City Council OK's More on 18th Street Issue

The Grove City Council took further action on the 18th Street Project at its regular meeting this week, approving a two-lane roadbed and sliding the road around the Stogsdill property, which had been an issue. The City and the property owners were unable to agree on a purchase price.
City Manager Bill Galletly said details of the 18th Street Project would be unveiled at the next Council meeting, but the road would cost in the neighborhood of $2 million from Sumac to Shundi and north to 9th Street. The project should be ready for bidding shortly, he added. Opinions of citizens have varied over the need for the road, from no need, to much needed, and everything in between.
The road was once planned to be five lanes but has since shrunk to two lanes, curbed and guttered, with a 10-foot sidewalk on one side.
In other action, the council okayed authorization for an energy grant application to the Oklahoma Department of Commerce on 80-20 matching funds for new lighting for downtown Grove, as part of the Downtown Revitalization Project; took no action on the purchase or appraisal of property coming out of executive session; announced that PSO will put utilities underground on Shundi's West side north to 13th street, saving the city $200,000, with the city to dig the trench; presented Employee of the Month Award to Jack Bower; and approved the grant application for Federal 95/05 matching funds for the Grove Municipal Airport additional land purchase, pending review from the City Attorney.
Bower is Field Superintendent for GMSA and has worked for the city for 12 years.
The council also voted to waive the fee for Grove EMS to use the civic center three days in August for continued education programs.
Grove businessman Jim Sherman spoke regarding the need for traffic enforcement on Third Street, as trucks are running the light and speeding 40-50 miles an hour in downtown Grove; he also addressed the issue of the Bradford Pear trees growing into storefront awnings. The council took no action on either item.

Tax Vote Cancelled

The Delaware County Commissioners and Election Board have cancelled the Aug. 9 election for a half-cent sales tax increase to finance the Sheriff's Office, but are working to reschedule it in the Fall.
The Grove City Attorney, Larry R. Steidley, Jr., had written the commissioners July 28 requesting cancellation of the election due to several discrepancies in the election documents.
Specifically, the Agenda for the June 9 commissioners meeting called for consideration for a "Resolution Calling for a Special Election for a half-cent Excise Tax," but on the proposition stating the notice of election the word excise was replaced with "County Sales Tax."
Also, the various statements of percentages were inconsistent, and the public was not on proper notice of the type of tax, percentage of tax, nor the matters to be decided, said the letter.
Also noted was neither the Notice of Election nor the Order were on the Agenda, and only items placed on a properly posted agenda may be considered by the Board. The Agenda for the meeting was not posted five days in advance nor was it posted in three public places, said the attorney in his letter.
The Grove City Council had authorized the city attorney to look into the matter at its last regular meeting.

NewsBriefs

Grove's Cinema 4 is currently expanding to a six screen facility which is scheduled to be completed the first week of October. Cost of the expansion is more than $500,000 and will include two 144-seat auditoriums, stadium seating and digital sound. In mid-August the cinema will celebrate five years of business...The Oklahoma Corporation Commission has lifted price controls on SBC's retail telecommunications services and has ordered SBC to expand its highspeed digital subscriber line internet service to 68 cities and towns in the state...Cingular Wireless will build 68 new cell towers in Oklahoma City and Tulsa to provide better service (no mention of Grove)...Dr. Zach Bechtol spoke to the Grove Rotary Club Wednesday on heart attacks and strokes and what to do in case of one...Word on the street is that Grove will get a major chain restaurant late this year that will have citizens' taste buds all excited...Apparently Allegiance Cable Company's purchase of Charter Cable in Grove never went through, as subscribers are still getting bills from Charter. The transaction was approved by the City Council in January and was to happen last May.

(If you have News for the Grove Observer please fax it to 918-791-0206, or email us at groveobserver@yahoo.com)

MIFD Auxiliary to Hold Bazaar

A "Bizarre" Bazaar will be held Saturday, Oct. 8 from 8-5 p.m. at the Monkey Island Fire Station, sponsored by the Women's Auxiliary. Donations of household items, furniture, yard items, books, and children's clothing will be offered for sale in the parking lot (garage) sale.
There will be home baked goods provided by the ladies of the Auxiliary, hot dogs, soft drinks, a Farmer's Market with fruits and vegetables, and a Craft Show.
Proceeds from the sale will go to the Fire Department to benefit the firefighters and first responders. For more information contact Shirley Daggett at 787-4073.

