Abilene looks to award bids for airport work

The Abilene City Council will award bids for airport taxiway improvements at Thursday's meeting, assuming an anticipated federal grant is approved by then.

Don Green, aviation director for the city of Abilene, said if the city has not received grant approval by the Thursday meeting, action will be deferred until the Sept. 8 council meeting. Green said the project is anticipated to cost more than $6 million, with 95 percent coming from a grant from the Federal Aviation Agency and 5 percent from a certificate of obligation by the city. He said the certificate of obligation will be repaid by a passenger facility charge on the tickets for passengers flying out of the Abilene airport. It is anticipated that work on taxiway reconstruction will begin within three to four weeks after council approval of the grant and contracts, Green said. He anticipates that the project will take about nine months to complete. "This is the only airport project we have for this year," Green said. "We will have an additional project for FY (fiscal year) '12, which we will not start until next spring." To be eligible to receive federal money for the airport construction grants, a goal must be set for the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise designating a percentage of the money for small businesses owned and controlled by socially and economically disadvantaged individuals. Green said the new goal is 5.2 percent for the DBE. "If we don't reach that goal, there is no penalty," he said. "We must show a good faith effort to attract DBE firms to participate in the contract." Green said the goal is only for the airport federal projects.