NEW: Moore Council approves claims, fire equipment

M. Scott Carter

MOORE — Moore's city council approved spending more than $150,000 on equipment for its police and fire departments, endorsed the final plat of the Lake Woods addition and authorized $1,598,810 in claims during its Monday meeting.

With members Robert Krows and Terry Cavnar absent, the council held a brief public hearing to seek input on a proposed Community Development Block Grant program. That program, community development director Elizabeth Jones said, would replace about 1,300 linear feet of sewer line in the Regency Park addition.

The project would cost more than $200,000, Jones said, and funds would be provided by the federal block grant program and the city of Moore.

Following the public hearing, the council voted 5-0 to request assistance from the block grant program for the project - the first step toward getting the funds - and subsequently approved allocating $100,065 in local funds to help underwrite the project.

Council members also endorsed an update of the City of Moore Public Improvement Standards document and, by unanimous vote, approved the final plat of the Lake Woods addition.

That addition, documents show, would be located north of South 34th Street and west of Eastern Avenue.

In addition to sewage line improvements, the council approved a resolution to widen and reconstruct the Southeast 34th Street bridge, west of Sunnylane Road. Jones said total cost for the project would be about $500,000 with the city providing $100,000 of that amount.

With city officials moving quickly to revamp their public safety system, the council voted 5-0 to spend more than $150,000 on equipment for the city's police and fire departments. Those purchases would include:

• $66,724 for two hydraulic rescue tool systems and two high pressure air bag systems for the city's fire department.

• $33,300 for nine custom laptop computers for the Moore Police Department. The laptops, police officials said, were custom made with withstand intense physical usage and were not a "typical" style laptop.

• $38,800 for eight digital mobile video cameras to replace the department's old videotape-style units.

• $25,754 for four wireless handheld mobile computing devices with printers and software for the police department. The handhelds would allow officers to process traffic tickets quicker and would interface with the city's main computer.

In other action the council, acting as the Moore Public Works Authority, approved spending $298,140 for claims and expenditures and adopted a "planning and environmental information document" required by the Oklahoma Water Resources Board for the construction of the city's new sewage treatment plant.

Acting as the Moore Risk Management Authority the council approved claims and expenditures totaling $87,529.

Acting as the Moore Economic Development Authority, council members approved the authority's minutes of its previous meeting and heard a report from the city's economic development director Deidre Ebrey.

Ebrey said city officials were working aggressively to market the city and its retail space and said the Warren Theater was expanding its parking lot by about 500 spaces.

The council's next meeting is 6:30 p.m. July 7 at Moore City Hall, 301 N. Broadway Ave.