As we near the three-year mark of the latest voter-approved CIP funding measure, the majority of Lawton's roads remain in desperate need of repair.

It's important to note that it's not for a lack of trying. Over the last nearly three years, the city seems to have allocated as much manpower to fix our roads as just enough to say they're working on it. They only have so much budget for a certain period of time, no need to get in a hurry to spend it.

In the last few years since the 2020 CIP vote, it's worth mentioning that there has been progress in repairing our roads.

  • East 45th Street between Gore and Lee/Hwy 7 is glorious.
  • Sections of C and B Avenue in midtown were rebuilt as part of a sewer project.
  • Technically Ferris between Fort Sill Blvd and 2nd is new, but it's a technicality since they just piled new asphalt atop the old road bed.
  • Sections of Lee Boulevard have been redone. Lawton just celebrated the Phase 1 completion of this project back in October.

Results come slow.

I had the chance to talk to Mayor Stan Booker about roads and CIP progress in 2021. He's a super nice guy, and as I found out, he'll shoot pretty straight. When the conversation about projects and progress at the city became the topic, he was the first to admit that municipal results come slow.

Chalk it up to bureaucratic red tape and the process of local government... The whole "A camel is a horse designed by committee" thing. The crossing of T's and dotting of I's, studies, design, bidding, logistics, etc... are what get in the way of real progress.

Not for a lack of trying.

The city did start an interesting program not long ago to address the worst of Lawton's road problems. It's an online program where we can report potholes directly to the street department with the intention of expediting repairs.

It was supposed to work like this... You report a pothole, and the city will fix it within 72 hours.

In a perfect world, that's exactly how it would have worked... but this world is far from perfect and the department quickly fell far behind that 72-hour goal. While most chalk it up to Lawton being Lawton, the benefit of the doubt would suggest the program was too successful, inundating the department with more work than they were able to do.

It's still progress.

Life and work in City Hall will continue on as it always does. Everything will eventually get done in time to start over again. Like everything, roads are cyclical. I doubt there's a single town in America without a road to repair.

As it stands, the only roads left that need fixing in 2023 are highlighted below in red.

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Lawton's Worst Roads As Voted By You

Roads have always been a hot topic in Lawton. The local government always promises to fix them when elections are at stake, but the improvements never come. It's more of the same crumbling roads and bandaid patches due to what the city describes as "too little funding," even though we continually vote for bonds to satisfy these issues.

Here are the worst commonly used roads in Lawton as voted by you.

Oklahoma Diner's, Drive-In's, and Dive's Guy Fieri Raved About On TV

We all know Guy Fieri is the self-proclaimed Mayor of Flavortown, and as such, we generally trust his discerning palate to guide us to the best food any place has to offer. At least the places he tends to go often offer up some really good eats, and in looking at this list, having eaten at most of these places a handful of times, he's not wrong. Here are the Oklahoma original restaurants that have been featured on Triple-D.

15 More Amazing Southwest Oklahoma Hole-In-The-Wall Eats

It's far too easy to be lulled into thinking the same old chain restaurants are the "good" places to eat across Southwest Oklahoma. You won't find a single franchise on this list. It's all locally owned, locally run, sometimes a little run down, but you'll agree the meals are outstanding when you walk away with a belly full of the good stuff.

In no particular order, here are another fifteen amazing local Southwest Oklahoma eats, and be sure to check out the O.G. 15 Amazing SWOK Hole-In-The-Wall Eats right here when you're done...

 

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