Lawton City Council members want Westwin pilot plant documentation completed quickly

City Council members want the legal documentation on the Westwin Elements pilot plant completed as quickly as possible.

Council members addressed the issue Tuesday, before saying they couldn’t take any action on a proposed resolution for a new redevelopment agreement because all related documentation hasn’t been completed. Tuesday’s agenda was supposed to include a resolution accepting an “amended and restated” redevelopment agreement with the company that has proposed building a pilot plant in southwest Lawton to refine nickel and cobalt. That pilot plant is to be the forerunner of a full-scale refinery that potentially will be built nearby, Westwin Elements officials say.

The City Council, Lawton Economic Development Authority (LEDA) and Comanche County Industrial Development Authority (CCIDA) were all slated to meet Tuesday to approve the resolution that set that new redevelopment agreement into place, as well as financial documentation that would allow LEDA to provide the $3 million local incentive package that Lawton officials have pledged for the pilot plant.

Those meetings didn’t occur because attorneys have not completed their work. Acting City Attorney Tim Wilson said he, Westwin legal counsel Kelli Masters and attorneys with the Center for Economic Development Law have been meeting on the issue, but aren’t quite ready to sign off on things yet.

“Attorneys have been working hard on this,” Wilson said, explaining they still are working through legal issues to ensure all details “are all smoothed out.”

Wilson said those documents were supposed to be ready Tuesday, but were not, which is why the LEDA and CCIDA chairmen opted to cancel their meetings. Wilson said he concurred with the decision because there still are details he wants finalized, and members of the two bodies want all documents finalized before their members vote on them. He said the issues center on things such as insurance, annexation topics and ensuring LEDA’s lien is protected.

“It’s the legal stuff,” Wilson said.

Council members concurred with the decision.

“We want to make it right the first time,” said Ward 8 Councilman/Mayor Pro Tem Randy Warren.

But, Warren and other council members also wanted staff to know they want the details worked out as soon as possible, so the boards could meet and vote on the redevelopment agreement. City Manager John Ratliff said the council’s verbal directive is “understood.”

Ward 4 Councilman George Gill, noting the unresolved issues are not related to safety, said he and others appreciated the issues that were discussed at Monday’s town hall meeting, the second one Westwin and city officials have held to address residential concerns and questions. Gill said he wanted to see another town hall meeting held, adding council members must look at the issue objectively to make the best decision.

Warren said he would like to see a series of town hall meetings, perhaps every month or so, to address issues as the the construction project progresses “so everybody can understand.” He said that understanding is crucial.

“This has the ability to change the face of Lawton,” he said, of the refinery project.

“Literally,” said one audience member who is a critic of the Westwin project.

Becky Lekey said she has environmental concerns about the project, to include questions about the nickel carbonyl that will be produced during the refinery project but also waste materials from that process. Her other questions center on maintenance and cleaning within the refinery complex, the role that Lawton native T.W. Shannon is playing in the project (Shannon said Monday he is chairman of Westwin’s advisory committee) and monitoring that will be done inside and outside the refinery complex.

“We need monitoring, monitoring, monitoring,” Lekey said.