Latest news with #OklahomaCityCouncil
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
OKC City Council adopts 2026 Budget
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – The Oklahoma City Council announced on Tuesday the adoption of the 2026 budget highlighting its $930 million plan keeps the city running. Oklahoma City leaders cited slow growth and department wide cuts in the Police Department and Fire Department. 'This is the second year in a row that sluggish revenue growth triggered a budget reduction,'City Manager Craig Freeman said. 'Despite this, I'm encouraged that departments could makeadjustments to stay within available resources while continuing to focus on services for our residents.' Hundreds of teachers, administrative staff laid off from Epic Charter Schools Currently, Oklahoma City's largest single source of revenue is sales tax, which pays for day-to-day services, according to City officials. Oklahomans are urged to shop in locally including online. The City gets 4.125% of taxable sales made in Oklahoma City or when people from Oklahoma City buy something online, says City leaders. For the budget overview and highlights click here. Visit to find your Council member's contact information. Visit to see who represents you. Visit for City Council meeting agendas, including instructions on how to sign up to speak. Visit for an overview of revenue. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
11-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
How work at convention center will disrupt OKC Streetcar service May 13-16: What to know
The Oklahoma City Streetcar will be temporarily shut down from May 13 to May 16, marking another milestone in the demolition process for the former Myriad Convention Center and construction of the new Paycom Center, according to a news release from the city of Oklahoma City. In a step toward the new development, OG&E will disconnect power from the convention center, also known as the former Cox Convention Center, during those days, leading to a slight disruption in public transportation services. Alternative transportation will be available. EMBARK will operate two bus shuttles from 6 a.m. to midnight every 25 minutes along the downtown streetcar loop, the city said in the release. However, streetcar fare will be required. The shuttle bus will provide access to all streetcar platform stops with the exception of the Century Center stop on Sheridan. Thunder game shuttles will run two hours before the game and for one hour after the game on May 13. More: What should OKC do with Paycom Center site? What's next for Union Station? Questions answered Demolition of the exterior of the convention center will begin in June and be completed in late 2025, with an anticipated opening in June 2028, the city stated online. Interior demolition has been ongoing. This comes after the Oklahoma City Council awarded $11.4 million in contracts and bonds to Midwest Wrecking Co. in March, according to earlier reporting in The Oklahoman. Read: Myriad memories: Before its demolition, OKC's iconic convention center hosted the biggest names Built in 1972, the building has been renamed several times, once as the Cox Business Services Convention Center and as Prairie Surf Studios and has been the site where a plethora of events, from concerts to conventions to sporting games have been held. In December 2023, 71% of Oklahoma City voters approved a penny sales tax to build the new Paycom Center, and in May 2024, the Oklahoma City Council approved a development agreement between the city and PBC Sports and Entertainment LLC to build the at least 750,000-square-foot arena, the city said in the release. The new arena will cost around $900,000 million and be primarily funded by a 72-month, one-cent sales tax, $70 million in MAPS 4 funding, and $50 million from the Oklahoma City Thunder ownership group, the city stated online. This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OKC Streetcar shuts down during Thunder Game week. Here's what to know
Yahoo
23-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
OKC Council agrees to pay just over $2 million to house city detainees in county jail
The Oklahoma City Council took a step toward reducing tension with Oklahoma County officials Tuesday when it voted to pay just over $2 million for the housing of city detainees in the county jail. The agreement is retroactive from July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2025, which settles payments owed for the last two fiscal years. The city and Oklahoma County have had the agreement in place since 1997 for the housing of city detainees. In the agreement, the city agreed to pay a flat rate of $750,000 for Fiscal Year 2024. For Fiscal Year 2025, the city will pay a rate of $319.79 per inmate with an estimate of 3,928 inmates, which would cost the city around $1.2 million. There was no discussion prior to the council's unanimous vote to approve the agreement. Oklahoma City also will pay for the cost of transportation and supervision for each prisoner transported by the authority to an outside hospital or facility for medical care. Myles Davidson, chairman of the Board of County Commissioners, previously called the debate over who would pay for transportation and medical care "non-negotiable." Davidson could not be reached for comment on Tuesday. The debate over the jail bill had been occurring as the city and county also were at odds over the location of a new jail. At one point, the county sued the city after it denied the county's request for a zoning change to build the jail, but the case was dropped in January. The jail, and an adjacent mental health facility, are expected to be built on a 60-acre site near Del City. Dirt work has already started for the mental health facility, while county officials work on how to pay for the jail itself. This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma City will pay county just over $2 million for jail services
Yahoo
18-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
MAPS 4 partnering with Boys & Girls Club of Oklahoma County on new youth centers
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – The Oklahoma City Council approved four locations for new youth centers. The City is partnering with the Boys and Girls Club of Oklahoma County to make a difference in communities. 'I know it will make a difference,' said Teena Belcik, President/CEO of Boys & Girls Club of Oklahoma County. LOCAL NEWS: National Alpaca Show comes to Grady County Fairgrounds During the city council meeting on Tuesday, city councilors approved the following locations to build new youth centers. Woodson Park, 3403 S May Ave. S Santa Fe Ave & SE 66th St. Northeast Boys & Girls Club, 1501 NE 36th St. Melrose Community Center, 7800 Melrose Lane All of them will cost around $80 Million in MAPS 4 funds. That means, it's already paid for after voters approved the debt-free program back in 2019. MAPS 4 is funded by a temporary penny sales-tax, to generate more than $8 Billion over eight years. MAPS 4 decided on these locations after conducting studies focusing on poverty, crime, and youth violence. 'These youth centers are not typically what people thing of youth centers, that being a gymnasium and a pool,' said David Todd, the MAPS 4 Program Manager. The youth centers will be designed for children five to 18-years-old or in grades K-12. They'll also have the personal touch of The Boys and Girls Club of Oklahoma County. 'We know if there's not something super fun or cool or cutting edge then it's going to be a little hard to get the older kids,' said Belcik. 'These youth centers will be designed so there is something for everyone whether it's e-sports, whether it's 3-d printing, or if it's playing basketball.' LOCAL NEWS: Luther family saved by Edmond Fire Crew #5 They'll also focus on school help and STEM. 'This will allow hundreds if not thousands of more kids every year to have a place to go after school,' said Belcik. Belcik said every community is different, so they'll hold discussions to find out exactly what the needs are. They definitely want input from the youth. 'We want to make sure they know how to use their voice in a positive way to effect change,' said Belcik. OKC and The Boys and Girls Club are hitting the ground running, starting with Woodson Park. 'We'll start seeing design renderings this summer and then hopefully, before the end of the year,' said Todd. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
10-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Four youth centers were recommended under MAPS 4. Where will they be built?
