Two used steel pavilion frames bought by Hennessey town trustees in 2017 will be inspected to see if they are usable.

Trustee Harold Shaw told the board last Thursday night during its meeting that the town paid $20,000 for a 70x70 and a 50x100 frame.

If usable, Shaw suggested the town use them on its nine lots at the former Roy Johnson Lumber. That property is on the southwest side of First Street off Main Street.

A vote to have the frames inspected was approved 4-1 with Trustee Richard Simunek casting the lone no vote by abstaining. Voting in favor were Mayor Bert Gritz, Vice Mayor Clif Vogt and Trustees David Jones and Shaw.

Simunek, who was elected as a trustee in 2019, had asked the board to sell those frames in 2020, but no action was taken.

Lumberyard property

Shaw said the town needs to have an engineer look at the lumberyard property so trustees will know what they could use it for.

From the audience, Jack Quirk said he’d been working with Shaw on ideas for that property, but they were still in the talking stages.

That got Simunek’s attention since he owns 11 lots that connect to the south of the town’s property.

Gritz said he remembered years ago when Simunek wanted the town to build a two-story structure there and put a restaurant at the top.

“Yes, I did,” said Simunek.

The town bought the nine lumberyard lots in 2014 for $50,000 and a 2017 town board discussed erecting the frames there, but took no action.

Simunek offered to donate his connecting 11 lots for a public park back then, but withdrew his offer after a contentious meeting with two town board members and a town employee, according to news stories.

Sidewalk repairs

Vogt asked if they could add other problem sidewalks to a bid from Daniel Construction to make repairs.

He was told trustees couldn’t do that because the agenda called for the $12,150 bid.

The board approved the work and repairs to include tearing out and replacing concrete on Main Street at the southwest corners of Oklahoma Ave., First and Second streets.

Storm drainage grant

The board adopted a fair housing resolution required for a $300,000 Community Block Development Grant storm drainage improvement grant through North ern Oklahoma Development Authority.

This is the second phase of a project and will help flooding on Third, Fourth and Fifth streets west of Mitchell Road.

Jennifer Firgard of NODA is the grant administrator and prepared grants on both phases of that project. She had several documents for the mayor to sign and Gritz called a 10-minute recess.

Cowan Engineering’s schedule calls for the drainage survey and planning to be completed this month with the final design in August and bidding and construction in December.

Osborn Addition

Simunek asked about current expenses on the installation of water and sewer lines in the Osborn Addition.

Tillman said she didn’t have those numbers with her and suggested he come into the office and talk with her about it.

He also asked for the estimated cost of that project.

Shaw replied that the bid came in at $180,000 and town employees thought they could do some of the work to save money.

Tillman’s administrator’s report

New Employees – Steven Mitchell was hired as the library director to replace Lyndsey Kopsa, whose last day was July 15.

He is a 2011 HHS graduate and as a youngster was a library volunteer.

Mitchell graduated from Northwestern Oklahoma State University in May with a degree in psychology.

Hugo Rodriguez was hired as a full-time employee at the streets/parks department. He is a 2019 HHS grad and has experience in lawn maintenance.

Library Building Committee – An architect made a “walk-through” of the property and trustees are waiting on a report.

Aquatic Center – The acid pump and the chlorine pump both went out. The acid pump was put in one day, but the chlorine pump came in later because it broke on a Friday so they had to manually ad chlorine from Friday to Tuesday. Tillman said David Treanor has been a great help at the pool and is to be commended for his work.

Water Plant Tower – It has been sandblasted and they’ve started painting the outside and should be finished soon.

Bypass at Water Plant – Tillman said since the tower has been out of commission, they’ve been bypassing the plant. “Our nitrates are staying within the guidelines by DEQ,” she said. Tillman reminded members that the nitrate levels for each day are on the town’s website.

Reverse Osmosis Replacement – The dirt and concrete have been repaired and now are waiting for the new control panel so they can proceed with the project.

Osborn Addition Sewer Project – The work is about half-way complete. They discovered early in the week that a drainage pipe had to be moved so they are breaking out concrete and fixing that this week. She hired David Fuksa’s Grade Work Construction to come and help.

No grant money for administrator – Tillman said there have been comments that she is paid for working on grants and that is not true. She said she’s been making the same $62,000 a year salary since 2014.

Consent agenda items approved

• Contracts with Arledge and Associates to complete the 2021-22 audit and Crawford & Associates for 2022-23 year; release of grant funds from the state Department of Commerce.

• Budget amendment for $26,100 from sales tax to $25,500 to pool personnel services, $100 to town clerk and $500 to town treasurer.

At the July 11 meeting

All trustees were present and staff there were Clerk Kati Walters, Treasurer Shelley Burch, Police Chief Aaron Pitts and Tillman.

In the audience were Stacy Cline, Kim Gritz, former mayors Tim Riddle and Wes Hardin, Logan Tillman, Frank Patton and Jennifer Firgard (NODA grant specialist).

Next meeting

The board scheduled a special meeting for Thursday, July 28, at 6 p.m.

(Ed. note: See July 16 edition for exchange between Mayor and Trustee)