City Council hears airport funds request
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By Jeff Snyder
MOUNT AYR, Iowa — The Mount Ayr City Council heard a funding request from the city’s Airport Commission during its regularly scheduled meeting on Monday at City Hall. The agenda was packed with time sensitive items, the airport among them.
Mount Ayr has had a municipal airport since September of 1969 and is need of some upgrades. Kelly Main, the assigned spokesperson for the commission, addressed the council and made a case why the council should consider a budget amendment that would grant another $5,000 to complete the lobby/office area of the hanger building. The council did not commit to funding the request, but are willing to consider the commission’s proposal to complete the project.
The Airport Commission will be hosting a fly-in breakfast at the airport site on September 12 in hopes that the newly refurbished airport facilities will create a buzz in the airplane community and attract more revenue to the town. Main went on to explain the unique set up Mount Ayr’s facilities have based on its proximity (walking distance) to the hotel and a short few steps away from Caseys General Store. The airplane community is a very tight knit one and has an extensive communication network among themselves that could help fuel future airport use.
The council pointed out that the airport was originally conceived to support the Industrial Park that has generated and produced mixed results over the years. The original belief was that industry executives typically travel by plane and the airport would be a further enticement for companies looking to locate a plant or business in the park.
The council asked if the commission could approach the Ringgold County Development Board, of which Main sits on, at its next meeting in hopes of securing some financial support from that entity. The council agreed to continue conversations regarding funding requests until after the results of the Development Board meeting.
In additional to the airport conversations, the council also made a final determination of the repair of the city’s little league fields. The fields have been prone to flooding during even moderate rain forcing cancellations or delays in scheduled events. After receiving multiple bids to regrade the infields the council went ahead and committed to Big League Sports Surfaces to complete the repairs. The final bid of $36,200 was significantly below any other competing bid by a wide margin. The council did its due diligence when selecting this vendor and was also provided with a nearby example of this companies work. This past spring, Big League Sports also refurbished one of the softball fields in the Mount Ayr Community School complex. This first hand experience gave the council solace given the wide discrepancies in bid amounts. The plan is to proceed as quickly as possible as events are already scheduled for October of this year that could conflict with construction. Timing will be finalized at the time of contract commitment
The council moved on to a recent hot bed issue with the installation of the new fiber optic lines throughout the city. During the installation a number of area residents expressed their concerns regarding some of the above ground equipment that was being used by Kinetic, specifically the “Marker Poles” signifying the cable locations under ground. In addition to a variety of cable junction boxes which are required for installation the identification poles were being erected with white PVC poles protruding some four feet above the ground capped by a florescent orange warning cap that made a not so subtle call out of the cables location.
Officials from Kinetic met with City Administrator Brent Wise last week to discuss the residents’ concerns. Kinetic agreed to eliminate the marking poles but indicated that the junction boxes were a necessity for weather tight installations. Kinetic will be removing the current marker poles while installation of the high speed fiber system continues.
Council member Mike Wik, who is also a Kinetic technician, reiterated how much better this new fiber system is versus the old copper cable systems. “Each home will receive 2 gigs of data speed directly to the house, guaranteed,” he said.
According to Wik, this new fiber system represents a monumental increase over current system capabilities.
The council approved a new contract for data management and copy production. The council decided on a system provided by Infomax Office Systems, which included the purchase of a new high speed copier manufactured by Canon.
In other house keeping items the city agreed to move forward on the acquisition of several blighted properties in town to aid in the future economic development and housing needs of the city. The properties are located at 207 S. Harrison St. and 202 W. Jefferson St.
The council also approved an additional revolving loan for KMW as part of the economic development program already in place in the city budget. These low-cost loans are set aside for the ongoing development throughout city and have been very successful over the years in helping to rehabilitate underutilized real estate in Mount Ayr and stimulate new business growth.
On a scheduling note, the council has set up an additional special council meeting to take place on Thursday, August 13 to revisit the results of the Development Board meeting regarding the Airport Commission funding update requested by the council. The next regularly scheduled council meeting is slated for Monday, August 24.
