Council Meeting 12/4/2007

Good morning, I am in hopes that all had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday as I did. The Council held its first meeting for the month of December. The agenda was fairly standard with the usual approvals of the daily operations of maintaining a city. Council did approve the next years meeting dates and times for Council, GPWA, GIDA, Finance, Street, Transportation, Library,Board of Adjustments, Planning commission, and the rest of the boards and committees involved with the City. In addition Council approved the appointment of Cheri French to the housing authority for the City to fill a vacant seat. Also Mr. David Hood was appointed as alternate judge for the City to fill in when the presiding judge is out. I wish David all the best of luck and appreciate his time to help serve the City of Guthrie. The library was granted to start a program called food for fines. This program allows people to bring non-perishable food products to the library in lieu of late fines. The food will be donated to Gods food bank for distribution. I would also like to take time to thank Mr. John Wood for helping put together the starting points for a new committee for the City of Guthrie. John and I have been working on this new committee and John has put our ideas to paper and, I am very excited about this proposal. I look forward to bringing this proposal to the Council in the near future. I will attach this proposal to the blog for review and comment. To access the proposal please click the link at the top right hand side of the blog. This link will take you to the proposal. I would encourage any comments about the proposal good and bad to help John and I craft something that works for all involved. The proposal is a neighborhood committee made up of citizens from the three wards in Guthrie to help promote neighborhood developments and groups. Please take time to look it over and respond. Again I thank John for all his hard work and dedication and I cant wait to get this program started for the community. Last but not least as we head into the new year the challenges ahead of the City are numerous, but I am confident in our ability to overcome the many challenges and welcome our communities involvement. I look forward to future responses to our proposal so please comment when you can.

Trey Ayers
Councilman Ward 1

Council Meeting 11/20/2007

Good morning from Guthrie, Oklahoma I hope everyone is ready for a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday, I sure know I am. The Council had our 2nd meeting in November last night, and I heard a collective sigh of relief from the City Staff that Centennial was over. The agenda was light yesterday evening with the approvals of the general funding request and the last council meeting minuets. In addition the council made an appointment to the planning commission last night to fill a vacant seat which had opened up. Council also made approval to increase the fines from $75.00 per day for code ordinance violations to the allowable maximum State of Oklahoma penalty of $200.00 per day this was just a general clean up of the ordinance to keep it up to date. The evening ended with general accolades for the the City staff, the general public, and all the visitors that visited our great community. Looking forward I believe the City has been making great strides, however we have several difficult challenges facing our community, and I will work hard along with other to accomplish the goals of the city. The celebration is over but the great spirit of the community is strong and we will continue to grow and be successful together. I hope you and your families have a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday and our thankful for things that have been given to us. I know I could never say thank you enough for the things I have received in my life, but I will try my hardest to complete. Thank you to my family and friends for all that you have given me, HAPPY THANKSGIVING.

In addition I could not resist adding the picture of our illustrious City Attorney Randel Shadid

" The Great Bandito" showing off his sombrero for the Territorial Ball. As you can see if was a great time and a great event for Guthrie.

Trey Ayers

Councilman Ward 1

Centennial Weekend Statehood Day

All I can say is WOW! what an incredible weekend for Guthrie, Oklahoma. I was honored to be asked to be a part of the Re- Enactment of the original swearing in of the first State of Oklahoma Officers. In addition to the swearing in of the first Governor of Oklahoma. I played the part of Edward Trapp the first State auditor and later to become Governor himself for the State of Oklahoma. I am the second one down on the left side in the picture. The day started early at 7:30 am and ended for me with the parade down Oklahoma Ave. The estimates are still coming in, but has been between 60,000 and 80,000 people that visited our great community. On Saturday evening the Territorial Ball was held at the Scottish Rite Temple there were approximately 375 people there along the current Governor Brad Henry and his wife, the Lieutenant Governor and the Attorney General for the State.The event was a great evening good food provided by Dominion House and good music and wonderful fellowship. It truly was a special weekend for the State of Oklahoma, and again I was honored to be a part of the history moving forward.

