Lawton City Council to consider election to fund road, bridge work

Residents may be voting on more than City Council candidates in September.

Council members will look at a proposal today to call an election that would have citywide implications: issuing $60 million worth of general obligation (GO) bonds — to be repaid via ad valorem revenue — to address city streets, bridges and associated infrastructure. That citywide election would be in addition to elections already planned in three council wards: selecting representatives for the Wards 6, 7 and 8 seats.

Council members and Mayor Stan Booker touched on the issue of an ad valorem election earlier this month as they considered the idea of augmenting the existing Ad Valorem Road Improvement Program by extending that program to focus even more funding on deteriorating streets. The June 13 discussion also had some bridges in mind: two over Wolf Creek on South 11th Street, and bridges for eastbound and westbound Cache Road over Wolf Creek, near Northwest 47th Street. While city officials had been weighing the idea for weeks, the issue came to a head at that meeting when city staff said the $6.73 million in bridge work must be a priority because of the effect they are having.

The South 11th Street bridges must be replaced and because they are so badly deteriorated, city trash trucks no longer use them to access the city landfill. While the Cache Road bridges can be repaired, they are so weight-limited fire trucks can’t cross them.

While those bridges must be addressed, there is no funding, council members said. Booker said taking the funding from the existing Ad Valorem and Capital Improvements programs would mean there isn’t enough money to focus on street projects promised to voters when they passed the Ad Valorem program in 2017.

The solution: extend a program to provide more funding, “without raising taxes,” Booker said.

The ballot proposition council members will consider today would allow the City of Lawton to issue $60 million in GO bonds, in one or more series, to fund “construction, reconstruction, improvements or repairs” to city streets and bridges, to include right of way acquisition and work associated with city utilities under and adjacent to such streets and bridges. The 25-year bonds would be repaid via ad valorem taxes assessed on city property owners.

Council members must make a decision soon. In order to qualify for the Sept. 12 municipal election already set, the ballot proposition must be submitted to the election board by July 13.

Voters in Wards 6, 7 and 8 already will go to the polls that day to vote on new three-year terms for their City Council representatives, for a term that begins Jan. 8. But Ward 6 residents actually will vote on two ballots: one for the new term; the second for someone to complete the unexpired term of former Councilman Sean Fortenbaugh. Council members selected Robert Weger in May to immediately fill that seat, but city charter specifies residents themselves must select the candidate to complete an unexpired term. Weger will serve until voters make that choice; the winner of that election will serve until the new council term begins Jan. 8.