The Fremont County Board of Commissioners took another step towards eventual construction of a parallel taxiway at the Fremont County Airport on Tuesday. The Commissioners approved a professional services agreement with the county’s airport consultant, Armstrong Consultants of Grand Junction, to begin work on the design and engineering phase for the parallel taxiway. The Armstrong contract calls for an expenditure of $304,748.
Fremont County Airport Manager Richard Baker said getting Armstrong started on design work should allow for the taxiway project to stay on schedule. Baker said Armstrong will be preparing bid sheets for the project and that with FAA approval of the design, the project should be able to go out for bid this summer. Baker said he’s still hopeful that construction work on the parallel taxiway can begin by late August or early September after the busy part of the wildfire season.
The project is expected to be bid and constructed in two phases with total construction cost estimated at $1.9 million. The parallel taxiway is an alternative project proposed by Armstrong, the Airport Advisory Board, and the Board of Commissioners after the FAA said they would no longer agree to fund an extension of the runway at the Fremont County Airport. An update of the county’s Airport Master Plan did not reflect enough current or projected future use by jet traffic to justify a runway extension. With the FAA emphasizing safety at general aviation airports it was suggested that funds allocated for airport improvement in Fremont County be spent on building a full distance taxiway parallel to the runway. The FAA pays 95 percent of the total design, engineering, and construction costs, the state pays 2 ½ percent, and the county pays the remaining 2 ½ percent.
Baker says there has been no indication that the federal budget sequestration would affect the FAA dollars set aside for this project.
The Board of Commissioners on Tuesday also voted to authorize the chairman to sign a contract agreement with local artist Sheldon Roberts to initiate the John C. Fremont sculpture project at the entryway to Pathfinder Regional Park west of Florence. Roberts is proposing a 20-foot tall metal sculpture of Fremont to be erected in the center of the roundabout at the park. Fremont County and the Cañon City Recreation and Park District have each committed $2,500 from their Conservation Trust Funds (Lottery Funds) to the cost of the project. The artist will be responsible for raising the balance of the $20,000 cost of the artwork. The contract agreement allowed for an initial payment of $5,000 with staggered payments throughout the course of the project which is expected to be completed by early August.
In other business at the Commissioners’ March 26th meeting they:
- Awarded a bid for aggregate for chip sealing county roads this summer to Tezak Heavy Equipment at a rate of $7.75 cents a ton;
- Awarded a bid for county road asphalt patch work this summer to Rocky Mountain Materials at a cost of $48.50 per ton;
- Awarded a bid for tack oil for county road work to SunCor Energy at $2.32 a gallon;
- Awarded a bid to EnviroTech for magnesium chloride for 66 miles of county road dust suppressant at a rate of 5.06 cents per gallon;
- Appointed Angela Bellantoni of Cañon City to serve as a county representative to the Southern Colorado Economic Development District along with Commissioner Debbie Bell and Judy Lohnes of the Council of Governments;
- Ratified a change to the by-laws of the Fremont County Weed Advisory Board clarifying a quorum of membership;
- Approved a permanent waiver for hard surfacing of a parking lot for the current owners at the Estes Rockets’ warehouse at Penrose that was constructed in 2007;
- Approved a change of ownership and succession of operator for the Byzantine Quarry along County Road 69 northwest of Cañon City.