By Leah Sander
InkFreeNews

WARSAW — Warsaw Municipal Airport is expected to receive nearly $1.5 million in federal infrastructure funds.

The Warsaw Board of Aviation Commissioners heard that news at its meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 8, at Warsaw City Hall.

It came up during a report from CHA Consulting’s Robert LaFayette and Nathan Lienhart. CHA Consulting handles engineering for the airport.

The airport will receive $295,000 per year for five years, which totals $1,475,000, and is from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) also known as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that President Joe Biden signed into law in November 2021.

In addition, the law allows the airport to apply for additional funding to be used for items like terminals and towers.

As of now, plans are for BIL money to go toward repairing the airport’s terminal apron and on a runway project.

Sewer lift station

The board also agreed to begin the process of putting a sewer lift station on an unused portion of the airport’s land at its northeast corner.

That’s related to a developer constructing a number of homes known as the Greenbriar development near the airport.

Warsaw Airport Manager Nick King, who brought up the subject before the board, said he needed the board’s approval to start working with Warsaw City Attorney Scott Reust on a memorandum regarding the station.

“The benefit for the airport is we have several septic systems at the airport that are very aged, including the terminal’s, ours requires quite a bit of maintenance to keep it up and running and I would love to get city sewer at some time because we are landlocked at the terminal building it would be pretty difficult and expensive to replace our current septic system and so to be able to hook into the city sewer system is something that would be really good for the terminal building,” said King.

He also said that might allow hangar lessees to put restrooms in their hangars, which some have been requesting.

The board agreed to start the legal process.

Board President Jay Rigdon did ask if King could look into whether the new housing development would have an agreement where its residents couldn’t file a nuisance claim against the airport. He said he believed the nearby The Dells subdivision had such a similar agreement.

In business, the board:

• Approved hangar lease extensions for Hunter Carlile and William Nichols.
• Approving allowing the sale of a hangar from Andrew Newcomber to John Sloan.

The board’s next meeting is 5:15 p.m. Tuesday, March 8, at city hall.