Atoka City Council Meeting – New City Manager And Water Plant
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The Atoka City Council held their bimonthly meeting on Monday, August 17, 2020, at 6:00 p.m.
In attendance for the meeting were: Mayor Brian Cathey, Vice-Mayor Diane McGee, Councilmembers Erica Pogue and Pat Turner, City Manager Danny Delay, City Clerk Joye Angel, Deputy Clerk Phyllis Bates, City Treasurer Kelly Ingram, Atoka City Industrial Development Authority Director Carol Ervin, Atoka Sports Complex Manager Curtis Southern, and City Attorney Pat Phelps.
The Council welcomed the new City Manager Danny Delay.
The council approved the purchase orders and voted to add Delay as an authorized signature on City accounts.
With the hiring of the new City Manager, Delay took over the role as representative for the Southern Oklahoma Development Association (SODA) board.
The final payment to Delta Airport Consultants, Inc. was approved. The total payment is $65,500. The city will pay the 10% match of $9,929.79, and the rest of the payment, $55,570.21, is funded through the Federal Aviation Administration grant.
The executive session to discuss the City Manager’s contract was tabled until the next meeting due to the contract not being available.
Bidding to refurbish the parks will begin next week.
ACIDA Director Carol Ervin presented her report to the council. Two projects have been approved for the $5,000 micro grants offered by the City.
The plans for the land on Sixth Street is to address the lack of middle management family homes. These will not be low income homes.
Ervin advised the council that ACIDA had two major presentations with projects that went extremely well.
Atoka Sports Complex Manager Curtis Southern presented the report to the Council.
There will be a softball festival starting soon. The Atoka softball teams have been playing at the Sports Complex. Southern said that games have slowed down slightly.
The Sports Complex is booked for the next seven to eight weeks for planned games. Southern informed the council that there were already 14 tournaments planned for 2021.
The hot topic of the evening was whether or not the council would approve a bid for the water rehabilitation project.
The project would have improvements for the raw water pump station, chemical feed system, electrical and controls, a clear well, treated water storage painting, piping, and pumping system improvements.
The lowest bid was provided by Four Thirteen Inc, in the amount of $4,447,780.00 (four million four hundred forty-seven thousand seven hundred eighty dollars).
President of Wall Engineering, Brandon Wall, presented the bid to the council along with his suggestions for cost savings.
Cost savings included: the removal of the chemical feed building, modify purchasing by the City of Atoka to eliminate sales tax, self-funding the project contingency and not securing with a loan.
Wall explained that the chemical feed building was not necessarily a needed improvement, but a luxury. Currently, chemicals to combat iron and manganese clouds are introduced by hand. The chemical feed building would automate the process.
Councilman Pat Turner addressed the council stating his desire to not eliminate any element of the proposition.
“If we’re going to do it [water system rehabilitation] … I want it to be known I voted for something to do it right.” Turner stated.
The projected repairs will bring the Water Treatment Plant within State operational guidelines. With these repairs the Plant is expected to run smoothly for the next 30 years and beyond. It is up to City Workers to insure proper maintenance is done.
The council voted to accept the bid without the water chemical feed building and with the option of negotiating a modified purchase agreement through the City of Atoka to eliminate the sales tax.
This could possibly save the City $262,763.00 on the total project. Councilman Turner voted no on the bidding due to the chemical feed building having been taken from the project to cut costs.
