By BECKY KISER
Hays Post
The green and white flashing beacon at the Hays Regional Airport was built in 1962 and has exceeded its useful service life.
The 59-year-old structure will be replaced this year along with apron rehabilitation approved Thursday night by Hays city commissioners.
Jamie Salter, airport director, joked with the commission that the beacon luckily had not blown down during Wednesday afternoon's severe thunderstorms.
The airport apron was constructed in 1991 and is exhibiting signs of deterioration.
A drainage project was completed earlier this year to to address drainage primarily on taxilane A and adjacent panels. The remainder of the apron has areas of concrete failure and visible cracking, requiring rehabilitation to extend its service life.
Both improvements are part of the airport’s capital improvement plan (AIP) and eligible for AIP funding from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
The sole bid for the project came from APAC-Kansas for $1,142,393, below the engineer's estimate of $1.3 million. A small portion of the project - $23,075 - is ineligible for FAA reimbursement. The remaining $1,119,318 will be completely funded by the FAA.
The city's airport engineering consultant, Burns and McDonnell will receive $247,000 for the FAA-required construction oversight and project documentation. That fee will also be completely funded by an FAA grant.
The FAA Airport Improvement Program typically funds projects at 90 percent with a mandatory local city match of 10 percent.
A combination of the FAA AIP and American Rescue Plan Act funding awarded to the Hays airport will fund the project 100 percent, minus the $23,075 which will be paid from the city's airport improvement fund.
"Construction will have no impact on commercial air service," said Salter, "but they will be required to taxi [to and from the terminal] in a different location for the first 30 days of the project."
Salter has notified SkyWest of the upcoming change along with the other airport tenants.
"There will be a little bit of loss in aircraft parking. We will have to shift things around. They have it phased to ensure that we have enough and that we have the wingtip clearance for SkyWest, which is our biggest aircraft accessing the area, to safely access and not obstruct any of the construction or vice-versa."
In other business, commissioners:
* Approved a $801,000 bid from R.E. Pedrotti, Mission, for a new SCADA system for the water plant
* Accepted the 2020 audit for the city of Hays as presented by Adams Brown
* Heard a progress report of various department activities from Collin Bielser, asst. city manager
* Heard about upcoming summer activities from Melissa Dixon, Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) exec. director
* Reviewed a three-year summary of visitor and consumer analytics in Hays provided to the CVB by See Source in partnership with the state of Kansas
City Manager Toby Dougherty and Mayor Sandy Jacobs were absent from the meeting, which was presided over by Vice-Mayor Mason Ruder.
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