Mayor proclaims SMA Awareness Month in Stillwater

Stillwater Mayor Will Joyce proclaimed August as Spinal Muscular Atrophy Awareness Month on Monday, and City Council separately voted to advance a rewritten noise ordinance governing loud music at businesses. Councilors also renewed a public call for volunteers to fill several open seats on citizen boards.

The mayor read a proclamation declaring August 2026 Spinal Muscular Atrophy Awareness Month in Stillwater. The proclamation described SMA as a rare genetic neuromuscular disease that weakens muscles and can affect a person's ability to walk, eat and breathe, noting that about one in 50 people are genetic carriers. SMA was once the leading genetic cause of infant death, though treatment advances have significantly improved outcomes, according to the proclamation.

Allie Williams, who has lived with SMA type 2, accepted the proclamation. Williams, who lives in Stillwater, has built a public platform documenting her life with the disease under the name Allie Wheelz, with about 38,000 followers on Facebook and more than 225,000 on TikTok. Williams is a graduate of Oklahoma State University's Greenwood School of Music, where she trained as a classical vocalist and performed with the Oklahoma State Opera.

"I absolutely love Stillwater and have chosen it as my place of forever," Williams said. "Thank you for allowing me to represent the SMA community."

Allie Williams addresses the Stillwater City Council and later receives a proclamation from Mayor Will Joyce declaring August 2026 Spinal Muscular Atrophy Awareness Month. – Photos by Chris Peters

Permit process lets businesses host loud music late

Council voted 5-0 to advance Ordinance 3620 to a second reading. The ordinance rewrites Section 16-83 of the city code, which governs loud music, and replaces a version staff pulled from consideration in May.

Under current code, schools, churches and city-sponsored events are exempt from the code's 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. quiet hours. The rewrite reverses course from Ordinance 3610, the version staff pulled from consideration in May. That version would have given businesses in commercial zones a standing exemption from the quiet hours — no permit required — so long as sound wasn't audible inside a home outside the district. Ordinance 3620 strikes that standing exemption and replaces it with a formal Noise Variance Permit process.

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Under the new ordinance, a business in a qualifying commercial zoning district could apply for a permit, provided sound isn't plainly audible inside a residential property outside the district when doors and windows are closed. The ordinance caps a business at eight permits per year and 12 total days of loud music, and permits could not authorize music past 11 p.m. Sunday through Thursday or past midnight Friday and Saturday. Applications would be due at least 10 days before an event. A business that violates its permit, or violates any city ordinance during the permit period, could be barred from getting another permit for six months.

Deputy City Manager Christy Driskel told council members the rewrite was modeled in part on Norman's noise ordinance, after staff reviewed policies at other Big 12 cities.

"We felt that we wanted to do some more consideration," Driskel said of the version pulled in May. "Concerns that had been raised were actually we want a permit process so that we can see where loud crowds may gather, or we can expect noise complaints."

Driskel said the earlier permit process, handled as an "undue hardship" request under a different section of the code, had become nearly impossible for businesses to get approved, and that staff had begun denying requests under that standard.

"Businesses just wanted a template," Driskel said, describing feedback from Stephanie Kinder, Community Programs Manager who administers the permits. "Understanding of when they could apply, when they shouldn't apply, what was going to be granted, so that they could go into the process knowing the parameters."

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Councilor Kevin Clark asked whether the ordinance would apply to Oklahoma State University's campus. Driskel said it would not, since OSU is a separate governmental body with its own policies. The ordinance also doesn't apply to barking dogs, neighborhood noise complaints or industrial sites, which fall under a separate section of the city's noise code covering yelling, construction and other general noise.

The ordinance carries an emergency clause, which the city attorney's office said is intended to get the new rules in place before OSU's home football games begin this fall. Council will take a separate vote on the emergency clause at the ordinance's second reading.

Four City boards need volunteers

Councilor Christie Hawkins used her comments during the meeting's officer and board reports to renew a call for residents to apply for open seats on city boards and committees, specifically naming the Board of Drainage Appeals, Building Trades Board, Rural Water Advisory Board and Audit Committee.

"These committees play a key role in shaping growth, development and infrastructure right here in Stillwater," Hawkins said.

Residents can apply at https://stillwaterok.gov/232/Boards-Committees

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