The Paper

If you owe the City of Pryor, the city may be intercepting a portion of your state income tax refund for payment of the debt.

A proposed new city law would direct the city’s court clerk to file a claim with the Oklahoma Tax Commission to deduct from any state income tax refund the amount you owe to the city, if you owe at least $50.

In the same proposed ordinance, the city would raise regular court costs from $25 to $30 — thus adding $5 to any fine you would be receiving in court.

In addition, the proposal includes assessing a $22 per day fee against anyone spending any time in the city jail.
Fifty percent of the jail income would go to Pryor Police for training and capital improvements.

These new fines-and-costs ordinance amendments were viewed last Tuesday by the city council and forwarded to the city attorney for review.

After the proposed ordinance is reviewed by the city attorney and approved, a first reading of the proposed ordinance will be held at a city council meeting, followed at the next meeting by a vote to approve or disapprove the proposed ordinance.

SOME OTHER FUTURE CITY LAWS?

Pryor’s city council may be considering several new laws in the near future, including ordinances dealing with garage sale signs and rural medical runs by Pryor Fire.

Because of a problem with people leaving garage sale signs posted around town long after a garage sale has ended, the city’s ordinance committee is expected to consider a new law requiring that garage sales signs include time, date and location of the sale, and fines will be issued if the sign is posted beyond that date.

Mayor Jimmy Tramel said another new ordinance to be considered deals with the largest number of calls Pryor Fire responds to now - medical runs.

At present, the city does not charge when Pryor Fire responds to a medical call outside the city limits.

The proposed ordinance would charge for rural medical runs just like the city charges for rural fire runs.

About 70 percent of Pryor Fire’s calls last fiscal year were medical calls, which is something Pryor Fire stepped-up when MESTA Ambulance left Pryor and relocated its headquarters to MidAmerica Industrial Park.