The Cordell City Council on Monday waived vendor fees for those wanting to sell wares or host a booth in the Christmas in the Park and Christmas Bazaar events in early December.
Sarah Lau from the Cordell Chamber of commerece and Kristen Lee from the Bazaar approached the city with the request to waive fees.
“Some of our vendors are having a hard time paying the
$25 booth rent just because of everything going on and people being out of work,” Kristen Lee told the council. “So that’s why I came to see if y’all would be willing to waive the vendor fees because for some of them, they just wouldn’t be able to do it.”
Before the motion was approved, councilwoman Zetta Penner though the city should help.
“I think it’s only right that righ now if people can make a dollar, make a dollar. I mean, it’s tough, she said.
The council also talked briefly about the possibility of a mask mandate.
“Since COVID is getting worse, this is just me talking, I’d like people to wear their mask, wash their hands, do their (social) distancing. We just gotta be safe,” councilwoman Vicky Dunlap said.
The City of Clinton is voting on a mask mandate this week, and the governor has said it will be up to the municipality to do something, mayor Jerry Beech said.
“If you want something done, I put something on the agenda the last time, it failed miserably, so it will take two of you council members to put something on the agenda,” he said. “Or if you want to have a special meeting, three of you can call for one.”
Because it wasn’t an agenda item, council members couldn’t act formally on any mandate at the meeting.
“What you’ll need to do is see if other council members want to, then you can contact JC and we can set up a special meeting,” Beech said.
In other news, JC Moser, city administrator, told the council Oklahoma Municipal Power Authority, the city’s power provider will be conducting a telephone survey to the city’s power consumers.
“They will ask them several questions about municipal-run power and other things. I read over the questions, and I think it’s probably not going to be a good sign. That’s fine, people have to be able to tell us what they think.”
Moser just wanted to let people know that OMPA will be calling between 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Monday-Friday until they get what they feel is the correct amount of survey results.
In other business, the council approved a construction permit application to the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality Water Division for a LAS Chemical Feed System.