Hennessey’s Board of Trustees agreed to continue angle parking on downtown side streets – and agreed on other issues – during their special meeting last Wednesday morning.

In an effort to deal with driver/pedestrian safety and sight line issues, Trustee Bert Gritz recommended that a parking spot at all four intersections on Oklahoma Avenue and First Street should be deleted and as needed on Second Street.

Side street angle parking will be reduced to 45 degree angles, said Gritz, and that’s also expected to help driver sight lines.

Paint for the project is in and it’s the same kind used by the state, said Town Administrator Tiffany Tillman.

The reason, she said, is because Gritz complained earlier that whatever paint the town had used in the past didn’t last as long as what the state used.

Tillman said they also have the blue paint for the handicap parking spots.

Adding More Handicap Parking

The board also agreed to offer more handicap parking and to make sure all currently marked spaces are correctly marked.

Trustee David Jones said he wanted to “make sure we do it right,” and said they should also “evaluate handicap spaces in other areas of town” to make sure Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) parking rules are being followed.

Jones also complimented staffers for their work with the state in getting information.

Mayor Harold Shaw said there is a “No Parking” sign near a handicap parking sign on West Oklahoma Avenue that needed to come down.

Town Treasurer Shelley Burch said there is an incline in front of The Hive (on East Oklahoma Avenue next to the alleyway) that needs to be repaired. She has a prosthetic leg and said she’d had problems slipping when she tried walking there.

In response to a question about handicap parking at the Baptist Church on 1st Street, Tillman said, “That’s their property.”

More Downtown Parking Needed

Trustees said there is a problem, a good problem, but more businesses means more downtown parking is needed.

There were comments that Kingfisher had added downtown parking on a site where a business had been located and Hennessey might do the same.

The former Clipper newspaper office is for sale, said one of the members.

That vacant building is located next door north of Town Hall.

Grant Application and COVID Funds

Trustees approved two resolutions that would help complete the town’s electronic water meter system with the purchase of 560 remote antenna and reader systems.

The town pledged $96,870 from its 2016 Capital Improvement Plan (COVID money that needs to be allocated before the end of the fiscal year) as matching money for a $193,740 Rural Economic Action Plan grant to complete the “AMI Water Meter System.”

Tillman said in earlier meetings that the electronic program would eliminate employees from reading meters each month and making five to 15 field tests each week.

It would also be quicker detection for customers if they have a water leak, according to the Capital Improvement Plan and REAP grant applications.

Both documents were approved by trustees and then the Utilities Authority Board.

At the Meeting

Town Trustees/Utility Authority Trustees at the meeting were Shaw, Gritz and Jones. Absent was Trustee Randy Bohnstedt.

Other elected officers at the meeting were Burch and Town Clerk Kelley Vaverka.

Staff at the meeting were Tillman and Public Works Director Alyssa Kubat.