Kingston Town Council approved a resolution in its regular meeting July 9 that will allow vendors to sell beer and wine at a downtown music festival on Sept. 14. It is a six-hour event and alcohol sales and consumption will only be allowed in the designated area.
The resolution is for this event only and the council voted to set the fee for alcohol sales at $50.
In other action, the council voted to purchase Lexipol grant-writing services.
Fire Chief James Kuykendall said the town uses Lexipol for policies and procedures and that the agency also has services to obtain grants.
They are able to search for grants and under the grant assistance program, will write one grant per year. The cost is $7,500 per year, but Lexipol is currently offering a 20-percent discount which will bring the price down to $6,000, according to Kuykendall.
The town will still use the Southern Oklahoma Development Association (SODA) for grants.
Council members approved the purchase of a printer for town employee identifications at a cost of $6,702.10. This will be connected to a cloud-based identification and accountability system, according to Kuykendall, and the Fire Chief’s Association is paying for this program and there will be no cost to the town to log onto the system.
It will be used for identifications for all town employees, not just firefighters.
Catherine Noreman spoke to the council about water leaking into her front yard from a fire hydrant at 201 S. Maytubby.
She said the water leak creates “a lake” and asked if the town planned to do anything about it.
Kuykendall said fire hydrant is an older one and it could be removed because there is a newer one across the street. The council voted to have the leaking fire hydrant removed.
The council approved the purchase of new door locks for five doors with programmable access to town hall and the fire department building at a total cost of $10,000. They can be opened with pass codes, a key fob or identification and are automatic locking.
Council members approved transferring a Dodge truck from the police department to the fire department. Interim Police Chief Steve Miller said the pickup is not practical for the police department’s use and they would rather have the money for it which will allow the department to purchase two vehicles. The fire department will be reimbursing the police department for the truck. Vice Mayor Loren Runyan abstained from the vote.
Council members also discussed the following agenda items: - Voted to appoint Lillie Parrish to the Housing Authority Board.
- Approved giving Chris Scott an insurance stipend and removing him from the town’s Blue Cross/ Blue Shield insurance because he has health insurance through the V.A.
- Tabled action until August on the drainage issues at 512 N.W. Elm St. because David Murphy was not present.
- Voted to hire Jarrel Broadhead for Kingston Public Works.
- Agreed to ask for county commissioner assistance on repairing the road and tin horn at June Place and Gaye Street and Muncrief and Highway 70.