A ribbon cutting ceremony was held on Friday afternoon commemorating the opening of the new location of Visit Bartlesville's office inside the Community Center. Executive Director Maria Gus says the new location will be a benefit.
Lieutenant Governor Matt Pinnell was on hand for the afternoon's festivities and he said tourism is the key to economic development across the state. Gus said that for those coming to Bartlesville, they have all the necessary information to plan a trip, but the center also has plenty to offer for local residents. Visit Bartlesville is located at 300 SE Adams Blvd. and they are open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday's. Bartlesville Class Days is set to take place Saturday afternoon and will air on KWON AM 1400 FM 93.3. Cameron Carroll and McKayla Hanks are set to share their favorite high school memories and play some of their favorite music.
Thank you to Bartnet IP, Arvest Bank, LPL Painting, Oklahoma Wesleyan University, Regent Bank, Senator Julie Daniels, Pizza Hut, Representative Judd Strom, OK Federal Credit Union, Representative Wendi Stearman, Sunshine Motors, Verdigris Valley Electric Cooperative and Patriot Chevrolet for making the broadcast possible. Bartlesville Radio congratulates the Bartlesville Class of 2021. The Board of Osage County Commissioners will convene for a regularly scheduled meeting at the fairgrounds Monday morning to discuss an assortment of items.
Sarah Patterson with the Osage County Health Department and Jeremy McLemore with Miller EMS will both give updates as to how things are going with their departments. After signing a resolution a week ago removing all restrictions allowing the public to enter county-owned buildings, the commissioners will have discussion regarding how that is going so far and if any changes need to be made. The commissioners will consider signing the financial report for the first quarter of the nutrition department and consider updating the meal resolution. The commissioners will also enter into executive session to discuss the possible purchase or appraisal of real property. Monday’s meeting starts at 10 o’ clock in the morning for those interested in attending. Community members gathered for the 70th annual National Day of Prayer at the Bartlesville Community Center on Thursday evening where several public leaders spoke through the power of prayer. James Biasadecki with the Bartlesville First Baptist Church conducted the opening prayer and said things may look rough now, but brighter days are ahead.
Washington County Sheriff Scott Owen spoke on the importance of keeping God in the forefront of everyone’s thoughts. Deb Cook, who is a part of the National Day of Prayer Task Force, hopes that every American comes together to worship and serve Jesus. Dwight Shipman, Ramon Barboa, Victoria Baiye, Joey Eidson, Stephen Colaw, Reverend John M. O’Neill, Keith and Christy McPhail, Sharon Wolfe and Glory Gujjarlapudi all led the congregation in prayer as well. Wade Daniel with the First Baptist Church provided the music. The Wahzhazhe Heritage Trail in Pawhuska opened up on Wednesday with an official ribbon cutting ceremony. This was a 1.5 million dollar project funded by Tribal Transportation Funds. Principal Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear was on hand for the event and he says Wednesday’s event is only the beginning.
Construction on the project began in May of last year. As the City of Pawhuska continues to grow, so do the concerns that the town can be powered off of its current electric grid. This is why Utilities Director Bill Bruce would like to see some improvements at the sub-station where the town’s power is generated.
Bruce said that his budget is a little bit short at the time because of the ice storm over the winter and expenses incurred assisting with the development of Bird Creek Farms. Bruce is looking to purchase two metering stations, relays and circuit switchers. The total cost for these items is nearly $250,000 and Bruce says other repair work must be done costing upward of $250,000. Bruce said these repairs must be done while the temperatures are between 50 and 78 degrees so that the town doesn’t use much power, causing an outage as repairs are being made. Bruce added that it would be beneficial for the council to act quickly if they wanted to do this. When asked what could happen if they didn’t go out for bid on these items, Bruce gave a bleak response. The council opted to table that agenda item and they will re-visit the subject at Tuesday evening’s special called meeting. Bruce added that there is a shortage of chlorine, causing prices to increase. He expects this to continue for at least the next year. Those seeking unemployment aid continues to fall, as the number fell below 500,000 last week for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic began more than a year ago. At its peak in January, more than 900,000 people were filling out jobless claims each week. This is still well above the 230,000 mark that we saw before the pandemic hit.
In March, employers added nearly one million jobs, which was the most since August. The United States Labor Department expects to see the same job report for April when those numbers get released on Friday. Even with those expected numbers, there will still be seven million fewer jobs than when the pandemic began. Thursday’s report showed that as of mid-April, about 16.2 million Americans were continuing to draw unemployment benefits. That number is also an improvement from the week before. In the first quarter of 2021, the economy grew at a 6.4 percent rate and the unemployment rate currently sits at six percent. The COVID-19 alert map was released on Wednesday and 64 counties are now in the yellow, or low risk category, for those at risk of getting COVID-19. Twelve counties are in the green, or new normal risk level and only one county sits at the orange, or moderate risk level.
This is the third consecutive week that Washington, Osage and Nowata counties are in the low risk level. This is the fewest amount of counties classified in the moderate risk level since the Oklahoma State Department of Health began this tracking system in September. Oklahoma Commissioner of Health, Lance Frye recently said despite the improved numbers, we can’t let our guard down. “With case numbers and hospitalizations at a sustained and consistently manageable level, we are approaching the new normal that we have been working toward for so long.” More than 2.5 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered across the State of Oklahoma and the vaccine remains open to those aged 16 and older. Pawhuska Chamber of Commerce Director Joni Nash has announced that she will be resigning at the end of the month. At Monday evening's city council meeting, Nash expressed how much she has enjoyed serving in that role.
Nash will be staying in the Pawhuska area, possibly serving in a volunteer role to the chamber director. During her economic development report, Nash said she is looking forward to the Rural Revival event taking place next week in downtown Pawhuska, as 60 small business owners will be coming to town. Nash also said the Chamber of Commerce is getting a lot of phone calls regarding the Indian Relay Horse Races, which is set to take place over the Memorial Day Weekend at the Osage County Fairgrounds. When attempting to call Pawhuska’s City Hall, there are times the call gets re-directed and it is difficult to find the person or department you are wanting to speak with. This is something Police Chief Lorrie Hennesy was frustrated with when the ice storm hit the area in February and communication broke down all across the board. City Manager Tonya Bright recently said this is about to get ironed out.
The Pawhuska Police Department assisted the Osage Nation Police Department and the Osage County Sheriff’s Office on 63 separate occasions in April. Just over $16,000 were brought in on fines and court costs for the month of April. There have been 365 citations issued in 2021 so far. |
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