No big news was good news as far as the City of Kingfisher’s annual audit is concerned.

Chuck Crooks, CPA, representing the CBEW Professional Group accounting firm, reported that the recent audit of the city’s financial situation found Kingfisher to have a “clean report, with no issues whatsoever.”

Crooks made his report during the city commission’s regular February meeting held last Monday.

Crooks said financial reserves were in the top 10 percent of cities in Oklahoma with total number of residents in the 5,000 range.

The commission voted unanimously to approve the report.

Approving it were Mayor Geoff Covalt and commissioners Dawn Taylor and Kaci Farrar.

Kyle Mecklenburg and Debbie Burpo were unable to attend the meeting.

Joining the commissioners at the table were City Manager Jim Thomas and City Clerk Brittney Hladik. City Treasurer Anita James, who attends most commission meetings, was also unable to attend this month.

In other business, the commission approved to accept Thomas’ appointment of Linda Garcia to replace the vacated post previously held by Jon Friesen under the new title of chief municipal building official.

Thomas commented that he had known Garcia for many years and she came to the city highly motivated and qualified as she held a master’s degree in the area of city management.

Garcia said she was delighted to be on board in Kingfisher and she had several projects in mind to move forward with making Kingfisher an even better community.

The board also heard from Fire Chief Tony Stewart, who proposed that the commission approve Ordinance 2024-001, which would raise ambulance fees to be more in line with other communities in the area.

Thomas noted that Stewart had collected information from other cities and discovered that Kingfisher ambulance fees collected last year were approximately $200,000, at lower than standard insurance billing rates.

Stewart said the last time the fees were adjusted was 2013 and prices had risen significantly since that time.

With the new pricing structure in place, Thomas said he felt the city would generate in the neighborhood of $300,000 in additional fees, which would be in line with what other ambulance services were collecting for similar standard billing charges.

The commissioners approved the measure unanimously.

Thomas also suggested the commissioners meet for a retreat for “perhaps a full day” in March to discuss annual planning and department budgets.

Covalt commented that with the fiscal year beginning in July that March would be the appropriate time for such discussion to begin in earnest and Thomas said he would contact each commissioner to set up a date that would be agreeable to all.

As James is currently on medical leave for two weeks, Thomas commented that with 60 percent of the fiscal year behind them, the city finances were in good shape and they would hear a full report from James next month.

Repairs and management of the Vernie Snow Aquatic Center were the topic of conversation in the “Recreational Authority” portion of the meeting.

Project Manager Richard Greene reported that he was training the lifeguards to not only be lifeguards, but to also maintain and clean the facility as part of their duties.

“We are working to put together a marketing plan to bring up pool usage among city residents,” he said.

As an example, Greene said that during the time the pool has been closed for repairs, 27 pool parties had been canceled, only three of which were for Kingfisher residents.

“It’s great that people who reside in other communities are using the pool, but we need more Kingfisher people to be using their facility,” Greene said.

“You have a decision to make as to what to do with that facility in the near future. If the residents of the city are not utilizing it and around $7 million has already been spent on it, perhaps a better purpose can be found for that space.”

Greene commented that he had received much positive encouragement from Kingfisher residents about the pool’s future use and was excited about the possibilities for this summer and beyond.

The commissioners heard a report from Jeff Lipscomb, president of AIR Technologies, who presented a proposal for the pool’s final air movement repairs to be made at the cost of $75,404.

The commission unanimously approved the repairs to be made, as well as an additional $15,000 payment to Pool Concepts for the final quartz upgrade for the pool’s surface.

Covalt commented that this year’s costs for all repairs of the pool, including the air movement system and resurfacing of the pool, were now in the neighborhood of $250,000.

He added he felt confident that the total would put the recreational water facility back into “great shape” for the spring and summer months and beyond.

In other business the commission approved the purchase of a digger derrick truck ordered in 2022 for the city’s Electric Department at a cost of $240,720.

The commission also approved the purchase of large electrical poles from Bridgewell Resources for the future replacement of Main Street “class 2 poles” for $21,276.

The commissioners also heard from Kingfisher resident Kelly Buck, who resides in close proximity to Gilmour Elementary School.

Buck asked the commissioners to meet with Kingfisher Public Schools administration to discuss possible action to approve a plan to have safer pick-up and drop-off flows of traffic at Gilmour Elementary.

Buck, who has spoken at several Kingfisher Board of Education meetings in recent months, said the current traffic patterns were not safe.

Thomas told Buck that he had been in contact with Police Chief David Catron as well as the Gilmour Principal Makylah Tollefson and Superintendent David Glover, and they were setting up a meeting time.

He assured Buck that he would be given advance notice and that he was invited to attend the meeting.

Taylor commented that there was a similar issue with unsafe traffic flow at the upper elementary school on the corner of 13th and Toronto and Catron commented that he was aware of the issues.

Thomas said he and Catron would discuss that issue as well and report back on their findings.