B'ville City Council to decide on land donation from the city, to the city

BARTLESVILLE, Okla. - Bartlesville city councilors during their meeting Monday will be deciding on whether or not to make a donation of city land.

To whom would that land be going? According to city officials, to the city.

“We are going to dedicate it from the city to the city,” City of Bartlesville Engineering Director Terry Lauritsen told 2NEWS of the property. “It's really kind of a paperwork thing.”

The piece of land at question is a strip of right-of-way along the west side of Bison Road between Adams and Tuxedo Boulevards. It is a piece of property that stands in the way of a state-funded project to widen Bison between the two intersections.

Lauritsen explained that alongside that segment between Bison Road and the Adams Municipal Golf Course only a 16 1/2-foot strip is dedicated to Bison Road as right-of-way. He said though the city owns the golf course land and the right-of-way, the Oklahoma Department of Transportation doesn't see that as being under the same ownership.

“They say the road's right-of-way isn't sufficient for what we are going to do there and so we are going to dedicate property from ourself to ourself,” said Lauritsen. “That basically designates the right-of-way for Bison to match what the fence line is there currently,” he said, speaking of the golf course fence-line.

The donation will not move the fence-line or anything else at the site, he told 2NEWS.

“It is more just to satisfy the state to show that the right-of-way available for Bison Road is sufficient to move forward with the improvements.”

Planned for the Bison Road stretch are 12-foot wide lanes and 6-foot wide shoulders to match the pavement of Bison Road from Adams Boulevard south.

Lauritsen said this work will not begin for another year or year-and-a-half. First the city must acquire more right-of-ways, relocate some utilities and get final state approval, he said.