The Fremont County Board of Commissioners voted last Tuesday to authorize Board Chair Debbie Bell to sign a grant agreement with the Colorado Board of Aeronautics which will lead to construction of a full length parallel taxiway at the Fremont County Airport. The agreement sets in motion a $3.33 million project that initially began as an application for a runway extension nine years ago. In 2005 Fremont County was on the waiting list for a $9 million project to extend the runway to the east. But due to a shift in funding priorities and the financing of other emergency airport projects in Colorado the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) never fully funded the project.
When the Board of Commissioners and Fremont County Airport Manager Richard Baker took up the status of the project with the FAA in 2010, they were told the airport needed to upgrade its’ master plan before any project could proceed. The result of the master plan upgrade was that the present use and projected demand at the Fremont County Airport does not justify a runway extension for a general aviation airport. With the FAA emphasizing safety improvements at airports the county’s airport consultant, Armstrong Consultants of Grand Junction, has proposed construction of a full length taxiway in line with what the FAA had suggested in 2010.
The grant agreement being entered into with the Colorado Aeronautics Division indicates that the State of Colorado will provide $166,666 while Fremont County also provides $166,666 which together represents five percent of the total project cost. The other 95 percent will be funded by the FAA for a total project cost of $3,333,332.
Baker said engineering work is now being done by Armstrong with bids expected to be advertised for the project sometime in April. Baker said actual construction of the parallel taxiway won’t begin until late August or September to avoid the busiest activity during Colorado’s wildfire season. An air tanker base is stationed at the Fremont County Airport to launch initial airstrikes against wildfires in southern Colorado and Baker said the county doesn’t want construction to interfere with that activity.
The Commissioners last week also approved an amendment to Fremont County’s subdivision regulations as it deals with language regarding developers who submit Preliminary Plans. The intent of the changes is to bring the regulatory language in line with changes the Commissioners made in the county’s zoning resolution last year. District 1 Commissioner Tim Payne noted that the amendment is part of the continuing process to address concerns that an ad-hoc committee raised several years over difficulties developers sometimes have in navigating local regulations in the development process.
The Commissioners on Tuesday also:
- Approved special events liquor permits for the Cañon City Rodeo Association for their rodeo on Blossom Festival weekend on May 3rd and 4th and for a bull riding series on June 1st, 8th, 22nd, and 29th;
- Renewed the annual agreement with the Upper Arkansas Area Council of Governments to participate for another year in the regional recycling program;
- Scheduled a hearing for the owner of Marv’s Place bar in Penrose as part of the bar's liquor license renewal process. A hearing was set due to a recommendation from the Sheriff that the license not be renewed. The Commissioners will conduct the hearing at their March 12th meeting at 10 a.m.