LAWTON – Comanche County is facing a Dec. 31 deadline to design the replacement for the county-owned Big Rock radio transmission tower and seek construction bids.
The Comanche County Facilities Authority, which is made up of the three Comanche County commissioners, voted 3-0 Aug. 26 to approve a contract for the project with the Oklahoma City-based firm Tradesman Architectural Studios. The company will provide architectural and engineering services for the new tower, located near Medicine Park, at a cost of $32,450.
The board approved the contract pending a review by the county’s legal adviser, on the assumption that the adviser would not recommend any changes to the document.
The county’s Office of Emergency Management is planning to rebuild the Big Rock tower, which showed signs of weakness at its last engineering inspection, with a new tower that will be roughly the same size. However, the new tower will be built with solid rods instead of tubes, which will boost its structural stability.
Emergency Management will use part of its $2.5 million American Rescue Plan Act grant to finance the project. The office has already spent about $1.7 million of the grant funds to purchase mobile and portable radios, along with related equipment.
‘A very short timeline’ Emergency Management officials submitted the proposed project to David Floyd, the attorney who advises the county on ARPA-funded projects, said Emergency Management Director Clint Langford. He added that Floyd has said the project qualified for ARPA funding, but the authority’s legal adviser has not finished reviewing the Tradesman contract yet.
“To be fair to her (the authority’s legal adviser), it didn’t go until this week,” Langford said. “We just got it. But we were behind the eight ball when we started this project to begin with, so we knew we were going to be on a very short timeline.”
Federal law requires local units of government that have received ARPA funds to allocate the money by Dec. 31 of this year and finish spending the funds by the end of 2026. That means Emergency Management has only until Dec. 31 to design the new radio transmission tower and put it out for construction bids.
County Clerk Carrie Tubbs said county officials are feeling pressure to approve ARPA-related projects before the deadline.
“Just know that one little hiccup can delay and possibly put your ARPA projects off the list,” she said. “You can’t move that forward, but I’m just telling you if anybody else has any other ARPA expenditures, it’s getting critical.”