A proposal to refurbish and expand the nearly century-old Osage County Courthouse highlights area elections Tuesday.
The half-cent countywide sales tax would be used to construct a roughly $25 million expansion/annex to the courthouse, which was built in 1914.
Elsewhere, in Mayes County, the town of Chouteau is asking voters whether to add a $7 monthly fee to water bills to hire two full-time firefighters, and a question in the city of Pryor proposes changes in city elections.
On the ballot in the city of Oilton is a one-cent sales tax dedicated to Oilton Public Schools. The five-year tax extension, passed two times previously, would be earmarked for the leasing of buses, the erection of an indoor hitting facility for baseball and softball, a community walking track, and campus and technology equipment and software, Superintendent Matt Posey said.
The Osage County proposition has been a heated topic at public meetings.
“We’ve run into a hornet’s nest over this,” said Jim Clark, who chairs the county board of commissioners.
If approved, the half-cent tax would begin Jan. 1 and expire in 20 years. It would raise the county sales tax rate from 1.25 cents to 1.75 cents, Clark said.
Critics of the plan say it fails to adequately preserve the historical significance of the courthouse and promote the revitalization of downtown Pawhuska, the county seat. They also point to the girth of the project, which adds more than 75,000 square feet of space to the existing 18,900-square-foot courthouse, which sits atop a hill.
