​Tonight, Tuesday February 27, will be the first of three Town Hall style meetings regarding the upcoming Barnsdall Public Schools Bond. The Bond Issue Community Meeting will take place this evening at 7pm in the Fine Arts Building at Barnsdall High School. The other meetings are scheduled on Tuesday, March 13 and Thursday, March 29, both of which are at 7pm in the Fine Arts Building.


The Barnsdall School Bond will address the dire state of the Schools facilities to conduct necessary repairs and address water drainage. The bond will also see renovation to the “old pool building,” converting the space into an Administrative building, Student Activity Center, and Family and Consumer Science Classroom. A new Athletic Building is proposed which will house new wrestling and cheer-leading mats, two multi-purpose locker rooms for home and away teams, a new weight room, coaches offices.


The School Bond vote is scheduled for April 3, 2018 and needs a super majority, 60 percent plus one, to be approved. The previous school bond failed by four votes.

This week the Board of Osage County Commissioners decided which company would be installing their new updated radio system and furnishing mobile radios. The county received two bids last week and tables the bids for tabulation, those bids coming from Action Communications at $61,822.20 and from Total Radio Inc for the amount of $80,116.50. After discussing the options the Commissioners voted to go with Action Communications where aside from being low bid, they could also apply for manufacture rebates through Kenwood.


The Commissioners also came to a final decision regarding how much to charge the Pawhuska Round-Up Club for use of the Osage County Fairgrounds for their Play Days. In previous years, before the County established their new price chart for Fairground Rental, the Pawhuska Round-Up Club was using the facilities at the Fairgrounds free of charge. However, far too many residents and local organizations were using the facility for free and the decision was made to charge all parties. Last year Cavalcade was paying for the Pawhuska Round Up Club, but was not able to budget the funds this year. The Round Up Club had asked if the Commissioners could use facilities for free once again, however the Board felt that if they started by offering one organization the opportunity to use the Fairgrounds for free, many more would request the same. Therefore, the Commissioners deliberated and offered the heavily discounted rate of $500 for the year, plus the use of the concession stand; regular price to rent the Arena is $250 per event, the Round Up Club will use the facilities for seven. Round Up Club representative Justin Carr will take the offer back to the Club to determine if they can afford the charge.


The next meeting of the Osage County Board of County Commissioners will be next Monday at 10am at the Osage County Courthouse in Pawhuska.

Tuesday the Osage County Commissioners met for their weekly meeting, on Tuesday due to the Presidents Day holiday. The majority of the meeting was business as usual, however two agenda items did require additional discussion.


The first were bids to replace the repeater radio system, and installation at two locations along with replacement of mobile radios and base systems for districts #1 and #3. The Commissioners received two bids for products and services those coming from Action Communications at $61,822.20 and from Total Radio Inc for the amount of $80,116.50. However, due to the nature of the items, specifically whether they would be compatible with the County's existing systems including fire and sheriff, the Commissioners chose to accept the bids for tabulation.


The second item which required additional discussion was for new electronic locks and the replacement of the control system at the Osage County Jail. The Commissioners accepted bid last week and were waiting for input and preferences before approval. Following the inspection and jail walk through the Sheriffs Office recommended ordering the locks from Brinks, and ordering the control system through Montgomery Technologies Inc, who installed the previous system in 2004. The new locks will come at a cost of $115,873 and the control system will cost $44,500, both prices included service and installation and were low bids.


The Osage County Commissioners will meet again next Monday at the Osage County Courthouse in Pawhuska.