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Three grants the Warsaw Municipal Airport received are in the process of being closed out, though it’s taken longer than expected with a couple of them.
Mary Kerstein, section manager at CHA Consulting Inc., the airport’s engineering firm, reported to the Warsaw Board of Aviation Commissioners on Tuesday for the runway 9-27 safety area improvement, phase 1, CHA received some final comments from the FAA after about six months of the report being in the FAA’s hands. CHA addressed those and returned the “final, final report” to them on July 31. She said they will be working on closing out that grant by the end of next month or so and that will be the last thing to do with that project.
On the closeout of the grant for the wildlife hazard site visit, she said they received the FAA’s acceptance letter of the report on June 22. She said they used all the funds associated with it, so there were no dollars to return to the FAA. She asked for a motion by the board to approve the closeout paperwork and for Commission President Dan Robinson’s signature, which they approved for her.
The third grant closeout was for the corporate taxilane E-1 rehabilitation/reconstruction project. Kerstein said all closeout documentation was sent to the FAA back in February and “we’re still waiting for their approval to close that grant out. I messaged the AVO manager almost monthly, and I just haven’t heard anything.” The grant expires at the end of September, she believed, so she thought by the next board meeting they’d get approval to close that out because they will have to by the deadline.
Airport Manager Nick King said he talked to Kerstein earlier Tuesday. “We submitted the original closeout ... and we’ve been waiting since February for this paperwork. So, I know they’re in a transition period right now. We’re working on trying to onboard our new program manager, so I’m going to be reaching out tomorrow to figure out where we’re at because we’re at three grants we’re trying to close out and all they need to do is get us the paperwork so we can have the board approve it, and then we’ll get all those grants off of our engineer’s report,” he said.
Moving on from the grant closeouts, Kerstein said since last month, CHA has prepared the “Issued for Construction” documents for the taxiway B rehabilitation and gave the notice to proceed on July 31. Phend & Brown, since July 31, has installed barricades and performed some of the large crack repairs. The test strip scheduled for Tuesday was rescheduled due to rain to Wednesday, weather permitting.
She requested board approval and Robinson’s signature on CHA invoice for $24,384.71, with the local share being $609.62 since it is an FAA-funded project. The board approved.
On the runway 9-27 rehabilitation, Kerstein said, “We were actually thinking (it) would occur after taxiway B, but with discussions with Phend & Brown, the contractor, and with Nick, we decided to actually have 9-27 and taxiway B occur at the same time.”
Runway 9-27 and a small section of taxiway B are closed currently, basically from 9-27 to the terminal ramp, she said.
“A lot has happened in the last month. We prepared Issued for Construction documents. The notice to proceed for construction was a little bit later, Aug. 7, for this project, and similar to 9-27. They’ve installed barricades and performed the large crack repairs. So it’s a very similar project in what we’re doing with taxiway B. Asphalt mixes are a little bit different though with this being a local project. We’re using INDOT-mixed designs instead of FAA-mixed designs to help with the cost,” Kerstein said.
She requested the board approve a CHA invoice for $11,908.09, all a local share as it’s a local-only project. The board OK’d the request.
The last project Kerstein presented to the board was the taxiway A basis of design. CHA is finalizing their report and shooting to get that to the FAA in September. She asked for, and received, the board’s approval and Robinson’s signature on a CHA invoice for $7,299.97, with the local share being $182.50 as the project is federally funded.
In other business, the board:
• Approved the Warsaw Municipal Airport sign policy, with a grandfather clause to be added for the signs that are currently in place as of Aug. 1. Any signs in the future will have to be considered by the board. The policy was first brought up at the board’s last meeting.
Robinson said the only sign he didn’t like was the airport sign at CR 300N because if you’re driving a pickup truck or something larger, it blocks your vision. King said they’re actually working on getting that moved as it’s now inside the right-of-way.
• Approved the agricultural lease agreement, referred to King as the “hay rental contract,” as presented by King, with exhibit A (map) attached.
He explained to the board that there is Indiana code that allows a board of aviation commissioners to enter into a contract with an individual and not go through the public bid process.
“Because airports are so sensitive to allowing persons from the public onto the property, there are special exemptions to the public bid rules,” King said. “... When we deal with cash rent or, in this case, the hay rent, if the board so elects, we do not have to follow the public bid rules. And if we have a known person that we have worked with in the past, or have a good relationship with, the board is within their rights to sign that contract with that individual, based off that known relationship.”
He said if there’s an individual they would like to work with, they can, or they could go through the public bid process, but it’s entirely up to the board.
Robinson and Board member Ernie Wiggins said they needed to take advantage of that.
• Approved sending the deer reduction zone application from the city of Warsaw Deer Task Force to the Board of Public Works and Safety as two members of the Board of Aviation Commissioners have conflicts of interest with two of the hunters. The zone listed in the application is outside of the airport operating area and fence and the airport hasn’t had any complaints from neighbors at all, King stated.
• Approved a contract with D & D Maintenance to have the electric pulled from the terminal building out to the fuel farm at the airport, as requested by King.
• Approved replacing the 41-year-old HVAC for Hangar 121, currently leased by Zimmer Biomet, for $37,900 by Core Mechanical. Zimmer Biomet will reimburse the airport for the full amount. Zimmer Biomet will also start doing preventative maintenance on the building.