The Dam Builders (second in a series)

This is the second in a series of interviews with people who actually worked on building Pensacola Dam in 1938-40.

W.N. Bill Holway, youngest son of W.R. Holway, the Chief Engineer, should have had a cushy job while working on the dam during summers while at college. But his father gave him one of the nastiest jobs around one summer, painting the insides of the 15-foot diameter Penstocks with hot, black tar, coating the pipes with a half inch of the stuff. The coatings made the water slip through the pipes easier into the turbines. It took him more than a month to do the work on the four penstocks at that time. "It was hot, smelly and a nasty job," he recalls.
Our interview took place at the Holway Point family compound on Drowning Creek, where the Holway family once owned a considerable amount of waterfront. Bill drove down to his dock to welcome us as we tied up the boat. He is a kind man with a generous smile and seemed to enjoy our visit.
The main house at Holway Point reminds one of the Woolaroc Ranch Main Lodge, west of Bartlesville, built by Frank Phillips. The room is large and has a big grand piano on one end. A photo of W.R. and his wife, Hope, sits atop the piano, taken in the early 1920's when both looked like movie stars.
The house was built in 1948 and Bill was kind enough to go over the many photos in the family collection and also documents and literature on the building of the dam.
Bill, at work, computed the amount of concrete required for the Buttresses, which are five feet thick at the bottom and varying to two feet thick at the top; he did surveys around the lake to elevation 755 and higher for the backwater curve. He recalls that survey teams used six 1940 model Dodge sedans to go around the lake for surveying. Some places had no roads and they had to cut their way into the shoreline.
Once, on what would be Drowning Creek, the survey team dropped Bill off deep inside the woods and said they would be back for him in an hour or so. Three hours later, Bill was worried he might not get out, but they did return and picked him up.
He recalls the calculations which would today take seconds by computer, took weeks back then, using slide rules and a calculator.
Bill lives in Tulsa with his wife Polly and they still make frequent trips to the lake. When asked if he had thought in 1940 there would someday be 18,000 property owners on Grand Lake, he replied "never in my wildest dreams."
He told the story of Holway and Associates doing some sewage work for the City of Grove in the late 1940's, but they never got paid. One evening Bill and his father, W.R., drove to Grove to what they thought would be a city council meeting hoping to collect on the bill, but as it turned out the meeting had been cancelled and all the council had gone to the movie theater. So Bill and his father walked into the theater and spoke to each council member during the movie. They got paid shortly after that.
Bill attended MIT with a degree in Civil Engineering. He later worked on other GRDA projects such as Kerr Dam and the pumpback units, with Holway & Associates.
(this interview was conducted in the Spring of 2005 by the Editor)

Commuting by Boat

It is a 50 minute drive to work, from Grove to the Pensacola Dam, by car. Gasoline cost is about $6.00.
So I thought I would try to commute by boat just to compare the two methods.
It was Friday and I was working the day tour at the dam. Weather was clear and the lake was smooth as glass. I had no GPS but a quick review of my Piloting and Seamanship classes set me straight.
I pulled out of the breakwater at Melody Point at 8:05 a.m. and powered up the huge 6.2L Merc and put it on cruise control at 3200 rpm and about 30 mph. I took the direct route, not following the shoreline. I popped in my favorite CD in the whole world, "Pancho & Lefty" by Willie and Merle, the same one that got our Swiss tour guide so excited 15 years ago during a golf tour to Switzerland.
As I cruised down Oklahoma's finest lake I passed my deceased parents old home on the Zena side and waved, with no response of course. If only they could see me now. Dad used to refer to the GRDA as the GDRA, after the low lake levels in the 50's.
In just 15 minutes I passed El Cabo and in another five I was at the mouth of Duck Creek. Lots of new million dollar homes are still going up on the lake. Most boats stayed away, thinking I was a Lake Patrol boat in plain clothes.
Suddenly the Big Dam came into view, all 535,000 cubic yards of concrete, what a beauty.
I pulled into the public docks in Langley just at 30 minutes drive time, put out the fenders and securely tied up the boat.
Is this a great country or what?
I figured the roundtrip cost a little over $10 in fuel at $2.65/gallon, as my boat uses 3.4 gph at that speed. The return trip took a little longer as it was Friday afternoon and the big ones were out already.
But I think I'll stick to the auto method. Keeping the boat in the water all day meant I had to clean the algae off the bottom after putting it on the lift.