City Council to target spending on MPEC, auditorium building

Lynn Walker, Wichita Falls Times Record News
·2 min read

Wichita Falls City councilors will meet Tuesday to consider spending more than $6 million, most of it going toward spiffing up the Ray Clymer building at the MPEC, the Memorial Auditorium and municipal offices.

City official look to stabilize and renovate the Wichita Falls City Hall and Memorial Auditorium building.
City official look to stabilize and renovate the Wichita Falls City Hall and Memorial Auditorium building.

Councilors will vote on authorizing a "change order" to avoid the normal bidding process in order to award Clark Contractor, LLC up to $3.3 million to renovate the MPEC Exhibit Hall. The money would come from venue tax revenue, bond proceeds and $2 million of excess general funds the city has on hand. City staff thinks it’s important that the renovations complement the conference center being built on the MPEC grounds and that giving the job to Clark Contractors would streamline the subcontractors, material delivery and create synergy between the two projects.

Work would include remodeling all bathrooms, replacing all carpet, putting new vinyl on interior walls, replacing doors and frames and adding new wood-look surrounds at entrances.

Councilors will also be asked to authorize a contract with Bundy, Young, Sims, and Potter Architects of up to $918,750 to prepare documents for renovation of the Memorial Auditorium building. This would come from the $12.5 million in federal COVID-19 relief money councilors have allocated for work on the auditorium and city staff offices. The staff said the spending would qualify for the federal dollars by reducing potential public exposure to airborne pathogens, maintaining safe social distancing and providing improved functioning of municipal offices.

The same architectural firm helped make plans for a new $77 million municipal offices complex.  Voters rejected that plan in 2018. The auditorium building renovations are the single largest expenditure from the $29 million the city received in federal COVID-19 funds.

Other spending councilors will consider includes:

  • $814,464 to replace six reverse osmosis trains at Cypress Water Treatment Facility.

  • $434,250 for 10 2023 Ford Utility Police Interceptors from Caldwell Country Ford.

  • $358,898 for eight pickup trucks from Wichita Falls Ford-Lincoln, Inc.

  • $227,717 for five one-ton pickup trucks from Wichita Falls Ford-Lincoln, Inc.

  • $264,217 for a pothole repair truck from Bruckner Truck Sales, Inc.

The council will meet at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday at City Hall, 1300 Seventh St.

This article originally appeared on Wichita Falls Times Record News: City Council to target spending on MPEC, auditorium building