Warsaw Airport Manager Nick King listens to a report from Robert LaFayette, on screen, from CHA during the Warsaw Board of Aviation Commissioners meeting Tuesday. Photo by David Slone, Times-Union.

By David Slone
Times-Union

WARSAW — In between updates on projects out at the Warsaw Municipal Airport, the Board of Aviation Commissioners approved three invoices during a relatively short meeting Tuesday, Feb. 11.

CHA Aviation Planning Leader Robert LaFayette said the runway 27 obstruction mitigation — AEP power line lowering project — is ongoing. There’s been some cold snaps and poor weather, but, “they don’t seem to think that any of the weather, so far, has impacted any of the schedule.”

Demobilization of the project is still set for early March, he said. The biweekly coordination calls with AEP are now weekly.The power lines being lowered are to the east of the east/west runway at the airport. Kent Power is handling the construction for the approximate $7.8 million project, funded by grants.

On the taxiway B rehabilitation, LaFayette said CHA is working toward 30% design.

“We’re anticipating the completion of 30% next week. That is not a submittal. Our next submittal will be the basis of the design and 75% design and that anticipated schedule is for March 28. We do have an anticipated timeline of that project to be complete prior to June, and we’re expecting bids in hand mid-May to make the FAA grant deadline in June,” he said.

He presented an invoice for CHA’s work to date for $25,696.80, with the local share being $1,284.84. Grant dollars from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law are paying for a bulk share of the project costs. The board approved the invoice.

Moving on to the Airport Overlay District, LaFayette said they did have the draft submitted for review and presented an invoice for $2,000, all local share. The invoice is based on quality control review of the submitted draft that CHA has given to Airport Manager Nick King. The next steps are to schedule a briefing with the city and county, including Mayor Jeff Grose and the city and county planners, to talk about the draft. The board approved the invoice.

Finally, on the local runway 9-27 rehabilitation project, LaFayette said, “We are currently completing 50% design submittal. That was due today.” King said he received it.

“The next deliverable includes 90% design, and that schedule is anticipated for March 7,” LaFayette said. “During this process, we did have a coordination call with Nick to discuss construction safety phasing and site logistics. We additionally discussed some design phases and the annual strategy. The 9-27 rehabilitation has the potential to go across multiple fiscal years.”

Trying to determine what that looks like, he said they do have some other financial strategies that they’re looking into. There’s no concrete committal to it at this point, so “there’s more to come on that,” LaFayette stated.

“We’re anticipating this project design schedule to be complete in April, with bid opening also in late April. That kind of puts the construction timeline schedule for early fall, maybe we would get lucky and start late summer, but likely that will be more toward early fall,” he said. He presented an invoice for $28,358.40, all local share, which the board approved.

King reminded the board that they’re only able to do this project because the county is partnering with the city on other projects that the airport had in 2024 carrying over into 2025.

“That money that we saved with the county partnering with us on that has really allowed us to step up and start to do some more of this pavement maintenance, and that’s where this funding is coming from,” he said.

The next board meeting is tentatively scheduled for 5:15 p.m. March 11