A 13-year-old “understanding” between the City of Purcell and Norman developer Mark Cox caught Purcell Public Works Authority trustees off guard Monday when Cox asked for more than $31,000 reimbursement from the city.

The reimbursement was for establishing electric service on 18 lots sold in the Arbor Addition.

After the understanding was reached in 2007, Cox received $10,490.52 from Purcell for electrical service to six lots initially sold in the addition.

Eighteen more lots have been sold in the years since, but Cox never asked for the reimbursement of $1,748.42 per meter until now.

The total before the trustees was $31,471.56.

Developers who bring electric service to individual lots –work normally performed by the city’s Electric Department – can seek reimbursement for their costs when those lots sell and the meters are activated.

After some discussion, trustees approved the reimbursement with one provision – that Cox seek reimbursement on the five outstanding lots as they are sold.

Trustees also heard a disturbing report from Jackie Wadley of Wadley EMS.

While reporting quarterly figures for July through September, Wadley shared the fallout from Oklahoma’s spiking COVID-19 numbers.

Even as transports of COVID-19 patients have risen, hospitals across the Oklahoma City metro are at capacity and aren’t accepting patients.

Norman Regional has been “completely packed” at all its facilities for the last month, Wadley said.

“The only thing they will take from us are heart attack or stroke patients,” he said. “A lot of patients we know will have to go somewhere else.”

That somewhere else is increasingly OU Health Edmond Medical Center.

“We’ve probably made five trips to OU Edmond in the last week,” he said.

Those transfers eat miles and time, taking an ambulance out of service at least an hour longer than a transfer to Norman Regional or an Oklahoma City hospital.

Purcell Municipal Hospital has been great, taking up much of the slack, Wadley continued.

It’s gotten so bad that Wadley is getting calls from the hospitals at Ada and Duncan asking if he can do transfers for them.