Wellington City Council likely to vote for airport runway expansion
by James Jordan, Sumner Newscow — The Wellington City Council is likely to vote to approve a program that will extend the airport to 5,200 feet at its regular meeting Tuesday night. The council came to that consensus at a work session meeting Monday night at city hall.
The project has been in the works for several years with the Federal Aviation Administration planning to pay 90 percent of the cost. That had been delayed a few times, and even last year local officials were told the funding might be delayed even a few more years.
But a couple of weeks ago Airport administrator Patrick Hamlin was notified that the money was in fact available, but the city has to make a decision quickly in order to get the money. The funding became available when an Iowa project was unable to proceed, so now Wellington will get that money.
The project was to cost $2.8 million and with the FAA paying 90 percent, Wellington’s share would have been 280,000. Hamlin told the council Monday he had received further good news in that the Kansas Dept. of Transportation has agreed to fund half of Wellington’s match, which reduces the cost to Wellington to about $144,000.
Council members were for the measure, and plan to vote for it Tuesday. They will still have to figure out where the money will come from, and they will likely go with General Obligation bonds to fund the project.
Hamlin said if the city did not do it now, and he has to give an answer Wednesday, it would likely be several years before it would even be considered again. An environmental study would also no longer be in effect and would have to be done again.
Widening the runway to 300 feet, and extending it 2,000 more feet, will allow larger jets to land at the airport. Currently, the airport sells fuel to jets making their way across the country, and that is a substantial amount of income for the airport. Getting larger jets would mean larger sales of fuel, Hamlin said.
Jets could land in Wichita, he said, but Wellington sells fuel at a much lower price and jets are able to get in and out of Wellington much easier than at the crowded Wichita airport.
The project also includes the extension of sewer lines to the airport, which is included in the total cost of the project. City officials hope that will lead to some economic development. They currently have lagoons serving industry in the area, and those are going to have to be replaced anyway, and that would be expensive as well.
The city may pass a motion to proceed with the project, and then pass another motion at its Nov. 1 meeting to take up funding. Some of it could come from the utility fund since it involves the sewer line as well.
The city also talked about some other big ticket items.
They are currently discussing how to repair streets in the Westborough subdivision, where many of Wellington’s most expensive houses are. Roads are in bad shape there, and owners have asked the city to do something.
Property owners will have to pay either five or 10 percent of the cost through special assessments.
The city could just pave the streets and then do some sealing work every two years or so, and that seemed ok with the residents at the meeting.
However, city road officials say it would be better to do curb and guttering as well, which would cost more but would make the streets last a lot longer and could end up saving money over several years.
The city may go with just the general paving but the cost has not yet been determined.
The raw water issue was also discussed, and there will likely be another work session to come up with a final plan. The city has to have a plan by December 1.
There are a few options, including shutting off those six customers and abandoning some of the wells, but that option was not popular among council members.
They may end up putting in a water line to solve the issue, but there are some other options being considered.
A work session will be held at some point over the next couple of weeks to make a final determination.
Also at Tuesday night’s meeting there will be an appeal of a zoning issue.
