CACHE – After four years on the Board of Comanche County Commissioners, Commissioner Alvin Cargill said he believes he is more effective now than when he first took office.
“Anybody that comes into this position, regardless of how prepared they are, there’s a pretty huge learning curve when they first take office,” Cargill said in a May 24 interview. “We were short two road-maintaining machines when I took office, and the curve of learning how to get those procured – it was a huge learning curve. It was three months before we saw a machine, and that’s following procurement.”
Cargill, who was first elected to the commission in 2018, is seeking re-election to another four-year term. His opponent is former Lawton Police Department Detective Josh Powers, who retired from the department in 2021.
The two men will square off in the June 28 Republican primary election. No Democrats are seeking the position, which means whoever wins the primary will claim the seat.
Southwest Ledger recently interviewed Cargill about his decision to seek a second term, the skills he brings to the table and other topics. Questions and answers have been edited for clarity and length.
Q: Do you have another occupation (besides serving on the commission)?
A: I have numerous occupations. I own a number of rental properties. I own my own dirt excavation company, and I do some – mostly on my own – house remodels.
Q: What made you decide to seek a second term?
A: Finish what we started. The ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) money – that’s important. There’s a lot of interest by people, and I’d like to see the ARPA money disseminated. Make sure that it’s pushed out.
There’s some road projects that I’d like to see finished. Baseline’s one of them. It’s in pretty bad shape, and I’d like to see it finished.
Work with the Comanches. There’s some roads that they want to work on with the county that we want to make sure that they get finished.
Q: What skills do you have that make you an effective commissioner?
A: Business knowledge. I’ve built and managed budgets up to -- my largest budget was $940 million. (I) managed that budget, ensured that the budget was managed and managed properly and that the projects were finished on time.
Let me add to that my ability and knowledge of civil construction and how it correlates with the work the county’s doing.
Q: So, you would have taken office a couple of years before the pandemic hit. What challenges did the pandemic create for the county?
A: Actually, there were three. To make sure we served the public and that everything was available to the public that was in need. Anything from the clerk’s office, treasurer’s office, paying taxes. All the services that counties provide, to make sure that that was still accessible to the county.
To make sure that the jail – with the issues there as far as the crowding of the jail, the population of the jail – to make sure that we took every step we could to make sure that COVID didn’t get in there. But yet, we still had to receive arrestees and make sure that was still available.
And then once COVID hit the jail, make sure that we found the means of segregating the people that did have it and the people that didn’t have it. And to make sure that we still maintained the ability to receive detainees during that time.
We asked for the state’s help, and the state came in and helped us. That’s kind of what got us through that.
And then on the back end of that was working with the state to make sure that we had a plan in place that allowed us to reopen the jail to where we could bring everybody back and house them at the county facility, instead of the majority of them at a state facility.
It was big. And during that time, the CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security) Act was available. I worked and got $2.5 million for the county in CARES Act money to help mitigate the risk to the county as far as their potential exposure to COVID. That was through sneeze guards and split shifts and such as that,
And then money that we desperately needed to keep the jail going and fight what they had over there, through disinfectants and anything they needed to sanitize over there.
I worked hard to make sure that we did that. And I think it is a pat on the back that the state recognized Comanche County and the City of Lawton – not just Comanche County – for being one of the first governmental entities in the state to successfully apply for and receive CARES Act funds.
When we first got this (COVID), everybody thought if you got it, it was a death sentence. We’ve learned a lot from it. Not to take it lightly, because it affects different people in different ways, and unfortunately, there’s been a large number of people that succumbed to it.
We still need to treat it with respect, but we also have to understand that we have to be cautious and move forward with the knowledge that we learned from the original outbreak. The lesson learned is to try to plan and make sure that what we have in place protects everybody, not just the people who are at the county but everybody as a whole.
We’re trying to work with emergency management and the City of Lawton to understand and be better prepared, in the event that something like this comes again to where we have a better plan.
Q: What was the biggest challenge that the pandemic presented, and how did the county meet that challenge?
A: I think the biggest challenge was to make sure that we were putting steps in place that protected both the county and the citizens of Comanche County, or anybody that came to the courthouse.
It worked both ways. We were just as concerned about if we potentially had somebody at the courthouse that could be handling paperwork that would push it on to somebody else. We were trying to make sure that we had everything in place to protect everybody.
Q: Are you satisfied with how the county met that challenge?
A: Yes. I’m proud of what all the elected officials did. I think they did a marvelous job.
They expressed their concerns in how we approached the steps to mitigate and protect, and I think everybody worked well together.
That’s one thing I can say about all the elected officials. We’ve got a good group of elected officials. They work well together. They expressed their concerns, and we listened and incorporated what we could in and pushed the plan forward.
Q: Are you satisfied with the county’s direction?
A: Yes. There’s some things that I think we need to look at. There’s some concerns about the availability of ambulance service, and there’s concerns about the amount of funding to rural fire (departments).
There’s mandates they’re having to meet. It’s taxing to them, and the only way to meet this is financially, through training, and training costs money.
For them to be able to keep providing medical service when they come to any call that’s a medical call, there’s training that they need to get. And that training costs money.
It’s being able to find a sustainable funding source that allows them to train and keep providing the services that they are.
Q: What are your goals for the county over the next four years?
A: See the ARPA through, to make sure that we wisely spend the money and get as much trickled down to as many people as we can. Essentially, it’s just a grant to rural water (districts), nonprofit organizations, the county. There’s a number of things the county needs. And in that process, to continue to maintain the public roads and bridges throughout the county. The Western District specifically.
It’s been an honor to serve, and I’d like to thank the opportunity to thank all my constituents. I know we don’t make everybody happy, but we try to do what’s best for everybody.