McAlester council approves $653,873 in late pay applications for regional airport taxiway project

The McAlester City Council unanimously approved two late pay applications and a group of consultant invoices on March 2, clearing $653,873.80 in outstanding payments tied to the taxiway rehabilitation and lighting project at McAlester Regional Airport.

A city staff member told the council that the two contractor pay applications from Screed Tech LLC — $135,535.54 and $396,185.62, totaling $531,721.16 — were not routed for approval in a timely manner because of a breakdown in internal communication and invoice-processing procedures. “What you have before you tonight are 2 pay applications,” the staff member said, adding the project “is made possible due to state and federal funding and grants from the ODAA and FAA of more than $2,000,000.” The council approved the pay applications by roll call.

The council also voted to accept multiple invoices from H.W. Lochner Inc. totaling $122,152.64 for design, construction-administration and inspection services related to the same taxiway project. The staff member said those invoices were impacted by the same processing delays and that the issue was identified the prior Thursday and corrected. A motion to approve the Lochner invoices passed by roll call.

All votes on both pay applications and the consultant invoices were unanimous in recorded roll calls conducted by the clerk, with councilors answering “yes” in sequence and the mayor also voting in the affirmative.

Council members handled the approvals as routine consent and scheduled business items. The mayor introduced a brief explanation of the consent process before the votes and later moved to recess the council meeting to convene the council airport authority to confirm the council’s actions; that procedural motion and the subsequent reconvening carried as well. The council then adjourned.

The payments are intended to keep the McAlester Regional Airport taxiway rehabilitation and lighting project on schedule; staff emphasized the approvals were to "bring accounts current" and to avoid disruption to ongoing work. The record shows the city has federal and state grant support for the project but did not provide a detailed funding breakdown beyond noting ODAA and FAA grants amounting to more than $2 million. The meeting provided no indication of protest or opposition to the payments.