Rice gives report on storm damage

The Okmulgee County Board of Commissioners moved to allow the Sheriff ’s Office to apply for a Safe Oklahoma grant at Monday’s meeting.

According to the office of the Oklahoma Attorney General’s website, the grant program is available for local law enforcement agencies to “increase their capacity to respond to violent crime in their community.”

Sheriff Eddy Rice explained that the grant would be for a gang task force. He went on to say that the grant would also go towards overtime, equipment, and classes that will help with the identification and removal of gang members and activity in the area, adding that if someone is certified as a gang member, “then it enhances their prison sentences.” He also said that this is a 100 percent grant.

A 50/50 Emergency Management grant was also discussed. Sheriff Rice said it would pay half of the salary.

“If we don’t apply for it now, then we won’t get it,” he said when addressing the commissioners, “There’s no obligations here. It just gives us permission [to apply for the grant].”

The commissioners then approved the motion to move forward with the grant applications.

— Sheriff Gives Storm Report Sheriff Rice also gave a report on the damage caused by Saturday night’s storms.

“As everybody knows, we had quite a bit of wind damage, lots of trees that were down all over the county.”

He said that OG&E had approximately 400,000 people without power as a result of the “major infrastructure damage” and said that it would be some time before they would get their system back up.

Sheriff Rice also mentioned that Muscogee Creek Nation helped to get generators running in Beggs, and said that he was going to take the water buffalo from Beggs to Nuyaka, who is still dealing with power and water outages.

Lastly, Sheriff Rice asked the public to be patient as these services are restored. He emphasized that overloading the phone lines of these service companies will not help to speed up the repairs, but that they were working tirelessly to get everything back up and running.

— Also at the Meeting

• Commissioners approved the minutes from meetings on June 9, 12 and 14.

• During public input, the commissioners heard concerns about the usage of a county road to access a body of water.

— Officer’s Reports

• The commissioners approved the Election board’s May report, as well as April and May reports from the Sheriff ’s office.

— Purchase Orders

• District 1: Cintas for $800; S&H Auto for $1000; District 2: Cintas for $700; Sheriff ’s Office to The Oil Pit.

— Employee Forms

• Commissioners approved the full-time employment of two District 2 employees, Marty Harris and Derek Smith.

— Private Property Agreements • District 1: Bill Eddie for dumping dirt; Charlie Williamson for disposing ditch dirt