Welcome to the 🎙️ VIBE 🎧Broken Arrow! Mr.. SPURGEON You want to start us off and just tell us
give us kind of the nuts and bolts. Tell us about this agreement. I'd be glad to, Aaron. Let me start with what I actually started
with the city council last night, and that was I've
always believed in my career and we've really focused on this here
in Broken Arrow. And there was a long history before
I got here of understanding the importance of what the role of the city
is with regard to economic de
velopment. And it really comes down to one thing,
and that is creating and maintaining an environment
that promotes private investment. When you do that,
when you have a city council that is willing to work
with the private sector, when you have a community
development department that is a a partner in terms of outlining what is expected
and then making sure that things move the process timely
but yet require certain standards, you develop a reputation
is that you're a great place to work. And s
o I do believe that that environment that the council
and the administration have created is why you're seeing success in Broken
Arrow. Go back two years ago, Jennifer Rush started a relationship with this company,
Notes Live about possible ventures here in Broken Arrow
and they were looking for space for a specific type of venue
that did not work out. And fortunately, however,
we maintain that relationship with them. So when they came back to us in late July,
early August of this year and said
that they were looking to put an outdoor
amphitheater, that at the time it was something less
than what was approved last night we immediately jumped on the possibility
of making that happen. And with the support of the council
over the last two months, Jennifer Rush,
led by the entire administration at the direction of the council,
was able to bring it to the governing body last night, an agreement
that would allow us to partner to bring a 12,500 seat outdoor
amphitheater to our community, spec
ifically in the southeast
part of the city on property. Either that the city owns
or we're looking to acquire and we're looking at if everything goes
as planned in the agreement, that facility could be completed
and ready for concerts by the end of 2025. And of course you're talking about events. Park Well, we're just across the Creek
Turnpike. 4 minutes to be a council of parks. You mentioned last night that you were
really excited about this agreement, and you specifically mentioned
events par
k. What is it about that venue that makes this the perfect location
for the AMPITHEATER? Well, the events park is something that my own family uses a lot
and a lot of people do use of this park. In fact, I was just out there a couple of weeks ago
working with the Scott Fest and a Civic. Fans very well used the people that own
that property. Mr. Mrs. Anderson would be very pleased with
how much that would be in use because they they worked with the city for the city
to get that property for the p
ublic use and what greater public use can
we have than this? Now from the master plan
back in the early 2020 11 anyway, it was set up that there would be
a amphitheater in there. And so I'm just very excited. I feel like the owners,
the original owners would be very pleased with this and the council is developing
that or looking at that in such a way to protect all the properties around
and also make it a venue so that the surrounding community
can come and enjoy the park. Hopefully we're able t
o purchase
a little bit more land to the north and that would make it where we could
actually utilize our existing park nearly
the way it is with exception of parking. So I'm just very excited about this. I think it's good for the community,
I think it's good for the whole area and I would certainly commend that
the council will be looking at all this. They'll be looking at the sound to make
sure there's not a problem with that. They'll be looking at all the traffic,
especially to make sure that
traffic flow does not negatively affect the
the property owners that are there. So I'm just enthused. But it was supposed to be an amphitheater
there and that's what looks like
it's going to be. How important was it to you
that events Park stays pretty much like it is now and we acquire that land
to put the amphitheater there just so you still have events like Scott
Fast Camp bandage, those sorts of things. Those things was very important. I didn't want to I didn't want to
throw one out, you kn
ow, for the other. So I was just very excited. And you know what I mean? Certainly positive in this way
because I do want those events to stay. Not only that, I want the events.
My wife and I go out there and walk. We go out there and take our grandkids
fishing, and I wanted to continue doing that
because a lot of other people are doing that same thing. So we get the events
park stand pretty much the way it is. And plus this is going to be certainly
an attribute for the community now with these
with these agreements that we have with companies
that come in, they do market analysis, so they look to see where they want to go
and is it a good fit for them, in your estimation? You're just in conversations
that you've had with them. Why is this a good fit, the events? Park Is it because of the turnpike? Is it because of distance,
two homes in the area? What is it
that you've learned in your time with talking with the folks
from those live? Well, I learned not only from notes live,
I learned
it in my research about how people are spending money
today, that when it comes to discretionary income,
which is really what you pay for when you go to do
any type of entertainment or purchase of clothes, anything, it's
after all, you pay all your bills. More people today
are looking for an experience, and that experience,
especially for the younger generations, is going to concerts, is looking for
some type of entertainment or excitement or or thrills, amusement parks,
hiking, biking, passive
active recreation. And I knew that before we met with notes. Liz They made it very clear
that they've done their marketing analysis and they have they're
on the forefront of this transition of how people are spending their money, of
wanting more in a type of entertainment, like going to two live concerts,
especially outside. They shared with us
their marketing analysis in some respects,
and they determined that there's no issues with actually building
this type of venue in this area and that it
's much needed. So what you're going to have
is you're going to have this circuit that basically starts in Colorado,
comes through through Oklahoma, down into Texas, because as you know,
just a couple of months ago, they announced they were going to put
a similar facility in Oklahoma City. And this is how confident I am about
this project is their public excuse me,
their private commitment for this project is somewhere between,
you know, 70 and $71 million. And if you look at the public portion
commitment for this partnership that the council has as approved,
you're looking at a project between public and private funding
that could be close to $100 million. And so the city wouldn't have made
these investments that we recommended to the council if we didn't feel confident
that that the company we're working with had the wherewithal,
the means and done the research. And they were very, very open
with exactly what they wanted to do. This and this is an emerging market. And I think they're
taking advantage up in the Tulsa metropolitan area,
specifically Broken Arrow. We are blessed
that they're going to be here. Thank you. Looked at my notes. I was going to ask
about the public investment. So if you if you don't
