Three bridges on the west side of town may have to be closed if they are not repaired.
bad bridgeThe three span a creek that runs under Broadway, Moore and Barclay. A recent inspection by the Oklahoma Department of Transportation (ODOT) found the roadway washing out around each bridge.
At the Tuesday night city council meeting, a decision was made to move $50,000 originally set aside for street overlay to pay for the bridges. Mayor Jennifer Clason said that $50,000 would pay for five blocks of overlay. “We think that is more important than doing five blocks of roads,” she added. “We hear all the time we have the worse streets in any city. Drive around other towns and look. Oklahoma City has potholes you can fall in.”
She said infrastructure repairs are needed because that work, “has been neglected for years.”
The bridge repairs on West Broadway will be complicated because fiber optic, water, sewer and gas lines also run under it. “I don’t know if that will cover it,” Clason said about the $50,000.
If the bridges were closed, residents in the southwest part of town would be facing detours.
“This is a have to do project,” said council member Bill Goodner. He pointed out city crews saved the town money by repairing bridges on Robertson Highway and Corporation. “If they can fix those bridges, it would almost be worth having another person hired.”
Council members also approved spending $17,376 with Wilhite Construction for repairs at the office and garage building at the cemetery. That work would include a new roof as well as exterior walls.
City crews will be installing more swing sets at McCutcheon Park next week and will be building sidewalks by the bathrooms. Workers have been busy at the park repairing vandalism to the bathrooms as well as moving some of the large rocks to keep people from driving across the park to watch the children play.
The splash pad at the park is expected to be open Memorial Day weekend.
Class said sales tax revenue was lower this month than a year ago but said a lot of that loss was due to completion of several highway construction projects. “”We have had a significant amount of construction crews for the past year. When they left that was an impact to our city.”
She said the reduction of sales tax revenue was, “not a significant change,” when compared with an overview of sales tax for several years.