The Guthrie County Board of Supervisors met in regular session Tuesday.
The meeting began with an informational technology update from David Garland of Guthrie Center Communications. Next, the Board held a public hearing on the proposal of an amended and substituted creation agreement for the Guthrie County Regional Airport Authority and a cooperation agreement providing a tax levy commitment to help fund a runway replacement that the authority has received a 90% funding match from the Federal Aviation Administration.
The Authority initially wanted the County and the other stakeholders of Guthrie Center and Panora to pay the 10% of funds needed to also replace the ramp and perform pavement maintenance, projects that would occur within the next decade. This would make the County’s contribution $65,000 annually for a tax levy from fiscal year 2020 to 2035. The Supervisors previously expressed concern about levying rural residents for that amount, so the Authority gave them other funding options, including just paying for a runway replacement. This would drop the County’s payment to $55,700.
Panora Mayor Patrick Parker explains why the two cities involved preferred paying for all three projects up front, “From a city’s perspective, when we had our January 4th meeting and we discussed option one, we were looking for a long-term fix for the airport. What was the best value to get what we needed for the airport and doing it in a way that’s for the best value for our citizens. And by piecemealing this to it, when this is done I guarantee it’s going to cost our citizens more money than if we had done option one. Everytime we have to do a change to this it takes a change to our ordinance. We have to have attorneys review that, the airport authority’s attorney draws it up, it costs the Airport Authority, the cities have attorneys do it, it costs money.”
The Supervisors had already published their preliminary fiscal year 2020 budget which showed an allocation of $55,700 for a runway replacement, and following the public hearing the Board voted 3-2 to approve contributing to the project. Due to an error in the published meeting agenda, the Board will have an ordinance to adopt a new authority creation agreement at Thursday’s meeting. Later, the Board approved resolutions approving the financing for a skid loader and trucks for the Transfer Station, and opened bids for a bridge replacement southeast of Panora. Finally, the Board signed acceptance of Pam Lane of Atlantic as the new full-time Human Resources Director. Her salary is set at $72,500 and she will begin her duties March 21st.