mind, let's get into that. What are these public improvements
that the city is committed to doing? Well,
I'll I'll touch I'll touch in a couple in I there's there's a couple
that I would like for Councilmember Parks to talk about
that are very, very important to him. The
one thing the council said
when I brought this to them, to the person is they want this
to be a great experience. And so what's the definition
of a great experience that is, obviously we've all been or most
people have been to a concert, and you have to make sure
that it's easy to get in and you want to make sure when it's over, whether it's a sporting band
or any type of live event, there's always going to be a delay
in terms of times you get to your vehicle or however you're getting home,
whet
her you're through a bus or whatever, there's going to be a time
and the council basically said, let's make this a great experience
that is going to want people to come back because we've been to venues
I certainly have to, where it is extremely difficult to get out and you're
delayed for hours and hours and hours and you just feel like, you know what,
I really want to go see this artist or I want to go out to see this
live event. But because it's so difficult
to get in and out that I just somet
hing I avoided going, we made sure
I believe that hasn't happened here and the improvements that we're going to be making
to make sure we have a great experience is, number one, we're going to make
the improvements to the entrance, which is going to ensure
folks can get in and get out easily. Okay. We've had conversations
with the Turnpike Authority about some improvements
we're going to make. And around their exchange is right
there on on New Orleans. Secondly
is that when you have a 12,500 sea
t venue, you have to plan for total capacity,
which means that even though about 25, 30% of those coming to the the venue are going to be good through
a rideshare program like Uber or Lyft, we still have to plan for total capacity,
which means we need 3360 parking spaces. Right now we have about 300
that are on site. We're working on a partnership
within issue, which we use right now as a part of other events
like Scott Fest. And so the city is going
to have to be putting in approximately 2000 p
arking spaces on site to accommodate
all those that are coming by vehicular, which they anticipate
will have the average about two and a half people
or are basically patrons per vehicle. And so those are two of the most important
improvements, obviously, storm water, landscaping,
lighting for safety and security, all those things are going to be a part
of the parking lot improvement. And then there's one or two improvements
that I know the councilmember wants to talk about,
right, Aaron. So I'm
going to pass it over to him
and indeed talked about those the road improvements
there from New Orleans Square. And there were some other things
on the agenda last night
for some other ingress and egress. Well, there was
there's an ingress and egress that we've had a problem
with for several years now. This particular issue was a that
we're looking at was economic development. So we really didn't know about the council
because it had to be kept, you know, just between the city
and the the develo
pers. We didn't know about it until the last two or three months
that they were looking at one. But this other part of the project out
there was they there's a road coming off of 225th
there in the Highway 51. That's extremely dangerous. And several years ago
I really pushed for that. We put a gate up because people
were bringing their kids to school and they were turning off that Highway 51. That's a very dangerous highway. There's a curve and a hill there together. So we just put a gate up
and
they said, Well, you can't do that. Well, we did do that. And we so we left the gate up and
the industrial park couldn't come that way because that we wanted to close it
so the citizens couldn't bring their kids down
that dangerous highway. So Kenny Schwab has been working
and finally, just in the last month or so, it came to fruition that the get the railroad company
and make a new crossing. They're going to close that one. But that all came together
just that same time. In fact, those two ite
ms
showed up on the council agenda. One we knew about for the last maybe month
or month and a half and one we've known about for three or four years
that was going to have to do something. So those came together
and really worked out right. And, you know, I might add
also we talk about this public and private venture, and we've done this
before, you know, Best Pro actually, we spent the same amount of money on Bass
Pro as we are with this venture here. And we've got the Downtown Roads District.
We've got the research
in the South broken era. Well,
those are all public, private endeavors. But look what Bass Pro has done for the
northern part of the city of Broken Arrow. So I look at it
the way we're doing this again, and I think I think it would benefit
the City of Broken Arrow, a couple of other public private
partnerships that we've had as Flight
safety, Alpha Laval, and the things that I like about those,
those really brought in jobs. Whereas that's one thing
we have a head on with t
his one
is there's going to be some direct and indirect jobs
that are included with this. You can talk about that just a little bit,
what that means for our economy. Well, Gwynedd Council has always said one number
top priorities really is job creation, job job retention and creating
more opportunities to shop local. Because we're one of the last states in America that is so heavily
dependent upon sales tax. And so this venture, once construction gets started,
could result in five or 600 tempora
ry jobs
related to the construction. And then once the project
or the venue is opened, I should say, and you're looking at about 80 to 90
jobs are going to be there full time jobs. In addition,
when you have between 45 and 60 events a year, traffic management
is going to be extremely important. So you're going to have individuals mainly
in public safety that will be on site or around the area, making sure that
people have a great experience in and out. So it's going to create an increase
in the
economy, number one,
for for those coming to the venue. And the other thing, council was very,
very diligent and agreed to do was we're going
to we're going to repay the city's portion of the public improvements
through the creation of what is known as a tax increment financing district,
which will be a sales tax only tip. We're going to draw the lines
not only around the park where the where the venue will be, but also we're looking strategically
at other properties in the area that could be de
veloped which could result
are we believe will result in a convenient store or two restaurants
for sit down before or after. And those are going to create
other permanent jobs that are actually going to help
grow our economy in the Southeast specifically,
but also overall to help maintain a great quality of life,
which Councilman Parks talks about probably every time he talks
to a group of people. It's always
about the quality of community, which I think this ultimately
is just going to make bro
ken air a better place to live, work and play. And I just might add to that
and maybe that's one of your questions, but you're looking at everyone taxes
also because after all, taxes are going to be there
because that's not part of the TEF. So we will mainly start in Avalon tax, so
will Wagner County, all of Wagner County, and then the businesses that he said
will be added. Those were all we have long tax
that our school systems, the county, Wagner County
and City of Broken Arrow will gain from.
