Henryetta Economic Development Authority (HEDA) members are looking for one person to fill a vacancy following the death of longtime HEDA member Ron McAfee.
He joined the city authority not long after it was founded some 30 years ago and has been serving since. Current members are Keith Estes, president, Jill Francis, vice-president, Jim Beymer, Jennifer Mulholland and Bruce Jones, members.
At the June HEDA meeting, the vacancy was announced but no date was set to fill that empty seat. If anyone is interested in being a part of the board, they should contact one of the board members about submitting an application.
During the Monday morning session, members were told that paperwork is underway toward eventual construction of a motel and travel center south of the 237 exit west of town. Those plans were announced earlier this year.

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City public works director Ron Casey said work is wrapping up on the storm drain project on East Main. That is expected to be completed within the next couple of weeks.
Authority members looked at ways to improve curb appeal of Henryetta and specifically the downtown area.
Board member Bruce Jones said several businesses have opened their doors in recent weeks despite the COVID pandemic issue that has gripped the country.
A plan to help businesses recoup some money in remodeling or store front improvements had been brought up several years ago but has never moved on.
Roy Madden, who serves as HEDA secretary said the original plan called for a business to submit an application detailing the work and that would be reviewed by city officials. If it met the requirements, the business owner would be eligible for a reimbursement percentage of the money they spent.
He explained the proposal had gone from city officials to the city attorney who sent it to the Oklahoma Municipal League. That state organization said there were liability issues and the plan was dropped.
“We were wanting to start with our downtown core then branch out as more businesses started remodeling,” Madden said.
“I don’t see how the city could get any liability,” board member Jim Beymer said.
The plan would call for all work to go through code enforcement and once the work was completed and met all code requirements reimbursement could be made.
“This could be something that would help somebody over the hump to get them interested in doing something,” Madden pointed out.

The sales tax receipts for March and April have been tallied and Henryetta joins with much of the rest of the state in reporting a decline.
State Tax Commission reports show Henryetta received $238,140.81 in sales tax money for May, a decline of $8,041.33 from a year ago.
That puts the 2019-2020 fiscal year collections at $2,602,967, just under $200,000 short of the $2,804,272 a year ago.
While Henryetta showed a drop, Dewar, Weleetka and Okmulgee all reported increases.
Dewar received $13,023 compared with $9,970 a year ago; Okmulgee picked up $545,158 this May, a gain over $509,111 last year; Weleetka was up with receipts of $40,440 against $17,184 last May.
Morris and Okemah had slight decreases for the month. Morris received $20,585 compared to $22,567 last year and Okemah got $90,436 again $95,694 last year.
Statewide, the disbursement of $146,166,497 in sales tax collections returned to the cities and towns reflected a decrease of $14,180,567 from the $160,347,064 distributed to the cities and towns in May last year.
Those figures were based on sales from March 16 to 31 and estimated sales from April 1 to 15.

Henryetta school board members hired two teachers Monday night at the June board meeting.
Autumn Smith was hired to teach the third grade and Sherry jones will be added to the staff as high school special education teacher.
Board members had a list of rental agreements as the school fiscal year draws to a close.
Contracts renewed for the coming fiscal year included CRW consulting E-Rate, Follett Solutions, J&J School Services, Center for Education Law and OSSBA for unemployment services.
Henryetta will join other school districts in paying more for insurance through the Oklahoma School Insurance Group because of a number of losses. The rate went up here $6,000, a 17 percent increase. Board members were told that Henryetta sustained nearly a $1 million loss with the gymnasium flooding while OSIG paid out several other large claims amounting to $87 million, most notably the flood damage at webber Falls last year.
There are 448 school districts across the state that are members of self-funded OSIG.
Henryetta’s premium cost is now $111,465.
Board members approved a fundraiser by the HHS cheerleaders to sell fireworks this summer. That is an annual project for the team.

After staying at home for several months, rodeo fans were ready for entertainment. This past weekend saw record crowds attend the 14th annual Jim Shoulders Spring Roundup rodeo. There was lots of entertainment from bucking bulls to rambunctious sheep, obstinate calves and tricky barrels keeping everyone thrilled Friday and Saturday night.