Board gives OK to 5-year outlook
Biggest project is runway extension
Board gives OK to 5-year outlook
The city’s airport has an updated improvement plan for the next few years.
Portland Board of Aviation voted Wednesday to approve Portland Municipal Airport’s capital improvement plan, which runs through 2024.
The capital improvement plan is the city’s request for funding from Indiana Department of Transportation and Federal Aviation Administration. It lays out the projects the city hopes to undertake over the next few years, the estimated costs and the anticipated contributions from FAA, INDOT and the city.
At the top of the list is the runway extension project, which will extend the current 4,000-foot runway to 5,500 feet. The expansion will allow larger aircraft to land at the airport and is expected to significantly increase the number of flights to the airport each year.
Butler, Fairman and Seufert, the airport’s engineering firm, is in the midst of designing phase two of the extension project, which should be ready to bid by late spring or early summer.
The extension is slated to begin construction this year, if it receives the discretionary funding of $3.64 million the airport has requested from FAA on its improvement plan. A match of $202,356 would be required of both the state and Portland.
“We don’t stop waving that flag until the very end,” said Andrew Maksymovitch, BF&S’s grant administrator. “Until the very end of September when they (FAA) stop issuing grants.”
The city has also requested supplemental funding from the federal omnibus spending bill, which allocated $1 billion for rural airports to be distributed in 2018, ’19 and ’20.
That request for $3.2 million was submitted in October, but there has been no word yet.
“We haven’t heard anything, but the way the political climate is …” Maksymovitch said. “There’s other, higher, pressing issues in Washington right now.”
The funding could allow the project to start sooner, especially if the request for discretionary funding from FAA is not approved or pushed back.
Other projects on the capital improvement plan are:
2019: Conduct environmental assessment for terminal apron expansion and reconstruction and assess wildlife hazard and create a management plan
2020: Design terminal apron expansion
2021: Construct terminal apron expansion and design terminal apron reconstruction
2022: Construct terminal apron reconstruction and conduct assessments for wildlife control and security fence and 10-unit T-hangar
2023: Design 10-unit T-hangar and wildlife control and security fence
2024: Construct wildlife control and security fence and 10-unit T-hangar
In other business, board members John Lyons, Dick Baldauf, Mitch Sutton and Faron Parr:
•Were updated on three projects that have been completed since the board last met in November. TJ’s Concrete refurbished the gravel in the parking lot; Display Craft created a cover for the fuel terminal to protect the credit card machine from the elements; and PowerLift Hydraulic Doors installed a new door for hangar 20, with Brewster Electric completing the electrical work once it was in place.
•Approved a pay request of $635.66 for its share of phase one of the runway extension plan.
•Reelected Lyons as board president and Sutton as vice president.
•Learned the airport sold around 60,000 gallons of fuel in 2018, earning $238,853.57. In 2017, the airport sold around 64,000 gallons of fuel for $227,207.19.
In November, the airport sold 5,377 gallons of fuel for $20,781.17, and in December sold 4,848 gallons for $19,535.11. In 2017, the airport sold 4,911 gallons of fuel for $18,437.78 in November.
•Heard from Portland Mayor Randy Geesaman that Indiana Michigan Power is seeking an easement to update its utilities in the area around the airport. The city attorney is reviewing the easement, but Geesaman does not anticipate any problem.
