Hennessey’s Board of Trustees have asked for more involvement from the community at its meetings and got it...from three different citizens last Thursday night.

All board members were present for the 90-minute meeting: Mayor Bert Gritz, Vice Mayor Clif Vogt, Trustees Harold Shaw, Richard Simunek and David Jones.

Not my property

Kathy Corral said after she received a notice from the town to clean up her rental property, she went to the courthouse and discovered the property belongs to the town.

“It’s an alleyway instead of an easement,” she told trustees. “It goes behind our property.”

The clean-up notice was for her property at 501 and 505 N. Arapaho St., said Corral, who addressed the board under a citizen comment item at the start of the meeting.

Town Administrator Tiffany Tillman said she’d contact the town attorney to make sure where the alley is located, but “it may mean you’ll lose part of your property.”

Corral, a past member of the Hennessey Planning Board, said she hoped it didn’t go through her kitchen.

Corral lives on Billy Bob Street which intersects east of the north-south Arapaho Street.

She said a neighbor on that street “re-did her sewer line in the alleyway” and had it hooked up to a mobile home and that it isn’t “legal.”

Trustee Harold Shaw said he did some checking on that and would have thought that, too, “but it is legal.”

Tillman said it wasn’t a mobile home.

“Well it has wheels on it,” Corral said. “It’s right in front of my house.”

Tillman said the town’s inspector checked it out and it was not hooked up to a sewer line and it was approved for a permit. (Note: It’s listed as the “little house” on the July list of approved building permits and does have wheels.)

Sewer going north

Esther Gonzales signed up to speak about the Osborne Addition’s new homes and sewer going in near her home on Arapaho Street.

“Why didn’t you tell us it was going to the north of us?” she asked.

“It stinks!” Tillman said the sewer isn’t hooked up yet and the workers talked with her husband about the plans.

Gonzales said she didn’t know about it though.

“Why didn’t you tell me when I came in to pay my water bill?” she asked Tillman.

Tillman said she didn’t believe she’d ever taken her payments before.

Gonzales said she had and “Why was the builder allowed to build that before the ground was ever level?

“All that water will come into my house.”

Tillman said they are bringing in loads of dirt to build it up so it won’t cause a water problem for her.

Gonzales said, again, “It stinks early in the mornings.”

Tillman said she’d be there at 6 a.m. Friday so she could smell it.

“Ma’am, I live in the same neighborhood you do,” said Shaw to Gonzales. “I live close to the rodeo grounds and there are some times when it stinks, early in the mornings.”

Shaw said he thought the smell might be coming from the seed plant.

Gritz told Gonzales he doesn’t always remember to tell his wife something and she should ask her husband about it.

Use of sewer lagoon

When the agenda moved to Utilities Authority, Frank Patton asked a question from the audience.

He has a travel trailer and said he’d like to be able to use the town’s sewer lagoon for his sewage. He is also a former town trustee candidate and said he will run again next year.

Tillman said they just spent $17,000 on it. She said it was plugged up and they “found a bunch of rags.”

Shaw said the rags wouldn’t have come from regular trailers, but from companies that provide portable bathrooms for oilfield and others.

The town does allow businesses to dump there, but not individuals because it’s difficult to keep track of the usage, Tillman said.

Jones said he had a remedy: Have a key made.

He suggested potential users have to come to town hall to get it, make a deposit and bring back the key.

Tillman said they need to get their study on the sewer and water system done before they make other plans.

The board voted to accept an Oklahoma Water Resources Board grant to do that later in the meeting.

Action items

• Applied for a $700,000 Transportation Alternative Program (TAP) grant from Oklahoma Department of Transportation, which is due Sept. 1. Tillman said the town could put in a halfmile of sidewalks if they got that grant. She suggested the crosswalk in front of the library on Main Street (U.S. Highway 81) and doing some walkability studies that would make it safer for kids who walk to school.

Vogt said kids walk down his street during their lunch time so they can get pizza.

Tillman said a lot of kids walk up Iowa Street “and it’s a narrow street.”

Someone else suggested from Iowa Street north to S.H. 51 (on either the Sonic side or the carwash side) and several others agreed.

• Approved a $4,763 change order for work at the reverse osmosis water plant.

• Approved a yearly agreement with the State Fire Marshal’s Office.

Administrator’s report

• July building permits issued: HHS track (press box); HHS softball field (concession); HHS baseball (canopy); five homes installed solar panels; two swimming pools; four fences; one addition to home, and one tiny house.

• Hirings – Brad Logan was hired as a police officer. He has been an officer for eight years and most recently worked for the county. Jordan Mondoux was hired as a street and parks department worker.

• Library Building Committee – Still pending architect’s report.

• Aquatic Center – Aug. 10 was the last weekday, but it will be open weekends until Labor Day.

Tillman said they’d been busier this year and had a lot more people from out of town.

She said some have suggested that out-of-towners be charged more, but she said the pool is being paid for from sales tax and most of these people stop to eat, or get gas, and that helps the town.

She said Lomega Elementary School students were due to visit the pool the next day.

“Two called today wanting to book parties,” said Shelley Burch, town treasurer/ town employee.

Tillman said “we tell themthatweopenthebooks for parties April 1 and they need to call, quick.”

Gritz said he hates it that the pool isn’t open during the week in the hottest time of the year and knows that the college kids have to get to class.

He said they need to hire more adults. Tillman said some need to apply.

• Water tower – Too hot to finish painting, but will when it’s cooler.