#OKC BOXSCORE
AIRPORT PARKING RATES
The Oklahoma City Airport Trust has approved increases in parking rates at Will Rogers World Airport. Rates for long-term covered parking in Garages B and C will go from $7 to $9 per day, a hike of nearly 29 percent. Shuttle lot rates will go up by $1. New rates will take effect Nov. 1. Proceeds are going toward a new parking fee collection system, and to garage signage, renovations and repairs. A new 1,750-space surface parking lot and new parking garage also are planned.
Rate increases are expected to bring in nearly $2.4 million in additional revenue in 2017.
PARKING GARAGE COSTS
City leaders have proposed redirecting $10 million from MAPS 3 to develop surface parking and an 865-space parking garage at the new convention center and hotel downtown. Parking garage construction is generally measured on a cost-perspace basis. Here’s how three city garage projects compare:
• Arts District garage, 830 spaces, opened November 2014: $29,400 per space.
• Proposed Will Rogers World Airport garage, 2,125 spaces: $22,700 per space.
• Proposed downtown convention center garage, 865 spaces: $40,700 per space.
NEW UTILITIES DIRECTOR
Chris Browning has been named Oklahoma City’s utilities director, succeeding Marsha Slaughter, who retired this summer. Browning has been a Texas-based utilities consultant and previously was public works director in McKinney, Texas. He earned engineering and public administration degrees from universities in Georgia. Drinking water, wastewater treatment, solid waste and recycling services are provided by the Utilities Department. Upcoming projects include a second 100-mile pipeline to bring water to the city from reservoirs in southeastern Oklahoma.
FACT CHECK: WARD 1 CITY COUNCIL RACE
Chris Gordon is challenging firstterm Councilman James Greiner for the Ward 1 council seat.
Claim: In an email to supporters, Gordon said Greiner “voted against a resolution passed by the majority of our city council aimed at protecting our city’s drinking water.”
Analysis: The council voted 6-2 on Sept. 13 for a resolution “urging all registered voters in the city of Oklahoma City to vote ‘no’ on State Question 777,” the so-called right-tofarm measure on the Nov. 8 ballot. Discussing the resolution, Ward 8 Councilman Mark Stonecipher said he was concerned the proposed constitutional amendment would adversely affect access to clean, safe drinking water.
Greiner characterized the measure as a hindrance to effective zoning regulations and said he planned to vote against it but thought “citizens should come to that conclusion on their own.”
Ward 3 Councilman Larry McAtee also said it was not the council’s role to tell citizens how to vote, and joined Greiner in voting ‘no.’
Verdict: Gordon’s claim is misleading.
IT’S A FACT
The Oklahoma City Fire Department and Local 157 firefighters will present a check to a family struck by a recent fatal fire.
Firefighters have a donation fund for when children are affected by a fire.
THE WEEK AHEAD
The city council meets at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday at City Hall, 200 N Walker Ave.
The council could vote on a proposal to set an official Indigenous Peoples Day observance in Oklahoma City on the second Monday in October.
A year ago, the council decided against adding the observance to the calendar, on a 5-4 vote.
Mayor Mick Cornett, president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, hosts the organization’s Fall Leadership Meeting Thursday through Saturday in Oklahoma City.
PRESENT/ABSENT
Mayor Mick Cornett and seven of the eight city council members attended the Sept. 13 meeting. Ward 5 Councilman David Greenwell was attending the American Public Transportation Association 2016 annual meeting in Los Angeles.
THEY SAID IT
“Be with these folks as they meet this morning, Lord, to maximize the hours of the day. Help them to think clearly without confusion, to speak honestly without rancor, to debate without division, to decide courageously without contention. … Grant the members of this council your grace to work today as patriots who love you and count it a high privilege to serve as leaders of our beloved city.”
— Pastor Doug Runyan of OKC Trinity Church of the Nazarene, from his invocation before the Sept. 13 city council meeting.
Trinity Nazarene, in southwest Oklahoma City, formed in 1935 and serves a diverse congregation with Sunday school and worship services in English and Spanish.