Q&A: Hillcrest road project to be funded in FY 2020-21

October 2, 2018

In the bond issue before the last we voted to do considerable improvements to Hillcrest from the high school to the river. Shouldn’t this come before the green space downtown?

The City Council approved reversing the order of the Hillcrest Drive Rehabilitation project and the East Downtown Storm Sewer Project so that the downtown drainage project could be funded and completed prior to construction of the green space, which will be located on Sixth Street between the Price Tower and Bartlesville Community Center. The Hillcrest project and the East Downtown Storm Sewer Project were both part of the seven-year 2013 half-cent sales tax extension.

The Hillcrest rehab project was originally slated for funding this fiscal year. The decision to switch the two projects was made as part of the budgeting process earlier this year due to the possibility of the green space project being approved in the March 6 General Obligation Bond election. According to Director of Engineering Micah Siemers, the drainage work needs to be complete or at least under construction before construction begins on the green space project because the storm system runs through the middle of the Green project area.

Both the storm sewer and Hillcrest projects had similar price tags for engineering design and construction so it was just a matter of timing, Siemers said. Hillcrest is now slated for funding in Fiscal Year 2020-21. Funding for engineering became available this fiscal year, so City staff will be requesting qualifications for engineering design in the next month and wrap up design in 2019.

Mail box relocation voluntary in most cases

(A) letter is being put in many mailboxes in Bartlesville and Dewey. It is NOT mandatory to put up curbside (mail) boxes. I have spoken to both our local postmaster and his boss, and both told me that this letter should have never went out like this and yet it keeps happening.

The U.S. Postal Service is a division of the federal government over which the City of Bartlesville has no jurisdiction. But to clarify the matter, post office officials say the curbside placement of mail boxes is required for new residents but is voluntary for existing residents. Curbside placement is a safer and more efficient option for postal carriers; hence, the request for residents to consider relocating their house-attached box to the curb. For more information about this, contact the Bartlesville Post Office at 918.336.7152.