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Durant council approves mowing contract, emergency-management grants and utility pump purchase
Summary
The Durant City Council awarded a cemetery mowing contract and approved two Emergency Management Performance Grant subawards; the Durant City Utilities Authority approved purchase of a raw sewage pump and variable-frequency drive to maintain treatment operations.
The Durant City Council on a series of unanimous votes approved a cemetery mowing contract, accepted two emergency-management subgrant awards and the Durant City Utilities Authority approved purchase of a critical raw sewage pump and VFD.
The actions matter to residents because they contract for routine cemetery upkeep, secure $40,000 in federal/state emergency-management funding, and add equipment intended to prevent service interruptions at the city’s wastewater headworks.
The council awarded the cemetery mowing and lawn-maintenance contract to Greenbelt Turf Management and approved a related contract. The motion to award the bid and the subsequent motion to approve the contract passed on roll-call votes with Council Member Miller, Council Member Scheer, Council Member Fuller, Vice Mayor Similescu and Mayor Tucker voting yes.
The council also accepted a fiscal-year 2024–25 Emergency Management Performance subgrant award of $40,000 from the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management and an FY22 Emergency Management Performance training subgrant of $800 from the same agency. Emergency management staff Richard Ezell told the council, “we are awarded $40,000 for our performance grant.” Both grants were approved by unanimous roll call.
During a separate Durant City Utilities Authority meeting held immediately after the council session, the authority approved purchase of a raw water/sewer pump and a variable-frequency drive from Automatic Engineering in the amount of $68,252. Philip Hightower described the unit as critical, saying, “This pump is critical because all of the sewer comes into one spot at the head works and this is the pump that bumps it to the grit chamber to remove stuff, then it goes to the sewer plant.” The purchase passed on a unanimous roll call by the trustees.
Finance presenter Anne Chen reported the city’s November financials and said the city’s December sales-tax receipts set a 10-year record for the month. Chen told the council the general fund revenue was roughly 2.58 percent over budget year to date and expenses were under budget; she noted the sales-tax total and the new half-cent distribution amounts included in the packet.
All motions recorded in the meeting were approved without recorded dissent. The city clerk conducted roll-call votes for each action; no member recorded a nay vote at the items listed above.
The meeting included routine consent approvals of minutes and a budget supplement (BA 25-6) and short information presentations; no new business remained at adjournment.
Looking ahead, staff noted the pump purchase would be funded with loan proceeds approved by the Oklahoma Water Resources Board for upgrades; council discussion flagged the purchase as part of planned capital work to prevent repeat outages experienced earlier in the year.
