By Conrad Dudderar
Senior Staff Writer
A Canadian County commissioner is providing his equipment and crew to help with a repair project on a rural road in far northwest Yukon.
Canadian County Commissioners at their July 20th meeting approved an interlocal agreement with the City of Yukon to make improvements to Frisco Drive. The Yukon City Council had approved the agreement at its July 7th meeting.
Repairs are being made on a two-mile section of Frisco Drive between Cimarron Road and Frisco Road.
Canadian County District 1 Commissioner Marc Hader will provide the needed equipment and labor to haul all materials, install a culvert pipe and regrade the road – at no cost to the City of Yukon, according to the agreement.
“We’re happy to help out,” said Hader, the Canadian County Commission chair. “It’s no cost to us, other than our overhead.
“This is an agreement to help them improve two miles of road.”
The City of Yukon will provide the drainage pipe and pay for aggregate rock and other materials needed to complete the project – at a cost of about $1,150, Yukon Development Services Director Mitchell Hort wrote in a memo to the Yukon City Council.
Yukon has steel pipe left over from a Wilshire Road project that is being used for the Frisco Drive repairs.
Frisco Drive carries an interesting history. There previously was a small community called “Frisco” that vied to be the Canadian County seat many decades ago.
After El Reno became the county seat, many people who had lived in Frisco moved to Yukon, Richland or elsewhere – and Frisco became “kind of a ghost town”, Commissioner Hader shared.
The City of Yukon had annexed land to the northwest, including the Frisco community.
Frisco Drive was the main road in the rural community, and Commissioner Hader noted it remains the “only unpaved road in Yukon’s jurisdiction.”
“When I took office, previously it was in really poor shape,” the second-term District 1 commissioner said. “We got in and helped them put some material in there, grade it out and raised the road.
“It’s been really good for about five years now. But it’s kind of falling in disrepair.”
District 3 County Commissioner Jack Stewart told Hader he’s already received two “very positive comments” about the Frisco Drive repairs.
“Two different residents have proactively told me how much they appreciate what you’re doing,” Stewart advised his fellow commissioner.
COVID-19 DISASTER AID
Also at their July 20th meeting, Canadian County Commissioners approved an agreement between the State of Oklahoma and Canadian County for COVID-19 disaster assistance.
This agreement allows the county to receive federal funding – if needed – during the presidentially-declared disaster, according to county Emergency Management Director Andrew Skidmore.
The document is “pursuant to the major disaster declaration” signed by President Trump on April 1, Commissioner Hader added.
In other business at Monday morning’s weekly meeting, the commissioners approved:
• A $111,350.18 draw request from BancFirst for architectural services done on the future Canadian County fairgrounds’ site.
• A resolution approving an interlocal agreement between Canadian County Commissioners and Circuit Engineering District 5. Commissioner Stewart is the official board member with District 2 Commissioner David Anderson the first alternate.
• A resolution to reassign management duties for county employee benefits (except retirement) to the human resources’ department.
Meanwhile, jail administrator Kristie Carter reported there were 140 inmates housed in the Canadian County Jail with four others out-of-county. Six inmates are pending state Department of Corrections’ transport.
