The Administration and Finance Committee voted to recommend approval to the City Council of Vox Audio Visual’s $39,646 quote for upgrading the acoustics and electronics in the City Hall Council Chambers at their meeting on Monday, December 14th.
Vox’s quote was the lowest of the three received, the others being from Video Revolution of Tulsa (which was around $66K) and Blue Speed Audio Visual of Bixby (around $62K) and the staff who researched the project felt that Vox’s will be the most reliable and the easiest to use.
Multiple complaints of difficulty hearing and seeing information from attendees of City Council and Planning Commission meetings were the impetus for the Council and Ad/Fi committee to make this project a priority on their list of projects to complete with CARES Act Reimbursement Funds.
Mayor Craig Henderson, a member of the Administration and Finance Committee, commented, “This is about the community at large…We as a committee need to do this for the people of Sapulpa.”
In addition to attendees of meetings in Council Chambers being able to hear and see much more easily, the City will now also be able to broadcast meetings to a local TV station and stream them to the Internet so many more people will have access to them.
This piece of the upgrades are expected to be implemented by February of the new year.
Another important project discussed at Monday’s meeting was the construction of the new fire training facility on Sahoma Lake Road and the rehabilitation of the Fire Station #3 on South Main. Both of these projects were approved by voters in the recent GO Bond.
Fire Marshall David Taylor explained that because of the “Fire Cash fund” (sales tax dedicated to Fire Department capital needs and kept in a separate account), they will be able to begin work at both sites soon, but that the training facility tower will take precedence.
Architect Greg Helms was in attendance and went over details of the projects and what each entails.
City Manager Joan Riley said that the City is “excited about the new station, but thrilled about the training facility.”
Taylor said that he has an appointment with ISO in February for a new evaluation of the City’s insurance coverage, and that the expected lower rates are what will benefit the city the most. Local fire programs at Central Tech and other schools are also ecstatic about being able to use the training facility for their classes. “There are a lot of opportunities here,” said Taylor.
The Committee agreed to recommend approval to the full City Council to move forward with obtaining bids for the Fire Training Facility.
Once the training facility construction is underway, work on Fire Station #3 will commence.
The next City Council meeting is Monday, December 20, 2020 at 7 p.m. in the City Hall Council Chambers on the second floor.
