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Installing a new fuel storage system at the Warsaw Municipal Airport will be possible now that Warsaw has received $350,000 in reimbursement funds from the state.
The existing underground fuel storage system is more than 20 years old and no longer complies with Environmental Protection Agency standards. It will be replaced by an above-ground system that will include larger fuel tanks and less costly monitoring equipment.
The $350,000 payment granted Wednesday was part of an appropriation made by the state in 1991. At that time Warsaw requested $850,000 from the "Build Indiana Fund," financed by lottery proceeds, for an instrument landing system at the Warsaw Airport.
The Indiana legislature approved the $850,000 request in 1991 even though the money was not yet available. Since the request was approved and since the ILS was needed immediately, the city of Warsaw in 1992 floated a revenue bond for $850,000 to pay for the ILS. The bond issue was paid for through the sales of fuel to corporate airport users, and the ILS equipment was installed and commissioned in May 1994.
According to Warsaw Mayor Jeff Plank, who traveled to Indianapolis Wednesday for the $350,000 reimbursement, the state made the first partial repayment of the $850,000 appropriation in 1995.
Prompted by State Representative David Wolkins, the city's application to the State Budget Committee was answered last year with a $300,000 award, which was used to finance the repair of cracks and fissures on the north/south runway and the taxiways leading to it.
Plank said the $350,000 he received Wednesday will fund the new fuel farm for the airport, which will help enhance the airport's efficiency and flexibility.
"The $350,000 has no strings attached. We can use it for any improvement-related project we want," he said.
The projected cost for the fuel system replacement is $290,000.
After the latest reimbursement from the state, Plank said, Warsaw is owed a balance of $200,000, which Plank told the State Budget Committee he will request at a later date.
The final amount of Build Indiana funds will be used to develop a new corporate hangar area at the airport. That area will include an access road, car parking and an aircraft apron with a taxiway connecting it to the existing corporate hangar taxiway.
