City moves on from incubator building

The Comanche City Council declined a bid to for the design and build services for the Church Street incubator building at its February meeting after learning construction costs had skyrocketed.

The incubator building was to house start-up businesses to allow the businesses to get established. It would be beneficial to the city in additional tax and utility revenue and the business owner in lower expenses.

City manager Chuck Ralls told the council the cost to just build the shell of the building would be between $150,000 to $200,000. The amount of the grant they had received last year for the project was just $50,000. Ralls cited the steep price increase in building materials as the cause for the high bid.

The council did approve the purchase of a used truck for the parks department. Ralls told the council that the current truck was in need of major repairs worth more than the truck itself.

“We’ve already put at least as much into repairs as we did for how much we paid for it,” Ralls said. “It broke down on the way to Comanche after we purchased it.”

That truck, a 2007 Ford F450, will be sold at auction, and the money it receives will go toward the purchase of a 2015 Chevy 3500 for $50,000 from Mangum Auto Sales. The loan contract from American Nation Bank will be lease to own and payments will be made from the capital improvement funds.  

The council also agreed to purchase a new replacement repeater for the police and fire departments. The departments had been having issues with dead zones with the current set-up and had asked for a new repeater. The repeater will be purchased from Lawton Communications for a cost of $4,200 and the costs split between the city, fire and police departments.

The council went into executive session to discuss the city manager’s contract. After returning to open meeting, the council agreed to renew Ralls’ contract while adding three months to his severance pay to make a total of six months and also agreed to pay for his wife’s insurance. 

The council then voted to give all city employees a seven percent cost-of-living raise.

In other business, the council acknowledged that Summit Utilities has purchased Centerpoint Energy and is taking over the franchise with Centerpoint Energy.

During the city manager’s report, Ralls said the city had to install a new central heat/air unit at its property on 200 N. Rodeo at a cost of $7,000. He said the final walkthrough for the sidewalk project was scheduled for Feb. 17.

During the Public Works Authority meeting, Ralls told the trustees that the EVO electric charging station at 200 N. Rodeo is up and running.

“We have had several people come through and use it,” Ralls said.