Ponca Politics meeting held Friday, Nov. 19th

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Ponca Politics meeting held Friday, Nov. 19th

Tue, 11/23/2021 - 00:09
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The Ponca Politics Committee held their regular monthly meeting on Friday, Nov. 19 in the Ponca City Chamber of Commerce board room.

Wayne Mitchell called the meeting to order.

Upcoming forums include a legislative update with Senator Bill Coleman, and Representatives Ken Luttrell and John Pfeiffer on Friday, Jan. 28.

Mayor Homer Nicholson provided a State of the City update.

The city’s budget this year was $113,418,000, the biggest budget the city has ever had, but some of that is carried over from the previous years, to allow for projects the city has planned.

Ponca City has received over $2 million in American Rescue Plan (ARPA) funds, some of which will go to the NERA food bank, new bleachers aluminum bleachers at the rodeo grounds and improvements on Grand Ave., along with a few dozen other projects.

Ponca City was subject to several extraordinary and once in a lifetime events over the previous two years including the May 2019 flood, the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, the October 2020 ice storm and the February 2021 polar vortex.

Ponca City currently has 394 full time employees and 89 part time employees, and during the aforementioned events, city employees qualified as essential workers because they had to keep water, electricity and streets maintained. Nobody was laid off or furloughed, something Mayor Nicholson stated he was proud of.

Mayor Nicholson shared several statistics to the committee including:

- Ponca City has 20 water wells that provides drinking water and has the capacity to produce 16,000,000 gallons of water. The wells are used rather than lake water as well water is better in terms of treatment.

- Last year, Ponca City produced 3,000,000,000 gallons of water.

- Water distribution lines comprise 213 miles of water line.

- During the ice storm, the city picked up over 6,000 tons of debris.

- Parks and Rec currently takes care of 30 parks, two pools, and five splash pads.

- There are 173 miles of streets and 71 miles of alleys in Ponca City.

- Ponca City is the only city in the state that has free wi-fi citywide and is also the only that is providing 100% fiber optic to homes. The latter of which is currently at the midway point of completion.

- Ponca City maintains their own vehicles and have 319 vehicles total. 97 of those 319 are heavy equipment like bulldozers and backhoes.

- Ponca City Library had 4,000 visitors last year, and 35,000 checkouts.

- The fire department had 821 fire calls; 4,784 medical calls; and 657 transfers last year.

- The police department had 24,315 calls for service last year; 6,315 of which were traffic contacts.

As the last part of his presentation, Mayor Nicholson shared information on some current and future projects for the City of Ponca City.

The city is working on a storm sewer system problem at the intersection of Joe and Hartford. The new waterline is from 5th Street to 7th Street and is under construction.

The new police station has to have a communications tower, the city is current out to bid on that project.

On 3rd Street from Walnut to Oklahoma, will have the bricks removed and replaced with concrete.

Lake Ponca campground will be getting a new bathroom and shower. During the construction, the campground will be closed. The new facilities are expected to be opened on or around March 1, 2021.

The RecPlex will get receiving a new roof over their lap pool. The city is currently in

The city is currently in the process of a Hazard Mitigation Plan. Every five years, the city has to update their plan and have it on file with the federal government.

The Global Information System (GIS) database that the city uses is being updated. The map is used mostly for 911 calls and covers the east half of Kay County, the north third of Noble County, and the western part of Osage County.

The city is redoing the sidewalk of the west side of 3rd Street from Grand Ave. to Central. This upgrade is to make it ADA compliant and to improve the drainage.

The Union bridge overpass on Highland will have its deck replaced. This will cause the street to be shutdown for a time while construction is going on. The project is currently out to bid.

The city will redo asphalt on Mockingbird and Pecan.

Remuneration of ARPA money will be rewarded to full-time city employees in the amount of $1000. This includes those that worked from Oct. 1, 2020 to Oct. 30, 2021. The city chose this particular window of time so as to catch the most of their employees; the timeframe was also when employees were keeping the city running during the ice storm and polar vortex, and this is a reward to them for working in such hazardous conditions.

Rich Cantillon, Chamber President, provided a Chamber Update.

Philips 66 hosted a Bedlam Tailgate-themed Business After Hours event on Tuesday, Nov. 23.

On Nov. 30, a ribbon cutting event is scheduled for Luxor Nail and Spa at 2 pm.

On Dec. 6, a Cash Mob is planned at Pizza Inn.

The Leadership class will have arts and culture on Wed. Dec. 8.

On Dec. 14, the City Chamber and PCDA will host a holiday event at the Marland Mansion’s upper level for all the chamber members, catered by Danny’s BBQ.

On Dec. 15, the Chamber will be selected their Outstanding Citizen award recipient during the Chamber awards. The only requirement for this award is that the nominee is a chamber member. They will also select the Volunteer of the Year award on Dec. 16.

Finally, The Chamber Celebration will be on Jan. 27 at the RecPlex.

Santa Bucks are currently underway and the Chamber will be doing Santa Bucks Surprise this year. The Chamber will pick a volunteer who goes to several businesses and look for someone they don’t know to hand that person $50 in Santa Bucks as a thanks for shopping local. Santa Buck Giveaway’s drawing night is on Tuesday, Dec. 21 at 7:00 pm on KLOR 99.3 FM, KPNC 100.7 FM, 104.7 The Bull FM, and 1230 WBBZ AM.