PRYOR, Oklahoma — The city of Pryor built a new police and fire station and remodeled the library, but it had to borrow money to build them.
The new fire and police station and library extension were originally budgeted for around $9 million.
Last month, the mayor of Pryor announced the project was somewhere between $1.3 and $1.7 million over budget.
“That was to be expected because of COVID mainly with all the trucking shutting down and all the supplies being unavailable,” retired Mayes County fire medic Janet Littleford said.
The city council asked for an independent audit at its Nov. 15 council meeting.
“The audit needs to be on everybody who was on the workings of the project,” said Chris Gonthier, a councilman for Pryor’s Ward 4. “Yes, we hold the purse strings but we were not informed nor did we know that we were in the red on the project.”
Gonthier says to be transparent, the audit needs to be external.
Mayor Larry Lees says he already started the process of an internal audit and was surprised when the council asked for its own independent audit.
“Instead of picking up the phone and calling, council placed a demand for an agenda item on council meeting and I feel that was not needed,” he said.
Littleford thinks the audit is a good idea but she says, two audits is silly.
“I think they should have communicated together,” she said, “That’s what they have council meetings for monthly.”
On Dec. 6, the council will decide if it will have both audits.
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