The City of Perry is looking to rehabilitate the apron at the municipal airport this year, thanks to help from the Federal Aviation Administration, but for now the project has been put on hold.
Engineer Matt Ferrier with Bolton and Menk did not give the City Council a formal recommendation at Monday’s meeting because the four bids that were received were much higher than the initial estimate.
City Administrator Butch Niebuhr says that can primarily be attributed to high material costs.
“What we saw was concrete prices jumping up a little bit and coming out more than the engineer’s estimates. In our case, it was about $68,000 over the estimate. Since this is a federally funded project, the exposure to the City is 10 percent of the project or $6,800. But more so, for the FAA with all the projects that they have, if they come in this high it just drains there money and there might be some projects that are supposed to be funded, may not get completed this year. So it’s going to be a first come, first serve basis” says Niebuhr.
Now Ferrier will be working with the FAA to make sure they are willing to continue funding 90 percent of the bill. A recommendation to the Council is expected at the next meeting on May 19th.
Niebuhr says it’s important for this project to move forward because it coincides with several improvements at the airport over the next few years.