Also it's a really great point. When do you so what are the next steps
with the creation of this TIF district? I know that we just created a review
committee and Vice Mayor Gillespie is the chairperson of that committee. What are the next steps
as far as that is concerned, and when do you anticipate
that becoming a reality? Well,
actually council's passed the legislation to start the process
to form the TIFF review committee. Councilman Parks
The last two tiffs that we did was had the honor of
actually leading
those two TIFF district discussions. As you mentioned, Vice Mayor Christie,
last we had this one EP. That process is going to start
probably in the next 30 days or so. It's a lot simpler
because all we're going to be looking at is a sales tax tiff,
which really the city is the sales tax. And that process we are
hoping will be done by the end of the year and then we'll have the actual boundaries
and everything outline that will be that we're going to have so many things
going on
concurrently, Erin. So you've got one path
that's going to have the tip district, the other path is critical right now
per the agreement is both parties notes live and the city are in the process
of developing the estimates for the improvements that had to be made
so we can come up with the construction schedules and we're supposed to have
those estimates in those construction sessions as schedules
by the end of November, early December. So then the administration can sit down
and see exactly wh
at the construction timelines are going to be,
because not only does notes live have to actually
build their facility, the city's got to run a number
of different paths to make public improvements
from the intersection to actually make sure people can get in
and out improvements on New Orleans. Then there's going to be a need
to run a water line, a sewer line, also potentially fiber
to help with with the overall experience. And then, as Councilman Parks said,
is that we are also running another
track about this, the second form of ingress
egress, which is which is a road to the east of a road Rosewood school
that we're trying to get approval from. The railroad will eventually tie
in to Washington Highway 51, where the state right now is very close
to actually awarding a contract probably next year to realign that intersection,
to put it to put a traffic signal, which is going to provide that safety
for those people that are traveling to and from school and to the venue. As Councilman P
ark said, we have to have a safe way
for people to get in and out of the park, albeit to the school for recreation
or eventually the venue to make sure that people can get there
safely to home safely. You know,
I was watching social media last night and this morning, whenever I woke up,
and it seems like the overall response is really positive
and people are really excited about it. Some folks have some have expressed
some legitimate concerns. Is there something
in place that people are going to
be able to express those concerns, whether it's
with us or with the folks from Notes Live? Is there anything in the works
going on there? Well, we're going to have
a certainly will have a meeting coming up, you know, with the public and inform them. And that will be a place
that they can ask questions. And certainly to make any suggestions
that they wanted to make, I will assure them that we also
the council will continue looking at this. We look at the traffic flow,
we will look at the sound.
You know, what we're looking at
actually the way that the amphitheater is going to be turned so that it would
minimize the sound that's going out. So it's going to actually be turned
more toward the up the turnpike. So we're looking at all those things. But there will be meetings
coming up here soon that we've made a decision
that we're we're doing it, but we certainly want to do the best job
that we can at it. And so any input that we could get to make
a better venue there, we certainly like to
look at it
and may just add that there is going to be the need for planning
commission approval for the zoning. Actually, the layout of the facility
that is can be extremely important. Council said this is not going to be
do as I say, not as I do. Okay. And so we're going to
we're going to make sure we follow our rules with regard to
how you go through the planning process. So there's going to be all kinds
of opportunities for for for public input. But once again, the council made it
very clear
is that at some point we need to open this up for the residents that live in the area and for the public
to learn more about the project. And we're gathering all the information
right now, as Councilmember said, in order to be able
to answer those questions. And at some point, Erin, probably within the next 90 days,
if not sooner, there will be a letter that will go out to those residents
that that live in the area of the events. Park, although all of them
live in Weiner County, we consider tha
t to be essentially east Broken Arrow
in many respects. And so council has a great deal
of of concern and respect for those people because we know
that they support our economy. And I think it's safe to say we'll be
sending out a letter and some information and may be some frequently
asked questions, which are a master at putting together. And then we'll let them know
the date of that venue. And Notes Live has made it very clear
that they want to help facilitate that. They'll have their experts
on site
to be able to answer those questions. And we're looking forward to that meeting
because those folks haven't have the need. They have the right actually to know
exactly what's going to be built and how it could potentially affect them
to coming basically coming home because the concerts
are in the late afternoon or evenings, what they could expect in the evenings
or on weekends as a result of this. So in addition to that town hall,
then we're going to have public hearings. As far as the t
iff is concerned, planning commission meetings,
all of those are public meetings. So people within the community,
if you have concerns, please come and express those. And that's
that's the appropriate forum for them. And and you want to hear from the public. Exactly right. We want all the information we can get,
you know, go from there. All right.
