Nevada airport board identifies funds for heating new buildings
"We have another $22,610 from the Community Development Block Grant that we can use on the new terminal building construction at the airport," Mark Mitchell, terminal project manager, told the airport board Friday.
Mitchell said that this is CDBG money that was allocated for construction inspection and other services that will not be needed. State officials have told the city that they can use that money for construction costs, but not for furnishing the building.
Mitchell told the board that if the city council would still let them use some of the $38,000 from the $250,000 STAR loan the city has available to do work at the airport, they would be able to look at including some of the construction options, like adding heat in the hangar, that were not included in the basic project.
The low bid of $437,773 for the terminal was about $38,000 more than the city had in grant money for the project and the city council approved using money from the STAR loan to cover the balance of the cost of the project.
Mitchell told the board that one other option would be to enlarge the building, so the larger planes that Precision Aero Services might work on could get completely inside the hangar and would cost roughly $15,000 to $20,000.
"The only jet we get here regularly is Murphy Farms and it will easily fit in the proposed building. The tails on the bigger planes are too high to fit through the door," Jody Bryson, airport manager, said.
"I'd hate to see us use the money for something that may never be used. I'd rather see it used for heat in the hanger," Curtis said.
Mark Loomer, Precision Aero, told the airport board in August that they were looking into having Net Jet bring their planes to Nevada for repairs, instead of Loomer going to Dallas to make repairs on site.
Loomer told the board that the company's need for the hanger could be from as often as several times a year to a span two years between uses.
The airport board is looking at two options for heat in the hanger: overhead heaters that can be added at anytime and using a heated floor, which would require that the pipes for the hot water that heats the floor would have to be installed when the concrete floor is poured.
Board member Scott Buerge said that the in-floor heating is nice, because blowers would not be needed to get the heat from the 20-foot ceiling to the floor.
A decision on the type of heat system to be used cannot be made until the city has a signed contract for the work to be paid for with the CDBG funds, Mitchell told the board, adding that they expected to have a signed contract before the council's Sept. 18 meeting.
"Once the city has a signed contract from Sproul's Construction, we can ask them for an estimate to install the pipes in the concrete," he said.
Curtis told the airport board that he believes that if they go to the city council and tell them that the city has found some extra CDBG money for construction, "maybe they will let us have some money to embed the heating pipes in the floor, since that must be when the floor is poured."
"I think it's a slam dunk," Buerge said. "Once it is done, we will have a much better project."