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Closing date set for old airport

The Hot Springs County Commissioners awarded the bid for the job trailer used at the new airport during their second monthly meeting on Tuesday afternoon.

The winning bid was granted to Diamond Point Construction for $15,000. The award is dependent on approval by the Federal Aviation Association.

In 2014, the Town of Kirby presented a proposal requesting part of the State Lands and Investment Board (SLIB) monies for a project involving replacing a water line to their storage tank.

The tank would no longer fill with water at an adequate rate due to changes in the pressure provided by the water supplier. Several valves and a concrete vault needed replaced as part of the project as well.

The project had been an alternate for SLIB funding at that time, however, the funds were all depleted with town and county projects.

Since then, there has been approximately $95,000 left over from the South Thermop Water and Sewer project and the town has given their blessing to reallocate those funds to the Kirby project.

The commissioners agreed with the reallocation and new paperwork will be submitted in December.

The closing date for the old airport has been set for Jan. 5, 2017.

Part of the hold up on closing it previously has been the hangar situation. Some are completed, while others are not, and the commissioners were concerned about owners having to leave their planes outside at the new airport over the winter.

Nate Messenger, manager of the new airport, feels it would be in the best interest of the county to go forward with the January closure as right now, no one is monitoring the other airport and there are some wildlife issues with antelope on the runway.

Messenger suggested owners could leave their planes in the hangars at the old airport over the winter as most of them do not fly during the winter months. However, once the hangars are completed in the spring, they would then have to move their planes to the new airport.

The commissioners voted to have GDA Engineering prepare the paperwork for the FAA for a January closure.

 

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