By Kandra Wells
McAlester’s city council met for two and half hours Tuesday night to authorize spending more than $100,000 for water plant repairs, deny an electrical code variance for a hotel builder and to ask staff to proceed with plans to find a consultant for Thunder Creek Golf Course.
The city’s utility director had asked the council to approve another $101,927 for a contract for repairs at a water treatment plant. Originally, a $676,600 July contract had been approved to repair a 9,000-gallon chemical tank at the plant. But the tank manufacturer has determined it cannot be repaired, according to Utility Director David Medley.
Medley said the tank had stored a caustic chemical used in treating the city’s water.
Meanwhile, a second tank also used for the chemical began leaking and needs to be replaced.
The job now involves installing three overhead doors in a wall to remove the two 9,000-gallon tanks — the third door would provide access to the third tank in the future — and the installation of two new tanks.
Under the agenda item, which was approved unanimously by the council, Northern Equipment Co. also was given another 98 days to finish the job. Under its contract, the builder must pay a $500 fee for each day it is late in completing the project.
In a related agenda item, the council agreed 7-0 to pay the project engineer another $8,235. The November 2007 engineer’s contract had been approved for payment based on a percentage of the total construction costs for the project.
In a separate agenda item, the council voted 4-2 to deny a request for a hotel builder to use a different electrical wiring system than required by city codes.
The city manager, fire chief and electrical inspector had all recommended the council reject the proposed variance for Candlewood Suites, a four-story hotel on the bypass near Comanche Avenue, at the site of the former bowling alley.
Builder Harold Ray of Thomas Construction said the action will cost the owners about $120,000.
Project manager Jerry Campbell showed the council how a rigid conduit, or pipe, is required by the city to encase electrical wiring for commercial buildings as a precaution against electrical fire.
Residential construction only requires that the wire be encased in a more flexible, and cheaper, plastic sheath.
Campbell said the hotel, being built the same way as at least 70 others across the country by the same builder, is using a wood frame construction. He showed how the metal conduit, or pipe, requires a larger hole though the supporting wood than the plastic-covered wiring.
“Structural integrity comes into play,” he said.
Ward six councilman Sam Mason, however, took the builder to task for agreeing to meet all city codes when the project was first bid. “Don’t come tell me you didn’t design this to meet local code,” the councilman told Campbell. “That’s your total responsibility.”
Councilmen John Browne, ward three, and Buddy Garvin, ward five, cast the dissenting votes in the board’s decision to reject the variance.
In another split vote, Mason was the lone dissenter in a vote to have the city manager proceed with plans to assemble a list of possible consultants for the Thunder Creek Golf Course. The list would then be presented to the council.
If hired, a consultant would review the feasibility of the course being turned into a public facility.
“We are obligated to the citizens of this city to provide good water, decent streets and garbage pickup,” Mason said, and city money should be spent on those priority items first.
The regular council meeting, attended by about 30 people, also included an executive session. The council met behind closed doors for about half an hour to talk about collective bargaining negotiations with unions for city workers. The board took no action after the session.
Also Tuesday the council:
• Tabled action to hire an analyst for the city’s retirement benefit plan, referring the issue to the council’s audit and finance committee.
The analysis, at a cost of $8,000, would be like a five-year check-up on the health of the city-administered retirement plan for city employees, Bruce Nordstrom of Benefit Partners told the council. It would look at demographics and data over the past five years to adjust the assumptions on which the plan, and its contributions, are based.
Meanwhile, the city manager was directed to obtain quarterly reports for the council, which is ultimately responsible for making sure the plan is well-funded enough to pay benefits.
“We are the trustees of this thing, and we should know what’s going on,” Mason said.
The plan’s latest report indicated it was 79-percent funded, just below the 80-percent general “rule of thumb” for city retirement funds, Nordstrom said. The report was before recent economic upheaval on Wall Street and does not reflect that activity’s impact on the plan.
• Heard about an award presented to the west wastewater treatment plant from Oklahoma Water Pollution Control Associates. The facility was named Plant of the Year out of 36 in the medium plant category. City wastewater superintendent Gary Roe “is a great supervisor,” Medley said.
“He does a great job. He’s got lot of good people working for him and that’s the combination you have to have to have a successful facility like that.” Vice-mayor Buddy Garvin asked that employees attend a future meeting for recognition by the council.
• Heard a report on collection of past-due fines by new warrant officer Chuck Courts. The officer has collected more than $23,000 over four weeks at a cost of about $3,516.
“He has done a great job,” Karen Boatright, city court administrator, said of Courts, who retired recently after a long career with the city police department. “He has done an excellent job, and I have received nothing but positive responses.”
• Accepted a $30,000 state grant to buy two speed radars and pay police officers overtime for traffic enforcement over the next 10 months. Police Chief Jim Lyles said most of the traffic enforcement would probably be on U.S. Highway 69, where complaints are called in daily.
• Approved the appointment of Emma Watts to the ethics board.
• Approved the appointment of Mary Ellen Keeter to the housing authority board.
Contact Kandra Wells at kwells@mcalesternews.com.
