Published: October 01, 2008 10:54 am      

County takes over Claud Gill arena

DUNCAN — An hour-long discussion Monday with the Claud Gill Arena Association over possibly leasing the Duncan Rodeo Arena and grounds resulted with no action taken by the Stephens County commissioners.

As a result, the county will take over the maintenance and operations of the rodeo arena grounds that are just south of the fairgrounds. All the utilities will also be taken care of by the county.

The association entered a one-year agreement to lease the land from the county back in 1996, but since that time, the lease was never officially renewed.

As a consequence, if the county wanted to re-enter a lease agreement with the association, it would first have to go out for bids.

Assistant District Attorney Josh Creekmore said that under state statute, when a county wants to sell property, it has to go out for bids on that sale. For a lease, it would be the same.

But going out for bids was something to which the commissioners and the association were opposed.

The only alternative that the commissioners saw feasible was to request the association book the dates that it wants to rent the arena and grounds from the county directly.

Commissioner Dee Bowen said he wanted the association to continue using the facility whenever it needs to.

“We appreciate all the work you’ve done down there,” Bowen said.

The commissioners and association will continue in this manner indefinitely, but were open for meeting together sometime in the future to review the situation and possibly take action at that time.

In other news, the commissioners approved a grant application to the Association of South Central Oklahoma Governments (ASCOG) for the construction of waterlines and installation of fire hydrants.

Jim Vanzant, director of supportive services for ASCOG, said that the application will now be prepared and submitted on Nov. 20 to the 10-member executive committee of ASCOG.

That committee will score all the applications submitted and prepare a ranking report to submit to the full 35-member board of ASCOG on Dec. 18, Vanzant said.

The board will vote on the appropriations for all the applications, he said.

“The average grant awarded last year was $30,000 and totaled over $1.5 million,” Vanzant said.

“This year, we have approximately the same amount from the state’s Department of Commerce to appropriate.”