LAWTON – With the help of a $9.6 million state grant, the FISTA Development Trust Authority will tackle a series of projects, including street lighting upgrades on Rogers Lane.
The Lawton City Council voted 8-0 Feb. 13 to approve a funding agreement between the Oklahoma Development Finance Authority, the city and FISTA. Funds for the grant will come from the Oklahoma Department of Commerce’s Public-Private Partnership Military Pooled Finance Program.
The grant will provide funds for the following projects, which would benefit both the City of Lawton and the FISTA Innovation Park in Central Plaza:
• $2 million f or road lights on Rogers Lane near Interstate 44, a pa rtnership between FISTA and the city.
• $2 million f or expanding the Innovation Park’s conference center.
• $2.2 million f or work on administrative space at the Innovation Park. Part of the funding for this project will come from a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development grant, which has already been awarded to FISTA.
• $2.8 million to create a STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) lab inside the Innovation Park.
• $600,000 for creating a small-business incubator.
The grant program is funded by the withholding taxes that federal employees pay the state, said FISTA President Dr. Krista Ratliff.
“It’s employment taxes paid by employees that work on Fort Sill,” she said. “Because of that, the Fort Sill leadership team had to sign off on this gr ant as well.”
Ratliff said the grant will be di vided into quarterly installments, and FISTA officials expect to receive between $500,000 and $750,000 per quarter.