Collinsville, Oklahoma
July 2, 2008
City Opinions & Questions

Kyle Smalyago Concerned
With City Dealings
Ted Wright Concerned With
"Public Hearing" Notices
Other Comments Invited on cvilleok


This web site is brought to you by the Newspaper Museum In Collinsville and the other advertisers appearing on these pages. If you would like to provide news content or advertisements ... call Ted Wright (918) 371-1901 or
send email to wrightted@aol.com.
1110 W. Main, Collinsville, OK 74021
Home
(email questions/comments to wrightted@aol.com).
Ted Wright -- last update 7/2/2008 (CityOpinions.html) www.cvilleok.com

Copyright 2008 -- Collinsville, Oklahoma
Google
Web www.cvilleok.com
This page sponsored in part by:




Ted Note: I have no control over Google ad content below:

Today's July 2nd, 2008 "Collinsville News" has a "Legal Notice" for the "Public Hearing" dated June 16th on the City's Budget (i.e. 2 weeks after the fact). I did not find any other "budget" legal notice in the June 2008 issues of the printed news. I attended the partial June 16th meeting. I was only able to attend a portion of the special budget session held June 24th, so I don't know if the budget "hearing" process is still on-going or not? When I received the same budget chart on June 16th (in the morning), I had it on cvilleok.com the same day but the State of Oklahoma "Legal Notices" laws apparently still do not give internet sites "legal status", so even though I usually run the information I receive days or weeks ahead of the newspaper it is unpaid and as a community service to help you stay informed (i.e. I rarely get paid by the city ... like they pay for "published" legal notices).

-- Ted Wright 7/2/2008

Kyle Smalygo Frustrated With City
Dear Ted:

I am very frustrated with my many attempts to work with the City of Collinsville and I thought that you may be interested (per your comment in reference to the Planning Commission meeting last week). I think the citizens of our City need to be made aware of some of the dealings that go on here in our town.

I own some land on 156th St N (which is not part of the central business district) that is just west of the new Animal Shelter. I would like to build a metal building for warehouse storage on this property for my personal use. The city requires me to have a paving plan, a landscape plan and a hydrology report prior to issuing a building permit. The Animal Shelter which was just completed during the last 6 months didn't have to comply with any of these requirements. When the Planning Commission asked the City "why?" The response from the City Manager was "I don't know".

I also own a lot behind the NAPA building just off of Broadway. I have had this lot for sale and have a contract on it. The city is requiring brick on the front and also the alley side (per the Appearance Committee's recommendation). This is behind a body shop and the NAPA store which have no brick and across the street from Worstell Oil which is a metal building and less than ½ a block from the Fugate property (a partial building) on 10th Street between Main and Broadway. Due to the requirements, the sale may fall through and Collinsville will lose out on a new business in town.

Also the renovation of the Collinsville Annex is in progress. Has a "plan" been presented to the Appearance Committee, and if so, what is this "plan"? I spoke with a Commissioner regarding this, and the Commissioner was unaware of a 'plan" and had not seen anything regarding this.

Does the Appearance Committee have any jurisdiction over the remodel or repainting of existing buildings on our Main Street. It seems to me that with all the money being spent for new sidewalks, lights, etc to enhance our historical Main Street area, they would take an interest in the existing buildings and want them to be maintained to appear as close to the original brick buildings as possible. Baby blue paint sure doesn't look "original" to me.

There is also another building on Main Street in the central business district that has had vehicles parked by it for approximately 10 years. They haven't been tagged in those years nor moved. The weeds grow up around them and it is not a pretty sight.

It seems that the rules and regulations are applied when the City wants to apply them and looks the other way when they want to let something slip by.

If you would like to discuss this with me personally, I would be glad to sit down with you.

Thanks for your time.

Kyle Smalygo -- (July 1, 2008 am)
123 N 7th Street
Collinsville OK 74021
918-371-3183

Kyle,
I'm definitely interested in hearing more, but there is not much I can do on my own other than be better informed. I would suggest just using your letter as a "letter to the editor" on www.cvilleok.com and letting the public hear your side of the story.

