City of Tulsa officials propose spending $35 million to fix crumbling facilities

TULSA - The city engineering department proposes spending $35.2 million renovating city-owned buildings, many of which are falling apart.

The proposed repairs may be part of a capital improvements project, which would also extend the Fix Our Streets program. The package could be sent to voters in November.

The city's buildings and facilities operations manager, Thomas Chandler, showed 2NEWS some of the crumbling infrastructure.

At police headquarters, a private parking lot for police and judges is full of potholes.

On the other side of the facility, part of the parking garage is crumbling, exposing many underlying steel beams.

"If you're not looking up or looking for it, you probably would not see it," said Chandler.

The problems don't end there.

At the fire training center, some of the building's siding is falling off.

Chandler says most buildings need paint jobs too.

"We need to get our facilities up to speed and looking presentable," said Chandler.

Chandler said indoor problems include outdated heat and air-conditioning equipment and energy-sucking lightbulbs.

"They are the largest consumers of electricity in our facilities and so consequently we want those to be efficiently as we can possibly make them," Chandler said.

Chandler said none of the problems prevent police, fire and other city workers from effectively doing their jobs.  But he says the longer the city waits to make the repairs, the worse they will become.

"The longer we want, the greater the cost. Tackling these problems now resolves a lot of these issues and it makes our facilities more energy efficient and cost-effective," Chandler said.

The city wants to hear public input in regards to what should be included in the capital improvements project.

The first meeting is scheduled for March 4.

Click here for a full list of neighborhood meetings (http://bit.ly/fixyourstreets).