Action taken by the Warsaw Board of Aviation Commissioners Tuesday was on a hangar sale and lease, an easement and computer software.
Airport Manager Nick King reported John Blosser was selling Hangar 16 and 17 to PWI out of Nappanee that is starting a flight department that they want to be based out of Warsaw. Blosser was asking for the Board’s right of first refusal to sell his hangar so that PWI can purchase that and start a flight department.
He said he spoke with PWI and they are very excited to be a part of the Warsaw Airport family. King said PWI has it narrowed down to three or four different aircrafts and are trying to make that final decision. PWI also has a couple of other people who have been renting space from Blosser that will continue to rent space from PWI in the interim.
Board President Jay Rigdon asked if PWI’s particular business made the purchase of the hangar worth it. He said they must be a specialty welding business.
King said they do custom jobs, specifically overhead cranes, industrial scaffolding and things like that. “They actually go to the site of the building where the crane is going in so they can make sure the steel building itself can support what the customer is asking,” he said.
Dan Robinson, Board member, said PWI started out years ago as a small welding shop and then the sons took it over from their father and “they really expanded their scope” and have done an “excellent” job.
The Board waived its right of first refusal and then approved a lease for PWI.
King then presented a request for an easement on the east end of the airport property by the Tippecanoe-Chapman Sewer Regional District.
“This easement would allow them the ability to put in a underground low-pressure sewage pipe inside of the airport’s property and they are asking for a 30-foot easement,” he said.
Mayor Joe Thallemer said he believed the connection is at the Airport Industrial Park.
The Board approved Rigdon to sign the easement.
The final thing King presented to the Board was changing the airport’s software to the new Total FBO for fuel sales. The program the airport is using now is Total FBO 5, which hasn’t been supported since about 1998, King said, but they made it work.
The cost for the new software subscription is $595 a month with a $5,200 set-up fee. King said the cost was budgeted for this year.
Asked if there was any alternative, King said not any good ones and they all were expensive.
The Board approved King to sign the agreement.
Robert LaFayette, deputy project manager for CHA Consulting Inc., the airport’s aviation engineering firm, updated the Board on a few projects.
On the power line lowering project, east of the east-west runway, he said, “We’re still waiting on the (Federal Aviation Administration), to get a fire underneath them, to get this grant amendment completed. It is in FAA’s court.”
King said he spoke with Marty Blake, Indiana Department of Transportation, manager of the Office of Aviation, about the FAA grant amendment on Tuesday and Blake was hoping to have more information on the grant amendment Wednesday.
The approximate $7 million grant from the FAA was awarded for the power line lowering project in 2019. The power lines will be lowered from about 150 feet to 50-60 feet.
LaFayette said CHA has received the construction agreement and draft for the power line lowering project from AEP, which is still under review by the Warsaw Airport’s legal representation.
“The design team is finalizing the scope and fee. We’re still anticipating early May,” he said, adding that right-of-way acquisition has been initiated. Homeowners have been notified and a survey is under way. “It is not an issue, just some more coordination needs to be done. Some of the parcels are (Department of Natural Resources) owned so, based on how quickly government responds to things like this, we may have a little bit of a delay in getting some of the parcels. Not a challenge we anticipate to be of any issue.”
LaFayette said they’re still targeting May 9 for completion of the baseline project. “That’s the official start of the project design. We haven’t changed that yet, and so that keeps the conceptual schedule still on track for November 2023 for construction completion.”
In a more pressing matter, LaFayette reminded the Board that they went over the FAA Land Use Audit at the last meeting.
“It was conditionally completed pending some resolution on non-aeronautical activities on the property. This discussion, as I said last month, will be necessary on how we progress forward with satisfying this requirement and the reason for that is a new camper has arrived on the airport,” LaFayette said. “And so, if you remember from last month, the purpose of this is to mitigate risk to airport-sponsored grant insurances – that’s the highest priority that we have. So, complying with the Land Use Audit is essentially removing all those campers. With a new one coming on the airport, I think the recommendation is to send a notice to all tenants regarding a new policy on the unavailability of camper storage on airport property, per FAA, moving forward.”
He said the airport needs to get out in front of the issue to mitigate risk. No Board action was required but LaFayette suggested further discussion was needed on how to resolve the issue moving forward.
Rigdon asked how many campers were down at the airport and King said three that he could see.
The next Board meeting will be at 5:15 p.m. May 24 in City Hall.
