No city manager hire for Duncan yet

May 15—A nearly hour and a half long conversation behind closed doors for Duncan City Councilors Tuesday night didn't yield apparent progress in the search for a new city manager.

After various Duncan Council meetings with executive sessions for the purpose of interviewing city manager candidates, Councilors once again convened behind closed doors for an executive session on Tuesday, May 14 to discuss "the employment, hiring, resignation, or appointment" of a city manager.

They returned to open session well over an hour after leaving council chambers and Mayor Robert Armstrong called for a motion on any action taken in relation to the executive session, but no motion was made.

The executive session caused the meeting to run out of order from routine operations. Usually, Duncan City Council meets first and the Public Works Authority meeting takes place immediately following, but because of the executive session, councilors worked through the Public Works Authority meeting first and then switched gears to handle Duncan Council business ahead of heading to private quarters to discuss the city manager position, which was the last item of the evening.

While there was no motion made in regards to finding a new city manager, a few other notable business items did pass the council during the meeting.

Some of those items included relaxing the alcoholic beverage code for an upcoming Main Street Duncan event, remodeling the gazebo in Fuqua Park East, and entering into an agreement with a construction manager for the new fire station construction project.

Other important items Duncan councilors passed included three bids with hefty price tags.

Bids awarded and the projects associated with them included:

—A bid to Miller Construction for the package two water line replacements for a total price of $5,450,673.

—A bid to Landmark Structures, LP for construction services on the El Rancho elevated storage tank project. The bid totaled $6,139,000 and there are 640 days remaining on the project.

—A bid to Downey Contracting LLC for construction services at the Wastewater Treatment Plant for chlorination and dechlorination improvements with a price tag of $5,078,000.

The three bids in total came to $16,667,673.

The final item passed by councilors declared a public necessity and gave permission to the city attorney to file a condemnation action on a property in the Twisted Oaks Addition because of drainage and erosion.

Interim City Manager Kenzie Wheeler said when the Twisted Oaks Addition was developed, they believed there would be a Home Owners Association for the area that would provide maintenance for common areas. However, the formation of the Home Owners Association never happened and the common areas in Twisted Oaks aren't serviced or owned by anybody.

"There exists a common area adjacent to an existing City of Duncan drainage easement that services Claridy Creek," Wheeler said. "The city has made several repairs to the common area, however much more extensive work is needed to improve the drainage and erosion conditions at the location."

Wheeler said declaring it a public necessity will allow the city attorney to file a condemnation proceeding in district court so the needed repairs can be facilitated.

The measure was approved unanimously.

More information on the Main Street Duncan event, the gazebo remodel and the new fire station construction project will appear in future stories published in upcoming editions of The Duncan Banner.