Approval was made at the Monday, July 18 City Commission Meeting to receive an Oklahoma Public/Private Partnership (P3) Program grant for a total of $750,000 from the Oklahoma Development Finance Authority. This funding agreement will go toward the Main Street Reconstruction Project for the bridge between Minnesota Avenue and Tucker Avenue.
According to the memo written by Director of Engineering Seth Barkhimer, “The grant takes a portion of participating private partner’s income taxes and withholds them for return to the applying public entity for use in an infrastructure project that will benefit the private partner. In our case, the Main Street bridge project was determined to benefit seventy-two businesses in Shawnee throughout the downtown area. In total, the downtown area had 18 businesses that agreed to participate in the P3 program. After review by the ODFA, six companies were selected and deemed of sufficient size to participate in the P3 program.”
The board also voted to approve a Professional Services Agreement with Halff and Associates for the development of the Shawnee Twin Lakes Master Plan.
Community Development Director Rian Harkins said, “This is a follow up item from the discussions that the lake advisory committee had over the last few months. You may remember you wanted that committee to look at a number of issues, and one of the recommendations they made was to pursue an area master plan that dealt with where to best place and coordinate recreation, commercial, as well as residential uses and how the lakes go forward.” This project will be
This project will be initiated around the end of August, and the background data work is said to be about a nine month process.
A presentation was also given by Public Informations Officer Barbara Nitis with the U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Disaster Assistance on Federal Disaster Loans. After the severe storms and flooding events that occurred on May 2 through May 8 of this year, Pottawatomie County is one of seven counties included in a presidential declaration qualifying citizens for Physical Disaster Loans and Economic Injury Disaster Loans.
Home owners can receive up to $200,000 for repair or replacement on their homes, and business owners can receive up to $2 million for inventory and physical damage etc. For those wanting more information, the full presentation can be found linked to the evening’s Commission Meeting Agenda.
A bid approval was made as well, for the Woodland Veterans Park Improvement Project.
Based on staff recommendation, the bid was awarded to Downey Construction Company for $4,768,153.00 for the base bid as well as all alternates for a total contract.
Assistant City Manager Jacob Foos provided the board with a Quarterly One-Half Cent Sales Tax Overview.
According to a memo by Foos, “The key points of this quarterly update include: $1.36 million invested in community projects since the last quarterly update in March.
Investment updates include:
● Over $244,000 for Parks – Master Plan Implementation
● Over $409,000 for Expo Enhancement and Remodel
● Over $344,000 for Street Improvements – Master Plan Implementation
● Over $144,000 for 45th Street Improvements
Over $9.6 million has been invested to date in community projects.
Over $12.3 million has been collected to date from the one-half cent sales tax.”
City Manager Andrea Weckmueller-Behringer gave an admin report over the Lions Club Park Ball Fields. During the last Commission Meeting on July 5, a public comment was made regarding the City’s contract with the YMCA for use of the fields that was made on May 17, 2021 and the responsibilities of each party specifically regarding plumbing issues with the bathrooms.
“Looking at that agreement we’ve marked up all of the responsibilities for both the YMCA, the city, as well as those responsibilities that are joined,” Weckmueller-Behringer said. “And the larger landlord like responsibilities that fall to the city are pertaining to a sewer line repair or major water break repairs, roof replacements of which we actually have done two, dugout replacement, and roof replacements on the dugouts and the concession stand in 2021. But the smaller repairs and particularly the maintenance of the fields themselves fall within the responsibility of the YMCA as the party to the agreement.”
She said City Staff is currently working directly with YMCA to get issues resolved.
