Broken Arrow City Beat

Broken Arrow, OK sent this bulletin at 12/07/2022 02:19 PM CST

Invigorating progress around the City

The red dirt is a sign of growth for the Aspen Ridge Development near Aspen Road and the Creek Turnpike. A new Reasor's grocery store, restaurants, shops and housing are on the way to the southern part of Broken Arrow.

The wheels of progress are turning as we continue our improvement projects throughout the community. Here are the latest updates on several projects at work in BA.

Aspen Ridge Development is taking shape in south Broken Arrow near the Creek Turnpike and Aspen Avenue. The contractor is on-site moving dirt and preparing the land for what will become a brand new Reasor’s grocery store in the not-too-distant future. More announcements about other businesses in Aspen Ridge will be coming soon. Stay tuned!
The turf project for the four fields on the west side of the Indian Springs Sports Complex is nearing completion. The two fields on the north side are now turf and all that’s left is for the last of the sod to be placed around the perimeter of those fields. On the south side, the turf is down on the field to the west, while the field to the east is just about ready for turf to be installed. This project is expected to be finished by Christmas.
Work on the Jackson Park project is also wrapping up as the contractor is finalizing the last items on his to-do list. The brand-new restroom facilities are expected to open this week.
And the finishing touches are being done on the Trail at Events Park. This project will be complete once we install the posts that prohibit motorized vehicles from accessing the trail. Those posts have been ordered so this project will be finished in the very near future.
All sidewalks and new pavement have been installed on the New Orleans Street sidewalk project. All that remains is the barrier fence installation. Once the equipment arrives, the fence will be put in place and this project to improve connectivity for walkers will be complete.
The New Orleans Street Widening Project at Events Park is going well with 90 percent of the concrete on the north side of the roadway complete. Crews are working on the Creek Turnpike’s off-ramp revisions, but drivers can still enter and exit the toll road here. A detour is now in place that will allow the contractors to tie-in the project to the existing roadway and asphalt the north side of the street from the turnpike back to the east. Once that is completed around December 14th, traffic will resume on the north side of the road, with construction starting on the south side of New Orleans Street.
The third phase of the concrete roadway portion of the New Orleans Square Intersection project is nearly complete as well. A walking trail extension is being added on the south side of New Orleans Street and will connect it to the newly installed trail west of the intersection. The contractor has begun demolition for the extension and will work on this for several weeks. We expect the Phase 4 roadway work to begin December 15th and continue until mid-January.
In north Broken Arrow at the Albany Street Widening Project, the contractor has completed the installation of the asphalt pavement and concrete on the south side of the roadway along the entire mile section of the project. They have also installed 90 percent of the concrete on the north side. Soon, crews will remove the old asphalt and put down a fresh layer for the remaining roadway. That will be followed by striping Albany Street and final clean-up. The project is on track for completion by January.

For more on the latest construction project news, watch City Manager Michael Spurgeon host Broken Arrow in Motion December 2022.

Going green makes positive community impact

The City of Broken Arrow received the Green Government of the Year Award from the Metropolitan Environmental Trust (The M.e.t.) on Nov. 10. Pictured from left, City Councilor Lisa Ford, City Manager Michael Spurgeon, Mayor Debra Wimpee, Solid Waste and Recycling Director Jerry Schuber, City Councilor Scott Eudey, Vice Mayor Christi Gillespie, and Recycling Outreach Coordinator Galea Albano. (Not pictured City Councilor Johnnie Parks.)

Congratulations, Broken Arrow! Your recycling efforts are making a tremendous difference for the environment.

On Nov. 10, the City of Broken Arrow received The Green Government of the Year Award from the Metropolitan Environmental Trust. The award recognized the City's sustainability efforts with the bi-annual Trash Bash and Recycling Rally and the weekly recycling program.

In the two Recycling Rallies alone in 2022, the City collected and recycled:

660 tires
113 pounds of ammunition
316 pounds of pharmaceuticals
496 pounds of sharps
1,700 pounds of cardboard
10,831 pounds of electronics
13,500 pounds of paper
240 pounds of plastic bags

That's more than 30,000 pounds of recyclable NOT headed to a landfill.

"We have some of the highest tonnages going through the M.e.t. in the metro, with people making an effort and coming in and recycling," Solid Waste and Recycling Director Jerry Schuber said. "That is impressive!"

The M.e.t. tracks each city's recycling tonnage, and Broken Arrow recycles more than any other local municipality except for Tulsa.

Recycling is good for the planet, helps conserve valuable resources, reduces pollution from producing new materials, and creates jobs.

Broken Arrow boasts a 95 percent participation rate in the weekly recycling program.

"We also have a multi-faceted educational component where we do outreach to the schools through assemblies, and we are active at events around the community," Schuber said.

December is traditionally a big recycling month, and the director is asking everyone to recycle cardboard boxes, paper, and other items from their holiday gifts.

Installation of 40,715 Automated Water Meters now complete

Congratulations to the City of Broken Arrow Water Meter Readers Division for completing the installation of a total of 40,715 Automated Meter Readers across the City. From left: Jeremy Lucas, Mike Shumar, Randy Cheatwood, Donnie Hilton, Derriel Bynum, and Skylar O'Brien.

An Automated Meter Reader (AMR) conversion project is now complete with the installation of 40,715 meters in the ground in Broken Arrow.

The project was finished in three phases by the City’s Water Meter Reader employees, who are to be commended for their exceptional work.

“They had to work overtime, be flexible on their hours, and stay late to complete this task,” Utilities Systems Manager Jerry Hanewinkel said. “These guys are rock stars for knocking this project out with the quality of work they did and in the time in which they did it.”

An average of 8-10 employees in the department installed 10,741 meters from January 2021 to October 2022.

“They would have finished in June, but supply chain issues caused a delay,” Hanewinkel said.

The new AMRs are much more accurate and replaced the antiquated analog water meters. They send out electronic signals that Meter Readers collect by driving by each customer’s home or business with a laptop computer once a month.

The AMRs can store up to three months of data. This innovative technology allows the Utilities Department also to print graphs illustrating water use at each residence or business.

Conversion to the new system began in 2016. It was completed in three phases by City of Broken Arrow staff, including the Construction and Water Distribution Divisions in Phases 1 and 2.

This conversion to AMR is the step toward implementing AMI, which is Advanced Metering Infrastructure.

With AMI, receivers will be installed on towers that will collect the readings and transfer them directly to City Hall. The City is currently receiving bids for the next phase of implementation. The City’s IT Department will install the AMI project with assistance from the Meter Reading Division in the next six months to a year.

When the new AMI system goes online, City employees will no longer have to drive by each residence or business to collect the data, but they will maintain operation of the entire system according to Hanewinkel.

“This project was a huge undertaking,” Hanewinkel said.

Watch Community Development Update

For an update on rezoning requests, planned unit developments, conditional final plats, and comprehensive plan changes, watch Community Development Update and stay in the loop for what's going on around town.

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