LAWTON – City officials want to have the proposed Aquatic Center in Elmer Thomas Park constructed in time for the 2025 Freedom Festival. However, that will require more money than City Hall has on hand now.
Lawton City Council approved plans and specifications for the aquatic center on May 28 and authorized city staff to advertise for bids. The lone bidder was Miller-Tippens Construction of Oklahoma City, which submitted a base bid with multiple options. The base bid includes features such as a lap pool, group slide, and diving boards.
The aquatic center is “something we need for Lawton to grow and be progressive,” Ward 4 Councilman George Gill said during an interview recently with the city’s Communications and Marketing Department.
However, what the architect presented “was quite a bit out of the budget,” Gill said.
“We don’t want to cut any corners, but there are areas where we can make cuts and save some money” in the project, he said.
For example, “We don’t need state-ofthe- art heating and air conditioning for the restrooms, where patrons change into their suits to go swimming, come back, shower and leave. A few fans are all you need in a locker room,” Gill said. “We don’t have to build the Taj Mahal.”
During its July 23 meeting, the City Council was informed by Deputy City Manager Dewayne Burk that after a meeting between city staff and the architect, the air conditioning system was deleted from the bathhouse plans.
That resulted in a savings of “about $900,000” and reduced the total project cost to approximately $19 million, Burk said.
“We have current CIP dollars but not enough to do the whole project,” he said.
A parking lot for the aquatic center will be built under a separate contract, and city crews will perform some of the drainage work on the aquatic center, Gill told Southwest Ledger.
Unbudgeted revenue from PROPEL 2019 has accumulated but can’t be tapped until after the Aug. 27 election on the PROPEL 2040 sales tax extension, Mayor Stan Booker said.
The City Council voted July 23 to award the aquatic center contract to Miller-Tippens subject to availability of necessary funding. “We need to get the project started in August” if the facility is to be ready to open by late June next year for the Freedom Festival, Gill said.
PROPEL 2040 is a proposed six-year extension of PROPEL 2019, a 15-year capital improvements levy that Lawton voters approved on Feb. 11, 2020, and is due to expire on New Year’s Eve 2034. PROPEL 2040 would extend the expiration date to Dec. 31, 2040.
PROPEL 2040 would earmark a penny of the 2.125% Capital Improvements Program sales tax for three specific areas: one-half cent for water and sewer infrastructure, one-quarter cent for parks, and a quarter- cent for streets and bridges. “These facilities have been ignored for decades,” the mayor said.
That 1-cent excise tax would be “permanent for an indefinite period” unless Lawton voters repealed it.