Sonrise lease approved

A lease is now in place for more expansion at Portland’s airport.

Portland Board of Aviation on Wednesday approved a ground lease with Sonrise Aviation for the construction of a new hangar for the charter firm at Portland Municipal Airport.

The ground lease comes in at $325 per month for the planned 80-foot-square hangar. It spans 50 years, after which the building will become the property of the city.

Sonrise has been in expansion mode over the last year, first receiving approval for a 25-foot-by-70-foot addition to connect existing hangars in July 2022. (It was completed in May.)

“We’re just outgrowing our hangar,” Hal Tavzel, owner of Sonrise and also manager of Portland Municipal Airport, told the aviation board at the time.

That same month, Tavzel approached Portland Redevelopment Commission to seek funding assistance to construct a new 80-by-80-foot hangar. He explained that the new hangar would allow the business to store larger planes.

Sonrise owned six planes at the time and was looking to purchase another. The company also manages several planes. Because of lack of space, some of those planes are stored at Randolph County Airport east of Winchester.

“So we’re expanding our business,” he said. “We’ve outgrown our facility.”

The redevelopment commission in December approved providing $75,000 to Portland Economic Development Corporation to be passed on to Sonrise for the project.

Aviation board members Faron Parr, Clyde Bray and Caleb Lutes, absent John Ferguson, approved the lease with Sonrise to allow the project to move forward.

Excavation for the new Sonrise hangar is scheduled to begin late next week. The building is expected to be completed near the end of fall.

Tavzel has also advocated for constructing a new hangar for airport patrons, noting that all of its current spaces are full.

The board also heard updates from Jason Clearwaters of engineering firm Butler, Fairman and Seufert, including that the airport was approved last week for a $113,120 FAA grant to complete the design of its proposed apron expansion. The work will likely begin in late summer/early fall with a target of bidding the project in the spring.

He also noted that the airport’s application for reimbursement of the remainder of the cost to acquire land for the runway extension project through funds made available in the 2021 federal infrastructure bill has been submitted. A call with the FAA to discuss the request is scheduled for Thursday.

Clearwaters reported that an update to the facility’s airport layout plan indicating the extension of the runway to 5,500 feet from the previous 4,000 feet has been submitted to the FAA. The runway extension project was completed last fall.

In other business, the board:

•Learned the airport’s fly-in breakfast is scheduled for Aug. 26. The American Legion Riders will run the breakfast again after taking over the event last year. A Young Eagles event — the organization provides free plane rides to those ages 8 through 17 — is scheduled for Sept. 30.

•Approved the following: a final balancing change order for the runway extension project resulting in a reduction in the cost of the overall project by $33,353.06 to a total of $2.89 million; a pay request from Milestone Contractors for the runway extension project of $181,577.98; and FAA grant pay requests of $168,899.17 (all federally funded) for phase two of the runway project and $5,180.36 (90% FAA funded with 5% each from Indiana Department of Transportation and the city) for a wildlife hazard assessment that is in progress.

•Heard from Tavzel that 6,982 gallons of fuel were sold in May for $30,588.75. That’s up from 5,447 gallons sold in May 2022.