Castlegar City Council approved a new tenant for the airport maintenance building at Monday's council meeting.
Kootenay Emergency Response Physician Association (KERPA), a charity that sends volunteer physicians to the most critical 911 calls in the West Kootenay, will now house its response vehicle in a bay of the West Kootenay Regional Airport’s secure airport maintenance building.
While city staff identified the market rate for the annual rental of the vehicle bay as $2,900 plus GST, they recommended that the city rent the space to KERPA for $1,500 “to cover the minimum operating costs for storage of their vehicle with the remaining balance be donated in kind to support this important regional service.”
KERPA chose the airport in Castlegar for its central location and security.
City prepares to borrow for airport project
City council passed the first three readings of a bylaw to authorize the City of Castlegar to borrow $1,380,000 to fund its portion of the West Kootenay Regional Airport Apron Rehabilitation and Taxiway Extension project.
The project will expand the commercial apron — the area where aircraft are parked, unloaded, loaded, refueled, maintained, and boarded — and extend one of the taxiways in order “to facilitate efficient operations on the commercial apron with multiple Q400 aircraft.”
On April 15, city council awarded the project's construction contract to Copcan Civil LP for $4,797,783.
The total estimated value of the project, with design and construction, is $5,373,612.
An Airport Capital Assistance Program grant and a British Columbia Air Access Program grant will fund $4,015,928, leaving the city to cover the remaining cost.
The loan application will now have to be approved by the province before it can be brought forward for elector approval.
At that point, Castlegar residents will have a chance to weigh in on the loan application before council can adopt the bylaw.
New hires at city hall
The city will be announcing a new executive assistant later this week, and is currently interviewing for an assistant manager for utilities.
The city is also hiring a director of finance and IT and has just finished its first round of interviews.
