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City receives grant for airport project

The city of Concordia received notice on Wednesday that it has been awarded a grant from the United States Department of Transportation for improvements at Blosser Municipal Airport.
Concordia has been awarded $567,000 to reconstruct lighting on the taxiway and seal the taxiway pavements and joints at the airport.
Concordia city manager Amy Lange announced the grant award to the city commission during its regular meeting on Wednesday night, and said that the work will be done in conjunction with the construction of the new runway.
Lange said the grant from the Department of Transportation requires a 10 percent match from the city, which will be paid out of the capital improvement fund.
Concordia received  a $6.95 million grant through the Federal Aviation Administration Airport Improvement Program for the construction of a new, longer and wider runway and taxiway rehabilitation/construction at Blosser Municipal Airport.
Design work for the runway project is nearing completion, and bids will be let this spring.
Dirt work on the project is expected to begin in the fall of this year.
“We are grateful for the funding assistance for this project, recognizing it stretches our local budgets further to provide for other infrastructure needs within our community. Providing adequate lighting of the taxiway enhances safety for pilots using our airport,” Lange said.
Lange expressed appreciation for those involved in the grant application process including the Airport Advisory Board, city public works director Ron Copple and Brad Waller of Alfred Benesch & Company, the airport planning consultant.
“It truly takes a team effort to successfully accomplish great things,” Lange said.
The Department of Transportation has awarded $14 million in grants for repairs, updates and expansions in 24 Kansas communities.
“Kansas airports are vital to the regional economies throughout Kansas, connecting communities large and small and providing necessary supplies and emergency medical services for rural areas across the state,” U.S. Senator Jerry Moran of Kansas said in a release announcing the airport grants, “These grants will help fund needed repairs and expansions to multiple Kansas airports to continue providing efficient service to Kansas and continued development throughout the state.”
In action taken during the meeting, the commission approved a motion to forgive the final payment by the Cloud County Co-op Elevator Association of $125,000 for the purchase of the building, located at 1401 East Sixth St., which now serves as the Distribution Center.
The city of Concordia and Cloud County, joint owners of the former Alco property, entered into an agreement on the sale to the Cloud Count Elevator Association in November 2015.
The agreement states that the building is to be sold for $150,000. The first payment was due at the time the contract was signed. A payment of $5,000 was due the 10th day of January each of the following four years.
If renovations at the building were completed and employment goals were met, the final payment of $125,000 would be forgiven.
Cloud County Elevator Association has done two major renovations at the building at an estimated cost of $842,175. That included adding a community meeting space that is being utilized 45 times per year.
The agreement called for not less than 4,600 hours of employment directly in connection with the enterprise on the real estate in years 2016 and 2017 and 12,480 hours in 2018 and 2019.
Cloud County Coop met those goals with 6,733 hours in 2019, 7,786 in 2017, 14,104 in 108 and 14,584 in 2019.
The building has had an increase in assessed value based on the improvements, and Cloud County Coop has paid $37,014.14 in property taxes.
A memorandum presented to the city commission by Kim Reynolds, CloudCorp executive director, stated that it is CloudCorp's position that these terms have been met and the final payment should be forgiven as stated in the contract.
In other action taken during the meeting, the commission approved authorizing Mayor Mark Matthew to sign a request to exchange federal funds in the amount of $112,739.20 and to apply for reimbursement of $101,465.28 using a street mill and overlay project on Archer Street from the south side of Fifth Street to the north side of 11th Street.
The Federal Fund Exchange program would allow the city to receive 90 percent of the funds to be exchanged.
Exchanging the funds would allow the city to be more flexible in the way it uses the federal funds.
A cereal malt beverage license for Dollar General was approved by the commission.
Bid specifications for a 2020 or newer half-ton 4x4 regular cab pickup and a front mount riding mower were presented to the commission during the meeting.
The pickup will replace a 2010 Ford and the mower will replace a 2004 Hustler 3400.
City finance director Amber Farha presented the 2019 year end financial statement to the commission.
A report presented to the commission from Farha stated that due to increased revenue over budget for 2019 and the diligent department heads who stayed within their budget, the city was able to carry over a reserve in the general fund of $827,247. This is less than estimated during the creation of the 2020 budget. However, if you add back the airport amount to be reimbursed of $257,100 , then the city would have carried over a reserve of $1,084,347. This is more than estimated during the 2020 budget and an increase from the prior year of $77,642.

 

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