Sewer repair donation bill signed

Osage Nation Principal Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear on April 17 signed into law an appropriation by the tribal Congress of $261,000 to help the city of Pawhuska with the cost of repairing an unanticipated sewer system failure.

ON Congressman Billy Keene sponsored the bill, which initially proposed the appropriation of $523,825. Keene introduced the bill March 26, during the spring HunKah Session of the Congress. The Appropriations Committee addressed the legislation on April 1 and April 8, eventually reporting a committee substitute out to the Congress as a whole. The committee reduced the amount of proposed funding roughly in half, to $261,000.

The full Congress on April 15 approved the expenditure by a 12-0 vote.

Interim City Manager Jerry Eubanks and Ward 2 City Councilor Susan Bayro represented the interests of the city of Pawhuska in discussions with the ON Congress. Bayro is vice mayor of Pawhuska and she is an Osage Nation employee.

Eubanks had initially briefed the Pawhuska City Council on the evening of March 12 about the apparent collapse of a portion of a sewer main located underneath a commercial building. He described almost unending labor by city workers to keep the sewer system patched together.

Eubanks told the Pawhuska Journal-Capital on April 19 that he is deeply grateful to the Osage Nation for “going above and beyond” to help the municipality.

The City Council on April 9 voted unanimously to declare the sewer main collapse an emergency, and to authorize the submission of a grant application to the Oklahoma Water Resources Board.

Pawhuska is currently digging its way out of financial difficulties and it lacked the resources to respond adequately to the sewer problem. The current City Hall leadership team of Eubanks and Assistant City Manager Carol Jones reflects the city’s understanding of the greatest immediate threats to its future viability – the need to drastically improve its accounting and financial management, and the constant threat of failures of key infrastructure items and systems.

Eubanks is the bright, somewhat excitable infrastructure person known for getting down into the muck with crew members and working difficult hours to try to keep the machinery running. Jones is the person figuring out how to improve accounting and budgeting. Fiscal years run from July 1 through June 30. Very soon, the public elements of the 2024-25 budget process will begin to take shape.