City, Lutheran Air reach deal

Lutheran Air is officially contracted to stay at Portland Municipal Airport through 2018.
Portland Board of Aviation approved a commercial contract with Lutheran Air that will include monthly payments to the City of Portland to total 50 percent of the costs of construction for the now-completed Lutheran Air headquarters.
The board also requested pay from the Federal Aviation Administration for two grants, submitted an end-of-year federal financial report and heard an update on the airport’s layout plan.
 Board members John Lyons, Dick Baldauf and Jim Runkle, absent Mitch Sutton, approved and signed a contract with Lutheran Air that will bring in an additional $1,200 a month in compensation for the newly built headquarters. That will bring the total rent the city receives from Lutheran Air each month to $2,950.
The contract also specified that Lutheran would pay exactly 50 percent of the cost of constructing the new headquarters, and that if the contract expires or is canceled, Lutheran will pay the remainder of the costs in one lump sum. The city paid for the construction up front, with Lutheran Air now set to reimburse 50 percent of the total $118,366 through the increased rent payments.
The board also approved two pay requests to be forwarded to the FAA and other funding sources. The first was a request for $50,959 from the FAA to bring the funding for the airport’s land acquisition grant to completion. The second pay request would bring in $6,212 from the FAA, $345.09 from the State of Indiana and $344.57 from local funds. The request would complete payment on a grant that funded the airport’s environmental study. Jason Clearwaters of Butler, Fairman & Seufert, the airport’s engineering firm, told the board that $7,461 of the environmental study grant would not be spent, and that it would roll over to next year.
The FAA requires that the board of aviation submit a financial report, covering the fiscal year that ended on Oct. 1. The board approved a financial report that summarized three grants that were funded in the 2016 fiscal year, at a total of $673,908. Board president John Lyons thanked Clearwaters for his work to acquire the grants.
“I would like to say personally that those funds, we would probably have never seen without your help,” Lyons said. “Speaking for myself and the rest of the board, job well done and thank you very much."
Clearwaters also told the board that he will be submitting the airport’s layout plan back to the FAA for a second review. The plan has been modified based on comments from the FAA’s first review.
In other business, the board:
•Heard from Clearwaters that a survey crew will mark the newly acquired land for the runway extension project sometime in the next couple of weeks.
•Discussed the upcoming draft of a new five-year capital improvement plan. The board said it will begin reviewing it and discussing possible changes at next month’s meeting.
•Heard from Mayor Randy Geesaman that an offer for $17,500 was made for the mobile home that previously served as the temporary headquarters from Lutheran Air. The home was originally purchased for $29,000.
•Heard from airport manager Hal Tavzel that there were 6,704 gallons of fuel sold in the month of October, for a revenue of $22,848.31. He said so far this month the airport has sold 3,441 gallons for $12,090.05.
•Approved $9,216.31 in claims.