Huntingburg Airport: Full again, airport awaits influx of infrastructure money

Pending any issues, Rick Mann was able to snag one of the few hangar spots available at the Huntingburg Regional Airport with the high bid of $605 a month for a three-year commitment.

His bid was approved over a $600 a month bid from Jim Kulbeth for a one-year contract.

Both men were bidding on a spot in the Humer Hangar – a hangar built by the Olinger family in the 1960s that the airport operates.

Kulbeth, who was in attendance, commented that he was unaware he could have bid for a specific length of time on the contract.

“It says on the form here ‘minimum of one year, maximum of five years,'” said Dubois County Airport Authority president Michael Cummings.

Kulbeth’s sardonic reply elicited some laughter from the five or six attendees to the authority’s monthly meeting. “Well, I didn’t read the damn form.”

With the new T-hangar already full and a bidding process on the remaining space, the airport has begun to explore building a new T-hangar.

Nick Isenberg with Woolpert Engineering provided some preliminary ideas for placement of the next hangar. He explained the existing site study for the recently completed T-hangar indicated the easiest expansion would be to the west of the new hangar. He stated this would require the least amount of site preparation for a new hangar.

According to Cummings, the board is planning for the expansion but has no plans to go to the Dubois County Council for funding in the near future. “We have some preliminary numbers and site layout stuff,” he said. “It isn’t the best time to go to the council with the budget shortfall they are dealing with right now.”

Airport manager Travis McQueen pointed out that the recent passage of Senate Bill 67 could mean the county would receive an influx of cash for roads and airport improvements this year. “I don’t want to speculate on how much that will be,” he added.

Senate Bill 67 will distribute money to counties from $450 million held by the state in its Local Option Income Tax Trust Fund since 2009. The fund was established as a fall back in response to the 2008 recession. The money will come to counties in a one-time distribution. Much of the money is slated to got to infrastructure repairs like roads and bridges, but in its original language, the bill included airport projects.

According to Senator Mark Messmer, Dubois County will receive $4.7 million of those funds. The money is split between the taxing entities in the county. A breakdown of the disbursement is here.

Of the amount, 75 percent must go to infrastructure while 25 percent can be used at the entities discretion.

“I don’t want to count my chickens before the eggs are hatched,” McQueen said. “I don’t want to rely on that funding being there until we do our homework first. It might be an option, but we want to focus on where we are at right now.”

The just-completed hangar cost around $630,000, and the county chipped in $413,000 towards the project. The airport authority shouldered the remaining cost.

“We know that we need the hangar space. Our first step is just developing a plan, developing what kind of facility we want to build and determining what kind of cost that might be when we want to build it down the road,” Cummings added. “I can appreciate the council’s challenges right now.”

The airport authority also took the following actions:

-Approved payment of an invoice from Wolpert Engineering for engineering services on the airport expansion for $62,539.34. The airport authority is responsible for five percent, or $3,126.37, of that bill. The Federal Aviation Administration picks up 90 percent of the bill, or $56,286, and the Indiana Department of Transportation picks up 5 percent, or $3,126.97.

-Approved working with Angela Bartley of groundschoolguru.com for a two-and-a-half day ground school at the airport. A 16-week course was originally available through a partnership with VUJC but that will no longer be offered. McQueen said he was certain the ground school could find a number of students for the shortened, intense course.

-Heard that a new pumper truck for fuel would be in service soon. The military surplus truck will be inspected and certified this month. McQueen said the 6,000-gallon tanker truck pumps fuel at a higher rate and will prove to be much more efficient than the existing tanker.

-In regards to fuel sales, the airport has about $213,000 in a rotating fuel fund. They started selling fuel three years ago with their first purchase of about $60,000 in fuel. The rotating fuel fund is totally funded through fuel sales. After the fuel fund reaches 125 percent of the original purchase, which it already has, the airport authority can use the excess for other funds to support the airport.

-Heard the Jasper RC (radio controlled airplane) Club will be hosting an event at the airport May 14th. According to member Scott Blesch, the club plans on inviting other area clubs to the airport to fly the radio controlled aircraft using the concrete strip to launch and land. Blesch said demonstrations are planned as well as assisted flying lessons. The airport authority said plans are still underway for the event, but they were considering using the day to recognized Frosty Jones, one of two men largely responsible for establishing the Huntingburg Airport when they purchased the Katterhenry Farm in 1939.

-The $80,000 mistake from last August is almost cleared, according to McQueen. The FAA has allowed the airport to file the appropriate paperwork to take the next step to receive an $80,000 reimbursement for the removal of an approach tower and trees from the western approach to the airport. Work was completed on clearing the obstructions but when paperwork was submitted by Wolpert Engineering, an environmental report was not completed due to its redundancy and the FAA denied the claim.