City manager says budget is conservative again this year
A special budget workshop meeting of the Newcastle City Council was approved for 6 p.m. Tuesday, May 20.
City Manager Kevin Self said this is a meeting that is held every year with City staff to give the Council an opportunity to ask questions about the 2025-2026 budget before the document is finalized and the City’s required legal notice is published.
The workshop meeting is expected to take about two hours, according to Self.
After questions are answered and discussed, the City is required to publish a legal notice outlining the budget in the Newcastle Pacer. Self said it will come out in the Pacer’s May 29 issue.
Self said City administration and staff members had been very busy working on the budget for the last couple of weeks prior to the April Council meeting. He said various departments provided their budget requests and then, because of the state of the economy, “the cutting commenced.”
Self mentioned that the economy is currently unpredictable and revenues are down when compared to the same time in previous years.
He said, “Hopefully the revenues will improve, and there may be some things that happen over the next year to help with that, but right now we are looking at a worse case scenario and we are presenting a budget that is conservative again this year.”
Mayor Karl Nail said, “This is not something that is just thrown togeth-
BUDGET on page 3 er. I assure you. It is something that is well thought out.”
BUDGET: Infrastructure needs are an important part of the 2025-26 document
Nail recently outlined several projects in his State of the City presentation to the Newcastle Chamber of Commerce, which are either underway or being planned. These projects are necessary because of the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority announcement of its plans for the turnpike here, and a new Chickasaw Nation Hospital.
As reported in the Newcastle Pacer, just more than a two-year build-out is planned for a portion of the East-to-West Connector Turnpike between U.S. Interstate 44 in Newcastle and U.S. Interstate 35 in Norman. And, the Chickasaw Nation is moving along on its plan for a medical facility here which will eventually employ 5,500 people.
Because of these two projects and planned ancillary growth, the City is expanding infrastructure in the areas around I-44 and N.W. 32nd Street and also at State Highway 9 and State Highway 62.
