Council to decide on contractor for auditorium asbestos removal

Two items under consideration at today’s City Council meeting will continue upgrades and changes in the area in and around Elmer Thomas Park.

Council members are being asked to approve the use of the state’s Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity Program to hire a contractor to remove asbestos discovered during updates at McMahon Auditorium.

The city is continuing a series of modernization projects for the historic auditorium, and contractors have identified asbestos in the main lobby area. Approval of today’s item would hire Tec-An Inc. for $177,350 to remove and dispose of 5,400 square feet of plaster ceilings within the first and second floor lobby areas inside the auditorium, as well as the sheetrock that covered that ceiling. Work is expected to take seven to eight weeks, the Oklahoma City firm estimated.

Interim City Engineer Mike Jones said if the council approves the removal, the next step in the project would be to replace the ceiling, and city administrators have recommended asking construction manager CDBL to provide a quote on the ceiling work. Those details are to be presented at today’s council meeting, with a change order for ceiling replacement to be presented at a subsequent council meeting, city officials said.

McMahon Auditorium is closed to the public through April, as contractors continue work that is upgrading the outside and inside of the 1955-era facility, including installation of a new HVAC system, as well as plans to add an elevator to the balcony area, upgrading bathrooms, and installing a new fire suppression system.

Council members also are being asked to approve a land swap with Lawton Public Schools, one that will change the look of the area immediately west of the auditorium.

The Lawton Board of Education already has agreed to a land swap with the City of Lawton, one that will give the school district 1.49 acres at Northwest 6th Street and Northwest Ferris Avenue in exchange for giving the City of Lawton 1.68 acres of school land at Southwest 17th Street and West Lee Boulevard.

LPS is requesting its land in a 45-foot-wide strip the length of Northwest 6th Street, an area that runs along the eastern boundary of its Lawton High School and Shoemaker Education Center complex, between those facilities and the roadway. That land will allow Lawton High to add bleachers on the east side of its athletic field, under a plan to expand the use of that sports complex.

In exchange, the City of Lawton will receive more land for what had been a Lawton Fire Department training complex in the old fire station on Southwest 17th Street at West Lee Boulevard. Council members already have agreed to a plan from city staff to convert that now-vacant building into a new animal welfare complex, giving animal welfare an easier-to-find — and higher profile — site for its animal adoption center. That center could be expanded in the future using land to the north and west, city officials have said.