Bartlesville Radio: The area’s best source for news, weather and sports!

The Dewey City Council agreed to pursue a design to improve Lions Park in downtown Dewey on Monday night.

City Manager Kevin Trease said he wanted to hire a professional to come up with a professional design for the park. He said they've talked about building handicap accessible bathrooms, building a stage, and adding sidewalks to the park.

The City of Dewey has already removed picnic tables that were rusting and rotting apart. Trease said they need to remove and replace playground equipment that is also outdated and unsafe for children to play on. He said there is no company in mind at present that he wants to come up with a design for the park, but he wanted to get the Council's blessing before looking for one.

Turning Lions Park into an even greater asset for downtown Dewey was on the minds of the Dewey City Council. Trease said they've even thought about doing away with an alleyway next to the park so they could make the park bigger. He said people drive too fast down the alleyway, so removing it would add much needed safety for park goers as well.

Prices could range for the project. Trease said the price will be determined by how much the Dewey City Council wants to put towards the park. Trease said they could open up discussion to the public to hear about the improvements they'd like to see at Lions Park as well. He said the discussion could be focused on improvements for all the parks in the City of Dewey.

Councilman Wayne Sell added that it might not hurt to have a solid design or plan heading into a future public meeting if one were to be held. He said this would give the public a vision to build off of when thinking of improvements that could be made to Lions Park and other locations in Dewey.

The Dewey City Council also held five public hearings to determine whether or not residential structures should be deemed as dilapidated.

During the meeting, three structures were deemed dilapidated. Below are the addresses where residential structures were deemed dilapidated by the Dewey City Council on Monday night:

• 814 E. Don Tyler Avenue
• 718 E. 3rd Street
• 301 S. Shawnee

The Dewey City Council agreed to table any decision to consider the other two residential structures as dilapidated. The addresses for those structures are as follows:

• 804 E. Don Tyler Avenue / 812 E. Don Tyler
• 402 N. Downing

The owner of the structures at 804 E. Don Tyler Avenue and 812 E. Don Tyler Ave. was said to have permits already to demolish the structures that were called into question on Monday night. The owner of the structure at 402 N. Downing works night shifts, so he was unable to attend the meeting, but City Manager Kevin Trease said to the owner is willing to work with the City of Dewey.