Citizen advisory board members recently recommended site locations in Oklahoma City for four youth centers under the MAPS 4 banner to provide after-school and summer programming. As part of the voter-approved MAPS 4 sales tax initiative, the city plans to construct the four youth centers to offer new learning and social opportunities for children in high-need areas. The centers would host programs including athletics, the arts, family activities, and health and educational resources. The Oklahoma City Council has approved allocating $78 million toward building the youth centers, with $30 million in additional funding toward operations and $10 million in capital improvement operating funds. Project designer Bockus Payne Associates Architects worked with the selected operator, Boys & Girls Clubs of Oklahoma County, to map major areas of need and study potential sites for the centers throughout Oklahoma City. Architects with Bockus Payne last week recommended building the centers at 3403 S May Ave., 6440 S Santa Fe Ave., 1501 NE 36 and 7800 Melrose Lane. Collin Fleck, a Bockus Payne design director, said the team developed a list of criteria for the sites, including youth density and poverty, crime rates, acreage size, floodplain maps, access to public transit, and school locations and performances. 'Most of those statistics were either provided by census data or by the Oklahoma City Police Department,' Fleck said. 'We also met with several stakeholders throughout the city public school systems and other public investors and partners to get as much data as possible. We wanted to make this as objective as we could, so that it wasn't just a gut feel on anything.' Using the data, designers and planners narrowed down the site locations within four areas of highest priority: The first site recommended is Woodson Park, 3403 S May Ave., which Fleck said is in the middle of the largest area of dense population, poverty and high crime in Oklahoma City. But the park also has high visibility and easy access to several surrounding schools, with large capital investments already in existing infrastructure. 'From an amenity perspective, there's a lot already there, and that's something that we really are trying to get into all of these youth centers as much as we can,' Fleck said. 'Of course, budgets are tight. If we can have just a grass field, we'll have a grass field. If we have playgrounds, we'll have playgrounds. Of course, Woodson Park has all of those things already there, so it seemed like a really great fit.' The second recommendation is what architects are calling the Santa Fe Site, at SE 66 and Santa Fe Avenue. The location is directly north of Webster Middle School and is just down the street from Southeast Middle School and Southeast High School. Due to the site's proximity to Webster, Fleck said it could potentially share athletic fields with the school. He also suggested other existing facilities onsite, like the current gym, could be maintained and repurposed to help the budget. "It is a large tract of land, it is relatively flat, it is highly visible, and, again, it checked all of the boxes for this area of need," Fleck said. "There's plenty of public transit." More: Budget reductions almost meant a northeast OKC park center would change operators. What now? The third site is the existing facility located at 1501 NE 36, already operated by the Boys & Girls Club. The site currently serves kindergarten through eighth-grade students, although the operator is hoping to expand services to high school students as well. Architects said that the Boys & Girls Club board members are willing to provide the site, pending further discussions. Nearly $6 million in private funding has already been invested into the facility. "They have additional private funds that are going to be invested in the site to build the gym," Fleck said. "Again, looking at ways to make the budget square, we're looking for anything we can, and that is certainly a big help to have those funds allocated toward this." Fleck said that the fourth recommended site — at Melrose Park, 7800 Melrose Lane — would place the new youth center in the highest square mile of crime in the city, according to 2022 police data. The park sits directly across the street from Council Grove Elementary School, with several other elementary schools, such as Greenvale, Apollo, Mayfield, Hilldale and Buchanan, identified within the boundaries of its area of need. Fleck also said the city's Parks and Recreation Department intends to use $500,000 worth of general obligation bond funding toward improvements at the park. Those amenities would be available to the public generally outside of the youth center, but Fleck said they would be helpful for the site's purpose. "There's an existing community center there, and in discussion with parks department, those facilities have outlived their useful lives, so we would recommend that the building be demolished and that the new building be built in the back of the park," Fleck said. More: An ambitious MAPS 4 plan to improve OKC parks was approved. Which parks get what? The MAPS 4 Citizens Advisory Board voted unanimously to recommend the proposed site locations Thursday. Upon final approval from the city council of the sites, design services for the first MAPS 4 youth center will begin. According to the architectural contract with Bockus Payne, the current budget for that first design work is just under $1.4 million. "I know it's a tremendous amount of work, and we've been talking about this and working on coming to this moment for years," said MAPS 4 Citizen Advisory Board Chair Teresa Rose. "It is exciting." This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: MAPS 4 advisory board recommends new youth center sites
