CHICKASHA — The City of Chickasha will buy two new “zero turn” commercial mowers for the Parks & Recreation Department.
The City Council approved the purchase of the John Deere Z960M ZTrak mowers at a cost of no more than $22,343. The machines will be acquired with municipal funds through a state contract, records reflect.
Parks & Recreation Director Spencer Winzenried said the new units will replace two worn-out mowers that are being cannibalized for parts. With the new acquisitions the department will have six working mowers, he said.
Chickasha has nine park facilities, including Lake Chickasha. The parks encompass 197 acres, not including the lake; with the lake the total is 4,373 acres, Winzenried said. Land around the lake is mowed by both the Public Works Department and Parks & Recreation.
During its Jan. 3 meeting the city council also approved a Land Development Code that adopts new land regulations, procedures and penalties and “creates one place for all municipal development ordinances.”
One major change is a “zero new runoff policy,” which means a development cannot allow water to flow off the property any faster than it does now. “This will protect new development and our current property owners,” Community Development Director Rachel Bernish wrote in a memo to the council.
“It is timely for the City of Chickasha to take their drainage seriously and take steps to protect what we have and encourage new development in a responsible way,” Bernish added. “This is one small step to getting better with drainage for the future of the city.”
Drainage facilities “shall be designed to provide a sufficient stormwater drainage system for the conveyance of stormwater runoff received from upstream and from the subject property, with due allowance having been made for continued conveyance of stormwater runoff from adjacent properties as the drainage basin develops,” decrees a General Drainage Policy that the city council also approved Jan. 3.
The Land Development Code implements new standard drawings and design specifications for engineers so they will “know upfront what the requirements will be” for sanitary sewers, water lines and fire hydrants.
Multiple city departments “worked on this project for about a year,” Bernish said.
In another matter, the city council voted 7-0 to deny a vehicle damage claim.
A Chickasha resident submitted a claim for alleged damage to a 20-year-old Kia Sedona that occurred on Nov. 22 as she was driving home from work early that morning. “I hit the manhole” at Fifth and Missouri “and my vehicle jerked hard to the left.” The next day “the vehicle pulled to the left really bad and my tire shakes.”
The city submitted the claim to its insurer, the Oklahoma Municipal Assurance Group, which investigated the matter.
OMAG Claims Adjuster Leslie Noriega found no fault on the city’s part and recommended denial of the claim. “A municipality may be liable only if it had prior notice of a defect or problem and failed to take appropriate remedial action within a reasonable time before the damage occurred,” Noriega wrote. The City of Chickasha “had no notice of this issue prior to your incident.”