Aviation Board Awards Bids For Lease Of 2 Parcels Near Airport
June 14, 2017 at 4:13 p.m.
By David [email protected]
Neither of the two bidders – Bishop Farms or Tom Farms – bid on the third parcel of land, which is 81.66 acres to the east of the airport.
Tom Farms was awarded the lease on the two parcels. It bid $11,152.05 annually for the 62.23 acres (parcel A) on the north side of the airport and $7,704.45 (parcel B) for the 43.38 acres just on the east side of CR 100. Bishop Farms’ sealed bids were $9,900 for parcel A and $6,950 for parcel B.
At the April Aviation Commissioners meeting, Airport Manager Nick King reminded the board that the airport was coming up to the end of its three-year lease with Tom Farms for the two parcels. The airport recently purchased the third parcel of land (parcel C) to the east of the airport so it included it this year in the bid process.
Gene Zale, board member, asked if parcel C “was all that bad.”
NGC Aviation Consultants engineer Ken Ross said it includes a lot of wetlands.
Later in his engineer’s report, Ross said the Federal Aviation Administration had its land use inspection at the airport Monday and Tuesday. In addition to three people from the FAA, King said there were four people from the Indiana Department of Transportation who participated.
“I think in the grand scheme of things, we thought it went reasonably well,” Ross said. He said there were some things the FAA and INDOT wanted to discuss before finishing their report.
Board President Jay Rigdon asked what type of things the FAA and INDOT were looking for in the inspection.
“They came in and it was an all-encompassing inspection of the entire airport. It’s called a Federal Land Use Audit, but it is making sure that we are being compliant with all of our different grant assurances. So every time we get a grant, there’s different things that Jay and I and the board assure the FAA we are doing these things. And the biggest ones are that we are as self-sustaining as possible. That is one of the big high-ticket items the FAA (looks at),” King said.
He said in Monday’s inspection, officials sat down and went through every lease that the airport has with different tenets for over four hours. Then at about 4:30 p.m. Monday, King said they all sat down together for another 2-1/2 hours and went through all the questions and concerns raised by officials.
At about 7 a.m. Tuesday, King said they had a complete walk-through of the hangars. They also looked at all the pavement, runway approaches and did a perimeter check.
“They’ve been very, very great to work with so far,” King said. “The next step is for them to write their final report.”
Ross said they used the inspection to discuss with the FAA some of the Warsaw Airport’s past grants and other issues.
In two other items, the board approved the land lease purchase of hangar 6D from Bill Dean to Mark and Leann Ganger, and for WRSW to use land at the airport for its “50 Local Men” cook-off Oct. 7. In 2016, the charity cook-off was held downtown but it had a bigger-than-expected turnout.
The Aviation Commissioners’ next meeting is at 5:15 p.m. July 11.
Neither of the two bidders – Bishop Farms or Tom Farms – bid on the third parcel of land, which is 81.66 acres to the east of the airport.
Tom Farms was awarded the lease on the two parcels. It bid $11,152.05 annually for the 62.23 acres (parcel A) on the north side of the airport and $7,704.45 (parcel B) for the 43.38 acres just on the east side of CR 100. Bishop Farms’ sealed bids were $9,900 for parcel A and $6,950 for parcel B.
At the April Aviation Commissioners meeting, Airport Manager Nick King reminded the board that the airport was coming up to the end of its three-year lease with Tom Farms for the two parcels. The airport recently purchased the third parcel of land (parcel C) to the east of the airport so it included it this year in the bid process.
Gene Zale, board member, asked if parcel C “was all that bad.”
NGC Aviation Consultants engineer Ken Ross said it includes a lot of wetlands.
Later in his engineer’s report, Ross said the Federal Aviation Administration had its land use inspection at the airport Monday and Tuesday. In addition to three people from the FAA, King said there were four people from the Indiana Department of Transportation who participated.
“I think in the grand scheme of things, we thought it went reasonably well,” Ross said. He said there were some things the FAA and INDOT wanted to discuss before finishing their report.
Board President Jay Rigdon asked what type of things the FAA and INDOT were looking for in the inspection.
“They came in and it was an all-encompassing inspection of the entire airport. It’s called a Federal Land Use Audit, but it is making sure that we are being compliant with all of our different grant assurances. So every time we get a grant, there’s different things that Jay and I and the board assure the FAA we are doing these things. And the biggest ones are that we are as self-sustaining as possible. That is one of the big high-ticket items the FAA (looks at),” King said.
He said in Monday’s inspection, officials sat down and went through every lease that the airport has with different tenets for over four hours. Then at about 4:30 p.m. Monday, King said they all sat down together for another 2-1/2 hours and went through all the questions and concerns raised by officials.
At about 7 a.m. Tuesday, King said they had a complete walk-through of the hangars. They also looked at all the pavement, runway approaches and did a perimeter check.
“They’ve been very, very great to work with so far,” King said. “The next step is for them to write their final report.”
Ross said they used the inspection to discuss with the FAA some of the Warsaw Airport’s past grants and other issues.
In two other items, the board approved the land lease purchase of hangar 6D from Bill Dean to Mark and Leann Ganger, and for WRSW to use land at the airport for its “50 Local Men” cook-off Oct. 7. In 2016, the charity cook-off was held downtown but it had a bigger-than-expected turnout.
The Aviation Commissioners’ next meeting is at 5:15 p.m. July 11.
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