Airport Authority meeting and other things

The Airport Authority had its monthly meeting last night. The big non-news was that the grant for the fuel farm has not yet been received. The engineering consultant for the airport said that the FAA has not yet begun processing the grant applications even though all grants must be accepted by September 16. The airport people involved are getting ready for some demands for fast signatures and replies.

The nominating committee of Chamber of Commerce wanted a representative of the Airport Authority to be on the board of the Chamber. The Authority voted to accept and name the airport manager as their representative.

Also approved was an expenditure of $1200 for an archeology study of several acres of land near the terminal and hangars. A study of this sort is needed before any new construction and once a study is done, it does not need to be performed again.

The main discussion of the evening was about hangars. An individual can lease land and build a hanger, or the airport can build a hanger and lease them. The advantage of the private build is it is subject to less red tape so can be done cheaper. However, some people are uncomfortable spending a lot of money for a structure on land they do not own. The airport is limited in borrowing money because it cannot use their land as collateral, which is the usual practice in much borrowing. There was a lot of discussion of options and what other airports have done. No conclusions were reached.

I had to leave at this point and did not hear what else took place at the meeting.

On a completely different topic, below is a picture of the new sign on what was the Jasper County Hospital. It was installed on September 1, the first day that the hospital was Franciscan Health Rensselaer.

Some of the smaller signs have been changed and others have not.

I noticed that walls are going up on the Building Trades house on Scott Street. The foundation was put in about a year ago and then the class spend most of the rest of last year finishing their house on Vine Street. They are no longer completing one house a year.

In Monticello news, Indiana Beach has a new owner. I never heard anyone from Monticello say anything good about the previous management. I hope the new owners do a better job with the park.