City to offer 4-month extension to School House Slough tenants
LAWTON – Concessionaire Kent Waller’s lease for School House Slough is about to expire, and Lawton City Council members want to know how the city plans to proceed after the lease ends.
City officials discussed the situation with the council on Nov. 15, but the council took no action.
Waller currently holds the concessionaire lease for School House Slough, a concession area on the east shore of Lake Lawtonka. Earlier this year, he notified city officials that he would not renew his lease, which is set to expire Dec. 31, for another year.
More than 200 tenants hold leases with School House Slough Inc. for items such as docks, campers, dry stalls and wet stalls. They currently pay rent to School House Slough Inc., but those leases are due to expire when Waller’s lease ends.
The tenants need more information about the situation, Councilman Sean Fortenbaugh said during the Nov. 15 meeting.
“People are calling me over and over again, saying, ‘We don’t know what’s going on. We don’t know who to pay. We do know that the current contractor is leaving December 31,’” he said. “We’re really getting close to the wire on this thing, and it just looks like a disaster’s coming.”
Deputy City Manager Dewayne Burk said the Lakes Division is compiling a list of current leases, which will help city officials identify the tenants and determine how much they are paying in rent. Burk noted that staffers are putting that information in a spreadsheet so the city can send written notices to each tenant, alerting them to the situation and offering them a four-month lease extension.
If city officials are still working on a solution by the time the original extension ends, leases will be extended on a month-by-month basis until officials make a final decision.
City officials are currently waiting on the consulting firm Halff Associates to finish the master plan for Lakes Lawtonka and Ellsworth, which will provide some guidance for moving forward, Dewayne Burk said.
“Once we get the master plan completed, we bring that back to council,” he said. “The council decides on what direction they want staff to go, whether or not it’s go out for another lease or for us to take it over and run the facility ourselves. Once we get through that, then we can identify what the cost of the leases will be going forward or if there’s any changes that you’d like to make.”
Managing the general store
Council members wanted to know who will run the School House Slough general store once Waller’s lease expires.
The city needs to start seeking bids for the concession lease as soon as possible, because the city is not prepared to manage the general store, Councilman Jay Burk said.
He said whatever officials decide, they should make sure that the person who takes over the lease can generate revenue for the city.
“I think we think of that, as a council, as what’s best for us, what’s best for the citizens,” he said. “Because that’s who pays for this year-round if it’s not done right.”
Dewayne Burk said Waller has indicated that he is willing to extend his lease on a month-by-month basis, but it was not clear whether that applied only to the general store or to the entire operation. He added that city staff is prepared to start collecting rent payments from tenants after Dec. 31.
“That’s not going to be that difficult for us to do,” Dewayne Burk said. “The store is another story.”
He said Halff Associates has recommended consulting an outside expert who could coach the Lakes Division through the process of running the concession area.
Mayor Stan Booker said he would be willing to have Waller continue as concessionaire on a month-by-month basis, assuming the city can work something out with Waller.
Booker also said he did think the city should take over operations at the general store.
“I spent 25 years in the convenience store business,” he said. “As a citizen of Lawton, I don’t want the City of Lawton to go into the convenience store business.”
Councilman Randy Warren said the Lakes Division must take a different approach to managing Lakes Lawtonka, which provides a recreational area that could eventually pay for its itself, as of Jan. 1.
He said he thought the city should find someone to act as concessionaire – either Waller or another person – until the city decides what to do with the convenience store.
“Because it’s not just School House Slough,” Warren said. “It’s School House Slough. It’s Robinson’s Landing. It’s the facilities at (Lake) Ellsworth.
“We’re going to get a comprehensive plan, and we need to be ready to talk to the citizens. And the citizens are going to have to invest money.”