City council votes to increase electric rates

City residents and business owners will see a bump in their basic utility rates following a vote by the Comanche City Council last Tuesday.

The council voted to increase rates by 9.2 percent after being informed about Southwestern Power Authority’s (SWPA) anticipated cost increase to the city. The SWPA is a federally-run power authority.

There are no rate increases for water and trash.

Ryan Piersol of the Oklahoma Muncipal Power Authority (OMPA) was on hand to explain the process since no SWPA representative would be available. 

The city receives the bulk of their power from the OMPA. The OMPA is not increasing its rates.

When asked the reason for the increase, Piersol said the SWPA has not had an increase in 11 years and costs in general had risen for everyone.

When asked by local resident Jimmy Beene why not just completely go with OMPA, Piersol said even with the rate increase that “going with the SWPA contract is a good thing.”

Mayor Brayden Harris said with the city increasing the rate now that it would mean the city would not do its annual rate increase in January.

Council member Smokey Dobbins made the motion to make the increase and it was seconded by Dylan Savage. The measure passed unaniously, 5-0.

In another major discussion, the council tabled a request by the fire department to support the department becoming an emergency response agency. Currently, Meridian Fire Department responds to emergencies that require EMTs..

“It’s a hurdle that is awful high to jump,” said Scooter Bivins, fire chief. “But between us, the firemen and most of the volunteers, we’ve decided that this is the right thing to do for the community.”

Bivins said he has been in the fire service 22 years between Walters and Comanche.

“Walters didn’t do first responding and for 15 years you were sitting there listening to people who you grew up with in that town having heart attacks and their kids getting hurt, your friends having heart attacks and you have to sit there and can’t go help them. It’s not a very good feeling. We feel like it’s our job, we’re expected to go help people and I know that it takes a lot of dedication on the firemen’s part.”

Bivins said the bulk of the cost would be paid through county taxes.

“It takes a lot of money,” Bivins said. “Fortunately, the county is paying taxes so that the fire department can be well prepared to have equipment and to respond when they have an emergency. We don’t want to get too strung out, but some of the reasoning is by Meridian, we’re paying them a small fee to do this right now. In turn, we help them with fires and stuff and they do more medical. They enjoy that part of it, but even at that, they get taxed a lot of times. You might have one guy hurt at the football field and you may have some kid get burned out in the county somewhere. You may have an elderly person having a heart attack or stroke. You may have a car wreck that requires for medically-trained people to be there. It doesn’t happen every day, but it happens.”

Bivins said the city already has five firemen certified and trained in EMS and there are two police officers that are close to completing their requirements.

“The officers can’t go jump in a fire truck go put out fires, but they can show up in their car and they’re able to work under our license that way,” Bivins said. “We’re not going to let the volunteers do anything that they’re not trained to do. We’re going to make sure that processes are done, protocols are followed and policies are followed.”

Bivins did explain about the estimated costs to the city.

Council member Annetta Garlinger asked if a new vehicle would be required.

“Not really, at some point we would like to have a vehicle specifically for this, because the state will come down periodically and do inspections, and you need one vehicle that has all your equipment that it is updated and all your logs are updated because that’s something they are very serious about,” Bivins said. 

Bivins said the cost to the city would be $13,500 for the first year.

“That includes fuel, supplies to get started, a supply checklist like bandages and tape and up to date AEDs,” Bivins said.

The fire chief said it would cost $500 to put someone through online training and $35 to take the state test to get cerified.

Harris said he was not quite ready to pull the trigger.

“I’m not going to speak for the rest of the council, but for me personally, I would like to see a much more detailed proposal before I commit to anything,” Harris said. “I would like to know what the cost associated would be and what the impact to the city would be. First and foremost, we are stewards of the taxpayers’ money and I want to make sure we know what we’re signing off on.”

Savage agreed.

“It would make it a whole lot easier if we had more details, like how much money you’re going to need, what all you ended up having to buy,” Savage said. “It will help us make a decision on if we need to do it or not.”

The council agreed to table the request until they could get more information.

In other business, the city voted to accept the Department of Transportation school zone speed limit modifications. The school zone lights will be activated in the mornings at high school lunch time (noon to 12:55 p.m.) and after school. The school zone will also be expanded. ODOT will also put in crosswalks for students such as band and agricultrure students who have to cross Highway 53.

City manager Wayne McCasland gave an update on city projects including the progress of the Highway 53 widening project, which is getting closer to completion. He also said the new clubhouse at Comanche Lake is  open. He also said they had some issues at the ballfields that they were working on and rain had partially washed out roads at the cemetery.