GMSA Approves ODOT Contracts

Members of the Grove Municipal Services Authority board have approved contracts with the Oklahoma Department of Transportation regarding estimated construction costs and re-imbursements amounts for gas, sewer and water relocations for the Highway 59 widening project.
The special meeting was held Tuesday with all board members present except Carolyn Nuckolls.
The estimate for start of construction on utility work is now late May, according to City Manager Bill Galletly, who briefed GMSA members on the financing and engineering work.
The total utility relocation is now estimated at $4.9 million and $235,000 has been paid to date for engineering, leaving about $4.6 million. A loan of $4 million plus ODOT reimbursement for engineering of $116,000 means that the city will put up $575,000, although the city has $775,000 available.
Additional projects to complete the facility upgrades for support of the Highway 59 improvements total $2.3 million.
ODOT will reimburse the city in the amount of $2.7 million, or about 60% of the total cost.
Bidding cannot be accomplished until all right of way is acquired. ODOT has stated that Jan. 20 is their deadline for right of way purchases, with April 20 the deadline for condemnation work.
The issue of Billboards is still ongoing, said Galletly, in that there are 21 boards owned by Magic Media that once taken down, cannot be put back up under current city codes. Magic Media holds the boards as permanent revenue streams over a 5 year period which comes to over a million dollars that ODOT has to pay.
Galletly said that "we should remain very concerned until the bid for the utility relocation is in; only then will we know what we have to deal with" in terms of cost increases. "If these numbers hold it will relieve the General Fund from the heavy transfers and allow some additional City projects," he said in a memo to GMSA board members.