I've already given my take on the subject via my mini-editorial in the previous news on the planning commission.
I don't know the result of the commission at the special session (June 25th) that I did not hear about until after it was over.

-- Ted Wright (7/1/2008)
Ted,
I'm very interested in forwarding this to the editorial part of Cvilleok.com, I'm holding onto a small grasp that on July 7th City Commission meeting that they will hear my appeal from the planning commission's recommendation. I too was surprised and only notified of the special meeting some 30 minutes prior to along with numerous south fork residents in opposition of the appeal to the city commission in reference to Ashbury Park, on the same agenda was Applicant Kevin Finney for discussion of his recommendation from the P.C. this item was tabled until he could meet with the appearance committee for an amended recommendation, I spoke with Kevin this morning and he had stated that initially he was directed to Lori at the city and after conversing with her she then re-directed him to Angela Long also at the city she indicated that the city planner was no longer there and had no better direction for him other than City manager after numerous failed returned calls and no response via e:mail he has asked if I would be able to interface with appearance committee volunteers since he is wasn't from here and knew none of them.I spoke with Marilyn Hardacre this morning and hopefully she being a member can coordinate this meeting for the sake of a potential new business in Collinsville. I'll keep you up to date and again truly enjoy and appreciate you commitment to the city of Collinsville via cvilleok.com.
-- Kyle Smalygo (7/1/2008 pm)
If you really want to keep track of meetings and hearings the city is holding you would need to check this bulletin board on the east side of City Hall every day. The city clerk does a good job of emailing me agendas for "normal" city meetings but often not special sessions. Given that most agenda are posted on Fridays for Monday meetings, the cvilleok.com web site is your best source of agendas short of a daily trip to city hall.
The fact that this bulletin board is on a dead-end road (i.e the plaza that the city thinks is more important than traffic on 12th Street) is one of the reasons I will continue to remind of the short comings with the city's notice of meetings and "public hearings". Again, I'm not aware of anything illegal, just the lack of using all the readily available resources to notify more of the public in a timely fashion. The metal building and sign restrictions and the budget review process are just the latest examples. -- Ted
The fact that I have not received a single viewer email on the subject of fees being raised on virtually every city service baffles me? (A tax by another name is still a tax). -- Ted
(see new comments added below)
I have requested minutes for the June 26th special sessions of the City Commission (& Econ Dev Auth.) as I was not aware of the meetings before hand. -- Ted (6/27/2008)
The June 25th Economic Development Authority agenda was the single topic of school bond "conduit funding" which I can assume results from the June 26th School Board meet.

The June 25th City Commission Special Session Agenda had the following topics:

  • school bond funding
  • appeal by DG&S for Ashbury Park denial at Planning Commission
  • site plan request by Eddie James for (metal building) warehouse south of new car wash by new bridge
  • site plan request by Kevin Finney for metal building at 9th & Broadway

I still don't know results other than school funding. -- Ted -- 7/2/2008

Comments Added After Initial Page Posted
Ted,
Being the former City Clerk/Treasurer in Collinsville, I understand the difficulty in developing a city budget especially when fees and/or utility rates must be raised to meet the rising costs of operation. As a taxpaying citizen (in Tulsa) it is also difficult having to pay for rate increases. Raising utility rates and adding new fees to meet costs is a difficult decision for City staff and I am sure was thoroughly evaluated during this budget year. -- Karen Randell-Clark (7/2/2008)
Karen,
I appreciate your comment and I've copied Angela also to let you both know I'm not meaning to pick on the city clerk but the system that relies on posting a "public" notice on the side of one building in this electronic age.
I greatly appreciate all of the information that you both have supplied to me that helps get information to a much greater number of the public.

Specifically on the budget, it may be that "everyone" appreciates the difficult situation the city is in but that doesn't relieve the public of their responsibility to review and comment on such a huge amount of money and how it is spent since they are the one's paying the bill.
-- Ted Wright (7/2/2008)
... more comments??
... more comments??