SW Oklahoma ARPA Regional Alliance - City of Lawton

PROJECT PURPOSE

This project consists of two regional trail projects connecting Lawton?s downtown core trail network to the Lawton Fort Sill Regional Airport and connecting the Lawton Community to the nearby Town of Cache, and to the Wichita Mountain Wildlife Refuge. The current bike trail on the shoulder of US 62 between Lawton and Cache/HWY 115 provides a critical link between the two communities and also a link through HWY 115 to the Wichitas Mountain Wildlife Refuge. The speeds and truck traffic on US 62 are not compatible with the existing on-shoulder bike route and there have been several bicycle-automobile incidents in the past several years. This project, affectionately named the Fit Kids Fitness Trailway Cooper Connector, after long time chairman of the Fit Kids Coalition of SW Oklahoma, Dr. Ben Cooper, consists of creating a trail by paving low use county roads and linking them with a 10-foot wide dedicated bicycle and pedestrian trailway making this same important connection with a significant increase in safety and accessibility. The Fort Sill to Lawton Regional Airport Connector completes the important bicycle and pedestrian route connecting Fort Sill from the access gate on Fort Sill Blvd, thru Elmer Thomas Park, Lawton?s Downtown Entertainment District, the new FISTA Center for Excellence and then down the abandoned railway line south to the Lawton Fort Sill Regional Airport. This alignment not only connects our most important economic and recreational resources to Fort Sill, but also links a number of lower income neighborhoods, providing a safe transportation corridor for those not traveling by automobile by choice or necessity.

EVIDENCE

The economic impacts of the COVID 19 pandemic are still being felt in every community. Beyond the lost revenue and impact to tourism, our workforce has suffered and our costs to provide critical municipal services continues to increase. With this project, the non-automobile transportation options and recreations opportunities within the region will touch every age group and demographic, every member of our community, and provide a safe outdoor interaction while respecting social distancing/personal space. The tourism benefits of a good trail system have been long established.

POPULATION DESCRIPTION

While Southwest Oklahoma continues to work very hard to improve conditions for our citizens, we continue to struggle with poverty and decline. With 18.5% of our population in poverty and only 45% of our households in owner occupied homes. Our median household income of just less than $48,000 is more than 10% below that of the state. Lawton is a very diverse, inclusive and progressive community, but we lack the resources to create the kind of community improvement projects that can move us economically to the next level. Southwestern Oklahoma has felt impact of the pandemic through stagnant municipal revenues and significantly increasing costs due to supply delays and labor shortage. Being somewhat isolated from the region's larger metropolitan communities, Lawton has seen our labor force slowly eroded through relocation to the larger cities that can provide more quality of life amenities. This project will put Lawton on equal footing with the river trails in Oklahoma City and Tulsa.

PERFORMANCE MEASURING

The usage and benefits of trail Improvements can be measured directly by usage traffic counters and elimination or reduction in vehicle-pedestrian/vehicle-bicycle collisions on the existing on-street routes.

ONGOING INVESTMENT AMOUNT

$

ONGOING INVESTMENT DESCRIPTION

None

ONGOING INVESTMENT REQUIRED

Able to continue operation without additional funding from the State of Oklahoma