On Wednesday, April 10, the Crookston Airport Commission met in the City Hall conference room and reviewed bids for the proposed T-Hangar project.
The Crookston Airport previously estimated the T-Hangar project to cost approximately $2.5 million. After reviewing the bids, the lowest responsible bidder was Gustafson and Goudge of Clearbrook, in the amount of $2,797,077, which is nearly $300,000 more than the original estimate. “To finance this, the share that the city would owe absent grants and fund build-up, we’d have to come up with about $1.2 million. That is excessive,” said said City Administrator Corky Reynolds. The commission ultimately rejected the bids.
The airport has $150,000 per year allocated to the city’s budget, which can only be accumulated for four years. If the funding is not spent within four years, the airport cannot use the funds. The commission had a consensus to recommend using the funds to begin the construction process of laying the taxiways where the hangar may reside in the future. “Instead of accepting the bids, the commission voted to reject each bid we received,” said Reynolds. “However, with some flexibility, we are going ahead with a project to lay in the taxiways and do the earthwork surrounding and including the area where we anticipated the hangar to be constructed.”
The recommendation to begin the construction process for the taxiways and earthwork will be presented to the Crookston City Council on Monday, April 22, in the City Hall council chambers.
