[Council Communication]  [Attachments]

Council Communication

Title:	Approval of Federal Aviation Administration Grant Offer for the Ashland Municipal Airport 2004 Airport Improvement Project
Dept:	Public Works Department
Date:	August 17, 2004
Submitted By:	Paula Brown
Reviewed By:	Mike Franell
Approved By:	Gino Grimaldi, City Administrator

Synopsis:	Attached is a copy of the Federal Aviation Administration grant offer for the Ashland Municipal Airport 2004 Airport Improvement Project (FAA Project number 3-41-0002-006). The City of Ashland requested this grant as a part of the FAA's eligible airport development program for municipal airports. This FAA AIP will provide medium intensity runway lighting, reconstruct and overlay aprons, electrical modifications, construct an airport wash-down area and install taxiway retro-reflective markers. The AIP construction bid has been opened, but the contract has not yet been awarded. LTM was the only bidder on the project and staff has been evaluating bid estimates to ensure the best costs. It is staff's intent to award to LTM once council accepts this grant offer and all of the bid costs are evaluated. The total project was originally estimated at approximately $922,000 and includes the design, base bid and two bid additive alternates. The City of Ashland has applied for a Federal Aid to Municipalities Grant (FAM) and if approved, this would provide up to $25,000 toward the City's 5% match for the Airport Improvement Project. The remaining funds come from the annual entitlement of $150,000 for FFY05 and the airport fund.
Recommendation:	It is recommended that Council accept Federal Aviation Administration Grant Offer for the Ashland Municipal Airport 2004 Airport Improvement Project and authorize the City Administrator's to sign the attached agreement as the "sponsor's designated official."
Fiscal Impact:	The 2004 Airport Improvement Project is a federal assistance grant to the City from the Federal Aviation Administration. The FAA funds 95% of a local project and requires a 5% match. The Oregon Department of Aviation can assist the City through the FAM Grants with up to $25,000. That will leave the City's Airport Fund with a combined cash and "soft" match for the remaining $21,500. Soft-match are typically attributed to staff oversight time and are accounted for as a part of the Airport's central service fees. All funds will go to support only public use areas. The Airport Fund, although not extremely healthy, is definitely on the road to recovery and has been gaining in self-sufficiency. The construction bid came in 21% higher than the engineer's estimate. The engineer's estimate was $756,400 and the construction bid was just over $917,000. The are several potential factors that could have influenced this higher costs; • FAA specifications require a significant amount of testing and other requirements that are different than the requirements on ODOT street jobs that are typically used in comparisons for the engineer's estimate; • There is currently a significant amount of road and bridge work in Southern Oregon which impacts the availability of bidders on new jobs; • LTM is the only firm in Southern Oregon that is approved for the FAA asphalt mix design; • The timing of this project and the specified completion date is tight and costs might be reduced if the time frame is extended; Staff is in the process of reviewing LTM's bid to ensure all cost are necessary within the FAA scope. It is expected that staff will be able to negotiate some of the unit costs with LTM, or will reduce the scope of the work to fit within the allowable federal funds. Currently, the total available funds and expenses are as follows: Design (David Evans and Associates) $121,000 Construction estimate (post bid adjusted) 797,000 Anticipated Expenses $918,000 0 FAA Grant (attached) $713,000 FFY05 Entitlement Funds (available March 2005) 150,000 FAM Grant (if approved) 25,000 City Local Match (soft match) - Airport Fund 20,000 City Airport Funds - Beacon 10,000 Total Available Funds $918,000
Background:	The Ashland Municipal Airport is a general aviation airport providing services to private pilots, flight training, and freight operations. There are two businesses at the airport, our FBO, Bob Skinner and his business, Skinner Aviation (aircraft maintenance, flight school, and search and rescue operations), and Sky Research that does air related operations and research. Also included at the airport is a Civil Air Patrol wing. The airport has seen some growth over recent years, most notably with the two "new" commercial sized hangars and recently with the construction of the new city-owned T-Hangars that will enable an additional 14 aircraft to be housed in door rather than out in the open tie-down spaces. Our general aviation airport is eligible for federal and state funds. The AIP program defines project eligibility based on master planning efforts and those projects are programmed well in advance. This year's AIP project elements were defined from the 1992 Master Plan. The master plan is currently under revision with Century West providing that State funded update. The airport was established back in the 1920s and became a federally approved City owned/operated airport in 1964. Improvements included runway paving and lighting (1968), administrative building and taxiway improvements, parking apron were added shortly thereafter. The runway is a single 3400-foot long by 75-foot wide paved runway oriented at 120/300 degrees. Currently the runway has a weight bearing capacity of 15,000 pounds for aircraft with single-wheeled landing gear configurations.
Attachments:	•  FAA Grant Agreement

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