Lawton City Council to consider design contract for Gondola dam repairs

Design plans for three projects will be before the City Council today, including repairs to Gondola dam in Medicine Park.

Council members will consider a city staff recommendation to amend an existing contract with Jacobs Engineering Group, adding $150,000 worth of work centered on the deteriorating Gondola dam. The contract will allow Jacobs to do the preliminary design report for rehabilitation work needed on the dam, which is located downstream of the Lake Lawtonka dam on Medicine Creek in Medicine Park. City officials say the dam is at least 100 years old, meaning there is no “as built” information, maintenance records or inspection records.

The dam creates a small pool just downstream from the Lawtonka dam and its overflow spillway is damaged.

Jacobs work will include what city officials call a high level condition summary of the dam, feasibility assessment for rehabilitation of the structure or replacement at the same location, concept development for the recommended option, and cost estimates. City officials said those details will help them decide whether to retrofit the dam or replace it.

City officials say there is $2.5 million in money available from state allocation of American Rescue Plan Act funding, $2 million in partnership with the Fish & Wildlife Department, and $500,000 in partnership with the Lawton Fort Sill Chamber of Commerce. Initial cost estimates on the work range from $2.5 million to $2.8 million.

Council members also will be looking at continuing a design contract with Garver LLC, amending its existing contract to include continuation of infrastructure upgrades that will benefit the industrial property in southwest Lawton that will house the Westwin Elements cobalt/nickel pilot plant.

The proposal, included on the council’s consent agenda (routine items normally approved without discussion), would amend Garver’s contract to allow design work for a 12-inch waterline loop, a sewer lift station and force main. The contracted work is not to exceed $677,150, by contract terms.

Garver already designed what is designated Phase I of the waterline project, installation of 7,500 feet of 20-inch main from West Lee Boulevard south along Southwest 97th Street, then west on Coombs Road three-quarters of a mile to the Westwin site. Phase II would install 18,000 feet of pipe west past Southwest 112th Street, then north to West Lee Boulevard before looping back on Lee Boulevard to Goodyear Boulevard/Southwest 97th Street. M&T Septic & Backhoe already is working on the 20-inch main.

Design work also will include a new lift station with pumps and onsite backup generator, with a maximum capacity of 2.5 million gallons a day, and 10,000 feet of new force main to tie into the existing inceptor at West Lee Boulevard and Goodyear Boulevard.

The work is among the infrastructure upgrades the City of Lawton promised as part of an economic development package for Westwin Elements.

In other business, the council will finalize a $48,700 contract with C.H. Guernsey & Company, for initial schematic designs for the amphitheater and boardwalk planned in Elmer Thomas Park. The amphitheater is to be adjacent to the Playground in the Park area and feature a covered stage area. The boardwalk will run along the south shore of nearby Lake Helen.

Both projects were recommended in the master plan developed last year by Halff Associates and have been cited by council members as upgrades they support to expand recreational opportunities in the park.