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  • Ward 2 Councilor John Titsworth, left, discusses an agenda item with City Engineer John Modzelewski while Ward 1 Councilor Weldon Smith during Tuesday’s council meeting at McAlester City Hall. photo by JEANNE LEFLORE Jeanne LeFlore

    Council follow up
December 14, 2012

Council approves $350,000 for new street paver

By Jeanne LeFlore Staff Writer

McALESTER —  

A $350,000 asphalt paver was approved to be purchased by the city of McAlester by it’s city council, but it wasn’t easy.
The McAlester City Council met in council chambers Tuesday night for their regular meeting at McAlester City Hall.
Councilmen John Titsworth, Sam Mason, Weldon Smith all questioned the purchase.
The motion was presented by City Engineer John Modzelewski.
Modzelewski said the new paver will be used to replace the old one, a 1993 version with 6,000 hours.
John Titsworth, councilor for Ward 2 said although 6,000 hours sounds like a lot, it really isn’t.
“That’s only 300 hours a year, that’s only a couple of hours a month,” Titsworth said. 
“That’s not a lot of use.” 
City Manager Pete Stasiak said the old machine wasn’t used often for the last several years.
 “Prior to three months ago were weren’t working on (asphalt) streets,” Stasiak said.
“Our goal for the city is to fix the streets.”
Titsworth asked about contracting the job out
“Wouldn’t it be more conservative to contract the job out?” Titsworth asked.
Modzelewski said for the smaller jobs it wouldn’t be cost effective.
Ward 1 Councilor Smith said that in the future, it would be helpful for the city engineer to present cost scenarios for the council to compare the costs of contracting the projects out to purchasing an expensive piece of machinery.
Ward 6 Councilor Mason asked Stasiak and Modzelewski how this was even on this years budget.
“This was projected for 2013-2014,” Mason said.
Why are we discussing purchasing this now.”
Stasiak said the purchase needed to be approved so that the machine could be put on order because the lead time is several months out. 
The motion was finally passed after Titsworth and Mason both voted against it.
Also present at Tuesdays meeting were, Ward 3 Councilor Travis Reed, Ward 4 Councilor Robert Karr, Ward 5 Councilor Buddy Garvin and City Attorney Joe Ervin.
The council meets the second and fourth Tuesday of the month at 6 p.m. in council chambers at McAlester City Hall.
Contact Jeanne LeFlore at jleflore@mcalesternews.com.

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