Airport to purchase trailer

The staff of the Lutheran Air helicopter will have a temporary home at Portland Municipal Airport.
Portland Board of Aviation on Thursday voted to purchase a trailer to serve as office space and living quarters for the helicopter’s crew until renovations to an airport breezeway can be completed.
Board members Mike McKee, John Lyons and Dick Baldauf, with Jim Runkle absent, voted to approve the purchase of the trailer from Evergreen Manufactured Homes, Goshen. The purchase price is $29,049 plus $800 for delivery and some additional set-up costs expected.
The trailer will be 14 feet by 56 feet (a 52-foot box plus 4 feet for the hitch) with two offices, a living area, a kitchen and a bathroom. One of the offices will include a bed for the pilot, which is required by law.
The trailer is expected to be delivered two to three weeks from the date of order, and the aviation board hopes to have it in place and Lutheran Air on site by mid-October. It will be placed north of the existing breezeway and will sit partially on a driveway that runs along the north side of the airport. Because it will block the driveway, a second entrance east of the main entrance will be open to allow access to the entire airport.
Portland Board of Zoning Appeals granted the aviation board a one-year waiver to allow the trailer to be parked at the airport. City ordinance typically allows them to be used only in designated trailer parks.
Lutheran Air and the board on June 17 approved an agreement for Lutheran Air 1 to be based at Portland Municipal Airport beginning Sept. 1. Renovations to a breezeway to be used as an office and living space for the crew were expected to be complete by that date.
However, airport officials were thrown a curveball when they learned a permit from Indiana Department of Homeland Security would be necessary in order to make the changes to the breezeway. Engineers and Jay/Portland Building and Planning Department had previously indicated such a permit would not be necessary.

“The reason that we had to have state permits boiled down to it’s an existing building that has a change of use,” said McKee, board of aviation president.
After learning that the permit was needed, the board put that process on the back burner while focusing on finding a temporary solution in order to get Lutheran Air to Portland as soon as possible. Renovations to the breezeway are to include a bedroom, dining section, living room, office, kitchenette, laundry room and full bedroom with Lutheran picking up 60 percent of the cost with a project cap of $40,000.
“As soon as we get the helicopter here, get the crew here, that’s the next step,” McKee said.
When the breezeway renovations are complete and the trailer is no longer needed, the aviation board plans to sell it. McKee said the dealer has said the board can expect to receive 50 to 75 percent of the original cost.
Once in Portland, Lutheran Air will be staffed by a pilot, flight nurse and paramedic working 12-hour shifts. Each of the hospital’s two helicopters — the other is stationed in Wabash — covers a 150-mile radius from its base.
The aviation board’s agreement with Lutheran is a three-year lease at $1,750 per month with a pair of automatic one-year renewals.