On a separate note for the City of Guthrie what can you say, everybody from the City staff to the citizens of Guthrie did an outstanding job. The City was in tip top shape, traffic moved with ease, the police and fire departments were helping with issues and the day went off without a hitch. Guthrie was in the local and National spotlight and did we ever shine. I was so proud to be a part of this community and all that make Guthrie their homes should be proud of what we accomplished. We may not be the capitol of the State of Oklahoma anymore, but we certainly are the "Best Small Town" in Oklahoma and that is a fact!

Council Meeting 11/06/2007

Good morning from my office in Guthrie Oklahoma. Last night we held our first November 2007 Council Meeting and all went well. The council re-appointed several ladies to the park board and I am hoping we will have some good ideas and things happening at the parks this year. Council tabled Wal-Marts request to adopt the loop that runs from Division that makes the two entrances into the Wal-Mart complex. Our decision to do so was to make sure Wal-Mart completes the road work and brings all issues with the existing road back to city standards in order not to put the city with a failing road upon taking over of that road. The council also raised the existing franchise agreement with Cox Communication to 5% from 4% for the next 6 months with another renewal option 6 months from now. Council also approved renewing the lease agreement for the use of Logan County aging services to continue to use Highland Hall Facility. Vice Mayor Doug Hehn asked for a clause to be added to the lease allowing the Logan County Election Board to be able to hold elections there during this lease option. It would be the Election Boards decision to use Highland Hall for a polling place, but would give them the option. I thought this was a good idea, and I hope the Election Board will take advantage of it's use. I was excited to see the approval of both the taxi way extensions and the erosion control items being approved for bid for the Airport. These are both very important issues for the continued growth at our airport and the airport continues to be an exciting area in our city.

On the Centennial Celebration front all is full steam ahead from the Heartland Flyer bringing State legislators from Oklahoma City to Guthrie for the celebrations. On Nov 9TH, 2007 at 5:00 PM the Centennial Clock will be dedicated I have seen it at night and its really a nice addition to our downtown district. The city has also contracted with the City of Edmond to provide additional Bus transportation support for all the visitors and the city has over 40,000 parking spaces set up across the city. It's going to be an amazing experience in the City of Guthrie starting at the end of this week thru the 16th of November.

On an important note, I want to say to the entire City of Guthrie Staff, what a great job you are doing and thank each and every one of you for your hard work. I especially want to thank Maxine Pruitt and the Municipal Services Division for their amazing work in prepping downtown from the new street signs down to the striping of parking spots. It looks incredible and you and your staff should be proud.

I have to admit if there was a time to get elected to the Guthrie City Council this was certainly the time. I have been surrounded with extremely professional City staff and continue to feel the ship is pointed into the wind and look forward to the continued days of sailing.

Trey Ayers
Councilman Ward 1

Flying From Guthrie Edmond Regional Airport

Council Meeting 10/16/2007

All is well this week as we just completed our meeting last night dealing with issues for the City of Guthrie. The city manager gave a very complete year end budget report and the city was under budget and showed increased revenues over last year a good position to be in. However with the positive comes the reality of moving forward with dealing with failing infrastructures and working towards future repairs and the need for an increased water treatment plant. The rest of the council and myself are working diligently to perform this act while trying to reduce the impact of cost against the citizens of Guthrie a difficult job but one we are working hard to perform.

The other main issue is the Centennial Celebration's that are to occur in the Month of November. The City staff has been working very hard to make all the accommodations and they have done an extremely good job performing these duties. If anyone has questions regarding parking, volunteering, or just anything in general please feel free to contact the City.

I really appreciate the opportunity afforded to me to be able to serve my Ward and my community. This is my first Blog so I will try to improve from here on out.

Trey Ayers
Councilman Ward 1 Guthrie, Oklahoma