Two Sapulpa Public Schools bond propositions totaling more than $40 million, the largest proposal in the district’s history, top area elections Tuesday.
“This is a wide-ranging bond issue that’s going to serve everybody in a positive way and hopefully provides some excitement in the community — and some growth,” said Steve McCormick, president of the district’s school board.
Also in Creek County, the city of Sapulpa is proposing 11 amendments to update its city charter. In Mayes County, voters will decide whether to OK an additional eighth-cent sales tax to be devoted primarily to the county jail.
A proposed 27,344-square-foot wing to the middle school, which McCormick said is “long overdue for a major overhaul,” represents the bulk ($13.412 million) of Proposition 1 ($39.355 million). The second proposition is $1.225 million for transportation equipment.
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Another portion of the first proposition is a digital curriculum conversion (roughly $5.411 million) designed to eventually provide laptop computers for students grades 3 through 12.
“We have some real improvements that need to be made at our middle school,” said Carla Cale, a pre-algebra teacher at the middle school. “A big component of this is trying to get us where we need to be as far as technology goes, preparing our kids for the world that we think they are going to face when they get out there. Our district, if we didn’t have routine bond elections, we couldn’t function. Our buildings would be falling apart.
“… It frees up money from our general fund to be able to do a lot of other things that aren’t being served in the bond.”
School propositions require at least 60 percent approval, also known as a supermajority, for passage.
If the proposal is OK’d, it would move the district’s millage rate from 26.5 up to 30. For property owners, that amounts to a $38 a year increase for every $100,000 in appraised value.
In the city of Sapulpa, voters will decide whether to approve 11 amendments to the city charter. The proposed changes deal with everything from competitive and sealed bids to city council vacancies and recall procedures.
The city typically examines its municipal charter every 10 years, and a mayor-appointed committee proposed the changes that will go before voters Tuesday, City Attorney David Widdoes said.
“It’s really basically a cleanup,” he said. “A lot of the propositions are to clean up and take out language that is no longer relevant to the city’s operations or which are no longer compliant under state law. But there are others that are designed to increase the efficiency by which the city operates.”
Mayes County Sheriff Mike Reed said approval of the Mayes County proposition is needed because the jail is in financial crisis mode.
Earlier this year, new Oklahoma Department of Corrections Director Robert Patton began a wholesale removal of DOC inmates from county jails. Since mid-March, the DOC has picked up more than 3,000 inmates from county lock-ups. The move has devastated many county jails, particularly the smaller ones, because the DOC per diem exceeded jail costs.
Mayes County earned about $500,000 a year from holding DOC inmates, Reed said.
“All money has always been used to fund the jail,” the sheriff said.
It costs at least $1.1 million annually to run the 14-year-old jail. The county received about $492,000 last year from an eighth-cent tax that has been in place since the lock-up was constructed, Reed said.
But repair bills — Reed said the jail spent $150,000 on those last year — and the loss of DOC revenue have the sheriff searching for answers.
“We’re understaffed by about four people,” he said. “We have inmates’ food down to 82 cents per meal. It was $1.25 when I arrived. We’re trying to save money any way we can. It just clipped us.”
Jimmy Tramel, mayor of the county seat, Pryor, said it isn’t right for county commissioners to ask for a tax increase.
“The city receives no property tax,” Tramel said. “I have to live in my budget, based on my sales tax. I think it is the responsibility of the county commissioners to make sure the sheriff’s department is funded correctly because that is their job.”
If the proposition passes, it will raise Pryor’s sales tax rate to 9.75 percent. Some major developers have told the mayor that they won’t come to Pryor for a while if the measure is approved, he said.
“It’s not in the best interest of the city of Pryor to have that sales tax,” Tramel said. “… I have to take care of the people of Pryor first and then let the chips fall.”
