RS airport funding request not favored

An airport funding request to renovate its west hanger for a client arriving in 2020 didn’t go over well at a commissioners’ meeting.

During a recent Sweetwater County commissioners meeting, Southwest Regional Airport Director Devon Brubaker told the commissioners a project he had scheduled to start in a couple of years, will now need to be completed by June of 2020. This project is the renovation of the west hanger, which has been vacant for years.

Brubaker said the need for the hanger to have renovations done quickly is so the Bureau of Land Management can construct Wyoming’s first state of the art aerial firefighting base at this facility. He said the BLM wants to lease the second floor of the west hanger and use it as its operations center.

According to a letter from Brubaker, “As a condition of their new 20-year lease agreement with the airport, the airport must deliver a ‘warm-lit, code-compliant shell’ to BLM by June 1, 2020.”

In order to have the building ready for the BLM, the project will include the replacement of windows, doors, HVAC, electrical, plumbing and exterior facade, a floor-plan modification and cosmetic improvements to meet tenant needs, reconstruction and expansion of failing aircraft apron in front of hangar, relocation of poorly placed main stairwell and reconstruction of secondary egress. All of this is projected to cost about $750,000.

Brubaker said he thinks the initial estimate of the project is high, however he presented the commissioners with funding options. The first is to acquire the funding from the county. This was Brubaker’s preferred option because the airport could obtain the funding quickly without having to take out a loan.

The second option is obtaining a county loan, this would allow the airport to obtain the funding from the county without any interest.

The third option is obtaining the funding through a State Loan and Investment Board 10-year loan. This would be at an interest rate of 5.37 percent for a total project cost of $999,865.

The fourth option is acquiring a 10-year bank loan, which would be at an interest rate of more than 7 percent and would require the county or city to cosign.

Chairman Wally Johnson said he didn’t even think the county can legally loan the airport any money.

Deputy County Attorney John DeLeon said he would need to look into this matter more.

Brubaker said the SLIB interest rate is too high and it would take him three to five months to obtain the funding and he just doesn’t have that much time.

The commissioners wanted to know why Brubaker was only coming to them for funding and not Rock Springs. Brubaker said Rock Springs is already funding a $800,000 fuel project for the airport.

Commissioner Randy Wendling said it’s just tax dollars chasing tax dollars to fund this when interest must be paid.

“I think you’ve put yourself in a bad spot,” Commissioner Roy Lloyd said.

Lloyd said Brubaker should have obtained the funding for the renovation prior to signing a lease agreement.

Johnson said Brubaker has once again put the commissioners between a rock and a hard spot.

“You tend to come to us and put the pressure on us,” Johnson said.

Johnson told Brubaker he must get better at planning projects to avoid these types of situations.

Commissioner Jeffrey Smith said if the project has to go through a loan, it isn’t worth it.

“We fund it or we don’t,” Smith said.

The request will reviewed at an upcoming meeting.