MOUNT ALTON — At Wednesday’s meeting of the Bradford Regional Airport Authority, the members were updated on several ongoing projects.
Brian Wolfel of GAI Consultants, the airport’s engineering firm, stated that the airport terminal rehabilitation project is almost 90 percent completed and should be finished within the next two-to-three weeks.
Alicia Dankesreiter, airport manager, added, “The interior is mostly finished; furniture was ordered last week and will be here by September. The exterior is approximately 85 percent finished.”
A government grant application is to be submitted for funding for paving the short-term parking lot, a part of the rehabilitation.
A lengthy discussion was held on the matter of the obstruction removal project on the 14 end of Runway 1432, the longer of the airport’s two runways. The trees in a low section — about 100 feet deep — leading to the beginning of the runway must be cut properly to a height of two feet and removed to provide a safe visual approach by incoming aircraft. “The Federal Aviation Administration will only grant funds to remove these trees one time so we need to do this properly,” Dankesreiter said. “If regrowth occurs and the visual plane is compromised, the removal cost would be our financial responsibility, which we obviously want to avoid.”
During the discussion, Wolfel and Bob Cummins of Bob Cummins Construction Company, contractor for the obstruction removal project, disagreed on some sections of the contract ‘s wording.
Authority member Fred Fesenmyer suggested both parties meet to reach a negotiated settlement.
The authority agreed to have Ken Kane, an authority member, professional forester and the airport’s forester of record, enter the talks and rely on his expertise.
Cummins told the authority members that he has appreciated working on airport projects for 40 years even though four payments, which are submitted to the FAA for approval, have been late. The latest one was due to an oversight and has since been sent to the FAA for the OK.
Rob Huber, also an authority membe,r told Cummins that he has appreciated Cummins’ past work for the airport and wants the project to get finished so payment can be made.
Mark Cestari, Southern’s chief commercial officer, also provided the June statistics at the airport, which showed 142 enplanements and 164 deplanements, for a daily average of 5.9 passengers. Of the 104 scheduled flights last month, only one was cancelled, resulting in a completion factor of 99 percent.
Cestari said, “The load factor for April was seven percent due to the coronavirus. But, the last two weeks in June saw a large increase in passengers, raising that figure to 16 percent.”
Southern, Cestari said, has been aggressive in fighting the pandemic by using various preventative measures including hand sanitizing and sanitizing the aircraft, among other steps. “These steps have helped us achieve an excellent record of just one of our 500 employees testing positive for COVID-19.”