So we don't know exactly how it's going to happen,
but I feel like it's going to happen. But the design of it and all that,
we're looking for input fr
om that. And the professionals
are going to be giving us input, especially sound lighting,
those kind of things. Sounds fantastic.
What what's the timeline? When do we see this thing? When do we see our first concert? Well, the contract calls for the facility to be completed by the end of 2025,
which sounds like a long time away. But it seems like in government,
you know, things move very, very quickly. It'll be here for I think the most important thing to me
is that we delve into the agreement.
We make sure we have our action steps
and we're running so many projects or initiatives and concurrently,
and that Jennifer Rush, who has done an amazing job
of shepherding this entire initiative and I just want to send her a shout out,
along with all the department directors, Jennifer has worked
tirelessly on this project to make sure that we got to the point
last night. I couldn't be prouder of her efforts. I also want to mention our EDC
did a lot of vetting of the company because obviously i
f the city is going
to commit approximately 18 to $25 million, you want to make sure you're
dealing with the company that has the wherewithal
and the resources. And they were very instrumental. Jennifer Conway, Nick Double
and their team of looking at the other venues
where Noach live is currently working, which includes
Colorado, Georgia and Tennessee, and made sure that we were comfortable
with the references in the backgrounds. We spoke to municipal officials
in those cities to determine that
. Did we feel like
this was going to be a good partnership? And that was a lot of due diligence
we did back in August. So I'm thankful for that. And so I think the council members right,
probably ever two or three meetings, there's going to be something, whether it's just an update
or there's going to be some form of action so folks can be watching
what we're going to we're going to do. I know, because you're going to be leading
this effort on behalf of the city. A mashable job of communicating
the steps have been completed with regard to this project. And I know a lot of folks are excited
and they deserve to know what's going on. Erin. And Councilor, I just think
from a city councilman point of view, we're just fulfilling the master plan,
you know what I mean? And just really excited about it. This has been in the planning for years
and was always going to be part of that. And I think that we're designing
in such a way to really minimize any effect
it would have on the surrounding pro
perty. Ah yeah, that's a really good point. You mentioned the details and information. We have all of the information, including
the economic development agreement, the consulting agreements
with Kimberly Horne to do some of the topographical
and geographical surveys out there working on the designs
of some of that infrastructure already, that sort of thing. All of those agreements
are on the city website. So we really encourage folks to go there
and check that out for themselves. We also have t
he opportunity
for the community to sign up for four email alerts and text notifications,
and that's another great way to find out when the next public hearing is the next city council meeting,
the town hall and that sort of thing. So any last words, gentlemen? I'll, I'll leave it to the council member. No, I'm just ready to get going with it. everyone. My name is Jordan Cutler. Hello, I'm Lisa Jones and this is the news section
of the podcast where we talk about a couple of things that have bee
n going on
in our community recently. So to kick things off, this machine has recently decided
to expand its fleet of bikes and Broken Arrow. They had a successful
first phase or a pilot program and they had over about 600 riders. they had over 2000 rides with each ride
consisting of a little bit over two miles. And, you know, they've been killing it
here in Broken Arrow. And people love their bikes. And for those who don't know what
a pedal assist e-bike is, basically the more you pedal,
the mo
re the motor engages. So it makes it easier to ride essentially. So, you know, if you're going uphill,
it's pretty smooth. I've been on them a couple of times
and it's it's pretty chill, to be honest, especially with someone like me
who has bad knees. Believe it or not, it's super nice
because it takes a lot of the pressure off your knees on your pedal. And it's just it's nice to be able
to not have to worry about all that. So they're expanding and they're planning to add at least
two more bike
hubs around the city. And I think there's about 11 right now. There are all throughout the city. I know there's a couple
in the Rose District and I'm sure people have seen them there
because you can't miss them. So we're just we're super excited
to add that availability for people who need another way
to get around the city if they prefer by bike
or if they just want to go out with friends and casually ride. So it'll be a big time for sure. I know the city is committed to a variety of transporta
tion options
and so this is one that just another one. Yeah, we're really excited about. Yeah. Jordan, did you hear that? Broken Arrow is the third largest
manufacturing city in Oklahoma. I did. That's crazy. I know you wouldn't think it either. This month in October was manufacturing
month, and the city council voted to recognize the manufacturers
and the in the city. And, you know, there are so many things
that are produced right here in our city from advanced combustion equipment, heat
exchan
gers, flight simulators, medical grade glass,
just to name a few of the things. And we're really fortunate
to have these businesses invested in our community and invested
in our cities, in our citizens. That's where manufacturers
provide 5490 jobs and $771 million to the broken Arrow economy,
which is huge. That's crazy in on our manufacturing sectors,
significant contribution to the city and a state in the world,
Mayor Deborah Wimpy declared, and the city council declared October
as Manufacturi
ng month. Very cool. That's a big time for a city because,
I mean, it just goes along with the broken arrow
being a great place to work and live. And like you said, it
attracts tons of new jobs for people to move into our area and get to experience
everything that broke in our offers. Exactly. That's big time for sure. A lot of these employers,
the starting pay is around $62,000. So that's impressive. I think. Great way to start. And then just real quick, you know, we every couple of months
we d
o an employee luncheon and we get to welcome
all the new employees of the city. And recently we had about maybe
20 to 30 new employees start. Well, they've been around
for a couple of months, but we finally got to, you know, recognize
them and acknowledge them the other day. And it was super cool
just to see all of them and kind of get to hear from them,
where they come from and everything. So we just want to give a quick shout out
to all the new employees. If you're listening
and you know, if y
ou're interested in working on Broken Arrow,
this is the place to be. If you're interested,
you can go to Broken Arrow, Oct gov slash jobs and you can see everything
that is available on there. And you know, the next call in and your life
might be here in Broken Arrow. So. Yeah, yeah. So we have one more thing to talk about Christmas the Christmas kickoff
at the Rose District. Yes, November 16th from 630 to 8 p.m.. It's always a huge event
and everybody in the city comes out to see the lights tu
rned on
and it's so much fun. We look forward to it every year. Bring your sweetheart
and be serenaded by the melodious notes of Brady Nichols and his talented band. Take a magical horse
drawn carriage rides, glide on the open ice rink and bask in the presence
of Santa himself. Nice.
