The City of Chickasha is spending, and will continue to spend, a lot of money on capital improvements to the town’s infrastructure, city officials said recently.
For example, $876,000 was spent this year alone on sewer projects, City Manager Jim Crosby said.
A repair project at Fourth Street and Colorado Avenue that initially focused on replacement of a sanitary sewer main that failed “and has been a continuous operational and maintenance problem,” but evolved into repairs to two sewer lines and the installation of four manholes, Crosby said. The bill from Matthews Trenching Co. came to $621,000 but the invoice had not yet been paid as of June 16, he said.
The Chickasha Municipal Authority on June 16 approved an emergency repair project on a broken sanitary sewer line extension on Illinois Avenue that is expected to cost “probably about $60,000,” Crosby said.
Chickasha resident Torry Wise commented that the city budget for Fiscal Year 2026, which the City Council endorsed on June 16, includes $504,500 for drainage improvements and $734,307 for street improvements, and implied that is not enough funding for either of those two issues.
However, Crosby indicated those are preliminary estimates and the city expects to spend more in both areas.
He noted that the city spent almost $2 million to resolve several drainage issues and is awaiting a $1.98 million federal grant in reimbursement; the funds have already been approved but it may be late July or early August before they arrive, city officials said.
Chickasha’s application for a $20 million BRIC (Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities) grant for drainage improvements was a casualty of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s cancellation of the program, Mayor Zach Grayson told Southwest Ledger. Those funds have instead been distributed to various other programs, and the City of Chickasha will apply for each every one of those that it knows about, he said.
“We’re always working on drainage,” Crosby said.
“I think you are going to see a lot of action this year” on improvements to Chickasha’s streets, Mayor Zach Grayson said. “I think our citizens will be pleased in the very near future with what we’re going to do with our streets in the next nine months or so,” echoed Councilman John Smith.
For example, Grand Avenue is scheduled to be widened between Fourth Street and First Street at a cost of “probably half a million dollars,” Crosby said.
The city expects to solicit bids this fall on repairs to the Lake Chickasha dam “and do the work in the winter,” Crosby said earlier this year. The City of Chickasha intends to raise the lake level by 10 feet in order to use the reservoir as an additional water source, he announced last December.
In a related matter, the city anticipates spending $4 million to $6 million in Fiscal Year 2026, which starts July 1, on the new water treatment plant, Crosby said.
It probably will be December 2025 or January 2026 before construction begins, he predicted, because the city must advertise the project for six weeks, the contractor must be selected, requisite documents must be signed, the contractor must secure bonding, and it will take some time for the contractor to move equipment to the job site.
Construction will take an estimated two years to complete, officials said.
The new treatment plant will cost an estimated $72 million or more and will be financed with the proceeds from a sales tax of 1.25% that Chickasha voters approved in a special election on Aug. 8, 2023.
The Erwin Family Waterworks will be built on three parcels totaling 70 acres west of the city’s aged water treatment plant, Crosby said.
The Chickasha Municipal Authority will lease the land for a maximum of 50 years or until the death of Evie Erwin, “whichever is earlier,” the lease agreement provides. After her passing the land will be gifted to the city, Crosby said.
Chickasha’s FY 2026 budget begins July 1, 2025, with a projected balance of $55.8 million and ends on June 30, 2026, with a projected balance of $43.1 million.
The General Fund, which underwrites dayto- day municipal operations, will begin with a $5.5 million balance and end next year with a projected balance of $4.7 million.
The Chickasha Municipal Authority will start FY26 with a projected balance of $20.58 million and end the year with a balance forecast of $16.12 million.
The 2024 Capital Improvements Program is expected to start and end FY26 with $3.9 million. The $5.8 million in revenues predicted to be generated during those 12 months apparently will be spent entirely on expenses arising from construction of the new water plant.