The Crookston Airport Commission met Wednesday, April 16, in the conference room at City Hall. The commission reviewed the private hangar lease agreement, and they accepted a T-Hangar bid of over $2.8 million.
Private Hangar Lease Review
At the previous meeting in February, the Commission discussed reviewing the city’s Private Hanger Lease Agreement. No changes have been made to this document for many years. The commission wanted to look at some items, as a private party expressed interest in building a hangar at the airport. This morning, the Commission unanimously approved the changes made to paragraph 23, which pertained to the Termination of Lease.
T-Hangar Bid Results
The commission spoke with Lindsay Reidt and Melissa Underwood from SEH Engineering about rebidding the T-Hangar project back in February. The bids are in. Reidt and Underwood asked the Commission what they wanted to do with the project. “We opened bids for the hangar project out at the airport. We had two options: a five-unit T-Hangar and a two- or three-unit box hangar,” says Reidt. “They decided to move forward with the five-unit T-Hangar, including some in-floor heating options as well.”
There was a lengthy discussion about the options and what they meant for the project’s funding. The project had been bid on once in 2024, but the bids were too high. The cost hasn’t gotten any lower, and there will likely be no reduction in price if the commission puts off the project again. Gustafson and Goudge were the lowest responsible bidders both times the project was bid out, and the most recent bid was for $2,837,677.35. The project will require the Crookston Municipal Airport to borrow money from other area airports and will push back on a few other projects the Crookston Airport planned. “We talked about borrowing entitlement dollars that they will need to do from other airports. It’s a common practice, but given the scale of this project and the amount of money, it’s a long duration. Eight to 10 years is what we are looking at,” says Reidt. “If that doesn’t go through, if the FAA pushes back, we will come up with a funding plan and work with them. There is potential that the project may be on hold, and they might look at other sources for funding as well.”
Reidt says that the FAA may not approve the project based on the length of payback the airport would have and how that would affect other crucial projects that need to be done to maintain the airport. Another issue would be the other airports borrowing to Crookston and how it could affect future projects. The commission unanimously agreed to accept Gustafson and Gouge’s bid for the five-unit T-Hangar with in-floor heating. The commission will now wait to hear from SEH about the FAA’s project decision.
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