Final payment made to contractor

In September, 2019, Lonehickory Cattle, LLC, of Talihina, began a $9.2 million project to replace Eufaula’s aging water lines, some of them 70 years old and most of them rusting and crumbling.

At a city council/public works meeting on Friday, July 14, approval was given for a final payment to Lonehickory in the amount of $21,000.

The project is being paid for by water rate increases used to repay a loan from the Oklahoma Water Resources Board and by grants.

But for a few minor odds-and-ends, the four-year long waterline replacement project is finished.

Some 60,000 feet of water lines have been replaced, most of them cast-iron and in service 50 or 60 years and more.

The cast-iron lines were rusty and corroded and brittle, causing frequent breaks.

The new lines are PVC, which don’t rust or corrode, have the strength of iron and have a life expectancy of 50 to 100 years.

In other business at Friday’s council meeting, postponed from a meeting scheduled for July 10 due to a lack of a quorum, the council approved two MOUs.

An MOU is a Memorandum of Understanding, or an agreement between two organizations.

One MOU was between the city and Eufaula Public Schools for the placement of two resource officers on school campuses, with one police officer at the high school and one at the middle/elementary school project.

Last year one police officer was attached to the school district and covered both campuses during the school year and was a patrol officer when the school wasn’t in session.

City Manager Jeb Jones said the school requested a second officer for the upcoming year and the council agreed to the request.

The school district will pay $25.03 per hour for each of the officers while they are assigned to the school.

The second MOU that the city approved is with the 25th District Attorney District’s Multi-Jurisdictional Violent Crime Task Force.

The agreement will allow the Task Force to utilize the city’s police department as a resource when needed, and conversely the city’s police department will be able to use the Task Force.

Miscellaneous items The search continues for a permanent replacement for former Police Chief Mark Goodwin, who recently resigned.

For now, Assistant Police Chief David Bryning is acting chief.

Ads have been placed for a chief. Background checks are being conducted. A new chief should be chosen by the end of July or first of August, according to Jones.

And for those who haven’t noticed, the city’s two traffic lights are out of sync.

Jones announced that steps are being taken to remedy the annoyance.

“We have requisitioned a set of controls for each one,” he said. “The problem is being addressed.”