By Chuck Clement, Staff Reporter, published September 6, 2016, courtesy of Madison Daily Leader
Madison officals approved several contractual agreements on Tuesday that will start work on improvement projects at the Madison Municipal Airport.
In the first airport-related business, the Madison City commission gave its approval to having Mayor Roy Lindsay sign a grant agreement with the Federal Aviation Administration that will pay for improvements at the Madison airport.
In the first airport-related business, the Madison City Comission gave its approval to having Mayor Roy Lindsay sign a grant agreement with the Federal Aviation Administration that will pay for improvements at the Madison airport. The improvements will help the city eventually construct a new parallel taxiway next to the airport’s paved runway.
FAA officials provided a $1.078 million grant to Madison that will help pay for a new detention pond, drainage and fence improvements, and wetlands mitigation. Madison officials are expected to spend the grant money within four years of signing the agreement. The federal government will pay for 90 percent of the improvement project, and the state of South Dakota and the city will each pay 5 percent of the project expenses.
The city commissioners approved hiring Runge Enterprises of Sioux Falls to perform the work related to the construction of the detention pond and performing drainage improvements. Runge Enterprises was the low bidder out of eight dubmitted proposals, winning the contract with a bid of $678,700.
The commissioners approved a wetlands mitigation plan that includes purchasing mitigation credits from Tetonka LLP of Hartford. Madison will purchase 66.45 credit units during a two-year period for $750,885 from the Tetonka Wetland Mitigation Bank 2.
The commissioners also approved an agreement with KLJ Engineering that would hire the North Dakota-based engineering firm to perform administrative and observation services related to the Madison airport project. KLJ Engineering will perform the work for a fee of $94,400.
Jon Becker, a planning engineer for the South Dakota Department of Transportation, stated in a letter that negotiations among the involved parties were conducted in good faith and the fees were “fair and reasonable.”