LAWTON – Lawton has hired a firm to conduct a zero-emission bus analysis and rollout plan for the city’s public transportation system.
The Lawton Metropolitan Planning Organization Transportation Policy Board recently approved a contract with the planning and design firm Kimley-Horn to conduct the study.
The city received five proposals from firms interested in conducting the study, said Janet Smith, director of city planning.
“I wanted you all to know that we did review all of the proposals, and we did decide that Kimley-Horn’s was the best of all of them,” she said. “We felt it was thorough, and so the board agreed for us to go ahead and start negotiating toward that, which we have done.”
Smith said the study will cost $130,000 over two years.
“What we would like to do is have this go over two fiscal years, so we will have a portion of funding that occurs this year before June 15,” she said. “We have worked with Kimley-Horn to be sure that they could bill us for services, obviously, between $50 (thousand) and $70,000, because we don’t want to lose the funding.”
Smith said the city will earmark additional funds for the study in the next fiscal year.
The federal government, which helps pay for Lawton’s public transportation system, has asked the city to make the transition to a zero-emission system within the next two decades.