LAWTON – Medical insurance, bridge beams and a water line leak were topics addressed recently by the Comanche County commissioners.
Comanche County received a rebate of $37,537 on its workers’ compensation insurance from the Association of County Commissioners of Oklahoma (ACCO) Self-Insured Fund, for the county’s notable performance during the 2017-18 policy year. The Comanche County Fairgrounds received a rebate of $1,082 from ACCO for the same reason.
The refund constituted almost 9% of the $418,231 Comanche County paid for workers’ compensation insurance coverage in Fiscal Year 2018. That included $340,067 for the county and $78,164 for the Facilities Authority, the County Clerk’s office reported.
Comanche County paid ACCO $387,362 for workers’ comp insurance for the current FY 2021, including $303,910 for the county and $83,452 for the Facilities Authority, ledgers reflect.
Richard Pool, executive director of the Fairgrounds, didn’t know “off the top of my head” Wednesday what he paid for workers’ comp coverage in FY 2017-18, but did recall that the Fairgrounds had no injury claims last year.
The Oklahoma Department of Transportation is giving Comanche County 18 surplus steel beams from a bridge replacement project in Grady County. District 1 Commissioner Gail Turner said the 40-foot-long beams are scheduled to be delivered next Monday.
“This will save us a lot of money,” Turner told his fellow commissioners. The beams are worth “probably about $1,000 apiece,” he told the Ledger.
“We reuse these beams on our rural bridge projects,” Turner said. “We’ve built two or three bridges with beams we’ve gotten from ODOT.”
The county also saved several thousand dollars on a water line repair project.
A 6-inch-diameter water main on the north side of the Comanche County Regional Juvenile Detention Center in Lawton, at SW 17th Street and G Avenue, began to leak recently.
After the City of Lawton said it was a private line and Comanche County’s responsibility, the county reached an agreement with a contractor to repair the leak at an estimated cost of $10,000.
However, Brenda Myers, director of the Juvenile Bureau, reported that after several more visits from the City of Lawton it was determined that the water main is the city’s responsibility and they will make the repairs.
“It’s a service line for Ahlschlager Park that’s in poor condition,” said Tiffany Vrska, spokesperson for the City of Lawton. “We are going to have to bore a new line under G Avenue. It will probably be the first part of next week when we can get to it,” she said Wednesday.