Watonga City Council had a short but significant agenda when it met in regular session Monday night.
The council first heard the city financial reports from RS Meacham, which showed for the most part that the city is prospering financially and is doing slightly better than at the same point last year.
They then moved on to approve closure of an old petty cash account at Bank7 that treasurer Rodney Jacks said has been unused for at least two years and is not gaining any interest. The funds, $861, were moved to the general fund account.
With its light work behind them, council members Allen Cowan, Travis Bradt and mayor Bill Seitter took on a far weightier topic— building infrastructure for the city. This instance was the proposed drinking water and wastewater treatment facilities. The council had to approve the Public Works Authority as borrower for building the facilities. The WPA has no authority on its own to enter into a more than one year agreement, even though the city council is the WPA. The city then leases the utility system back from the WPA. The WPA projects will be addressed in a companion article in this edition of the Watonga Republican.
The city council also agreed to adopt the recently created capital improvement plan for the town. The adopted version was a modification of the plan previously presented, with many projects changing categories and moving up or down the scale of prioritization. Once the plan was adopted, the council moved to approve and close out a Community Block Development Grant, or CBDG, that was used to pay for the improvement plan. That set of priorities was created through Northern Oklahoma Development Authority, working off the recommendations of the various departments who outlined their needs for the plan writer.
City Manager Karrie Beth Little said the citywide cleanup will look a little different this year. In addition to the Earth Day program where roll offs are placed on Main Street for citizen use, staff will be doing weekly cleanups as well. They will run the old trash routes, down alleys and streets as well, collecting refuse. That could include old mattresses, couches and other furniture, as well as limbs.
Little said more information will be presented soon, and residents should simply place the items on the edge of the city easements so that staff does not have to enter the residents’ property.