Brewster votes to proceed with airport taxi lane project

BREWSTER – Upon receiving the news last month that the city will gain an additional $150,000 in Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) entitlement funds that the City of Oroville is unable to use this year, the Brewster City Council voted to proceed with its ongoing Anderson Field expansion project.

Public Works Director Lee Webster reviewed the project that has been on the table for the past several years that has now received a boost with the windfall from Oroville. He said Brewster has been in Oroville’s position in the past.

“We were there a dozen, maybe 15 years ago where we were giving away our airport funds,” explained Webster. “It happened several times and we were told at the time that we could get the money back but that’s not really the case.”

Webster elaborated that once those FAA funds are lost a city has to beg or plead with some other municipality or be at the right place at the right time to get their funds.

Webster said the airport project includes construction of east and west taxi lanes and relocation of the runway connector.

Webster said the taxi lane project has been on the table for several years.

“It’s been kind of a round-and-round affair,” Webster said.

Airport project engineer Alex DelRiccio with J-U-B Engineers in Spokane participated in the meeting via Zoom and helped explain the project up for vote at the council meeting.

DelRiccio said the design phase of his firm’s services would cost about $308,000 and the construction phase would come in at about $1 million. With funding approval from FAA and Washington State Department of Transportation the city’s portion of those costs would be five percent or about $80,000.

When asked how soon J-U-B would like to start the project, DelRiccio said the sooner the better.

“If authorized our goal would be to work very quickly on this project,” said DelRiccio. “We would like to open bids by the end of April. The FAA has indicated there is a better chance of funding being available the sooner we open.”

“The one thing we have to think about, this is the one year we have the $150,000 available from Oroville,” said finance director/city clerk Misty Ruiz. “If we don’t do it this year then this project could cost us at least $150,000 more.”