League of Women Voters of the Bartlesville Area Candidate Forum on June 17th

Washington County Grassroots Encouraged to Attend & Ask Questions

 — Watch on CableOne Channel 16 if unable to attend in person —

   LWV to host candidate forum – June 17th

 

To help citizens prepare for the June 24 primary election, the League of Women Voters of the Bartlesville Area will hold a forum featuring area primary election candidates on June 17.

The event will begin at 7 p.m. in the Council Meeting Room in the Bartlesville City Center Building, 401 S. Johnstone Ave.

Candidates for the Oklahoma House of Representatives District 10 and the Washington County Commission will be speaking and answering written questions from the audience.

Seeking the seat being vacated by Rep. Steve Martin from the Oklahoma House of Representatives, District 10, are Travis Dunlap and Randy Barnett, both Republicans.

The other primary race of local interest is between Pat Evans and Mitchell Antle, both Republican candidates, who will compete for the Washington County Commissioner, District 1, position being vacated by Gary Deckard.

Area residents are invited to attend and will be given an opportunity to write down questions directed to one or all of the candidates. To schedule as many questions and answers as possible, League volunteers will read the questions to avoid duplications and a timekeeper will maintain time limits for the replies.

County commissioner candidates are scheduled first on the program, followed by the candidates for the Oklahoma House of Representatives.

LWV officials remind voters that Oklahoma has closed primary elections in which party candidates are chosen only by voters registered in that party. Although all the candidates speaking at this forum are Republicans, the non-partisan League encourages Democrats and Independents to attend and participate with questions.

The LWV statewide Vote411.org website is now open with statewide information including information from Oklahoma House District 10 Candidates. For more information about the local League of Women Voters, visit http://www.lwvok.org/Bartlesville.html. The local League’s e-mail is lwv__bvilleok@yahoo.com.  

For more information about the forum, call the local LWV contact at 918-333-7007.

Source Article: http://examiner-enterprise.com/news/local-news/lwv-host-candidate-forum#sthash.NnIfXLkX.dpuf

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Posted by Sandra Crosnoe for Finding Gems & Sharing Them

Randy Barnett for HD10 Website

Travis Dunlap Website

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Note:  If the commissioner’s race candidates have websites, I was unable to find them (please provide links in comments section below if you have any additional information).

Side by side comparison of questionnaire answers for HD10 on Vote411 here >>>

Silver Lake Road Extension Eminent Domain Issue – a little history here >>>

Permalink: https://scrosnoe.wordpress.com/2014/06/16//

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Bartlesville School Bond Election — Yes Another One — Results!

Articles from Bartlesville Examiner Enterprise recapped here on upcoming $36.72 Million bond proposal to be voted on September 10, 2013.

The Bartlesville Examiner Enterprise paper is running a series by David Austin on the upcoming bond election.

Special thanks to Gary Kilpatrick for making the first two articles available to me.  I don’t get or read the newspaper.  I am interested in what they are telling people about this election.  Here are the scans of those articles so you can read them for yourselves.

I will highlight a few items for you from these articles first:

Bartlesville High School was built in 1939.  Recent school bond issues based in 2001 and 2007 have resulted in new facilities being added to the campus as well as updating the heating and air systems and other structural repairs.

On Tuesday September 10th, a school bond of $36.72 [million was omitted here but is included in the next article] will go before the voters.

The article says the bond will result in no tax increase [does that mean ever or just in the current year?].

The bond includes upgrades and renovations to Central Middle School and the Bartlesville Middle School facility.

The plan calls for the current Madison Middle School to be demolished while BHS would be expanded to accommodate all of the districts students from grades 9-12.

The proposal features security upgrades throughout the district as well.

The article goes on to recap previous bond elections and what was done with that money.

David Austin is the co-chair of the communications sub-committee for the Bartlesville Public School District’s Long Range Facilities Planning Committee.

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 This is the second article in the series on the upcoming school bond election. In this article it clearly states that the proposal is for $36.72 million.
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The changes will result in ninth graders being included in a four year high school around the district.

Among the highlights of the bond would be the upgrade and expansion of Bartlesville High School to accommodate all BPSD freshman and sophomores as well.

The articles says the studies show that by eliminating a transition from one school to another, students often fare better.  So, eliminating the mid high concept (9th and 10th grade), a transition would be eliminated.

The anticipated short turn around time on bond passage to project completion is credited to the partnership between the city and the school district and using a ‘conduit financing agreement with the city’.

The conduit financing between BPSD and the City of Bartlesville creates a trust authority which is required to take advantage of the historically low construction costs and interest rates that are present today.

Projects related to BHS would be completed in approx 2 years; all projects finished in three years.

Clearly quality education / schools are important to any city.   The city leaders and the school district leaders seem to be working together on these projects.

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My nagging question is whether we can ever get to the place where we live within our means both individually and collectively? It seems we have a bond election every year. Clearly if a city is growing, then we must expand to take care of needs based on the growth.  I sincerely hope the taxpayer’s best interests are being represented in this proposal and we are insisting on the best possible for the children of this community — including being free from debt. I would like to see plans to pay down the debt and reduce taxes for everyone.

VOTING Anyone who lives in the Bartlesville school district and was registered with the appropriate county election board by August 16, 2013 is eligible to vote on Tuesday, September 10. LINK: Locate your polling place. ABSENTEE BALLOTS The deadline for requesting an absentee ballot is September 4 at 5 p.m. ONLINE APPLICATION EARLY VOTING on 9/6 and 9/9 (no absentee ballot needed) Registered voters can also vote BEFORE the election at the county election board office, 420 S. Johnstone for Washington County voters,  on Friday, September 6, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. or on Monday, September 9, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. REGULAR VOTING on 9/10 from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. at your local polling place.

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More information on the bond election here >>> (voting chart from this site)

Posted by Sandra Crosnoe for Finding Gems & Sharing Them