DUBOIS – Sandy Township officials and its residents discussed the township’s pending consolidation with DuBois City on Monday.

The supervisors will meet with members of DuBois City Council for the first 10-person consolidation committee meeting in 2024.

The meeting will take place on Wednesday, Jan. 24, beginning at 6 p.m. at the city’s municipal building.

Monday Supervisor Bill Beers asked Board Chair Mark Sullivan if they could decide whether to continue legal efforts to pause consolidation.

Beers proceeded to call for the public board vote to take place at the next supervisors’ meeting on Monday, Feb. 5.

The supervisors held their meeting Monday like a town hall at the Oklahoma Fire Hall to accommodate a larger public crowd.

Prior to the meeting, they announced plans to address whether to move forward with consolidation with DuBois City.

Township Manager Shawn Arbaugh gave a brief overview of the timeline of events of the past year.

It was noted that voters used a method to advance consolidation that has no known legal mechanism to terminate the process.

If they don’t voluntarily complete the process by Jan. 1, 2026, they can be forcibly consolidated without local officials’ input.

Some aspects of the consolidation process must be completed in 2024—some as soon as June.

Additionally, the DuBois/Sandy areas are about a year or so away from candidates beginning to seek offices of the consolidated city.

The supervisors were asked if they were comfortable with moving forward with the consolidation despite the unknowns and without a completed forensic audit.

Beers indicated that he personally wasn’t comfortable, agreeing that there are still far too many unknowns at this point.

Beers did say that aside from his concerns, he did believe that consolidation was the way forward.

“We don’t really have a choice,” Supervisor Richard Whitaker commented, adding “we do it by 2026 or they’ll do it for us.”

It was noted again how the voters set everything in motion in 2021, and now elected officials must follow it without alteration.

“We have to find a different law,” Supervisor Sam Mollica said, indicating it’s been something he’s been working on.

Currently, it appears the supervisors’ only option is court intervention and that requires the township to continue its legal effort to pause consolidation.

Fire Chiefs Appointed

Also, on Monday, the supervisors voted to appoint Jason Runyon of Oklahoma Fire Department as the township’s new fire chief.

Runyon was the fire chief when the position was eliminated previously. This vote was 4 – 1 with Beers being the only opposing vote.

Jonathan Uren of North Point Fire Department was appointed to serve as the first Sandy Township assistant fire chief.

This vote was 3 – 2 with Beers and Mollica both voting in opposition.