by James Jordan, Sumner Newscow — The Wellington Airport expansion project may be on the go again. At the regular city meeting Tuesday, City Manager Shane Shields told the council the FAA had notified the city the project will be funded in 2017. This project started a few years ago with the FAA paying for most of it, but had put it off for a couple of years and was likely to still be a few years away.

The FAA now says it has funding for 2017, but the city will have to say “yes” very soon to get the money. If the city were to turn down the grant it would go to another community and the expansion would be put off a very long time. It would also mean the city would have to do another environmental study, which it received a grant for last time.

The project’s total cost is $2.8 million, and the city’s share would be $220,000. Shields also said he was told by KDOT the state may chip in some money so the cost to the city could be less.

Shields told the council they would need to approve this at their next meeting on Oct. 18 to avoid letting the project slip away.

He noted that it sounds like a great deal for the city, but the city also has other big projects going on, such as the rural water issue and the Westborough street paving project. The rural water issue – which may mean building a water line for more than $100,000 is already in the budget and could come out of the utility fund. That would leave the Westborough project and the Airport project to fund. The city set a work session for 6 p.m. On Oct. 17 to discuss the airport project and try to figure out the financing.

It could possibly be financed through a bond issue.

Most of the council members spoke in favor of the project and none spoke against it. Council member Vince Wetta said “if we don’t do this now we probably will not ever do it.”

Wetta said it is important for the city to proceed.

The main benefit to expanding the runway at the airport, making it longer, would be that bigger jets could land there. This would be appealing to companies who may want to move here, and the city does make a little money selling jet fuel to planes going across country.

Another benefit would be the expansion of a sewer line from the city to the airport. This is also grant related. The total cost is $600,000 and the city’s share is $60,000. This project could lead to expansion in that area.

“It boils down to, are we going to strive to grow our city, or are we going to accept being a small town and not have the resources to have the quality of life we are used to,” he said.

Council member Kip Etter said he believed the city has lost companies because of the short runway.  He said the longer runway would make it more appealing to companies looking for a place to put their business.

Mayor Shelley Hansel said “it is all part of economic development.”

In other matters

The city appointed Pete Zavala to the Memorial Auditorium board. He has done a lot of volunteer work there already and was at the meeting. The city had five applications and went over them in a work before the regular meeting.

The council agreed to let the Chamber of Commerce put an information kiosk on the Antlers lot at Seventh and Washington. The kiosk is being built at the high school, and will have information about Wellington for visitors. People will be able to get information when the chamber office is not open.

The city also:

•Adopted a resolution entering into an agreement with the Houston-Galveston area council for cooperative purchasing. The Houston-Galveston area reaches out to many cities and does a cooperative purchasing project so cities can get big ticket items at a lower cost.  There is no cost to be part of this, but if the city were to buy an ambulance this way, for example, there would be a $1,000 fee.

•Adopted a resolution to make an agreement with Sumner County Rural Water District No. 1, for maintenance flushing of a rural fire hydrant north of Highway 160 near Oxford.

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