The Sulphur City Council now has two new faces on the board. Mitch Hull (Ward 1) and Dennis Voyles (Ward 2) were approved on Monday evening to fill the seats vacated last month with the resignations of Alan McKay and Derrick Stone. The pair will serve until a special-called election can be held or until the next annual municipal election inApril, 2027.
After approval, the two were administered the Oath of Office by City Attorney Thomas Marcum.
An agenda item to approve a Resolution calling for a Special Election on August 26, 2026 received no action at the request of City Manager Andy Freeman.
Members approved the consent agenda which included Amendments to the City of Sulphur 2025-26 budget and also the Sulphur Municipal Authority 2025-26 budget.
The City of Sulphur budget amendment was to transfer funds from the Code Enforcement Salary budget to the city attorney budget. This is the second time in just a few months that the city attorney budget has had to be supplemented from other departments. Recently, the council approved a $20,000.00 transfer from the police and fire budgets to pay the attorney and now an additional $6,000.00 has been approved taking the total attorney budget so far this year to more than $74,000.00, according to the city financial report.
The amendment request for the SMA was to transfer $55,000.00 from the water/sewer CD and sewer salaries to administration, public works and clerks-professional services.
Following city manager correspondence and updates, treasurer’s report and Sulphur Recovery updates, the members recessed into a public hearing.
The public hearing was set to discuss the re-zoning request by Bravo Ridge Development Group, LLC to rezone Lots 7 and 8 in Block 143 on the city of Sulphur.
A previous hearing was held last Wednesday evening at the Planning and Zoning Commission meeting where the members had a split, 2-2 vote to recommend the rezoning request to the council for final approval.
The request was made to allow the building of two-two story triplexes to be built on the property.
After hearing from several concerned citizens who live or own property in the area, council members returned to the regular meeting and unanimously voted to reject the request for rezoning.
Members approved Task Order #6 for Parkhill Engineering to engineer drainage improvements on West 9th and Muskogee Streets on the west side of the Sulphur High School.
The contract with RFD Construction for the fire department substation that was destroyed in the 2024 tornado was approved with a few amendments added. Change Order #1 on the project to add a full height brick to one of the end walls and change the roof color to charcoal gray on the building in the amount of $20,173.00 was also approved.
Three agenda items pertaining to the airport received no action at the meeting. The no action items were for a request to transfer funds from general fund to the airport fund and two payments to KSA Engineering for engineering fees on the airport crack and seal project in the amounts of $8,704.30 and $2,029.50.
The bid on a drainage box replacement project on Muskogee Street between West 15th and West 16th was approved in the amount of $381,581.95. The successful bidder was Treas Construction from Coalgate.
Payment #2 for the street paving project to Pavers, Inc. was approved in the amount of $348,388.75 .
Several annual contracts for 2026-2027 fiscal year were approved by the members including: employee medical insurance at $782.63 per month, up approximately $70.00 from last year; employee dental/ vision/life insurance with a slight increase from last year; worker’s compensation insurance with escrow funds applied toward payment; and property, liability and auto insurance.
An agreement with the Sulphur Firefighters Association and the city of Sulphur for Fiscal year 2026-27 was approved.
An emergency repair request on Water Well #9 to replace the electrical box was approved in an amount not to exceed $7,500.00. The repair will be made by Ramsey Ward Electric of Ardmore.
Discussion of the OWRB/Chickasaw Nation project water well transmission mains was again discussed with no action taken. The council approved the installation agreement between SMA and the Murray County Commissioners for use of the county easement on Koller Road for the line installation.
Members took no action on a grazing lease request as well as fencing of the 10 acres being purchased by the city from Corey Stevens where the water well has been drilled. The land purchase has not been completed, however members did approve payment to Sulphur Abstract company for the water well land purchase and closing costs in the amount of $405,445.00.
Approval was made on the purchase of a new backhoe for the water department in the amount of $136,700.00.
No action was taken on a bid for a TCM Module for a 2022 Freightliner M2 since no bids were received.
Payment of $812.50 was approved to Del Sol Consulting for storm debris removal for April.
In final agenda action, the board approved transferring $148,543.92 of ARPA Funds from the Sulphur Municipal Authority Fund to the 1/6 water/sewer fund for reimbursement of prepaid engineering fees on the recent ARAP project to replace a portion of the lead line on Wynnewood Street.
After a short executive session to discuss the employment contract of Andy Freeman, members returned to regular session and approved the same as last year’s contract with a variance to live outside city limits plus same cost of living raise as others employees for the next fiscal year.
In updates, Freeman reminded members of the 2026-2027 Budget Hearing scheduled for next Monday (June 16).
Freeman also told members a meeting will be held this Friday at 2:00 p.m. for property owners in Block 176 in the City of Sulphur. The block is located south of Muskogee Street between West 2nd and 3rd Streets and north of Broadway. It is the block that was completely destroyed in the tornado. Plans are to get the property completely leveled and cleared.
Other ongoing projects were also updated by Freeman. In the consent agenda, the board approved the following:
•payment not exceed $900.00 to FirstNet for cell phone service;
•payment not to exceed $25,000.00 to Finish Line for June fuel expenses;
•payment of $200.00 to Roy Woodall for interpreting services;
•payments of $165.86, $248.50, $179.24 and $291.40 to Sulphur Times Democrat for bid notices;
•payments of $58.76 and $59.60 to Sulphur Times Democrat for public hearing notices;
•payment of $2,500.00 to Tom Marcum for attorney retainer;
•payments of $125.84 and $367.50 to Murray County Insurance for public employee bonds;
•payment of $14.72 to Language Line Services Inc. for interpreting;
•payments of $1,441.38 and $969.32 to Holt Truck Centers for 2013 International truck repairs; and
•payment of $522.10 to Premiere Truck Group for diagnostic on truck #24.
All council members were present at the meeting.