You have to bring the twin. absolutely. We didn't make it out last year
just because they were too small. But I think we're going to try this year
because a little bit bigger now. So they one of them really loves li
ghts,
so I'm sure he'll be fascinated by us. So we'll probably be out there for sure.
That'll be fun or pumped. So. Well, anything else? I think that's perfect. Well,
thanks for listening to the new section and we're going to pass it off
to rounding third with city manager Michael SPURGEON
and Communications Director and McCulloch. All right. This is rounding third with city manager
Michael SPURGEON. And this is the part of the program
in which we look at some of the actions that city council
to
ok during their meetings during the month
and for the month of October. I want to start off really quickly
with Superintendent Perry. Have broken our public schools. He came to the October 17th meeting,
gave a presentation on the school school bond package that's going to be on
election up for election on November 14th. Talk to him about his presentation. What's in it? What was the reaction
from the city council? Do they go along with it? What was your take from his presentation? Well, first off
, it was great to see
Superintendent Perry at the meeting. I just want to send a shout out to him
and his leadership team. I think they're doing an amazing job, pretty much running our school district. And I couldn't
be prouder of the partnership and in how he has come out of the gate
and his his new position and how he works
and in his team works with the city. It was it was awesome to see him there
because he was talking about something that was so important to our community. And that is a loc
al election
that's going to come before us on November 14th,
where the voters in the broke in our school district are going to have
the opportunity to actually consider a $52 million
no tax rate increase bond package. And that includes four proposals tions. And I was so excited
when he said they were going to be doing this is because to me
this is an opportunity to reinvest in into the school district
for some really basic things that are necessary
to help with the education and the growth of ou
r children. And I think it's important if I take just a minute or two, please,
and do talk about these these initiatives, starting with proposition number one,
which is $48 million in, if I could sum it all up,
it was it's really about safety. Security technology
made its facilities transport stations and some fine arts and sports. I mean, there is, for example,
$5 million for an investment in safety precautions across the district
for such items as perimeter fencing. Securing vestibules at the
high school
LED, lighting cameras, all those things to make sure
that our kids have a safe experience. They're also talking about technology. I mean, technology's ever changing. About 18 and a half million dollars
is going to go for the technology for the students in the classroom
to help them with their their learning. They also have got about $14.2
million HVAC units. I mean, the school district
has so many buildings within the district and they need to replace those systems
to make sure that
you have the comfort that goes along with being able
to to be in those buildings. Yeah, I see here,
I don't mean to cut you off, but I see here they have some
that have an average age of 26 years. Yes. I'm glad you pointed that out. That's why we need to make those changes. The city has to deal
with the exact same thing. I mean, we've had to replace a number of our obscene
it's in the last couple of years. Also, you're looking at what,
because of the size of the district, about 115 square
miles
is what they have to travel. They're looking at 4.5 million
to help with a transportation terminal to be used in the south
end of the city to reduce operation cost. Super ten, Barry
and I've talked about this quite a bit about about a location
to try to find a place to do the transportation terminal. You also find arts and sports
is it makes up the rest of the package for Proposition
one and that totals $48 million. The second proposition they have to do
separate is for busses. I mean, that is t
he main source
of transportation for so many children within the school district. And we need to make sure
that they have the right busses to be able to serve the children
throughout the entire school year. And so you have to do that proposition. According to Superintendent Perry,
separately. But third propositions, no new money. It's really interesting is
they made a determination is that elementary
17 was approved in a previous bond package and they've looked
at what opportunities there are. A
nd they determined
that they would like to ask the voters to to reappropriate that money
instead building a brand new school, but to build what they call
pods on several new schools. I don't know specific which ones, but
I know they're talking about building pods with the main main purpose of is reducing the overall cost
of administration and daily operations. If you build a brand new school,
just think about that. You have to add in new principal support staff, teachers and so forth. By doing t
he pods,
you still have to add personnel, but certainly quite less
than building a brand new school. And so they're very excited about this,
this repurposing of those funds and then adding wanted to schools. And I think it's going to look amazing. You probably won't even tell there was a there was actually in addition
to the schools that they pick. And then finally, this is something
very important to the city is in a previous bond the school district
that the voters approved I believe about $35
million
for an aquatic center or natatorium. And it specifically said
it had to be built at Kirkland Field or the Kirkland complex right there off
Elaine Lane. And in this proposition,
they're asking voters to take off the requirement
of where they build it and allows the school district
to look at other opportunities or other partnerships
to be able to build that facility. And one of the things that
we've been talking about for about a year now, is there an opportunity for the synergies betwee
n the city
and the school district to come together as we're looking at a new community center
that we'll ask our voters to consider and what they have approved in
terms of the natatorium? Is there a way to partner together out at Island Park, for example,
and try to put those two together and just come up with this amazing
facility for for both for both entities? So Proposition three and Proposition four,
you mentioned both are no new money and that those are on the heels
of a previous approval
from the voters from back,
I think it was 2015. They have to do this
as far as bring this back to the voters because they're wanting to reallocate
those monies. Is that a state law thing?
