Pool season passes, airport safety tops Duncan Council

Jun. 14—The retirement of Buddy Armstrong and topics ranging from municipal pool season passes, the museum's roof and structures at the airport topped Duncan City Council's regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday night.

Vice Mayor Patty Wininger led the meeting in place of Mayor Robert Armstrong, who was absent. Kenzie Wheeler filled in as acting city manager for Kim Meek and Jeff Archer filled in for City Attorney David Hammond as well.

Before getting into business, the City Council and Wheeler took a moment to recognize the retirement of Buddy Armstrong and present him with a plaque for his year's of service. Armstrong served City of Duncan from Aug. 5, 2003, to May 25, 2023.

"We hope you enjoy many happy years to come," Wheeler said.

After receiving his plaque and taking a photo with Duncan City Council, the board dove into business.

Up first was the consent agenda, which had a few questions and notable items passed under it.

The first question was in regards to the final airport hangar development plan. Wininger verified they would go with alternative two instead of the alternative one plan.

Then, the council looked at season passes for the municipal pool.

After a rate comparison study of other municipal pools, Duncan council approved a season pass at the meeting. The season pass cost is $65 for children age three to 17 years old. A season pass for adults 18 and older will cost $75. Children under three are free. Any child under 12 must be accompanied by a guardian. Passes are available for purchase at the Simmons Center, located on Chisholm Trail Parkway, during regular business hours.

Following approval of the consent agenda, Council turned its attention to the Stephens County Historical Museum and its roof.

Wheeler told the council in May, city staff received and opened sealed bids for the roofing repair and replacement project. The bid up for approval came from Heritage Hills Commercial Roofing for a total of $141,221.

Councilman Nick Fischer asked about the uses of the museum building and if it played any double duty when it comes to storing city equipment, but the answer he received is no. The museum is full to the brim with artifacts and is actually needing more space.

It was confirmed, however, that the project would be a complete replacement and would cover both roofs — the flat roof and the barrel roof — at the facility. The anticipated start date is July 17 and while given 60-90 days for completion, staff said the bidder sounded like they'd have it completed within 30 days.

The measure passed with a 4-0 vote.

Discussion of a wireless communications tower then came before the board. The proposed tower, under USCOC of Greater Oklahoma, LLC, would be located along Library Lane, in the southwest corner of the library property.

Nate Schacht, Director with the Department of Community Development, confirmed the Plan Commission hosted a public meeting, which citizens were notified of, and nobody attended. The Plan Commission then sent council a favorable recommendation.

Wininger confirmed the area is in her ward and stated they walked the area and talked to neighbors about it as well.

The measure passed unanimously.

The next item, a proposal for the construction of four tall structures in the vicinity of the Halliburton Field Airport, brought up some concerns about safety.

Wheeler told the council the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) received a request for a permit to increase the height of towers to be constructed south of the airport. Wheeler told the council the airport commission sent a recommendation asking the council to deny the proposals and request no extra height be added to maintain a safe approach to the airport.

During public comments, Floyd Wininger, the chairman of the Duncan Airport Commission, and two others — a pilot and another airport commissioner, spoke about the importance of why tall obstructions are not recommended.

Basically, Floyd Wininger said, it comes down to safety for the aircrafts coming in to land and approval of such structures would take out some of the utility of the airport.

"What we have now ... are wooden poles and they want to replace them with some metal tower type structures," Floyd Wininger said. "The proposal is to raise the height of the towers they're replacing about six foot, eight foot, nine foot ... but the direct consequence of that is we'll lose some of the utility of our airport. The reason why the FAA looks at this is, there's a higher obstruction, if you will. When airplanes come in and they do an approach to our runway to the north, what you have there, because of the higher obstruction, it raises the minimums the pilot can go down to as they descend from the clouds and try to locate the runway. In this case, it's going to cost us 79 feet. That doesn't sound like a lot, but that's a big deal."

With the obstruction getting taller, the safety minimum then raises also, Floyd Wininger said.

"That makes a big difference when a pilot is trying to find a runway in the clouds," he said. "Somebody might look at that and say, 'well they have higher minimums in Duncan, we'll just go to Lawton.' That's a big deal in bad weather."

He said even if it was a clear weather day, if someone had engine failure or another emergency come up, it would make a larger obstruction for that pilot to clear before they could emergency land.

"It's not a good thing to do that," Floyd Wininger said. "What we would propose is they just go back with the height of the lines as is and replace it with wooden poles or something like that instead of the steel towers, or get smaller towers, or get steel towers and cut them off with a hack saw, we don't care, just don't raise the height where the FAA would raise the minimum on those approaches."

Floyd Wininger said the airport commission was unanimous in their recommendation to deny the height addition.

Adding height to the structures could also prohibit the runway from being expanded later on for commercial purposes.

Tim Hushbeck, with AEP PSO, who was not the official spokesperson for the item at hand, said he had previously sat in on some of the calls and the move to metal poles is for durability.

"It would be an upgrade to go to the metal poles in the system and we're pretty much doing it across our system," Hushbeck said. "We have a bunch of transmission upgrades going on right now and that's a plus for this area ... The fact that we're upgrading those lines is a huge plus. I can obviously see why the airport would be concerned and I'll touch base back with people on that project and let them know that."

With a June 15 deadline to get back to the FAA, city staff had already told the FAA the airport commission asked council to deny the request. It was noted an easement for the power lines already existed.

The request was denied unanimously.

To close out the agenda, the board approved pay request number four to Hope Equipment & Construction, Inc. for $209,950 for the Fire Station #2 renovation and addition project. The project is nearly 70% completed.

Councilman Jimmy Peters said the progress on the fire station has come a long way and overall, it looks great.

During the public comment period, two people came before the board.

The first was Sandra Jackson, of Ward 4, who lodged a complaint about loose dogs and stray dogs in the area and asked the city to help with the issue because of potential safety threats it poses to those walking in the area, including children and seniors, as well as other pets. Jackson said she almost had a dangerous situation a few weeks ago when one dog tried to attack her but, "by the grace of God," it didn't get her.

Jackson asked the council to help mitigate the situation and left her contact information.

The second was Jimmie Bruner, who approached council to discuss the costs of the municipal pool. Bruner was worried some children wouldn't be able to afford the pool prices, even with the newly approved season passes. Bruner expressed her concern and the need for sponsorships for some of those children and asked if there was a family discount.

"Sixty-five dollars is a lot for one child," she said. "It would be a lot for me."

Wheeler thanked Bruner for coming up and said they had some exciting things in the works.

In other council news, the board approved to:

—Appoint Billy Strutton to serve on the Main Street Duncan Board of Directors.

—Award bids for various street department road materials.

—Award a bid for the Settling Ponds improvement project to Weeks Farms, LLC for $939,000. The Settling Ponds are located at the Water Treatment Plant. The engineering firm and the City of Duncan will give the final inspection on the project.

—Award the chiller replacement project to Saker Mechanical, Inc. in the amount of $369,000.

The next Duncan City Council meeting will convene at 5:15 p.m. on June 27 in council chambers, located inside the Duncan Police Department complex.