McALESTER — This month’s City Council meeting was held July 2 at 7:30 p.m. After the Flag salute and Invocation, given by Johnny Ray, roll call was initiated. All members were present with the exception of Sharla McClain’s empty position, as this will remain unfilled until the next election for that particular City Ward, and a quorum was declared.

There were no comments from the public and the minutes from the month of June were accepted. During the approval phase for the bills, in the listing under the PSO portion, four out of five bills were not listed. According to the Mayor, all of the bills are always paid to a zero balance. Also included in the missing bills is a Centerpoint Energy bill that is supposed to be paid as soon as it comes in.

The Mayor also mentioned that since the council meetings movement, some of the utility bills do not reach to the City Hall offices in time to be put on the bill section of the agenda (which is posted 48 hours before the meeting).

The first item up for discussion and action was the closing of Block 140 at Sixth Street and Holden Avenue. The request, made by Mr. and Mrs. Carl Price, was to install a temporary fence so his livestock can utilize what grass is available and what remains will be mowed and taken care of. Carl Price informed the Council that there would be enough room left for emergency vehicles to travel that area instead of completely blocking off the road/alley permanently.

The motion to accept was made by Lynette Price but Mayor Tevebaugh objected and suggested that the Council table the proposal until next month so she can evaluate the request by visiting the area in question. A unanimous vote was passed and this item will be put back on the agenda in August.

Next on the agenda for discussion and action was the hiring of Kevin Gresham to the Haileyville Volunteer Fire Department as per the request of Fire Chief Mike Grivette. The motion was made to accept Chief Grivette’s request and was unanimously passed.

The last item on the general meeting agenda was the proposition to raise the minimum bond for dumping trash on public or private property without consent from $500 to $1000. Mayor Tevebaugh explained the need for this increase to hopefully decrease the amount of trash being dumped at or around Dow Lake. The motion was made to accept this change and the entire Council voted yes to raising the fine fee.

The business previously considered portion of the agenda remained blank.

The Treasurer’s report and business not previously considered were combined. There were no financial reports for this meeting due to the acquisition of the Peachtree Accounting software.

The Mayor addressed the Council regarding this accounting program by letting them know that Kerns and Shores use this particular program when doing CPA records for the City and the records would be more easily available to the City’s CPA and the accounting staff.

No Police report was given at the meeting. The number of citations written tallied up to 10, which speeding was the most prominent on the docket. Fire Chief Grivette was present and informed the Council that he had gotten a 5,000 gallon tanker from KEDDO and it currently is at McCullar’s Paint and Body Shop for a new paint job. This means that the Haileyville Fire Department has approximately 8,400 gallons of water to bring to a fire call before having to hookup to a fire plug.

Another item Chief Grivette mentioned is the addition of a small building connected to the main fire house. This building is to be paid out of the Pittsburg County sales tax. The bill was voted on by the citizens of Pittsburg County and was granted.

The General Meeting was adjourned and the PWA agenda was called to order and a quorum was present.

The June meeting minutes and bills to be paid were unanimously accepted.

The first item on the agenda was regarding the fiberglass/plastic pipes/tubes that are stacked behind City Hall. Assistant Police Chief Ronnie Studeman said he is willing to buy the pipe in question for $2 each. This item was tabled until next month. State Law require entities that own a particular object must offer it as a surplus item and then the public or private people can place a bid for the item after a certain number of days. Once it is time to open the bid envelopes the highest bidder is the owner of the items that were surplus.

Next on the agenda was whether or not to continue with trash pickup via Allied Waste. Mr. Haywood from Allied Waste was present at the meeting to answer any questions the Council might have and to get the contracts signed.

The Council decided to accept the five-year offer of trash pickup instead of the three-year contract. With the five-year contract, the City will save money in comparison to the three-year contract. The item was approved allowing Allied Waste to remain the contractor for City garbage pickup.

The third item for discussion and action was a proposal to raise the water reconnect fee from $30 to $100 per incident. The reason for this increase is to let the people know that if their water bills are high and their water gets turned off, then the reconnect fee will cost more.

The next item on the agenda was the acceptance of the contract with AMS whose name has been changed from J&S Collections. The city previously had a contract with J&S to collect on past water bills and only the name of the company has changed.

The final discussion and action listed was a request by Mayor Tevebaugh to cash in CD#65883 for $21,889.68 and place those funds into the PWA account. The additional funds, added to the current balance of $3,700, would enable the city to cover all of the month’s bills and payroll.

Instead a council member explained that the CD in discussion is the only thing that the city can use as “fallback” money in case of emergency. The motion was changed to taking $10,000 from the User Fee account and $13,000 from the Water Deposit account and placing those funds into the PWA account.

No new business or previously considered business was discussed. No Treasurer’s report, Trustees report or maintenance report was on the agenda.

Have a safe and cool month and don’t forget that the Haileyville City Council Meetings are open to the public.