How does how does that work? Because the voters approved
for those bodies to be spent specifically on a new school and specifically
on the pool to be at a certain location. So in order to change that up, the voters
have to approve it, as am I guessing that correctly, in layman's turns,
the answer is yes, Aaron
. Any time the voters approve something, especially if it's a name
type project or initiative, if there's a specific address
that's listed, if you want to, to do something different than what
the voters approved in a previous bond package, you have to go back to them
and you have to get their approval. And that's just the transparency. And it's state law that says that you have to have to
basically go back to voters and ask them. And that's what they're doing. With regard to the the elementary n
umber
17 is using those funds. The same thing is creating classrooms
and spread them and creating a whole new elementary school and then
where they could build the the natatorium. So I think these are good decisions. I've been talking to the superintendent and several members of the school board
for the last year. You asked had the council react to this. They were extremely excited and favorable
and they would certainly help. Everybody gets out
and I couldn't think of anything. It's more importa
nt
they get out and support our schools. And just a reminder is that
I believe this is not a simple majority they have to secure. Is that in order to get this approval,
Aaron, I believe they have to get 60%. So that's why they're they're doing
a great public education campaign about the projects, the initiatives,
what's being considered. And there's also a private entity that has gotten together that is that is going out
and to promote the package as well. So just get out on November 14th
and le
t's continue to keep broken here. Public School District, one of the best
in the state, You said it November 14th. That's the Election Day. And then, of course,
the people have any information want any more information about it,
then go to our schools dot org and they'll be able to find to find
what they need there. Staying on topic of general obligation
bonds hours from 2018, on October 17th,
the City Council agreed to sell $35 million in bonds to OC financial
securities at an interest rate of
4.2%. And of course, this represents
the eighth series of that 2018 general obligation
bond package, 27 projects. Once again, transportation takes the lead
on that 1515 different projects. What does this mean? Eight series. We've talked a little bit
just about our net assessed value and we kind of seem like
we're ahead of the curve here when it comes to the 2018 bond.
Am I right? We are. When you put a bond package together, you've got to look at a number
of different things about the project. Y
ou can't build all the projects
at one time. You have to determine
what the priorities are. You have to look at how much money's
going to be available in the city's bond package
that approved overwhelmingly six propositions in August of 2018. It was not just a straight
tune, $11 million. And you divide that by you know, by ten
and come out with $21 million. It was a no tax rate increase. And so you have to
look at your assessed value, what bonds have rolled off, determine
exactly what you can se
ll. So that's one thing
we had to do in addition to looking at the cost of the projects,
knowing that if you have a project that cost this much money in 2018, say a road, for example, or a building, but,
you know, that's not a priority. So it may not be built until 2024 or 2025. You've got to add the time
value of money on there to make sure that when you're you're saying
if it's $5 million, that road is in 2018, it might be $5.7 million in 2025. And so you've got to factor all that in. With reg
ard to the assessment,
you determine what that amount of money you can you can actually sell every year
as you look at your assessment. So we had a very conservative approach
to how much we felt like our assessment was going to go up
every single year. And I believe we used approximately 2.5% in growth in our total assessed
value of the community. And we've been blessed that actually the
the actually numbers we've gotten back from the assessors in both Tulsa
and Weidner County respectively, has
been well above that
two and a half percent. I'd rather be very conservative. What we're excited in one sense,
but a little bit nervous in another was we got our assessment back in August
for the coming year and it was 9%. And so it's not exactly two and a half. No, no, it was it was much higher,
which is which is really good. It just tells you broken
air continues to be a great place for private investment, whether it's housing, whether
it's businesses, commercial retail. People want to be in B
roken Arrow. And so we're blessed to say
that our assessed value has gone up well, because our because our assessed value
has gone up above what we projected. We've actually been able
to sell more bonds. For example, we were only going to sell
about $27 million this year, but by going up 9%,
we now could actually sell 35 million. So what we've done is we've actually sold
year nine and ten already because of the increase
in our assessed value. And so what that's what's that's
going to mean air an
d overall is actually instead of going back to the voters
for the next bond package in 2028, we'll be going to the voters
sometime in 2026. And because that that net assessed
value has grown, it basically increases our rate to to borrow,
in essence, to sell these bonds because we have the credit
and the capacity to be able to to get that money back
through the avalanche taxes. Well, yes, I mean, what we'll be doing
is with the increase in the assessed value and the fact that bonds have continued
to roll off from previous voter approval. Right now, we're in this process
to determine exactly what we would be able to go ask the voters
to consider in various propositions over the next ten years, sometime in 2026. So we're trying to determine what that is,
whether that could be it could be $287 million, it could be $350
million we're trying to get. And that's that's a wide range,
but we're trying to actually determine what makes them some estimates of what
that assessed value is. And look a
t the packages
that are rolling off to determine. But it's very exciting because,
you know, we've done some great projects in the in the 2018 bond package and staff
right now is already starting the process of starting to look preliminarily
of what projects we're going to be asking the citizens for their
input like we did in 2017. And we're going
to build build a very robust, great package, is going to continue
to improve and build upon the great quality of life
we have in our city. So we're loo
king at that
possibly for 2026. We still have two more series
that we have to do for 2018 and then 2026 more likely be going to the voters again for them
to decide on on more propositions. We will probably that's
going to be in April or August. And once again, everything still coming into focus
about exactly when we need to do that. And you're going to be heavily
