Henryetta Lions Club members learned about a number of projects from QuikTrip to the water plant Tuesday.
“The QuikTrip project is still in negotiations with ODOT,” henryetta mayor Jennifer Clason said. The Tulsa-based company is negotiating with the Oklahoma Department of Transportation (ODOT) regarding an entrance into the projected facility on US 75.
“We have been talking with State Rep. Scott Fetgatter and State Sen. Roger Thompson about this. ODOT is saying the highway is federally secured because of I-40.”
Clason said plans to purchase one of the motels was not completed but QUIKTrip has a purchase contract with a motel as well as several other pieces of property that will give them access to land running south from Main to I-40.
She told the Lions Club work has been halted on the Shoney’s restaurant because of a problem with roof trusses not built to specifications. “They changed the layout of the building.”
Clason said representatives from the United Sportsmen Alliance are expected to be in Henryetta sept. 30. That organization will be removing a defunct wooden dock and replacing it with a floating dock. Also expected to be built are a number of picnic tables and grills. She said volunteers are being sought to help with the project. “When they come in, they will do the work in 24 hours that would normally be a two to three week job.”
She credited Joshua Craig and Linda Gerstler for their help in that project.
Other Nichols Park projects included placing sand for beach volleyball courts as well as installing a prefabricated bathroom facility.
Clason said city crews are working on getting a cement pad poured. “We don’t know when it will open,” she said. The city still needs to make sure a septic tank will be useable.
One of the worries about the improvements is vandalism to the facilities. Clason pointed out vandals have spray painted signs and the restrooms at McCutcheon Park. “They have cut the straps off the new toys and torn off the basketball goals,” she said.
Coming up at Nichols will be a vintage dirt bike race September 29 and 30 and October 1.
She told the group the million-gallon water tank project east of town is nearly at the point where the tank walls will be going up.
That tank project will cost $1.2 million. The city received a $450,000 Community Development Block Grant and a $202,000 grant from the Indian Health Service to finance most of the work.