City of Muskogee

PROJECT PURPOSE

This City of Muskogee is requesting $4,950,00 to replace its aging waterlines that have reached a critical point. Most of the city?s infrastructure is well over 100 years old and the waterlines are in desperate need of replacement to continue serving nearly 40,000 residents. Many of the waterlines within our infrastructure system have had multiple repairs and continue to fail on a regular basis. These failures regularly interrupt service to homes and businesses, disrupting the lives of our residents and straining the city economy. When repairing these breaks in the waterline, city staff must turn off valves to isolate the leaking line. In every instance these valves are closed, more pressure is distributed to other parts of the distribution system that is already at a critical stress point. These repeated failures not only put a stress on our aging distribution system, businesses, and residents, but the city repair staff as well. The frailty of our aging waterline infrastructure requires that they work overtime hours to meet the needs of our residents and businesses, negatively impacting their lives in addition to the city budget.

EVIDENCE

The waterline infrastructure for the City of Muskogee is over 100 years old, requiring line repairs on an almost daily basis, which negatively impacts residents, businesses, and city operations.

POPULATION DESCRIPTION

Muskogee is the largest city (36,878) and seat for rural Muskogee County (67,000), designated as a StrikeZone by the USDA because of its high poverty rate (24.6%) and its many economic disparities and challenges. Muskogee is a poor, diverse and rural population that has been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic due to restricted access to health services and socioeconomic challenges resulting from inadequate infrastructure, limited economic development opportunities, inconsistent broadband access, and access to employment. In addition to chronic poverty, other vulnerable populations include the elderly, children, and minorities. The pandemic led directly led to the residents of Muskogee suffering the closure of several major retailers and numerous small businesses, making access to basic commodities a challenge. Also, these closures will continue to negatively impact sales tax revenues for the city for years to come. As such, there is a critical need to address residential and commercial infrastructure needs for our vulnerable population. Despite these challenges, Muskogee remains a regional hub with residents from six surrounding counties traveling there daily for employment, services, and entertainment. A commitment to replacing waterlines would attract new business and would benefit the people of Muskogee and the larger region.

PERFORMANCE MEASURING

Project performance for the replacement and mitigation of water infrastructure for the City of Muskogee will be measured by the completion of the project according to schedule and within the established budget.

ONGOING INVESTMENT AMOUNT

$

ONGOING INVESTMENT DESCRIPTION

None

ONGOING INVESTMENT REQUIRED

One-time project will not need continued funding