Rather than devote $2.2 million to repair 328 city vehicles that sustained cosmetic damage during a storm that pummeled Lawton last summer, City Hall will instead spend most of that money on other items and will be reimbursed $1.65 million by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The mid-June 2023 storm hammered Lawton with strong straight-line winds, windblown debris, and hail caused a little more than $2.2 million in damage to 328 city vehicles, records show. The city spent $97,336 to repair broken glass, windshields and mirrors on the vehicles; the remaining $2.1 million in damage was body dents from hail.
Because the vehicles don’t have insurance coverage for hail damage, the cost of repairing the hail damage “is close to or exceeds the value of some of the vehicles,” and the minor hail damage “does not affect the vehicles’ performance or structural integrity,” wrote Cynthia Williams, the city’s internal auditor and grants coordinator.
She asked for permission to invest the repair money from the Replacement Equipment and Vehicle Review Board Rolling Stock Fund into another capital purchase “rather than repair the cosmetic damages.”
FEMA will allow 75% of the claimed damage expenses “to be deferred to an alternative procedures project,” Williams said.
City staff recommended spending $2,160,256 to buy a mobile command unit ($1,466,882), an animal rescue trailer ($62,000), and a landfill “crawler” dozer ($631,374) as a qualifying alternative.
FEMA will write the city a check for $1,651,631 after the new items are purchased, Williams said.
The City Council approved the plan unanimously.
The June 2023 hailstorm also caused “significant damage” to the roof at Central Plaza, City Manager John Ratliff noted. The City of Lawton and the Oklahoma Municipal Assurance Group have reached a settlement for the roof damage, he informed the City Council.
After a change order, BBMK Contracting LLC doing business as Blue Team Roofing billed the city $14,048,027 on Sept. 3 for repairing Central Plaza’s roof.
The City has received $9,388,426 in insurance proceeds so far and will get another $4,456,402 after the repair project is finished, for a total of $13,844,828 from OMAG, city records show.
The City will pay a $50,000 deductible and FISTA will pay the balance due, Ratliff told Southwest Ledger.