Another meeting, this one at the airport

The Airport Authority had its monthly meeting on Wednesday evening at the airport building and again the main topic was the proposed fuel farm. (See here for some background.) This month all the bids were in and they were reviewed. There were bids for two options, one which would place the fuel tanks where they are now and the other that would move them a little bit but which would require some changes in a road and also new wiring. The first option was the cheaper, requiring the Authority to put up about $63,000 while the other option would require them to contribute about $137,000 and their engineer recommended that they go with the cheaper option. That option would shut down the fuel pumps for about a month, probably in November.

The engineer said that the Authority needed to make two decisions. Did they want to submit the grant proposal to the FAA and which option did they want to approve? A motion was made to submit the grant proposal, but then one member said that they should first decide which option that wanted, so the motion was withdrawn. There then followed a very long discussion about which line of the budget would be used to pay the Authority's share, the cumulative building fund or the capital expenditures fund that is part of the operating budget. One member thought that it was important to make this third decision as part of deciding to go ahead with the project while the other members saw no reason to decide this issue at the June meeting. Finally the Authority unanimously agreed to submit the grant proposal and to endorse the option that would place the new fuel tanks where the old ones are currently. The treasurer suggested a meeting of the budget committee to recommend which fund to tap for the Authority's contribution.

In other items, the Authority approved a rental contract for a hangar and a mowing agreement. It approved the manager's continuing with the purchase of a large snow removal vehicle from the Purdue Airport. They also decided which of two people to hire for construction of an airport website--the FAA has told them they need this. There was discussion of some hanger doors that were not opening properly and the conflicting advice the manager was getting on how to fix them. The EAA 828 Annual Fly-In & Porch Chop Lunch was announced, with a date of July 11 from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm. Someone mentioned that this date was also the date of the Gary Airshow (the show that was supposed to be at Fair Oaks Farms last year but which was canceled because the fields for parking cars were too wet). Last year attendance was very good and there were hopes that it will be even better this year. (Weather may have a lot to do with that.) Excel-Air was recognized for their 15th anniversary at the airport. And the airport will be contributing some surplus items to the county auction that will be held on July 18.

I need a picture and do not have one that fits the airport. So here is one of workers tuck pointing the wall of eMbers. The comment from eMbers was, "This week, we turned "ugly" wall into "not as ugly" wall. Soon, it will be "pretty" wall. One thing realized this week, it's a "big" wall...".