Airport tower contract awarded
Albertville firmgains project; rules on meetings OK'd
Wednesday, September 14, 2005
Work on a new air traffic control tower for Huntsville International Airport is expected to get started around the first of November.
The Federal Aviation Administration has awarded the tower construction contract to Carmon Construction Inc. of Albertville, said Luther "Butch" Roberts Jr., the airport's deputy director, at a meeting Tuesday of the Huntsville-Madison County Airport Authority board of directors. The contract is in the amount of almost $13.15 million.
The new tower will be 219 feet tall, while the existing, 40-year tower is about 100 feet tall. It is expected to be completed by the first quarter of 2008, Roberts said.
Meanwhile, a review of airport highlights for fiscal year 2005 shows that the average one-way airfare for Huntsville International dropped by 4 percent for the year 2004, compared to 2003. The information was provided by Data Base Products Inc., which provides airline industry data, said Barbie Peek, the airport's marketing director.
Rick Tucker, the airport's executive director, attributed the lower fares to the launch of service here last October by the low-fare carrier Independence Air and the competitive response from other airlines.
In other business, the authority adopted rules on requests to receive personal notice of public meetings and on governing public comment at its public meetings.
Notice of the authority's public meetings and an agenda will be posted outside its offices, in accordance with the state's open-meetings law requirements. Notice of public meetings will also be posted on the authority's Web site at www.hsvairport.org. Individuals may request to receive personal notices of public meetings, and those notices will be sent through the mail. A $5 a month fee will be charged by the authority to recover postage and other costs.
Individuals who want to address the board of directors at meetings will be asked to write their name, address and subject of their remarks on a sign-up sheet before the meeting. The time period for public comments at board meetings will be limited to a total of 15 minutes.
The authority also approved the sale of about 11.9 acres of property in the northern section of Jetplex Industrial Park near Interstate 565 to Graham & Co. Southeast LLC. The purchase price will be $45,000 an acre.
The sales agreement provides for an option to buy about 48.75 additional acres for two years and a right of first refusal for three additional years at a purchase price of $52,000 an acre. The authority will be responsible for extending utilities to each site, with an estimated cost of $250,000 for the initial site, according to the agreement.
© 2005 The Huntsville Times
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