City commits money in effort to leverage more grant funding
Published 7:49 pm Wednesday, March 14, 2018
- AIRPORT IMPROVEMENTS: City officials plan to use grant money combined with city dollars in the coming years to make improvements — runway, taxiway and tarmac projects included — at Washington-Warren Airport. (City of Washington)
Washington will use $500,000 set aside in its general fund for maintenance purposes to leverage at least $4 million overall in state grant funds to rehabilitate the 5-23 runway at Washington-Warren Airport.
That decision was made by a unanimous vote of the City Council during its meeting Monday. City officials said that project and other improvements at the airport would result in the airfield becoming a major asset of the city.
The council’s decision means the city will seek an additional $2 million to help pay for the runway project. Contractors’ bids to do the project came in over the project’s budget, according to Frankie Buck, the city’s director of public works. In late 2017, the city was awarded $2.520 million for the construction phase of runway 5-23. The city’s contribution to the project was $280,000.
Buck told the council that Sam Lawhorn, the city’s representative with the N.C. Division of Aviation, agreed to ask the N.C. Department of Transportation for an additional $2 million for the project. Lawhorn, according to Buck, said a financial commitment of about $200,000 by the city would improve its chances to get the additional money.
Trader Construction Co. and S.T. Wooten submitted base bids of $4.97 million and $5.7 million, respectively. They also submitted bids on an alternate plan for the project, with Trader Construction Co.’s alternate bid at $5.5 million and S.T. Wooten’s alternate bid at $6.3 million.
Trader Construction Co.’s mobilization cost in its base bid and alternate bid was $1.7 million, with S.T. Wooten’s mobilization cost in its base bid and alternate bid was at $2.4 million.
Buck told the council that “mobilization” is the primary reason the bids came in over the project’s budget. Buck said the mobilization cost translates into what a contractor charges for coming to the project site and setting up construction operations. Buck said a likely explanation for the high mobilization cost is because contractors have plenty of work at present and might not want to take on additional projects.
Later, the city plans to seek more grant funds to improve the airport’s taxiways and tarmac.
About Mike Voss
Mike Voss is the contributing editor at the Washington Daily News. He has a daughter and four grandchildren. Except for nearly six years he worked at the Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg, Va., in the early to mid-1990s, he has been at the Daily News since April 1986.
Journalism awards:
• Pulitzer Prize for Meritorious Public Service, 1990.
• Society of Professional Journalists: Sigma Delta Chi Award, Bronze Medallion.
• Associated Press Managing Editors’ Public Service Award.
• Investigative Reporters & Editors’ Award.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Public Service Award, 1989.
• North Carolina Press Association, Second Place, Investigative Reporting, 1990.
All those were for the articles he and Betty Gray wrote about the city’s contaminated water system in 1989-1990.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Investigative Reporting, 1991.
• North Carolina Press Association, Third Place, General News Reporting, 2005.
• North Carolina Press Association, Second Place, Lighter Columns, 2006.
Recently learned he will receive another award.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Lighter Columns, 2010.
4. Lectured at or served on seminar panels at journalism schools at UNC-Chapel Hill, University of Maryland, Columbia University, Mary Washington University and Francis Marion University.
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