Fort Smith airport continues expansion, refinances debt

story by Aric Mitchell
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Fort Smith Regional Airport commissioners moved forward on the west corporate taxiway project phase II Tuesday night at their regularly scheduled monthly meeting. On June 22, airport officials received three bids for continuation of the project.

Phase I was conducted by Forsgren, Inc., and once again, the company came in lower than its competitors with a bid of $338,043 for a project estimated to cost $421,924. Forsgren hopes to begin and complete the project in 2012. Fort Smith Regional staff plan to pay for the project with grant funding from the Department of Aeronautics.

The grant application will be for $337,539, with the Airport being responsible for $84,385 out of pocket. Acting on recommendation from the staff, the Commission approved a motion to award the bid to Forsgren contingent on receipt of grant funding. Coordinating with Forsgren will be Rodriguez Laboratories. Rodriguez will conduct the material testing for phase two and the West Taxiway A Rehab project. The phase two material testing will cost around $13,981 while the Rehab phase one project will total $39,976.

BOND REFUNDING ISSUE REVISITED
In September 2010 the commission voted to allow Little Rock-based Stephens Investments to offer the Airport’s remaining bonds for refunding with a minimum net present value (NPV) of 7.5%.

The Fort Smith Board of Directors approved the matter, which set the offering for November of last year. Prior to the offering, the bond market crashed and the Airport placed the matter on hold. Thanks to recent market changes, the bond refunding issue is again possible, and earlier in the month, the bonds were offered with Stephens administering the underwriting.

The Fort Smith Board of Directors passed an amending resolution to their previous ordinance and the Airport will now realize a NPV of 8.006% when the matter closes on Aug. 2. As a result, for the remaining term of the bond — approximately 15 years — the Airport will save $517,210 (or roughly $32,000 per year) in debt services.

RECOGNITION AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS
In other news, TAC Air was voted the Best Large Fixed Base Operator (FBO) in the nation by the annual survey of pilots in Professional Pilot Magazine. Lynn Gardenhire, a representative from TAC Air, credited the airport staff with contributing to the company’s success and presented Executive Director John Parker with a plaque.

“It just makes us very proud to receive this accomplishment,” Gardenhire said Tuesday. “We want to recognize other people and companies, who’ve played a major part in making it possible for us, and John Parker and this organization (Fort Smith Regional) are one of them.”

Also receiving recognition at the meeting was Commission Chairman Jan Nordin, who will vacate the position after a one-year term. Replacing him will be Commissioner Rick Deramus, though Nordin’s work with the commission will continue. Vice Chairman will be Marcia Melvin and Treasurer will be Ryan Carter.

The next meeting of the Fort Smith Regional Airport Commission will be July 26.