City explores privatizing airport management
Want to try your hand at managing Kalispell’s politically charged general aviation airport, preferably for less than the $48,000 a year the city currently is spending? City officials plan to advertise a request for proposals for the job later this month.
Kalispell City Manager Doug Russell presented a draft scope of services document for Airport Advisory Board members to review on Wednesday. The initiative is meant to see if any savings can be found in airport management costs that totaled $48,172 in the last city budget.
“One of the questions is, how are we going to fund routine operations and maintenance long-term?” Russell said about the Kalispell City Airport and its dedicated enterprise fund. Russell added that when he was city manager in Yankton, S.D., the municipal airport there was managed by an independent contractor.
“From the contract management we had at a previous airport, it would be able to save a lot of money if we had the same operations here,” Russell told the Airport Advisory Board. “I don’t know if we’ll get that. But it’s an area where we may be able to find significant savings that could be applied back to the airport for asphalt overlays and other things of that nature. We may get some people interested in it, we may not. We won’t know until we look.”
The draft scope of services document Russell created asks for an independent contractor to:
q Notify the city of needed maintenance and repair of building, grounds and equipment;
q Provide communication services to and for pilots such as notices to airmen and airport advisories;
q Provide daily inspections of runway, apron and taxiway services, lighting and navigational aid systems;
q Comply with and enforce applicable regulations and adopted standards pertaining to the airport;
q Communicate with the city and Federal Aviation Administration if necessary about field conditions affecting the safe use of the airport;
q Report violations of ordinances, policies and rules regulating the use of the airport to the city;
q Provide available personnel to meet the needs of the airport and the flying public;
q Work with the city on the planning, budgeting and development of airport facility modifications and improvements;
q Provide customer service to airport users and the flying public;
q Provide snow removal for the runway, apron and taxiway and mowing, haying and weed services for the airport grounds.
The contractor must comply with Montana’s workers compensation laws and maintain adequate employers’ liability, commercial general liability and automobile liability insurance.
Airport Advisory Board members found no problems with Russell’s draft scope of services and agreed to have one or two members join a review committee to examine any proposals that might be submitted.
A contract would have to be approved by the Kalispell City Council. Russell said he anticipates the request for proposals to be finalized in the next week or two and then advertised.
“I think it’s prudent to at least explore this,” board member Tip Clark said.
Fred Leistiko has managed Kalispell City Airport as a half-time city employee since 2005. He is paid a $35,100 salary. Health insurance and retirement costs and the cost of seasonal help push the total cost of personal services at the airport to $48,172 a year, according to budget documents.
Leistiko did not attend Wednesday’s meeting. Reached for comment, Leistiko said he was hired to manage the airport and develop a long-term plan for the general aviation facility.
That effort culminated with a proposal to expand and upgrade the city airport through a federal Airport Improvement Program that promises to pay for $13.5 million of the estimated $16 million cost, reimburse Kalispell for almost $3 million already spent on airport upgrades and provide up to $150,000 a year for maintenance as long as the city agrees to keep operating the airport for at least 20 years after every payment.
The proposal has generated opposition among some Kalispell residents. They have a variety of noise and safety concerns, fear that larger and faster airplanes will use the airport and believe that the airport simply does not warrant that level of investment.
Supporters of the project argue that it would lead to a safer, quieter and more viable airport by providing it with adequate safety buffers and shifting operations 1,000 feet south away from nearby homes and businesses.
The issue split the Kalispell City Council last summer.
After voting 5-4 to put the proposed upgrade on a ballot for voters to accept or reject and then turning around and voting 5-4 to pull the plug on that ballot question, the city council voted 5-4 to move forward with the upgrade. That decision was promptly challenged and is the focus of a voter-initiated referendum in November. The referendum asks voters to either uphold or overturn the city council’s decision to proceed with the upgrade.
Funding routine operations and maintenance at the airport will be a question no matter which way the vote goes this fall, Russell said.
Reporter Tom Lotshaw may be reached at 758-4483 or by email at tlotshaw@dailyinterlake.com.