Guthrie County Regional Airport Authority Board President Marshall Burgess talks with the County Board of Supervisors.
The Guthrie County Regional Airport has been granted 90% of the funds needed for a runway reconstruction project from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Now it’s up to the County and cities who comprise the airport authority to fund the remaining 10%.
The Guthrie County Regional Airport Authority Board and Aviation Project Manager with McClure Engineering Company Jay Pudenz gave a presentation to the Board of Supervisors Tuesday on the improvements needed for the nearly 30-year-old runway. To fund the $380,000 needed for the $3.8 million project, the airport authority proposed increasing the property tax levy that was originally established in 1989 for unincorporated residents and those of Guthrie Center, Panora, and Yale, who is opting out of the agreement as the City has failed to appoint a new member to the authority board.
Panora Mayor Patrick Parker said that he recognizes the economic benefit the airport provides since it is used by ag spraying companies and attracts tourists to Lake Panorama, but he does not prefer the levy differential between residents, “This creates a three-tiered system in the County. So if you live in Panora and Guthrie (Center) you pay 21.5 cents per $1,000, if you live in the unincorporated area of the County you’re paying half of that, 10.5 cents per $1,000 and if you live in one of the other communities – Yale, Bagley, Jamaica – you’re paying nothing towards the airport. So to go to our citizens, who we have a large population of low-to-moderate income which are on fixed income budgets, it may be a $4 increase but that’s $4 an increase on top of the increase we’re probably going to get from the 28E agreement we’re doing with the County on the landfill. Then we have our infrastructure that we’re trying to do and things, all this adds up.”
Parker said the proposed levy increase would be a tough sell on Panora residents, and he urged the group to have representatives of the cities, the County, and the airport authority meet to discuss an equal payment system before the agreement is considered this spring. The airport authority hopes to bid the project in March 2019.