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With a less than normal year for the City of Watonga, City Manager, Larry Mitchell suggests the city is doing everything it can to continue operating as normally as possible. Mitchell says that for
Mitchell says that for early 2021, residents of Watonga can look forward to the upcoming election as well as the continuing construction of the Lucky Star Casino.
“The city of Watonga is transitioning to a councilmanager form of government which will take place in April,” Mitchel said. “That's very important to the community.”
The city will go from a nine-member council to a five-member council. The filing period for the election is the first week in February, and all seats on the council will be open.
As for the casino, Mitchell says plans for the opening may be delayed a bit, but the city has worked with the casino. “We extended
“We extended a 10-inch water line to their facility so that they will have access to city utilities and city water. We’ve been doing several things like that,” Mitchell said.
Despite challenges the pandemic has brought, Watonga Mayor Gary Olsen says the growth the city has seen has been a positive. “The casino has added the
“The casino has added the hotel, and it’ll be up and running in a couple of months. Family Dollar’s come to town and we’ve had some other things,” Olsen said. “I think there’s been some growth in town, so I think that’s a good thing.”
Regardless of efforts to run a normal course of business, the pandemic affected Watonga in several ways throughout 2020.
City council meetings were held remotely.
Masks were issued when entering buildings.
Social distancing was enforced.
“We're following the governor's guidance on their CDC press announcements on managing COVID,” Mitchell said. “We're asking everyone that comes into city hall to be wearing a mask, and we will put people coming into the building on notice that they need to be wearing a mask.”
Though city council meetings were held virtually throughout most of last year due to special legislation, they are now being held in the city auditorium.
People wear masks as they enter the meeting, and everyone is socially distanced once inside. These are the steps Mitchell says they are taking to prevent the potential spread of COVID-19.
No official mask mandate has been passed or considered. Mitchell said that cities like Enid, Norman, and Stillwater have all had a hard time enforcing their mandates since they passed.
“They've had recall petitions filed against some of the council members because they covered the policy or passed the policy. We think it's very difficult to manage and very hard to enforce,” Mitchell said.
With COVID cases in Blaine county rising in the past month, Mitchell says the city has been actively encouraging residents to schedule an appointment to receive the COVID vaccine.
Scheduling your appointment can be done by contacting your county’s health department if you meet current requirements. Residents can also register via the state’s new online portal.
“The most important thing for the community at this point is getting your vaccines for COVID-19,” Mitchell said. “They’re very hard to schedule right now. It may be a little while before we're able to receive the vaccine, but we're encouraging everyone to do that.“
As for 2021, Mayor Olsen says he hopes to see things pick up once everyone receives their inoculations.