Most of the 2019 Capital Improvement Plan projects are complete or near completion, a city official says.
The plan, funded by a sales tax Muskogee voters approved in May 2019, has benefited multiple projects, including the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center, the Muskogee Swim and Fitness Center and the Roxy Theater.
“Current projects in progress include Airport Hangar cleanup and the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame remodel,” said Muskogee City Treasurer Dennis Read. “The airport cleanup should be completed by the end of October while the OMHOF remodel has no timeline for completion.”
The sales tax expires at the end of September. A one-half cent sales tax voters approved earlier this month begins in October.
Read said the airport project was budgeted for $197,000. The OMHOF remodel was budgeted for $3.5 million of which $496,629 comes from CIP revenue. More than $332,000 was spent on the parking lot at the MLK Center.
“Streets projects are ongoing and will continue until all money is spent,” Read said. “To date we have spent $17,302,929.77 on street work from the 2019 CIP.”
Three public safety projects that were funded from the CIP were new body cameras for the Muskogee Police Department, improvements within the Muskogee Fire Department and upgrading of hardware and software at the Muskogee 911 Center.
According to a CIP report released in May, the MPD and MFD projects were allocated $325,000 each. The report says “as of September 2024, all but $65,724 has been used to upgrade bunker gear” from the MFD allocation. The funds for MPD has an outstanding balance of $565 and the 911 Call Center has spent all but $76,173 of its allocation.
Several facility improvement projects were part of the CIP:
— Swim and Fitness Center, $536,615
— Roxy Theater projects, $36,889
— New boilers for Civic Center, $216,195
— City Hall engineering study, $16,537
— General facilities improvements, $405,656.
“The money remaining at the end of October will remain in the dedicated funds that were established for the 2019 CIP,” Read said. “Those funds will remain there until all monies have been spent on the dedicated areas approved by the citizens of Muskogee.”