Tuesday night city council members called for a June 9 election that, if approved, would give Public Service Company a 25-year franchise. Essentially this would be a renewal of a franchise the electric utility has had for several decades.
In exchange for allowing PSO to have its poles and transmission lines within the city, PSO would pay two percent of the gross receipts from electric bills.
During the meeting, the council accepted two lots that will be used as part of the tennis court project.
One of the lots is located just south of the Main Street tennis courts and would be eventually turned into a parking lot for people playing tennis.
Watch the entire city council meeting on video here.
The other sits just east of the present courts is expected to be the site of a covered shelter as well as bathroom facilities.
The entire area around the tennis courts will be taking on a new look later this year following a successful fundraising effort by the Henryetta Tennis Association. Work on the all new lighting, fencing and playing area is projected to start in late July or early August.
Glenda Mason and Barbara Beymer were renamed to five year terms on the Henryetta Library board.
Work is continuing on city parks and placing new street signs around town.
City manager Ted Graham pointed out crews are in the process of putting in a six-inch water line to McCutcheon Park. That will provide water for the splash pad as well as a new bathroom facility.
"We are retaking the beach," he said, talking about the work at the old swim beach area at Nichols Park. Graham explained workers have been removing all existing sand from the beach area as well as dredging out debris from the lake bed several yards from the shore.
Several truckloads of sand will be hauled in as part of the rehabilitation effort.
"We are taking time to look at the old walls and re-establish the old infrastructure there," he added.
Brush and weeds have been burned around the lake as part of an effort to make the area more scenic.
"The old grant process wanted to have views of the lake and park from the pavilions or picnic tables. We are removing the dead or dying trees."
After eliminating the undergrowth, he said several old WPA rock works including walkways, campgrounds, barbecue grills and even sunken trash receptacles have been discovered.
"We don't want to destroy them. It will take a lot of time to reclaim them."
New street signs have been put in place for nearly half of Henryetta.
Graham said work started on the southern side of town and crews are working their way north. The project includes street names as well as stop signs.
"We are finding out we have streets we didn't know we had," he said. One of those is Ragin street that runs north and south along with Ragan that runs east and west. Another is Wheeler.
Approval was given for planning and design work on the million-gallon water storage tank east of town as well as a place to put the sludge generated from water production.
Graham said the new plant is taking more of the solids out of the water and that has increased the amount of sludge left over.
"It is not a hazardous material," he said, likening it to flowerbed sand.
"Our quality of water is almost equal to distilled water," pointed out councilor Jennifer Clason. "You haven't got any letters from the city in two years."
Replying to some comments about the taste of water, mayor Bill Goodner urged people, "if you have bad tasting water, go check with your neighbors. If they don't have it, is is probably your pipes coming into your home."
Graham said the city will be flushing out lines in coming weeks. "We turn things loose in the old pipes when we do that," he said. "Some of them date back to the start of the town."
