Kingfisher County Rural Water District No. 3 has been selected to receive $69,356 in funding through Northern Oklahoma Development Authority’s (NODA) County Rural Economic Action Plan (REAP) grant program, it was announced at Monday’s meeting of Kingfisher County commissioners.

The grant will be used to buy two generators for the district’s water wells.

Commissioners commended water district offi cials for their efforts in applying for and winning the grant.

Commissioners also approved a notice to bidders to supply rock for county oil and chip programs in 2023.

Commission Chairman Heath Dobrovolny said the county will solicit bids for paving oil in January.

Commissioners plan to store the paving materials for use in oil and chip road surfacing projects next year and contract oil and chip application contractors for only the work of hard-surfacing county roads in the coming year. Contractors did not respond to bid requests in 2022 because of shortages of materials and the cost of buying the materials early in the year and not getting paid until later after projects are completed.

Commissioners discussed at earlier meetings seeking bids for oil and chip work earlier in 2023 to assure normal road work can be accomplished.

A $115,000 contract with Calm Construction Co. of Edmond to remodel Big 4 Fire Department received approval. Calm Construction submitted the second low bid on the project but the lowest bid was discounted because of a discrepancy in the square footage of the project.

Dobrovolny said he contacted the district attorney’s office before recommending acceptance of the second low bid after personally reviewing the scope of the project.

He said he had discussed the bids with Big 4 Fire Chief Joey Maschino.

Commissioners approved payment of a $2,535 bridge inspection invoice from Circuit Engineering District 8 and an annual contract of $2,570.46 with The Grounds Guys of Edmond to maintain the lawn and flower beds at the courthouse during the coming year.

A resolution authorizing disposal of surplus computer equipment for the office of county assessor received approval.

Deputy Kingfisher County Emergency Management Director Ryan Deatherage reported that the courthouse security system installation had been completed but that he had contacted the installer to provide certain programming necessary to send texts via the equipment.

County Engineer Nik Smith requested that persons planning new construction along county roads to provide a new post office address for the locations to his office.

Dobrovolny reported he had contacted a state agency regarding supplying a metal detector for the courthouse, as recommended by Assistant District Attorney Jimmy Bunn.

He said the equipment was available for installation at a cost of about $4,000, which was under what he expected.

However, he said it probably cannot be installed until after Jan. 1.

An additional sheriff’s department officer has already been assigned to the courthouse, another security measure recommended by Bunn.

Monthly reports of the offices of sheriff, health department, assessor, county clerk and treasurer received approval as did the consent agenda, which included minutes of the Nov. 28 meeting, agenda, purchase orders, warrants and payroll for Dec. 5.

All commissioners were present – Dobrovolny, District 3; Ray Alan Shimanek, District 2, and Jeff Moss, District 1 – along with County Emergency Management Director Steve Loftis, Deatherage, CED #8 Director Donnie Head, Smith and County Clerk Jeannie Boevers as minute clerk.

The county Covid report from the state health department showed five cases in the county, all in Kingfisher.