By Conrad Dudderar
Staff Writer
Yukon Police will use a $22,180 safety grant to acquire new utility vehicles.
The City of Yukon has accepted funds from Firehouse Subs’ grant program to purchase two Polaris Ranger 570 side-by-side, crew cab utility vehicles.
The Yukon Police Department on July 7 was notified its application was selected and would be funded at 100% with no “match” required, according to Yukon Police Chief John Corn.
Yukon police officers will be able to deploy these utility vehicles at “all our special events” – instead of using golf carts, Corn explained.
“These are four-seaters with a cargo bed, so we have some extra flexibility,” he said.
Any officer can be assigned to drive these vehicles at Yukon’s many special events like Freedom Fest, Corn added.
The new utility vehicles will be tagged so officers also can drive them on city streets.
The YPD applied for this grant during the 2020-21 fiscal year.
The Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation provides grants for equipment that supports first responders.
Rother Bros. of Kingfisher will provide the YPD with the two 2021 Polaris utility vehicles, which will be sagebrush green in color. Each unit costs $11,090.
The Polaris Ranger 570 features a 44-horsepower engine, four-person capacity and 10-inch ground clearance.
The Yukon City Council accepted the first responder grant project at its July 19th meeting.
“What I like best about this is that it cost the city absolutely nothing,” Mayor Shelli Selby declared.
MAIN STREET PROGRAM
Meanwhile, the City of Yukon will continue participation in the state’s Main Street program.
The Oklahoma Department of Commerce’s Oklahoma Main Street Center was established to help small towns and cities develop public/private efforts to revitalize Main Street areas.
The city council, at the July 19th meeting, approved a resolution supporting Yukon’s 2021-22 participation “with the specific goal of revitalizing the historic central business district using the Main Street four-point approach to economic revitalization.”
Further, the “City of Yukon understands that the Main Street approach is a comprehensive, incremental and long-term process that results in a continual effort to maintain and enhance the downtown/historic commercial district.”
Vicki Davis is executive director of Yukon’s Best Main Street. The program is governed by the Yukon 66 Main Street Association.
