Council authorizes contract increases for water/storm repairs and approves BRIC grant application for emergency generator

The City of Muskogee approved contract increases for emergency water maintenance and catch basin replacement projects and authorized submission of a BRIC grant application for resilient infrastructure at the water plant.

Staff told council that the emergency water contract with Cook Consulting LLC has been used for after‑hours leaks, deep repairs and hydrant work and requested raising the not‑to‑exceed amount from $575,000 to $635,000 to cover specialty parts and unanticipated large repairs. Staff said Cook has helped reduce hydrant outages and that some large repairs — including a single fall repair nearing $100,000 — consumed a significant portion of the original cap.

Council also approved raising the catch basin replacement project limit from $200,000 to $260,000. Staff said the project has completed 43 repairs so far (about 23 full box rebuilds and 20 frame/grate replacements) primarily in older northeast neighborhoods and that full rebuilds are necessary to prevent sinkholes and recurring sediment problems.

Separately, with strong staff support council authorized the city manager to execute a BRIC (Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities) grant application requesting $1 million, with a required 25% local match ($250,000), to fund a backup generator to run the South High Service pumps at the water treatment plant. Staff explained the generator would avoid a multi‑hour mechanical changeover to diesel pumps in an outage and preserve full pumping capacity during high‑demand months.

Why it matters: the contract increases maintain momentum on needed repairs and replacements for water and storm infrastructure, and the BRIC grant could provide critical redundancy for water delivery during power outages.

Council approved the contract amendments and grant authorization by roll call.