Lawton City Council will meet on Westwin plant, new CIP extension

City Council members will meet in special session Monday for an update on an air quality study associated with the Westwin plant, and to start public discussions about extending the 2019 Capital Improvements Program.

The session, to begin at 6 p.m. in the auditorium of Lawton City Hall, is the first of two meetings this week and the second special meeting in four days (two more special meetings are slated next week). The second session this week will be the council’s regular meeting, to begin at 2 p.m. Tuesday.

Monday’s discussion will begin with a presentation from Blackshare Environmental Solutions, a firm hired by the Lawton Economic Development Corporation (LEDC) as a third-party reviewer for air quality issues associated with the pilot plant for cobalt and nickel that Westwin Elements is building on Bishop Road at Southwest 112th Street. Multiple residents and members of tribal nations are concerned about the processes the Westwin plant will use to refine cobalt and nickel, and their potential impact on people’s health and the environment.

LEDC, which will make Monday’s presentation along with representatives from the Lawton Economic Development Authority, said Blackshare has more than 35 years of environmental engineering experience and has handled environmental compliance and permitting for more than 300 industrial facilities in Oklahoma.

According to the agenda commentary, Derek Blackshare has reviewed the documents Westwin submitted to the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality for an Applicability Determination, and will present his findings. Blackshare Environmental Solutions, headquartered in Tulsa, specializes in regulatory compliance and permitting, NEPA, environmental site assessments, site investigation and correction, safety and training.

In other business, council members are expected to begin public discussions about something city officials have been exploring for months: extending the 2019 Capital Improvements Program (CIP) to provide additional funding for community projects. The 2019 CIP itself is an extension, voted into place by residents to provide funding for new programs while ensuring that unfinished projects from previous CIPs also were completed.

That work is well underway, but council members have said new projects continue to crop up, projects that are equally important but ones the City of Lawton can’t do because it doesn’t have the money. Mayor Stan Booker supports the idea of a new CIP extension and has asked city attorneys to craft the ballot resolution necessary to allow city residents to vote on the proposal during an election already set for August. Under state law, the ballot proposition must be submitted to the Comanche County Election Board 45 days before the election.

In his agenda commentary, Booker cited the success of the existing CIP, which has allowed work in areas ranging from streets and other city infrastructure, to city buildings and facilities, to programs that support at-risk youth. He said extending the CIP could provide funding for projects already tentatively explored by the council, to include work on Museum of the Great Plains, Carnegie Library and the Lawton Animal Shelter, as well as continued streets improvements and plans to upgrade or add amenities to city parks.

City officials have not identified specific projects or said how long the existing sales tax would be extended.

When voters extended the existing 2.125 percent sales tax dedicated to the CIP in February 2020, it was projected to provide $100 million before ending on Dec. 31, 2034. Members of the Lawton Economic Development Corporation voted earlier this month to help fund promotion of the proposal, which they said they support.