AUGUSTA — City councilors unanimously approved a contract for the city to run the state-owned Augusta State Airport for another five years Thursday.
The contract will pay the city $550,000 a year to run the airport, the same amount it has received per year for at least the last six years under two previous agreements.
However, the contract terms include a provision that if $550,000 a year isn’t enough to cover the city’s expenses in running the airport during the contract period, the city can notify the state and seek a budget adjustment. If the state can’t or won’t increase funding enough to cover anticipated expenses, either the city or state has the right to terminate the agreement.
The contract specifies, “Under no circumstances shall the city be obligated to fund any such budget adjustment.”
Airport Manager John Guimond said the agreement is identical to the agreement the city signed three years ago with the state, other than the increase to a five-year term.
“It’s a five-year term, a standard continuation of what we’ve been doing,” Mayor David Rollins said Thursday.
The previous agreement expired June 30. The city and the state agreed to extend the expired agreement for 60 days to give the parties time to consider the proposed new agreement.
Guimond noted the $550,000 a year from the state is for operating expenses, and the state also participates in funding capital projects, such as airport improvements, separately. Federal grants also have paid for major improvements at the airport, such as the $7.5 million 2012 reconstruction of the 5,100-foot main runway.
The city also contributes to running the airport with city employee time, including processing the payroll for airport employees. City police provide security at the airport for each commercial flight, for which the city receives federal funding.
The city has run the airport via various agreements with the state since at least 1997.
The airport serves private planes as well as daily commercial flights to and from Boston by Cape Air, and it is the longtime home of fixed base operator Maine Instrument Flight, which has a long-term lease at the airport and provides flying lessons, charter flights and services to other pilots and planes.
Keith Edwards — 621-5647
kedwards@centralmaine.com
Twitter: @kedwardskj
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.