LAWTON – Lawton Industrial Development Authority will issue $30 million in debt to finance some or all of four major capital improvement projects.
Those include:
•widening West Gore Boulevard between 67th and 82nd streets (estimated cost: $5.3 million);
• rebuilding Goodyear Boulevard from Lee Boulevard to Cache Road (estimated cost: $9.2 million);
• phase 1 of the McMahon Auditorium addition and renovation (estimated cost: $8 million);
• construction of cells 6 and 7 at the sanitary landfill (estimated cost: $7.5 million).
“This will be structured as a sales tax revenue note,” City Hall spokesperson Caitlin Gatlin said. LIDA will incur the debt and the city will earmark sales tax revenue to make the payments. The loan is scheduled to be retired on June 30, 2036, Gatlin said.
A supplemental agreement signed between the City Council and the Department of Transportation last week reflected an increase of approximately $2 million in the Gore Boulevard project cost since its original approval in August 2018.
The agreement shows the bill for the project is now estimated at $13,782,349. Federal STP funds will be capped at $8.626 million and the City of Lawton will be responsible for $5.155 million. Additionally, the city “shall provide 100% of any federally non-participating costs,” which are estimated at $622,898.
City Engineer Joseph Painter said the Oklahoma Department of Transportation told him they “hope to start” work on widening Gore Boulevard “by the end of April.”
Phase I of the Goodyear Boulevard overhaul will span approximately 1.3 miles, from the railroad crossing just north of SW Neal Boulevard and extending north to Cache Road. The City Council approved the plans and specifications for that job on March 12 and authorized city staff to advertise the project for bids.
The City Council voted unanimously last month to start the bidding process on renovation of the McMahon Auditorium.
The council also approved plans for expanding the sanitary landfill and authorizing city staff to advertise for bids on that project.
The City of Lawton owns 760 acres for solid waste disposal, Gatlin told Southwest Ledger last November. The landfill currently occupies 243 of those acres and the remainder are for expansion, she said.
Cells 6 and 7 will be individual waste-holding units inside the overall landfill, and each cell will encompass approximately 9.6 acres, Gatlin said. First, though, the city must secure approval from the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality. Each cell will have a 2-foot compacted clay liner and covered with a 60 millimeter HDPE geomembrane and 250 millimeter geocomposite liner, then covered with a minimum of 1 to 2 feet of protective cover, usually sand.
“With the addition of two cells, we will be required to perform additional semiannual groundwater monitoring of wells located on the east and west sides of the new cells,” Gatlin said. The ODEQ requires this to be performed twice a year “to ensure there is no leaching into the groundwater systems that flow below the surface of the landfill,” she said.