Warsaw Board Of Aviation Looks Ahead To New Year
Vice President John Yingling led the meeting again this month as President Jay Rigdon was absent.
By Maggie Kenworthy
InkFreeNews
WARSAW — During the Warsaw Board of Aviation Commissioners meeting held tonight, Jan. 12, Airport Manager Nick King reviewed the final fuel usage report for 2020.
In total, the airport sold 161,013 gallons of jet fuel. This put 2020’s fuel revenue down around $80,000 from 2019. King stated that if the airport would have sold the exact same fuel amount in 2020 as 2019, the airport would have made an additional $315,000 in revenue.
“That’s one of those areas where COVID really hit hard, a lot of the flights canceled. Most corporate companies shut down their flights company-wide. There was no travel at all and that was not just in Warsaw, that was nationwide,” said King. “I don’t know what to predict for 2021. I have no idea how our fuel is looking for this year, but it’s something that we are watching very closely.”
To help recoup some of the lost revenue King brought an agreement with World Fuel Services, the airport’s current fuel provider, to the board. This agreement allows the airport to set up a rate that includes the cost of fuel, plus taxes and any additional margins necessary. When customers of World Fuel Services fuel up at the airport, this company processes the payment and deposits the money into the airport’s bank account. This eliminates the need for credit card processing fees, which can cost several hundreds of dollars when fueling planes.
“It saves us money, it puts the money in our bank faster, it’s a company we’ve been working with for 32 years,” said King. “I think it would be a really good way to potentially save a little bit of money moving into 2021.”
This agreement was unanimously approved by the board.
The board also heard an update from Mary Kerstein, CHA project manager.
She presented a change order for the runway rehabilitation project for an increase of $107,567.90. This amount covers the cement stabilization work performed by Phend and Brown. The board approved this change order. A full application of paint still needs to be put on the runway, but this can’t be done until the spring.
An invoice for CHA in the amount of $72,920.54 was approved along with an invoice for the hangar door project in the amount of $5,305.09.
Since it was the first meeting of the new year, the board held an election of officers. It was decided that the current positions would remain for 2021. Jay Rigdon will serve as the president, John Yingling will serve as the vice-president and Gene Zale will serve as the secretary.
