Last Updated on August 6, 2023, 2:50 AM | Published: February 23, 2023
MOORE, Okla — The Moore City Council met with little resistance, breaking its contentious streak and finding solutions to some recent problems. Here’s what you need to know;
- Council members agreed on how to pursue the curbside recycling proposal, voting to have it on the May 9th ballot.
- Moore begins negotiating a contract for its new library design with MSR Design, the same firm which worked on Norman’s new library.
Curbside Recycling on May 9 ballot
The City Council made significant progress on their months-long effort to make a curbside recycling proposal reality.
In Monday’s meeting, the council arrived with a ballot measure that looked to define many of the issues found last time the council met.
“Shall Ordinance No. 1018(23) of the City of Moore, Oklahoma, which amends Section 17-209 of Chapter 2 of Part 17 of the Code of Ordinances of the City of Moore establishing an initial rate for required bi-weekly residential curbside recycling for $3.90 per month, with a two percent (2.000%) increase each year for years 2 through 5; provides for an effective date; and provides for the severability thereof be approved?”
The five-year contract the City looks to enter with Republic, the curbside recycling service provider, will cost $4.30 per cart, per month in total.
If the measure is passed, the City of Moore will reduce the services provided by their public recycling center and use those funds to subsidize the program, reducing the cost for residents to the $3.90 number listed in the ballot language.
Republic will raise the cost of the service by at least 4% each year, however the City will subsidize this and only increase the charge to residents by 2% annually.
Republic reserves the right to raise the cost beyond that 4% number if fuel or non-recyclable materials raise their operating costs beyond what they consider reasonable.
City Manager Brooks Mitchell stated that “[I] reached out to Republic and they said even though they reserve the right to do that, they have yet to do that with any of their other cities.”
The ballot language makes it clear that any potential raise in service costs will be absorbed by the City of Moore and residents will not be charged beyond what is listed in the measure.
In short, residents will be on the hook for a mandatory $3.90 per month, which will increase by 2% ($.07) starting the second year of the contract..
The Moore City council eventually voted for the measure, but only before clarifying that this only authorized it to be on the May 9th election ballot were Moore residents would make the choice for themselves.
Councilmember Mark Hamm had a few things to say to the chamber before the item was wrapped up,specifically on the fact that the City has to spend $10,000 to get the question on an elective ballot when they could have passed it themselves.
“I appreciate the $10,000, and yeah we would like to spend it on something better, but I would be upset if we just passed this without letting the people in our community at least have a voice.”
“I’m not necessarily in favor of this… I’m ready for this to go, we’ve worked through it and talked about it and let’s just put it out there to a vote and see what the people decide.”
Moore residents will see the question on the May 9 ballot, and more information on this specific measure can be found on the City of Moore website.
New Moore City Library design negotiation begins
Late last year, Moore City and the Pioneer Library System pursued their desire to build a new Library in Moore.
The City’s 55-year old facility is starting to show its age一and serving a community more than 3 times larger than it had when it was built hasn’t helped.
The City Council had authorized staff to begin soliciting proposals for a new library design, allocating $200,000 of the City’s budget to cover design fees in a meeting last November.
This week, The Council finally settled on a design firm after an intense application and interview process from several providers. The results were in line with what I had thought.
The City of Moore settled on MSR Design, The same firm which designed the fairly recent Norman Public Library. I predicted that Moore’s new library could look similar to Norman’s last November, but they have actually decided to contract the same firm, even after a competitive application process.
There is no timeline as of now for when the Library will be constructed, but City Manager Brooks Mitchell did state that, regarding the funds for design, “there will be another request with this year’s budget.”
The City only authorized that they start negotiating a contract with MSR, and so the design phase is yet to begin.
The City currently plans to have the new library in Moore’s Central Park, and after proposals are created, residents will have a chance to give some input on the new library through a few community engagement meetings.
The next Moore City Council meeting is scheduled for Monday, March 6th at 6:30 PM.
Damian Powell is our government reporter for the smaller municipalities in the OKC metro such as Moore, Norman, Bethany, and Warr Acres. Damian is studying Political Science at the University of Oklahoma.
