Funding for new aquatics center will depend on CIP Extension decision

City Council members want to continue with plans to build an aquatics center, but the project will depend on a funding source to be decided by city voters in August.

The council voted unanimously Tuesday to approve a contract with Miller-Tippens Construction Company to build the aquatics center in Elmer Thomas Park. But that contract — to include the base bid and the lazy river alternate — is contingent upon funding from PROPEL 2040, the Capital Improvements Program (CIP) Extension proposal that is going to voters Aug. 27.

Ward 4 Councilman George Gill said while there is funding in the 2019 CIP, it is not enough to cover the cost of what is projected to be a $19.1 million construction project. That would include the cost of building a pool with diving boards and slide, support buildings and the lazy river, a project that would be placed near Elmer Thomas Park’s Playground in the Park and splash park.

Waiting for a decision from city voters causes another problem: the complex won’t be done by Memorial Day 2025. Gill said the more probable date is late June, with city staff discussing plans to open the complex at the 2025 Freedom Fest, typically held the weekend before the Fourth of July.

Gill said if voters approved the CIP Extension Aug. 27, funding wouldn’t be available for the project until October, which is when the contract can be formally awarded and construction launched.

Should voters reject the CIP Extension, city staff is working on another plan to provide funding, Deputy City Manager Dewayne Burk said. Council members did not say what their option would be.

Miller-Tippens has said that meeting the May 2025 construction completion date was dependent upon the contract being awarded this month so construction could begin in early August.

City staff, contractors and engineers already have resolved one problem that would have delayed the project: bringing down construction costs. Project Manager Scott Vaughn said the group analysis identified three changes that would cut costs by $900,000. That includes changing the concessions stand from masonry construction to wood, and removing air conditioning from the bathhouse (the building that would house restrooms and changing rooms).

The largest savings is taking concrete work for the parking lot and sidewalk out of the contract, allowing the City of Lawton to instead do that work “at another time,” Vaughn said.

Vaughn said potential savings also might be possible by changing the soil treatment under the complex, but that possibility won’t be known until construction begins.

Burk said city administrators were recommending awarding the contract, saying that full funding would be available from PROPEL 2040.

“It is one of the projects in the CIP Extension,” Burk said, adding supporters should make that fact known to the public during discussions of the proposal.

Some council members were reluctant to award the contract earlier this month because the Miller-Tippens bid was $2 million more than the engineering estimate. The firm — which submitted the lone bid — set $14.6 million for the base bid and $5.3 million for the lazy river, compared to the engineering estimate of $12.24 million for the base and $5.2 million for the lazy river. Value engineering lowered what had been about $19.9 million to $19.1 million, city officials indicated.

Council members have said the aquatics complex is intended to give city youth a better facility for water recreation and also intend that it replace the deteriorating municipal swimming pool in south Lawton’s Mattie Beal Park.

Consulting engineer Guernsey had recommended the council award the contract to Miller-Tippens rather than rebidding the project, saying there is no guarantee more firms would submit bids or that Miller-Tippens would submit a new bid.