Apr. 20—The Owensboro- Daviess County Regional Airport Board accepted a bid from the Oshkosh Corp. for a new aircraft rescue firefighting truck during its regular meeting Tuesday.

Tristan Durbin, airport director, said the bid by Oshkosh is for $717,848.

"Initially we had estimates that we were going to be around $925,000 to $950,000, so these did come in well under the estimate that we had received," Durbin said during the meeting.

A second bid was also received from Rosenbauer America for $722,789.

Durbin told board members he recommended the board accept the lowest and best bid to replace its existing vehicle.

"The FFA is pretty tight on that, we do have to take the lowest and best," he said.

The truck is expected to be delivered within 405 days of the order date and payment is not required until delivery and training is completed.

The new truck will replace OWBs existing 2006 E-One Titan.

Durbin previously said the Titan is beginning to show its age, and more than $26,000 had been spent on its maintenance during the previous 18 months.

Annual grant funding received for the number of enplanements leaving the airport would cover 95% of cost of the new truck. The airport is responsible for paying the remaining 5%, which is $35,892.

The airport has also completed work on replacing the roof on three hangars at a cost of $185,000.

"That project was completed about two weeks ago, which is about two months prior to our anticipated completion date," Durbin said. "We were able to get materials in, that is kind of what we were worried about whenever we bid this out, that materials weren't going to come in in time. Those materials did come in, actually ahead of schedule."

The hangars, which are owned by the airport, are used by the community as general aviation hangars, with two dating to the 1950s and the third to the late 1960s or early 1970s.

"The roof has held very well throughout these past few rains," Durbin said. "We have determined that it definitely does not leak."

Durbin said the airport is still working to correct some drainage issues occurring around the outside of the hangars that are causing some water to enter the hangars.

"The most immediate need was certainly the roof, and now we have got that taken care of, and we are working on trying to figure out some solution to the drainage," he said.

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