Bob Forrest Guest Sports Writer
The Ada News
Ada —
Pontotoc County’s brief border dispute with the state of Oklahoma is over.
Chairman Justin Roberts gave maps to fellow county commissioners Danny Davis and Gary Starns late in Monday morning’s meeting that corrected two mistakes made by the state election board on borders between districts within the county.
The most serious of the two had the railroad tracks as the border between District 3 and District 2 instead of the old conveyor belt to the east, which has always been the dividing line between the two districts.
After last Monday’s meeting, Roberts traveled to Oklahoma City where, after a series of meetings that accomplished nothing, he finally got the mistakes corrected.
“With what I see on these maps, I think everything is back to where it’s supposed to be,” Roberts told Davis and Starns.
“When I finally talked to the right person at the state election board office, there was no problem getting this fixed. Until then, everybody I talked to passed the buck. I drove up (to Oklahoma City) Monday, and by Wednesday (the mistake) was corrected.”
Roberts’ update came at the end of a meeting during which commissioners also turned back the calendar a week on another big agenda item from their previous meeting, funding for a $2.2 million bridge project on the Gaar Corner Cutoff.
Starns and Davis attended Wednesday’s Association of County Commissioners meeting in Oklahoma City to lay claim to their share of $1.2 million in state funds that became available when a project in Bryant County was cancelled.
They were given an additional $157,000 to put toward the project, and they were also informed that the estimate on construction had been lowered by an additional $200,000, reducing the county’s share of the project’s cost from just over $900,000 to about $558,000.
“That’s a new bridge at 30 percent off,” Thomas said.
In other action Monday, the commission used an executive session to formulate a detailed job description for Pontotoc County Emergency Management Director Chad Letellier who has been in the post for more than six years.
Roberts said Monday’s action was “to clarify the responsibilities related to this job and the direction we’re taking.”
Commissioners also approved the purchase of two dump trucks from Sooner Trucks, a payment of $5,000 from marketing and tourism funds to support the May 19 Ray Stout Memorial Warbird Fly-In and Air Show, a $500 reimbursement to Pete D’Andrea Dog Show Events for advertising, and the sale of two lots in Vanoss to Sam Hunt.
Robert York, Oklahoma regional manager for Betoc, also presented a proposal to make urinals in county buildings waterless.
York said the changeover would involve an initial cost of $120 per unit and could save the county 40,000 gallons in water per urinal per year.
Commissioners deferred action on the proposal.
