LAWTON – Comanche County commissioners endorsed transportation projects on the eastern side of the county, heard weekly reports about the county jail and from Emergency Management, and huddled behind closed doors to discuss a lawsuit Monday morning.
The transportation jobs included a bank stabilization project and plans for a new bridge in District 1, along with a donation to pave streets in Stoneridge Addition.
Sparks Construction of Bixby was awarded a $20,000 contract July 27 for stabilization of the Armstrong Creek bank in commission District 1. The jobsite is on Bethel Road a short distance south of Northeast Cache Road, according to Terry Partee, road foreman for Commissioner Ryan John. The creek bank is eroding and needs to be shored up, Partee said.
Monday the commissioners approved a resolution that accorded tax-exempt status to Sparks Construction and its subcontractors “as an agent for the county for the purposes of purchasing materials and tangible personal property” to be used on the Armstrong Creek project.
The commission approved a master services agreement with Professional Engineering Consultants to provide design services on replacement of a bridge in District 1 over a tributary to Lake Ellsworth. The bridge is a 30-foot-long, single-span, multibeam bridge with a timber deck. Eventually it will be replaced with a concrete-beam bridge and approaching roadway, records show.
Also Monday the commissioners accepted a donation of $51,955 from Franklin Homes to finance chip-andseal street paving in Stoneridge Addition roughly two miles east of Elgin.
The Comanche County Detention Center inmate population continues to exceed its capacity.
The jail population is limited to a daily maximum of 240 inmates. “Instead, we have 325 to 350 inmates every day,” District 3 County Commissioner Josh Powers noted previously, and the overflow is farmed out to other county jails.
CCDC Administrator David Weber reported 200 inmates were housed in the jail last Friday, and the end-of-week head count was 298. Monday morning the count was 323, he said; of those, 225 were incarcerated at-facility, 85 were housed in Washita County, 10 in the Grady County Detention Center, and three in the Greer County jail.
Emergency Management Director Clint Langford reported last week’s log showed 81 responses, which included 42 medical calls, 12 outside fires, four smoke investigations, and three service calls.
The commissioners also convened behind closed doors for approximately 45 minutes in executive session to discuss a lawsuit filed Sept. 30, 2024, in Oklahoma City’s Western District federal court, in the death of 40-yearold Tshante GoingSnake Gonzalez.
She and her mother were arrested by Lawton Police Department detectives and booked into Lawton’s municipal jail on May 1. Two days later they were transferred to the Comanche County Detention Center, and Gonzalez was pronounced dead in Comanche County Memorial Hospital on May 8, 2023.
The commissioners took no official action after emerging from the executive session.