BARTLESVILLE, Okla. — The City of Bartlesville wants residents to show up and vote in next week's bond election.
If approved, more than $17.5 million will go to a number of improvements to city facilities and street work over the next four years.
Bartlesville City Manager Mike Bailey told 2 News four different measures at the ballot box will decide how much of the city's future will look.
The first gives $2.4 million to replace the aging Fire Station No. 2. Bailey said the station is suffering foundation issues.
"While those could be repaired, the question we had to ask ourselves is how much money do we sink ourselves into a facility that no longer meets our needs, versus building a new facility that's designed exactly for the needs of a modern fire station?" Bailey said.
Other propositions include almost $700K to replace IT equipment throughout city offices, and $2.2 million in parks improvements - most notably replacing greens at Adams Municipal Golf Course.
"The non-profit tournaments that we have out there raise about $3.5 million for the local community every year, so it's it's not just important for quality of life<" Bailey said. "It's also important for fundraising perspectives and for those people."
City Hall makes no secret the vast majority of money will go to street work, though. This means light replacement, bike paths, sidewalks, and repaving on city and neighborhood streets.
"This time around it's not just individual streets," the city's director of engineering Micah Siemers said. "Lots of times (in) these bond campaigns we've done larger streets and just a section of them. This one, they're more like packages of streets."
Longtime resident Gordon Perry said it's about time for the changes. He plans to vote yes on all four measures.
"I'm all for doing anything for our fire department, police department, things of that nature," Perry said. "The rest of that I don't know too much about, but living here and driving these streets it's bad. So yeah, I mean, it needs to be done."
Bailey said he's confident the city will convince voters like Perry because residents also won't see their taxes go up.
"It is certainly one of the largest bond elections. It's certainly the largest investment in streets we've had," Bailey said. "And we certainly encourage everyone to get out and express their opinion."
The city said unlike other bond elections, Bartlesville's will require only a simple majority vote to pass each measure Oct. 10.
Early voting in Washington County is available Oct. 5-7.
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