The Guthrie City Council will meet tonight for their regularly scheduled meeting in the city council chambers. The council will have a workshop at 6 p.m. to start the night. The council and the Guthrie Public Works Authority (GPWA) will meet starting at 7 p.m. If approved, the council and the GPWA will not meet on July 2 due to the holiday, so their next scheduled meeting will be July 16. The workshop agenda has a discussion of the fiscal year 2012 audit and an update from the rate and fee advisory committee. The GPWA has a very short agenda with a consent agenda and voting to cancel the July 2 meeting. The council has an 11 item consent agenda with four of the items being renewal of leases for the sports fields and Highland Hall for the Logan County Aging Services. On the business agenda is the canceling of the July 2 meeting to lead things off. The council will also take up some airport board business with a consideration of changing the boards meeting time starting in August. The board currently meets at 4:30 p.m. on the second Tuesday of the month. The concern brought up at the last meeting was the time was not conducive to allow the general public to have input. While there is no set time, Guthrie City Manager Sereniah Breland told the airport board last week that 6 p.m. was the preferred time for all boards to meet so they were transparent to the community. There is also an opening on the board with current chairman Lamar Wade’s term set to expire. Wade, City Councilwomen Sharyl Padgett and Hugh Adams have all applied for the board. The council will take up a resolution establishing the 911 emergency telephone fees for 2014 calendar year. There is also a resolution for the city to approve and support the development of Cottonwood Village, a 50 home site for senior citizens. The site will be located east of Academy Road at the intersection of Owen Park Boulevard. The resolution also calls for waiving $14,000 worth of building permit fees and other city provided services. The council has also scheduled an executive session to discuss litigation with Total Investment of Guthrie. Total Investment is the contractor in charge of the expansion at the airport. The council visited with this topic a couple of months ago when the engineer was asking for the city to declare Total Investments in default of their contract. The council is then scheduled to come back into public session to discuss what action will be taken as a result of the executive session.

It is hard to believe that the July 4th Holiday is only 16 days away. As the fireworks stands go up sales will soon be happening as the holiday approaches. By city ordinance Guthrie only allows fireworks to be sold from June 15 to July 6. The seller must have a permit from the City of Guthrie if being sold within the city limits. The fireworks can only be discharged this summer holiday between July 3 to July 5 and during the hours of 10 a.m. and 11 p.m. All Guthrie residents must have a permit to set off fireworks as in past years. Those permits are available at the Guthrie City Hall during normal business hours. Some of the rules of the permit include Class C fireworks is the only type of fireworks that are allowed within the city limits. Fireworks must be discharged on a non-combustible surface of sufficient size to contain the entire ground portion of the display and not closer than 25 feet from any permanent structure. Anyone over 18 discharging fireworks must have a permit by name and address while identifying the proposed location on the permit holder’s property. Under the city ordinance, the permit holder is required to be present for the use of the fireworks and must be within 100 feet of the point of display, and have the permit posted in a place of prominence during the discharge of the fireworks for examination by any law enforcement officer. The permit holder is further responsible for cleaning up any debris caused by any person discharging fireworks. Fireworks are not to be ignited on any public street or property and if you plan on having more than 25 people at your July 4th outings than a permit from the city is needed. While currently there is no burn ban residents are encouraged to be aware of the surroundings that fireworks are being set off in. Guthrie Fire Department Battalion Chief Greg Machtolff, “With the composition roofs most homes have today, the issue is generally the vegetation that homeowners allow to exist on their property that cause a fire safety issue.”