Bureau of Aviation rejects request for fuel truck funding
DUNBAR TWP. – The need to replace a fuel truck for the Joseph A. Hardy/Connellsville Airport and a lack of funding to do so was discussed Tuesday by the Fayette County Airport Authority. Airport manager Sam Cortis said the Bureau of Aviation has turned down a request he made for a grant to purchase a truck, which has a price tag of about $150,000.
“We’re back to square one,” Cortis said.
Two months ago Cortis said the current fuel truck is not repairable. At that time, authority member Fred Davis said plans to purchase a new truck that uses “Jet A” fuel have been in the works for seven years. He previously said there are options to purchase a new truck, including obtaining a grant in which 25 percent of the funding must come in the form of a local match. The fuel truck could be used to sell fuel to helicopters at the airport.
Davis said a new truck is needed that meets all the current standards.
Consultant Gene Lakin said the airport could lease a fuel truck and then possibly obtain grant funding later to purchase it.
Davis said at some point in the past the fuel truck fell off the 12-year plan. However, Cortis said it was placed back on the plan last fall.
Davis said buying a fuel truck using money from the general fund should probably be addressed another way.
“If someone wants to give $2 million or $3 million to the airport, that would be a good place to start,” Davis said. “Or was that just rhetoric for the gullible?”
Davis said Hardy previously said he would be willing to commit funding to the airport after his name was attached to it.
Authority member Mark “Kingfish” Wasler said even if money for the truck would could out of the general fund, possibly the truck would pay for itself in fuel sales.
Cortis agreed to look into options for purchasing the truck, and the board agreed to have a special meeting to approve a contract for the lease or purchase of a truck if necessary.
Regarding the runway project, Bill Shiderly, project manager for Michael Baker Jr. Inc. of Beaver, said the studies requested by the Department of Environmental Protection have been completed. He said the “runway shift” project, which will bring the runway length back to 3,862 feet, should be put out to bid by December. The current runway length is 3,458 feet.
When board member Myrna Giannopoulos asked why the project would not be put out to bid until December, Shiderly said the DEP requires between 90 and 120 days to review the application, which should be done by June.
Shiderly said the only finding currently approved by the Bureau of Aviation/ Federal Aviation Administration is money to bring the safety areas up to compliance. He said the project is estimated at $5 million.
Funding is not available for the proposal to extend the runway to 4,500 feet, which is estimated to cost $21 million.
“This is the hand you’re dealt,” Davis said.
The authority approved a task order with Baker engineering to pay $270,470, as money becomes available.
Following a 15-minute executive session, the authority approved a motion to write a check for $200 to TOL Aviation Inc. of Toledo, Ohio. Solicitor Mark Rowan said the action was required because the amount wasn’t paid to TOL Aviation during an earlier court settlement.
Last year the authority agreed to a settlement of a 12-year legal dispute over hangar rentals with TOL Aviation when the authority board approved paying TOL $100,000 for a 12-bay airplane hangar that TOL built in 1987 and TOL agreed to pay the authority $2,237 to cover rental of the land on which the hangar sets for the first two quarters of the year.