Lawton’s water and sewer charges are expected to produce $34 million during Fiscal Year 2025, which ends June 30. A study performed by Freese & Nichols reported that water and sewer expenditures in FY24 were $27 million.
However, revenues transferred from water and sewer system operations and maintenance to the city’s General Fund to finance myriad other expenses “represent about onethird of total expenditures,” F&N calculated. “For every dollar” collected for water and sewer service but diverted to the General Fund, “critical maintenance is deferred,” F&N representative Kara Shuror told the City Council.
“About 30 years ago I asked why we don’t run the Water Authority like a business,” Councilman Randy Warren related. “I was told, ‘Because we don’t want to raise the rates.’” As a direct consequence, he said, “Now we have a huge problem and we have to find a solution.”
“We have been taking money from what should be invested in water and sewer operations and maintenance, and instead transferring it to the General Fund,” Mayor Stan Booker said.
“Why were those water funds put into the General Fund to begin with?” Councilman Bob Weger asked.
“They have been for a long time,” Public Utilities Director Rusty Whisenhunt replied.
“Options need to be explored,” Councilman Allan Hampton said. For example, “Perhaps a water bill surcharge could be tacked on for a couple of years” and then repealed.
“We could reduce transfers or raise rates,” Whisenhunt said.
The council increased Lawton’s utility bills – water, sewer, and solid waste collection/ disposal – by 15% in Fiscal Year 2023.
Reducing the transfers to the General Fund without replacing those revenues “would have a substantial impact on city services,” City Manager John Ratliff told Southwest Ledger.
“We have put millions of dollars into infrastructure,” Booker noted.
The City of Lawton is spending several hundred million dollars to rehab water and sewer lines throughout town.
According to Whisenhunt, 30 miles of sewer lines are under construction, 15 miles of new lines are in the design phase, and a sewage lift station will be added to the wastewater collection system.
He also said 54 miles of water lines are under construction, 15 miles are “ready to award” for construction, and another 20 miles are in the design phase.
Just last week the council approved a change order on a nearly $16 million contract to replace approximately 15,000 linear feet (nearly three miles) of failing, half-century- old water mains on Cache Road from west of Northwest 40th Street to east of Fort Sill Boulevard.
The City Council acknowledged receipt of F&N’s report on water and sewer rates and will continue exploring the issue.
Lawton has 28,800 active water and sewer connections, records show.
The city’s wastewater system is comprised of 10 lift stations, a sewage treatment plant with a treatment capacity of 18 million gallons per day (mgd), and 500 miles of wastewater collection mains. Lawton is spending approximately $100 million to renovate its wastewater treatment plant, which went into service in 1977.
The city’s water distribution system includes two water treatment plants with a total production capacity of 50 mgd of purified water, three pump stations, six elevated storage tanks, and a network of 700 miles of water lines.
The council on Feb. 25 authorized applications to the Environmental Protection Agency for a pair of Federal Communities Grants totaling $5,125,000 for construction of a sludge handling facility at the Southeast Water Treatment Plant.