Airport authority chairman says agreement not as foggy as portrayed
The chairman of the Fayette County Airport Authority said during an agenda meeting Tuesday that his agency has always had a clear understanding of its development partnership with Fayette Area Coordinated Transportation. Fred K. Davis said that problems arising from the ongoing construction of a FACT transit center on airport property haven’t been as foggy as Fayette County solicitor Joseph E. Ferens Jr. portrayed them at a recent county commission meeting.
“It has never been a moving target from the airport’s position … I don’t see it as being anything other than it was before,” said Davis of the agreement. But he added that it might appear to be that way to someone who is used to seeing a stationary target.
Davis said the airport board expects FACT to pay $25,000 as a pro-rated 4 percent share of a $638,350 water line replacement and expansion project, which will see the entire complex get a new 12-inch water main.
The airport authority recently supplied Michelle Grant Shumar, who oversees FACT as the county’s director of Human Services, with a construction cost estimate for the project. It included a water usage breakdown for the FACT site.
Ferens at the last commission meeting expressed exasperation at the cascading delays caused by what he viewed as problems that seem to crop up on the airport end each time he thought the sides had supposedly reached agreement.
Airport manager Sam Cortis said Tuesday that at an earlier meeting, FACT officials informed him that they want their building project finished by December. Cortis said that FACT has a concern about how the water line project might impact the paving portion of its new facility.
Basically, Cortis said that FACT doesn’t want to lay down pavement only to see it ripped up later for water line installation to the facility. “We really don’t have a timeline on the water project because of what they (FACT) did,” said Cortis.
Airport board member Jesse Wallace said he would “travel down that road cautiously,” referring to any attempt to segment the project. He said it would be imperative for the authority to have a representative working closely with FACT under that scenario to ensure that everything was done in accordance with the overall plan.
Davis suggested the option of letting FACT use its pro-rated share of the project to complete the portion of the water line project under the areas slated for paving, namely the facility’s parking lots.
Joe Grubbs, attending the agenda meeting on behalf of Michael Baker Engineering, said another option would be letting FACT install a sleeve under the affected areas, through which the actual water line could later be inserted.
“They’re just going to provide you with a sleeve to put the water line through (later),” said Baker of his idea, which the authority board agreed had potential as a solution.