Be nice, or pay $185

Those in the market for flies are undoubtedly familiar with the adage about attracting more of the winged creatures with honey than with vinegar.

Likewise, those who disagree with Sallisaw employees should utilize the same approach — winning over people by being polite and kind (honey) instead of being mean or unpleasant (vinegar) — or face a fine of $185 for each offense.

Sallisaw City Commissioners at its Monday night meeting amended the Sallisaw Code of Ordinances, making it unlawful for anyone to knowingly or willfully resist, oppose or obstruct law enforcement personnel, a municipal judge or any employee of the city in the discharge of their official duties. That includes the use of threats, intimidation or abusive or indecent language against a city employee, if such language causes acts of violence.

In addition, the amended ordinance — Chapter 66, Article V, Section 66-131 — makes it unlawful for anyone to resist an officer — before being arrested or while under arrest — or to warn or signal another in order to help the other person flee, escape or evade an officer seeking to make an arrest, or to bar or lock any door to impede an approaching officer. It is also unlawful for anyone to assault, beat or abuse any law enforcement officer or city employee while they are discharging their official duties, or for a person to refuse to give their name to an arresting officer.

If an officer or city employee is on the receiving end of extreme cursing or other types of verbal abuse, a citation may be issued as disturbing the peace. The fine is $185 for such an offense.

“These changes are due to a response to verbal abuse that was received by one of our animal welfare officers who was out on a complaint call,” Sallisaw Assistant City Manager Robin Haggard told the commissioners. “So this just strengthens the course of action if an employee’s on the receiving end of extreme cursing or verbal abuse.”

The amended ordinance was passed with a declaration of emergency, which means the new ordinance is effective immediately.

Other business In other business, the commissioners:

• Approved an execution of deed for surplus city property at 109 N. Ash. The property was declared surplus during the July 10 commissioners meeting, and sealed bids were solicited. On Nov. 21, the one bid received was opened, which was from Kayle Griffin in the amount of $2,501.

• Acknowledged correction of an amount reported at the November meeting, although the amount owed was correct at $98,500. The correction is for an amendment to a work order of the master agreement for professional services with Garver, LLC, which was approved on Nov. 9 for the JSV Airfield Lighting Project.

According to George Bormann, director of economic development for the city, the amendment documents that were approved were correct, but the amount stated in the agenda item as well as in the background information was incorrect. The cost of the construction phase services will be $98,500. This is a new amount that is due for construction phase services. The agenda item had the amount owed as $39,500, but that was incorrect information. The FAA is expected to reimburse 90% of this amount.

No action was required by the commissioners, who acknowledged Bormann’s pursuit of ensuring financial transparency.

• Approved a purchase order issued to GraybaR of Maryland Heights, Mo., in the amount of $27,212.24 for the purchase of telecommunications overhead line material needed for service to future residential subdivisions and South Cedar Development.

“The approval of this purchase order will allow us to purchase the needed overhead line materials for the Telecom Department. These are going to be used to construct the overhead lines that will serve the Lee Creek Estates and the Redbird Smith Estates, and also the commercial/ industrial development that’s out on South Cedar,” Haggard explained to the commissioners.

• Reviewed a proposed ordinances related to junk motor vehicles. Staff is still in the process of updating the ordinance with changes discussed in previous meetings. The review provided the commissioners an opportunity to provide further input and direction. The commissioners welcome receipt of the revised ordinance for further review, which is expected to occur before the commissioners are asked to vote on the ordinance.

• Approved city staff’s request to invest the Sallisaw Reserve Certificate of Deposit as well as the Cemetery Fund Certificate of Deposit, both with Local Bank for 273 days at 5.62% interest. Quotes were received for temporary idle funds, and those quotes were reviewed. Local Bank was the high bidder.

SMA

The Sallisaw Municipal Authority:

• Approved a purchase order issued to Anixter of Oklahoma City in the amount of $98,549.80 for the purchase of electric materials for the Redbird Estates Subdivision. While Cherokee Nation is not currently ready for electricity to be installed, there is a lead time on several of the needed items.

• Approved an amendment to the Internet Capacity Agreement of March 9, 2015, between Dobson Technologies — Transport and Telecom Solutions, LLC and the Sallisaw Municipal Authority. The amendment extends SMA’s existing contract for an additional three years. A major benefit is that the contract rate for 10G will decrease from $0.68/meg to $0.24/ meg, which is a cost savings of about 60% over the current agreement.

• Approved a Netskrt eCDN service agreement between Netskrt Systems, Inc. and Sallisaw Municipal Authority for placement of caching servers. Netskrt has been contracted by Amazon Prime to place caching servers in data centers of ISPs nationwide at no cost to the providers. Since launching Thursday night NFL football last season, Amazon Prime has been plagued with video quality issues. They are planning to acquire additional live sporting events and are looking at streaming them in 4k quality. By having this server in the city’s data center, the content will stream to the server, then all customers on Sallisaw’s network will stream it from the server without going through the open internet, which is expected to resolve video quality issues. This is the same way Netflix works with the caching server at OneNet that is on Sallisaw’s network.

• Approved city staff’s request to invest both the Sallisaw Municipal Authority Certificate of Deposit as well as the Meter Fund Certificate of Deposit, both with Local Bank for 273 days at 5.62% interest. Quotes were received for temporary idle funds, and those quotes were reviewed. Local Bank was the high bidder.

Sallisaw Library Authority

The Sallisaw Library Authority:

• Approved city staff’s request to invest both the Sallisaw Library Authority- Tubbs Certificate of Deposit as well as the Sallisaw Library Authority Certificate of Deposit, both with Local Bank for 273 days at 5.62% interest. Quotes were received for temporary idle funds, and those quotes were reviewed. Local Bank was the high bidder.