involved in that. I'm super excited that you're here
and your team with Lisa and Aubrey Michael Jordan. I mean, we just have an incred
ible
not Michael Jordan, but Michael and Jordan would be kind of cool
to have Michael Jordan here. What are we getting here? I'm excited about the communications. I mean, transparency is very important
to the city and making sure the public knows are Thrive editions. If you can need to know
what's going on in Broken Arrow, how we're spending our money,
it's really all out there for you to see. And this bond package is going to it's
going to widen more roads, it's going to improve facilities, it'
s
going to improve stormwater, potentially parks and recreation. There's so many things that
that the public says they'd like to see. It's I mean, I'm really just
I get really excited about bond packages because they just have the potential
to be transformational for your community. It's a lot of work, but it's going to be
exciting, exciting stuff. It is. Look for that in early 2024,
we'll start getting some things out. Last thing that I wanted to touch on
and this is this is another one of thos
e
really exciting things is beautification. And do you like to say and I'm
probably I'm going to steal your line here so I apologize
is it's putting our morale in the tires. And this is the an awarding of a contract
a city council gave to a company about $170,000
to paint some of our traffic signal poles around the community
from that gray boring gray to to a nice black which really just
the statically looks so much better. And we see it now in New Orleans Square. Why is this important to you? W
ell, and I say this, it's kind of hokey. Okay. And as you know, and all the directors do
and the council members, I'm the type of person
that you tell the story. I remember the point. And to me, I've always looked at when you do beautification,
it is so important. But it really is it's it's equivalent to
if you go to the car wash and you've got your car
and you actually you go wash your car and clean it up after a week or two
with a couple of rains, or if you've been in
where there's a lot of du
st, if you don't put armor on the tires. I mean, that's the first thing I look at
when I look at a car that's that's basically nice and clean, is
where's the armor on the tires? And I use that analogy
all the time, is that some of the things we're trying to do right now
in Broken Arrow are armor. All the tires. The beautification in New Orleans
Square is a perfect example. We may be asking voters and maybe
a smaller, down or scaled down version to do other types of improvements
at intersections
that really it's about civic pride. To me, it's about you looking at your community
and saying, I'm I'm just super proud of what the city's doing in order to improve
the appearance of of our community. And when you see New Orleans Square,
that's what you see for the city Council and myself, we talked about
what else can we do? The small little things
that actually increase that civic pride and increase beautification
and changing out from that that gray type material
you have for those poles int
o the black poles like we have in New Orleans
Square and down here in the Rose District. To me, it just gives you a sense of,
you know, we're really taking care of what we have and we're we're going
to put some pride back into those areas. And I'd like to I'd like to see us do these ten,
as I understand, are in the package. And because we got such great bids, we may actually put out a second package
because we still have money available. And I think it's just going to sizzle up
or get that armor
, all that I think our community needs. And that's why that's why signage coming
into the community is important to me. That's why
the right type of paint on poles, redoing, making sure we take care of the Rose
District and New Orleans Square with the flowers
that are out there, the roses. And so forth, because it just says a lot
about about who we are. And this is a very caring community
and that we take care of each other and we also take care
of the public improvements the public gives us mon
ey to
to basically purchase or improve. What I love about it
is it really creates our own identity. It helps distinguish
between our neighboring communities. Not that there's anything wrong
with our neighboring communities, but you want to stand on your own
two feet. And so when you go into a community
and you see the signage or you see, you know, the detail that's taken
with just these, you know, something like painting street poles and traffic
signal poles, it makes a difference. And it really
does drive home that civic pride and that
that sense of pride in your community. It doesn't you know, to me, we're never going to get away
from asphalt and concrete because you think about asphalt
and concrete. You're talking roads, sidewalks, storm
drains. It's just so important that asphalt
and concrete, you know, honestly are major expenses that all communities
have either have to make or reinvest in. And that's always going to be
a top priority for the city. But if we can
if we can afford t
o work in some armor all for the tires for our community, it's only going to continue
to set broken air apart from where everyone else and continue
to make us a place, as I like to say that people are coming to not going from
because there's a lot of people that want that and it's get mentioned
all the time that the small little things. I mean, there's a great communities around the state and around the country
that that that do that as well. And I want broken air
to be the 250 largest city in A
merica that many people have never heard of. But we're on the map
now in many cases to be to be proud, because we're doing things
that really make a stand out. And just some of those locations
we're looking at the Kenosha corridor
from Aspen to county line. So those intersections
are going to be done first. Then we're looking at Main Street,
Houston, Washington, and there's about three others in there. I don't recall what they are off
the top of my head, but those are the areas
that you're going
to see these first and then will buy possibly. You heard it here first build off of that
because we got such a great deal on the on the first contract. And let me jump back to the bond package
real quick. Is that right now
the city has four miles of road widening that are currently under construction. We're just finishing up what I call
209 south, which is from Kenosha to south to Houston. So we still have
and they're doing some punch list work. We still have three miles
under construction in t
his bond package. There's a number of road projects
that actually are going to continue the efforts of the city to widen
some roads and upgrade some roads. And so I'd encourage and would you mind sharing with folks
where they might be able to see that list? Of course, projects? Yeah, we have that list of projects
on our website, Broken Arrow, Oct gov. So it's a very easy find right there
on the front page actually. Good deal. That is it for rounding third. Thank you for your time,
Mr. Sturgeon.
