — North Cemetery Road from S.H. 51 to West 7th Street.

• Patch and overlay — West Oklahoma Avenue from Main Street west to railroad tracks.

• Patch, chip and seal — (1) South Cherokee Street from East 4th Street going south around corner by old daycare and (2) Osborn.

• Drainage — (1) Replace tinhorn under the road at intersection of East 3rd Street and South Mitchell Road (2) Install covered (underground) tinhorn on the north side of East Iowa between North Cimarron and North Oak with it tying into the storm drain on the northwest corner of East Iowa and North Cimarron.

• Replace 61-inch mower.

5-10 Year Projects

• Stoplight — Intersection of S.H. 51 and U.S. 81.

• Overlay — East Nebraska from South Walnut to South Oak.

• Patch, Chip and Seal — North Mitchell from East 7th to East Oklahoma.

• Chip and Seal — (1) East Iowa, from North Oak to North Mitchell; (2) North Walnut/Redfork, from East Iowa around to North Mitchell; (3) West 8th, West 9th and South Dunlap; (4) West Oklahoma, from railroad tracks to North Arapaho.

• Widen — East 5th between South Cherokee and South Cheyenne.

10-15 Year Projects

• Overlay —West 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th streets from South Oak to Mitchell Road.

• Chip and Seal — (1) South Cheyenne, from East 3rd to East 7th; (2) Manning, Cleveland and Meramec streets; (3) West 7th from South Cemetery Road to U.S. 81 (Main Street); (4) South Bonita, from West 6th to West 7th Street (5) S. Dunlap from West 4th Street to West 7th Street.

• Patch, Chip and Seal — (1) South Mitchell from Eeast 7th Street to Conoco Road; (2) Conoco Road from South Mitchell to U.S. 81.

(Ed. note: See other department plans in future editions)