Watonga City Council held its regular monthly meeting Tuesday evening and revealed the city coffers are on an even keel.
Four of five council members were present, Adam Tock being the single absentee.
Following the approval of minutes from the August meeting, monthly department reports were accepted. Council member Allan Cowan gave city treasurer Rodney Jacks a pat on the back.
“We’ve been saving pennies where we can and the things we’re doing are showing up in black and white,” Cowan said. “We have a $6.3 million balance, and a month ago it was at $6.1 million.”
Mayor Bill Seitter chimed in at that point. “A year ago it was sitting at $4.8 million. That’s nearly a million and a half improvement.” Jacks, in turn, gave credit to city manager Karrie Beth Little, saying he is following her lead.
When Dacia Phillips of RS Meacham went over the monthly financials, they, too, showed a generally upward trend, with income up some $56,000 over one year ago. She also noted there have been $8497 in grants brought in this month alone. Some of that money was FEMA reimbursement for work done six years ago.
The council also named 69 p.m. Oct. 31 as the time for Halloween activities in the city.
The Christian Church has offered the city portions of two lots on its east side at 319 N. Weigle, which are currently vacant. The city accepted the donation, noting that with the help of the Watonga Economic Development Authority – WEDA—and the Northern Oklahoma Development Authority – NODA, plans are to build a home on the lots, sell it at a reasonable price and use that as seed money to develop more housing in the city.
Several contracts with the city are renewed on an annual basis, including the Friends of the Ferguson, which maintains the TB Ferguson Home and museum.
Louise Dunn was there to address the council and instead of asking the contract be renewed, said the organization was seeking to disband. Dunn cited the lack of active members, lack of funding support from the state and little or no physical labor available.
“We haven’t taken this step lightly,” Dunn said, with her eyes nearly brimming over. “But we need help. We don’t have three active board members. It has been going on for a long time,” she said.
The city owns the house and property, but only got the corrected deed from the state last year, city attorney Jared Harrison said. It had hung in limbo for at least five years before that. The state refused to appropriate maintenance funding, and indeed, the roof had been replaced with private funds to protect the building from water damage.
Citizen Joe Bryan suggested the Friends slow walk its dissolution and work on finding other, more palpable resolutions to the ongoing problems.
Dunn was unconvinced there was another solution. “It’s like beating your head against a wall,” she said.
In the end, no action was taken on the contract and hopes are there is a way to reinvigorate the organization.