The Kingfisher Fire Department and city officials have moved closer to building a new facility for the department.

City Manager Jim Thomas on Monday recommended that city commissioners accept a Request for Quotation (RFQ) to be sent out to architect firms that had experience in building fire stations.

The RFQ includes specifications of spending no more than $400 per square foot, with a smaller 16,000 square-foot design (original plans called for about 20,000 square feet) and a total budget of $8.5 million.

Thomas said the budget provided a $610,000 cushion for unforeseen expenses.

“Chief (Tony) Stewart and I had many good conversations about our needs and I feel confident that we can bring the new fire station in within budget and I feel this is an amount the city residents can afford,” he said.

Kingfisher voters passed a 10-year half-cent sales tax in May 2021 to fund the fire station and other city improvements.

More recent projections have the sales tax collections falling short of the estimated cost of the original size of the facility, forcing city leaders to seek alternatives.

City Commissioner Kyle Mecklenburg, who had voiced concern about staying within budget on the project in previous meetings, voiced his appreciation for the work that went into the new RFQ.

“This is much more palatable to me,” he said. “I think this is now something we can fully get behind.”

The commissioners voted unanimously for Thomas to send the project out for bids.

Joining Mecklenburg were Mayor Geoff Covalt and commissioners Debbie Burpo and Dawn Taylor. Commissioner Kaci Farrar was unable to attend the meeting.

Thomas commented that he felt the citizens had waited long enough for the project to get underway.

“I think in all honesty, it will take us a year to break ground after hiring a firm and another year to get it finished, so it will be in the spring of 2026 at the earliest,” he said.

“It’s long overdue.” The move was made as part of the city’s January regular meeting.

Also present were City Clerk Brittney Hladik and City Treasurer Nita James.

In other business, the commissioners heard from representatives from Nighthawk Adaptiv, who have been working with Electric Department Supervisor Mark Gambill and water and electric department employees on a pilot project to place their electric and water smart meter systems in several households.

The commission tabled a decision on whether to pursue the purchase while Thomas and staff gathered more information.

Jill Ferenc, who had been working through her capacity as a municipal strategic planner with city employees and commissioners for several months to formulate a plan to carry the city into the year 2030, made a brief presentation about her progress.

The long-term strategic plan is dubbed “Destination 2030” and lays out a number of goals for the city.

Thomas recommended Ferenc for the job as he had worked with her on projects before and the commissioners voted to carry forward with the project.

In other business, the commission voted to set Feb. 5-7 as the filing period for persons interested in running for the mayor’s seat (four years), Mecklenburg’s seat (four years) and Farrar’s seat (one year). Farrar was voted in by the commission late last year to fill a vacated seat left open when Covalt was appointed mayor by fellow commissioners. To close the meeting, Thomas said he had hired a longtime associate, Richard Greene, as project manager to take over repairs and the management of the Vernie Snow Aquatic Center. Greene and Don Self, operations manager of Air Technology of Oklahoma City, both presented a 90 day emergency plan that will get repairs and replacement of air handling, pipes and water heating equipment up and running, as well as fixing other areas in the pool Thomas said had been neglected over the years. “I have been extremely disappointed with the maintenance of the pool,” Thomas said. “It is an asset to this community and it’s been neglected to such a degree that I recommend we fix this as a mission-critical emergency. “The equipment in that facility should be running like a fine Swiss watch and instead it operates more like a cuckoo-cuckoo clock.” The commissioners voted unanimously to have Greene and Self begin work immediately to implement $32,000 in exhaust equipment changes as well as install a $35,000 SCADA (supervising control and data aquisition system) which will allow the operators to manage the entire facility’s HVAC and water flow and heating equipment.

Thomas said Greene is working now on a marketing plan to successfully bring more people of all ages to use the pool.

“Swimming pools are never profit centers for cities, but we think we can get things going to such a degree that usage is brought up by a large percentage and it can break even,” Thomas said.

“We need to see our area residents using that pool and we’re going to get this turned around. I have worked with Richard for many years and I feel he is just the man for the job.”

The commissioners voted unanimously to begin the work immediately.