Service award, cable agreement on commission agenda
Shawnee City Commissioners are set to meet Tuesday; several agenda items are up for consideration.
Ray Poland, vice president of the Oklahoma Municipal League (OML), is scheduled to present a 25-year service award to Shawnee Fire Department Battalion Chief Scott Killgore.
In other business, Rian Harkins, Community Development director, is recommending approval of a professional services agreement with Freese and Nichols for the creation of a new Unified Development Code.
According to the commission agenda, as part of the implementation of the 2019 Comprehensive Plan, city staff began exploring the possibility of updating the zoning ordinance and subdivision regulations.
“Both documents are older sections of city code,” the memo reads, “and do not necessarily reflect current development trends or practices.”
The current subdivision regulations are from 1990, the sign code is from 2002, and the present zoning ordinance has been in place since 2014.
City staff has been working with Freese and Nichols over the past few months to create a potential Scope of Work and associated fee for the project.
“The proposed scope of work includes a new development code, as well as engineering design criteria that is designed to help the community have a more clear and concise development process,” the memo reads.
If the commission approves the agreement, $344,492 will be allocated and funded through community development, other professional services.
Up for approval by the city is consideration of an ordinance granting a non-exclusive permit to Clarity Telecom, LLC, for the construction and operation of a cable system.
Assistant City Manager Jacob Foos said Clarity, doing business as Bluepeak, is expanding services in Oklahoma and has requested a non-exclusive cable system franchise agreement with the City of Shawnee.
Although most franchise agreements are exclusive and require a vote of the people, Oklahoma state law provides that cable television systems must be approved through non-exclusive agreements, the memo from Foos reads.
State law also provides that each cable system must be treated consistently with no new agreement being “on terms more favorable or less burdensome” than existing agreements.
“City staff reviewed the proposed agreement along with the conditions set forth in any other current cable system agreements,” Foos said. “Through that review process changes were made to ensure that the agreement with Bluepeak did not include terms more favorable or less burdensome than existing agreements.”
Key items of the agreement include:
10-year agreement term
5-percent franchise fee for eligible services (pursuant to state law that does not currently include internet services)
Construction build-out requirements: 50 percent build-out in two years, 90 percent build-out in three years
“Mr. Desi Stoops, vice president of Market Development with Bluepeak, will provide a brief presentation and answer question of the mayor and commissioners,” Foos said.
Foos said 5 percent of the gross revenues that Clarity and its affiliates collected from each subscriber to Clarity’s Cable Services, would be deposited to the General Fund.
On Tuesday, Commissioners also will consider approval of a rezone by applicant Paula Lauderdale for property at 1011 E. Farrall from A-1 (Rural Agricultural District) to R-1 (Single Family Residential District).
Also, the monthly sales tax report is set to be presented.
The only items set for the Municipal Authority and Airport Authority are to approve minutes from previous meetings.
Because of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday Monday, Shawnee City Commissioners will meet at 6 p.m. Tuesday in the Bertha Ann Young City Commission Chambers at City Hall, at 16 W. 9th St.
For story ideas, questions or concerns, reporter Vicky O. Misa can be reached at vicky.misa@news-star.com.
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This article originally appeared on The Shawnee News-Star: Service award, cable agreement on Shawnee City Commission agenda