Russellville approves pre-application grant request for airport
FILE PHOTO
A drainage project is in the works for Russellville Municipal Airport.
A $160K project for Russellville Municipal Airport is in the early stages after Russellville Mayor David Grissom was authorized to sign Pre-Application SF-424 for a grant for federal assistance at last Monday’s city council meeting.
As Matt Mims, project manager, explained, the city council previously approved a pre-application in November for the same amount of funding for the airport to pursue a different set of projects.
“Back then we compiled a list of projects that went into that previous pre-application, which included land acquisition, fencing relocation, equipment building, tree clearing – all ultimately for a weather system we are going to put out at the airport eventually,” he said. “Two things happened: the landowner did not want to sell the property after all, so we left that alone, and the FAA turned most of these requests down, essentially saying they were ineligible. They wanted us to do a lot of environmental red tape type work such that we considered it not practical to pursue those projects anymore.”
But the funding is still a use-it-or-lose-it situation, he said, which brought the airport back to the drawing board. Pre-application is now being made with an eye toward addressing drainage issues at the airport. Airport manager Harry Mattox said the project would rectify a situation where insufficient drainage means water is seeping out of the ground and across the runway.
“It’s one of those problems that is a passive problem, but now that we have the opportunity to fix it, we are going to do it,” Mims said.
The project will utilize $143,181 of federal funds; $7,954 of state funds; and $7,954 of matching funds from the city, for a total $159K project.
The council also voted in favor of the contract for engineering services for the project with
Mims said once the project begins, it can be completed in just a couple of months, but several phases of paperwork remain between the pre-application and project initiation. Work might begin by this summer.
