County Commissioners Hold Brief Meeting

The regular meeting of the Stephens County Board of Commissioners quickly moved through several agenda items, including approving county utility permits, capital outlay purchases for July 2019, and declaration of surplus resolution and disposal of items on behalf of District 2 and the Stephens County Sheriff’s Office.

Also approved was a resolution to accept a donation of 15 loads of road millings from Oklahoma Department of Transportation (ODOT) on behalf of District 3. According to Commissioner Russell Morgan, ODOT is working on widening a section of Highway 53 that will require closing the state highway and a bridge.

“The road 1840…up there to 2850; that’s going to become the new highway for possibly four to six months,” Morgan said. “[District 3 has] a little cost to get the road prepared for them, and they’re going to give these millings to [District 3] to offset that cost.”

The Commissioners took no action on an item to possibly take action regarding cylinder lease agreements with Airgas that had been tabled from the meeting July 29. The initial bid with Stephens County was approved July 1 and there had been issues with billing and availability of parts since the beginning of the contract period. The Commissioners decided to take no action and allow Airgas time to correct the issues.

Elsewhere on the agenda were items specifically addressing the preparations taking place for the Stephens County Free Fair, scheduled for August 21-24. The Commissioners approved a quote for floor maintenance from Eurest Services in the amount of $3200 to strip and refinish the tile floors as well as scrub and seal the concrete floors at the Stephens County Fair and Expo Center.

Commissioner Morgan said that the tile floors had “about seven coats of wax” on them so it was necessary to completely strip the floors more than once and re-wax them. He also said that he had received quotes from other service providers in the $7-9,000 range, as well as had priced out the supplies and equipment rental for the Fairgrounds staff to do it themselves, which would be approximately $2500 for the materials alone, not including equipment rental.

In addition, Morgan reported that Davis Air Conditioning was on-site at the Fairgrounds as of Monday morning and would be working to replace the air conditioning units at several buildings per the bid accepted on July 1 of this year.

Morgan also announced that the Fair Board will host a Fair Workers Appreciation dinner on Monday, August 12, followed by a meeting of the Fair Board to address some legal and financial issues.