City manager, staff to update CIP plan

Mar. 23—McAlester City Manager Dave Andren plans to meet with city staff to start working on the city's priorities for the upcoming fiscal year.

"We're going to sit down as a team on Monday," Andren said. "The staff will sit down and go over what we see as priorities."

Andren is well aware the city does not have enough money to cover everything in his Capital Improvement Plan for the upcoming 2023-2024 Fiscal Year, which begins July 1 and extends through June 30, 2024.

He said Thursday that funding some projects will be a priority.

"Our first priority will be those things we are already committed to," Andren said, referring to projects already committed to by the McAlester City Council.

Those include commitments to assist with upgrades, renovations and expansion at the McAlester Public Library, a new water tower at the McAlester Regional Health Center to ensure the hospital has an adequate water supply during water outages or other issues, and the OKLA Theatre.

Andren presented his Capital Improvement Plan to McAlester city councilors March 14 and asked them to get back with him on their priorities for the city — but Mayor John Browne and several city councilors said they would like to hear Andren's priorities first.

Browne said Wednesday afternoon he does not expect to get the revised CIP report until further in the city's budgeting process.

"Before we can set our priorities, we need to know what has to be done," Browne said. "If we have discretionary money, then we can look at capital improvements and other things."

Andren said Thursday he had hoped to begin meeting with city staff sooner regarding the city's priorities, but the past two weeks have been an unusual time for the city. McAlester Police Capt. Richard Parker was found deceased in his home on March 16. McAlester Police Patrolman Joseph Barlow died March 20 at St. John Medical Center in Tulsa from injuries after a driver struck his vehicle head-on in Glenpool as Barlow helped provide a police escort for Parker from the state Medical Examiner's Tulsa office.

Andren noted city employees have been mourning the loss of both officers. He said the city can refill the positions they held "But we can never replace their spirit."

After Andren completed his initial March 14 presentation of his Five Year Capital Improvement Plan proposals, he told city councilors the city didn't have enough money on hand to cover all of the proposals in the plan, which covers 2023-2028.

It's not that the city is in dire financial straights, but funding everything in the CIP plan would more than the city has on hand for capital improvement projects.

For the 2023-2024 Fiscal Year alone, which begins July 1, 2023, and extends through June 30, 2024, totally funding all of the CIP projects in the CIP Plan comes to $27,323,800.

"That $27.3 million is a large chunk of our operating budget," Andren said during the meeting. Referring to his CIP report, he had suggested city councilors take it home, go over it and get back with him regarding their priorities.

"There's no way we can get all of this funded," Andren said. "I will do my best, but there's no way I can do $27 million."

Ward 3 Councilor Cliff House asked "What number do we have to work with?" Andren did not have a definitive number available, since the city's budget for the upcoming fiscal year has not yet been finalized.

Ward 5 Councilor Billy Jack Boatright asked about another possibility.

"We can do this and hold off on this, or we don't need to do this at all," he said, suggesting a method of selecting priorities.

Mayor Browne also had a suggestion.

"We need to know what we need," as opposed to what we'd like, said Browne.

Andren now plans to come up with a list of priorities for the 2023-2024 Capital Improvements Plan to present to city councilors at a future meeting, although he said he may not call for discussion and action until further in the budgeting process.

During the recent CIP presentation, City of McAlester Chief Financial Officer Sherri Swift interjected a comment.

"I think an important part of this is the commitments we've made," Swift said.

City council commitments and special projects include a total of $1.5 million pledged over a five-year period for improvements, upgrades and expansions at the McAlester Public Library, which comes to $300,000 a year for the next five fiscal years.

The city council has also committed $500,000 to the McAlester Regional Health Center Water Tower and Storage project, which would enable the hospital to have its own water supply in a water tower in case of city water outages.

In addition, the city of McAlester is looking at further downtown improvements from Third Street to Fifth Street, which is the site of the Dancing Rabbit Music Festival and other outdoor events, although a dollar amount or timeline has not been finalized.

Andren also said the city made a commitment to renovate and upgrade the OKLA Theatre when it accepted the facility

Included in the Council Commitments/Special Projects category for the 2023-2024 Fiscal Year is $150,000 toward a project to increase the waterline size to Hereford Lane.

That project would total $750,000 over five years. Andren said the financing for that has not yet been committed, although it is a project that's been requested.

In addition to the previously-made commitments, the Capital Improvements Plan includes a host of other projects and expenses, with the five-year total in the Capital Improvement Plan totaling more than $103 million.

Included in the CIP report for the 2022-2023 Fiscal Year are:

—Facility priorities

—Street priorities

—Wastewater priorities

—Water priorities

—Community development priorities

—Community services priorities

—McAlester Fire Department priorities

—McAlester Police Department priorities

—Administrative/Finance priorities

—Economic Development/Airport priorities

—Council Commitments/Special Projects