Appreciate that. It's time
to go to be a good neighbor. Let's do it. Hello, everyone. Welcome to be a good neighbor.
My name is Mike Godfrey. I'm Aubrey. Cece. And being a neighbor is a chance for us
to shine a spotlight on people being a good neighbor in Broken Arrow. So you got a couple of things
to share with us. I do? Yeah. I actually had some stories
from a couple local scouts groups. So recently, some local scouts from Troop 513 were able to complete the National Youth leadership Training,
which is I mean,
the scouts from all over the U.S. have to achieve
at least first class, first class rank in order to go to this leadership
kind of summit for the Boy Scouts. And once they get there, it's a six day
summit, basically, where they get to kind of network with each other, get to make friends, but also get
some really cool leadership skills and all these classes and learn from Boy
Scout leaders all across the country. So I thought that was pretty cool with they had two scouts from th
at troop
that went to that conference. And then recently, if you've ever seen
it's called the Broken Arrow
Blessing Box over by the Barrio. Have you ever seen that? Is that is that like a box
where people can leave and take stuff? Is that what that looks just like? A birdhouse, almost, but a little bit bigger
right on the corner of First Street. And that was actually started
five years ago by a local Girl Scout troop and they saw it on social media
a long time ago and wanted to kind of implement
something like that for one of their projects around here. And it has been going for the entire
five years. They say it's
if it's empty, that means it's being used. If it's full,
that means people are dropping stuff off. So they recently just revisited it,
kind of a little five year anniversary. So I thought that was pretty cool. that's very good. And I can see how I mean,
I guess it's in the name of Blessing Box. It's a blessing for for the community,
both for those who want to give and help o
ut and others
who need help. It's there for them to receive that. Yeah. So it's pretty cool. Do you know of any be a good neighbors? I know of a lot of good neighbors
that happened this weekend. This week in the city. Hell is bi annual twice a year trash bash and recycle rally. So it's it's one huge event
separating the different things. The recycle rally is the city partners
with different people different organizations
where you can bring things to them that you normally can't recycle,
like sp
are tires, ammunition. If you need your documents shredded for security and privacy,
they'll do that for you for free. It's a it's a huge event. I was out there at the events
Park is where we have it. And just to see the line of cars,
just line the events park and I mean, it was very well organized
and everyone just was able just to go through just a drop off the things
they want to dispose of properly. It was really a great sight to see
and have everyone come out for that. And the trash bash is
an opportunity where groups can come together
to clean up the community. So I was able to do that
with some of our members of the Youth City Council,
along with one of our other councilor, Johnnie Parks, and we were able
to clean up the Aspen Creek area. It's kind of like right behind Lowe's. There's a tree line there and for some reason
a lot of trash is kind of gathered there because at the end and everything,
the tree line stops it from going into the neighborhood. But the tree line and the
fence,
there's a lot that builds up over time. So the youth, we had fun going out there
cleaning everything up. We actually was able to go into
a retention ditch and clean that up too. So trash doesn't get into our ponds
and creeks and everything. And what was really great
is the city provided us with everything we needed
gloves, vests, trash bags, little pincher grabbers
that you can use to take out the trash. And then we had separate bags
for trash and recycling so that, you know, it's a can o
r a plastic model. We would recycle that as well. So all in all,
there are a lot of opportunities for everyone to just get involved this
past weekend for being a good neighbor. Yeah, I love that. And I love that the trash bash is kind of
like this semiannual reminder for people that it doesn't take an event
to go out and clean up your area. You can volunteer to do that with
your friends and family anytime you want. So I look forward to seeing more of that. definitely. And that wraps it up for yo
ur neighbor. If you have any stories to share with us,
just follow us up on social media or make contact
with us on our city website. The broken arrows
produced by the city of Broken Arrow. Thank you for listening. Don't forget to subscribe
to hear more about Broken Arrow. The City Where Opportunity Lives.
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