May 10—The Mason City Municipal Airport moved forward to solidify the vision of the airport's expansion.
The Mason City Airport Commission met on Monday, and chose to go with the original floor plan for the airport expansion project. The commission also went over several bids for aspects of the project, for which they will award contracts on May 16 during a special meeting.
The expansion project is currently aiming to build an entirely new airport terminal. The goal is to modernize and expand the offerings compared to the current facility to accommodate for increased ridership at the airport, and to potentially increase the flights offered at the airport in the future.
The proposed new facility would be located directly west of the current terminal, and would be constructed while the old terminal is still operational, allowing for business at the airport to continue as usual during construction.
Mason City Airport's proposed new terminal would be a significant expansion of the current facility, featuring an larger lobby, gate hold area, baggage area and security checkpoint.
The Mason City Airport Commission is working with Foth, an engineering company, on the project. Foth presented the commission with plans and renderings on April 11 and held a public hearing on Monday.
Commission member Joan Platz had several concerns with the original option. One of her concerns was where things were located, like the air terminal and the bus area, namely an overflow of people and the visual markers available to inbound travelers.
"(The lobby) is the area where we have all three functions joining in one spot for that door and then the jetway is here, so when you taxi in you would not see the terminal," said Platz.
Commission member David Guetzko, who preferred the original floor plan, had a concern about energy efficiency due to higher ceilings and the amount of glass.
"In general, the new building will be much more efficient than this building, just because this building cannot meet current energy codes," said Adam Wilhelm, a project engineer for Foth.
All commission members except for Platz voted to go with the original floor plan. Airport manager David Sims said the budget for construction is $7.5 million, but furnishings and equipment will bring the estimated cost to approximately between $12 million and $14 million.
Currently, the project is planning on using the $12 million in CARES Act funding. The grant does have a deadline or project completion in May of 2024.
Sims said the project is broken up into into several phases to keep things moving. First phases would be to do apron work and breaking ground for the building before winter so construction can start in the spring according to Sims.
During the same meeting, the commission opened bids for the general expansion project. Henkel Construction submitted a $976,745 bid and Dean Snyder Construction submitted $1,066,095 as their bid. The Mason City Airport Commission will review the bids and award the contract next Monday.
"We're progressing as we should be. We have a very detailed schedule laid out to make sure that we can meet that May 2024 deadline," said Sims.
Abby covers education and entertainment for the Globe Gazette. Follow her on Twitter at @MkayAbby. Email her at [email protected]
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