Stillwater Regional Airport Director Paul Priegel had good news for the Stillwater City Council when it met last week. In the coming year, the airport has the opportunity to benefit from a mixture of grants, pre-payments and emergency assistance to help fund improvements, replace fire fighting equipment and cover operating costs.

Those windfalls will relieve some pressure on the city’s budget and make a planned transfer from the General Fund to the airport unnecessary, Deputy City Manager Melissa Reames told the councilors.

The airport budget has been amended to reflect more than $1.1 million SWO is receiving in airport relief funding as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act.

That money can be used for a variety of operating costs and should cover airport operations for the coming fiscal year, Priegel said.

The airport is also receiving $235,000 in pre-payments from Oklahoma State University for its flight center. The money will be applied to the university’s annual lease payment.

It supplements $555,000 the airport is receiving from the Federal Aviation Administration to purchase a new Aviation Rescue and Fire Fighting unit.

The combination of the two funding sources enables SWO to replace its 20 year old fire truck and buy some equipment and tools for it, in spite of the bid coming in higher than originally budgeted.

Due to the financial impact of COVID-19, the FAA is providing its funding at 100% instead of requiring a 10% match from the airport.

The airport is saving even more on a $5.6 million FAA grant that covers the continued reconstruction of the runway apron. That grant is also being funded at 100% instead of requiring a 10% match as usual, Priegel said.

The airport will also be upgrading its aviation gas system with help from a $200,000 grant from Phillips 66. Bids on the project came in higher than expected at just over $250,000 but Priegel said he was able to pull $40,000 from the airport’s contingency fund and another $14,000 from a “COVID contingency fund” containing money set aside when city staff scraped their budgets to find savings in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Phillips 66 has indicated it may be able to provide an additional $80,000 in grant funding after October to help pay for the fuel system and work on the entry road to the fuel farm, Priegel said.

In other business, the City Council approved the renewal of a retail fuel sales permit for Stillwater Flight Center, which has been the sole fuel retailer at Stillwater Regional Airport for 30 years.

It sells an estimated 500,000 gallons of fuel in a good year, Priegel said. That nets the airport about $90,000 per year in revenue.

Twitter: @mcharlesNP

———

©2020 the Stillwater NewsPress (Stillwater, Okla.)

Visit the Stillwater NewsPress (Stillwater, Okla.) at www.stillwater-newspress.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.