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Breaking ground in airport terminal

Thursday, August 21, 2008

A date has been set for a groundbreaking ceremony for a new terminal building at the regional airport.

A ceremony will take place Aug. 27 at 11 a.m. at the airport at 1436 Perrine Road. It will be the official start to build a 2,300 square foot terminal building complete with a visitor’s center, pilot lounge, airport manager’s office and conference room.

City council members plan to award a contract for $392,000 to Indian Creek Construction, based in Poplar Bluff, during last week’s council work session. Construction will begin immediately and should be completed within a couple months.

The new terminal will include a conference room paid for by businessman William “Bill” Cooper. The building will carry signage as part of a funding agreement between the city and First State Community Bank, based in Farmington. As part of the agreement FSCB will also receive an option on a ground lease to construct a hangar building at the airport.

Other funding to build the terminal, as well as other recent improvements at the airport, will come from the Federal Aviation Administration and Missouri Department of Transportation.

Indian Creek Builders submitted the lowest total bid for the project at $392,000. Other bids included Herzog Construction at $398,300, Brockmiller Construction at $420,070, and Burgess Construction at $511,415. The council is set to award the contract to Indian Creek on Aug. 25 during the regular monthly council meeting.

Bids for the airport terminal were discussed during the council work session on Aug. 14. In a separate discussion, the group also took up a resolution “supporting and encouraging” a second group of apartments to be built next door to the existing Orchard View Apartments, located off Maple Valley Drive. That developer recently approached the city asking for approval to build 56 new apartment units next door to their existing buildings. It was explained the new buildings would be located between the existing apartments and Maple Valley Drive.

Councilman Jeff Firehammer said he was opposed to developers using his tax dollars in the way of state or federal tax credits to build housing for other people. His comment parallels statements made by other council members in the past regarding creating an unfair advantage for developers using tax credits versus local housing developers who do not seek governmental assistance to build.

When a vote was called for on the Orchard View Apartments resolution, Firehammer and Councilwoman Vonne Phillips voted “nay”. The measure passed by a 5-2 margin.

Council members also heard the first reading of new legislation which would allow for 18 additional homes in Boulder Ridge Subdivision off Route H, annex in three tracts of land near Eagle Lake golf course, and provide for the start of a process to create a Community Improvement District, or CID, to cover the new Gundaker shopping mall located at the corner of Maple Street and Maple Valley Drive.

Farmington Retail, LLC, a subsidiary of Gundaker Development, is asking for a CID to provide for additional tax revenue within their shopping center. At the moment the shopping center is sitting vacant and has yet to see a tenant after having the first phase of construction completed several months ago.

A representative of Farmington Retail LLC addressed the council several weeks ago and said the additional tax revenue generated with a CID would allow the company to help offset high lease costs for space in the shopping mall. It was said the company was asking $16.50 per square foot for space, as compared to about $11 a square foot for leased space in the neighboring Maple Valley shopping center.

Just as they had when the CID request was made several weeks ago, council members raised the issue Thursday evening of whether Gundaker Development had fixed some major stormwater drainage problems which nearly flooded the Orchard View Apartments just downhill during recent rains.

Public Works Director Alan Welshon said Gundaker had not made the corrections to some “serious” stormwater problems. More than once council member indicated the developer’s failure to address and repair the stormwater issue could very likely halt any cooperation from the city in the way of approving any special taxing ability, in this case a CID, for the shopping center.

The council will meet next Aug. 25 at 7 p.m.