PANAMA CITY BEACH — Airport Authority board Chairman Joe Tannehill is usually unflappable, presiding calmly at board meetings that can sometimes grow contentious over issues such as budgets, industrial development or sod. On Tuesday, he took the unusual step of moving out from behind the board member’s dais to renew his strong support for building a crosswind runway at the new airport under construction near West Bay.
“We need to do everything we have committed and promised,” he said from the audience podium, noting that the board will go through changes in the coming months. Both his term and the term of Vice Chairman Bill Cramer expire in June.
The new airport is less than 12 miles from oru Panama City Beach Condos Reserve The Best Panama City Beach Condos for Your Beach Vacation
Over the last year, financial plans for the 5,000-foot crosswind runway have faltered as board members struggled with issues such as extending the main concrete runway to 10,000 feet, hiring a company to market the airport to industry and funding more than $3 million in expensive sod to halt storm water erosion problems.
Board Vice Chairman Bill Cramer, for instance, argued successfully last May that hiring “master developer” Jones Lang Lesalle to manage the industrial and commercial development of hundreds of acres surrounding the airport’s main runway should have a higher priority than the crosswind runway.
Cramer also has argued that other uncertainties, such as the fight with Phoenix Construction over the need for sod, has placed the funding for a crosswind runway in doubt.
Admitting he was taking the board by surprise, Tannehill said he would ask other members in two weeks to advertise for bids on the secondary runway, expected to cost about $18 million.
“If we can construct the crosswind runway without going out for more debt, we should do it,” Tannehill read from a prepared statement. “We have committed the crosswind runway to our GA (general aviation) friends, the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) and the FDOT (Florida Department of Transportation).”
Tannehill made a case that the airport had a total of $321 million to spend for the construction of the Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport, including two loans totaling $40 million from Florida’s State Infrastructure Bank (SIB) loans program, $15 million of which was untapped so far. He said the airport has been “running a budget of $306 million, of which we presently have $3.6 million left in contingency and free cash.” The airport also intends to recoup $3.2 million in sod payments from either contractors or project engineers in future legal battles.
“Our legal teams have concluded that these funds are not the responsibility of the Airport Authority,” Tannehill said. Following the meeting, Cramer said he still had doubts about the timing for issuing bids. “If we can do so responsibly, I’m all for it, if we can afford it,” he said. But he insisted that uncertainties still existed over other needs, such as $1.25 million for an international concourse, or hall.
“We also have an uncertainty over how much more sod we will need,” Cramer said, noting that he did not wish to encumber future board members with current problems. “The bottom line is: Can we afford it?”
In other business, board members approved several additions to a tentative policy on commercial ground transportation, including penalties for rule infractions, such as a one-week permit suspension for reckless driving, and a non-smoking rule. The board also agreed to review several provisions, such as banning outside advertisements on vehicles and requiring that all vehicles within a company be the same color.
Board members also approved a proposal by the Bay County Chamber of Commerce to erect a 7-by-4-foot granite monument, or “Wall of Honor,” complete with benches and flags, near the airport’s entrance that would recognize the major sponsors of the airport’s three-day quarter-million dollar grand-opening ceremony, set for the weekend of May 23. Board members modestly declined to have their names chiseled into the structure.
Friday, March 26, 2010
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
