SCRAA Meeting Happens Without Mahaska County Rep

SCRAA Chairman Jim Hansen (center) listens to comments about the next steps for the airport development.

Oskaloosa, Iowa – There has been plenty of discussion about the new regional airport with politicians around the county, but at the quarterly board meeting, it was business as usual.

The Mahaska County Board of Supervisors voted last week to remove the county from a 28E agreement with the cities of Pella and Oskaloosa to build a new regional airport.

The move was the third such effort by the board to separate itself from the project.

This time, board chairperson, Mark Doland, informed the board’s representative to the South Central Regional Airport, Joe Warrick, that he was relieved of his duties.

The language of the resolution passed says that the, “voters of Mahaska County have expressed their disapproval of efforts to partner with the cities of Oskaloosa and Pella” for a new regional airport.

With the passage of the resolution, Doland said that, “this resolution officially removed Mahaska County as a partner to the airport in every aspect.”

According to Article XI Amendments and Termination portion of the 28E agreement signed by the 3 municipalities, section 2 states, “Termination; This agreement may only be terminated upon the approval of the governing Board of each Party.”

The Mahaska County Board of Supervisors, twice before, lead by Supervisor Mark Doland, have passed resolutions asking for the county to be removed from the 28E agreement. The cities of Pella and Oskaloosa have not agreed to the request and the county has remained a member of the SCRAA.

The current disagreement between the county board of supervisors and city governments has the potential to get more expensive than the $50,000.00 that the Mahaska County Board of Supervisors set aside for legal fees this year to fight the 28E agreement.

The 28E agreement all parties signed off on has a liquidated damages clause, which states, “the parties agree to work in good faith and to utilize best efforts to expedite the acquisition, construction, equipping, and use of airport facility.”

“In the event one or more of the above Parties exercises its legislative authority to deny or significantly delay the acquisition, construction, equipping, or use of the airport facility, that party shall be liable to the other Parties for liquidated damages.”

Those liquidated damages are placed at $250,000.00 by the 28E agreement.

The 28E agreement has no financial liability for the county, which was a negotiated position at the time the agreement was drafted.

Oskaloosa City Manager Michael Schrock commented about the move by the Mahaska County Board of Supervisors. “We’re [City of Oskaloosa] continuing to act as business as usual.” and pointed out that the agenda for the SCRAA meeting had already been published.

Schrock said that the meeting will show, “That the project is moving forward and we are taking the steps necessary to make sure that happens.”

“It’s still too early to understand exactly what is going to be [the] result of the action taken by the Mahaska County Board of Supervisors on a 2-1 vote,” added Schrock. “We are willing to talk to them, continue to talk to them. It’s a 3 party agreement and we believe we still have that 3 party agreement in place. We will continue to do so until told otherwise,” added Schrock.

The SCRAA board has received approval from the FAA through the Finding of No Significant Impact to move forward with the next steps which include land acquisition, construction, and design.

“From our perspective, it’s moving on to the next step,” says Schrock.

At Tuesday’s meeting, the county’s representative Joe Warrick sat in the audience. Mahaska County Supervisor Willie Van Weelden sat next to Warrick.

Van Weelden was a member of the board of supervisors that passed the 28E agreement with Pella and Oskaloosa to create the SCRAA and to begin the motions of developing the new regional airport.

The SCRAA board heard public comments from 2 individuals during the call to the public.

The board received and filed the FY2016 Financial Statements, and heard an update on FAA planning studies and the Finding of No Significant Impact.

The staff stated that the search for Legal Services and Engineer/Design/Land Acquisition services were going to be taking place. The board agreed and will look to meet on making those decisions potentially in August of 2017.

The board adjourned until the next meeting, which hasn’t been set at this time.

Posted by on Jun 29 2017. Filed under Local News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Comments are closed

         

Search Archive

Search by Date
Search by Category
Search with Google
Log in | Copyright by Oskaloosa News