Luther, OK- On the recommendation of The Luther Parks Commission, the town board recently approved an expenditure of up to $800 to purchase two trashcans for Main Street. The Parks Commission asked for the expenditure using $200 worth of grant funding rewarded more than six months ago. But that grant amount from OGE apparently wouldn’t even cover the cost of one heavy duty trash receptacle, according to Town officials.
“There have never been garbage cans downtown. People have always – rightly – complained. If we get a cheap aluminum can and chain it out there around an electric pole … it makes Main Street look cheap. Blame it on free enterprise and private businesses who run up the cost of basic items for municipalities,” said Luther Mayor Jenni White.
The heavy duty can is expected to sustain wind and heavy use; and is expected to aid in the tidiness of Main Street. Parks Commission member Chris Ivich made the pitch to the Town Board at last Tuesday’s meeting saying the commission had done their research on finding the best quality and lowest price trash cans available. Trustee Trandy Langston recommended spending the money because the Town has recently experienced a temporary influx of sales tax revenue, along with strict budgeting. The influx that has put almost a half-million dollars in the Town’s General Fund, is due in part, to additional sales taxes credited to construction of the new BancFirst and the turnpike, said town officials.
UPDATED: Following the post of this story to social media, some readers asked about the cost and whether the Parks Commission asked the Ag Students at the high school who do some metal arts. Commission Chair Kasey Wood replied to those questions:
We received a KOB grant for $200 with the intention of buying trash receptacles for downtown Luther, since there are none. After researching trash cans made by companies that produce commercial grade products we were disappointed to find how expensive they were. So we took to our local craftsman to get pricing. After placing phone calls to those local metal craftsman it was brought to our attention that the school did this same type of metal work so we contacted Holly Drake about having the school do the work with our $200 grant and the $200 that the Town had agreed to match for the trash cans. Which brought us to $400. After consulting with Holly Drake about the cost of materials and the powder coating she advised us that it may not cover materials for 1 trash can, much less the powder coating and a little extra for compensation to the students for their work. So we went back to researching our options. After our research and knowing we have events such as the Halloween Trunk or Treat and the Luther Pecan Festival right around the corner that are centered around downtown, we needed to have a decision made. Therefore we found a trash can that costs approximately $400 for the metal frame that can be bolted to the sidewalk, liner and lid. All of the these being necessary to keep trash from blowing over and being spread all over town. We brought this information to the Town board and they were all in favor of helping provide the trash cans for our downtown,” said Wood.
