Decommissioned fuel pumps at the Allen County Airport cost the county an estimated 10,000 gallons in lost fuel sales, commissioners learned at their meeting Tuesday.
With the pumps back on line, the county hopes to regain those who purchased fuel elsewhere.
The airport sells between 77,000 to 80,000 gallons of fuel per year and averages 6,441 gallons per month.
After six weeks of being idled, the pumps are back up and running, said Mitch Garner, public works director.
Even so, Commissioner Bill King said the repairs took too long.
We have some customers we will probably never be able to get back, King said, who has been asking about the progress on the pumps for the last month.
While Garner was not pleased with how long it took to get the pumps going, he is confident they can regain their customers.
We still had people landing here. There was a note out saying that we were out of fuel, but now they will start purchasing it again, Garner said. We probably would have been down a little bit on fuel sales anyway, with the way the weather has been. Everything is dependent on the weather. Rain, wind speeds, things like that. It always varies from month to month, but right now is the prime season for flying.
GARNER SAID road construction on U.S. 169 should be complete in about three weeks. Garner and Daren Petrowsky, regional supervisor of the Kansas Department of Transportation, toured alternate routes and county roads that construction crews have used looking for damage. Garner reported the company contracted to do the road work has no issue paying for damage caused to the roads. Petrowsky said he will report back to commissioners about the damage incurred to county roads after the project is completed.
COUNTY CLERK Sherrie Riebel reported Allen Countys estimated assessed valuation is up nearly $3.4 million from last year. Real estate was the cause for the increase, rising from $76,669,697 to $80,142,199. Oil and gas dropped slightly from $1.8 million to $1.7 million, while personal property remained about the same.
COMMISSIONERS agreed to award bids to purchase steel culvert pipe to Welborn Sales and Metal Culvert, Inc. The county will purchase four large pipes from Metal Culvert, with three more coming from Welborn Sales. The pipe will cost $23,476.
WITH TORNADO season on the way out, commissioners agreed to table a decision on whether to put a storm shelter in the unincorporated township of Mildred. Zoning Administrator Terry Call said he received a bid from D of K Concrete, of Iola, totalling $7,500 for three storm shelters. The shelters are large enough to hold 10 people.
King said he was unsure about the topic because he didnt know if the storm shelter would be a direct benefit to Mildred Store, the proposed site of at least one of the shelters. Commissioner Bruce Symes agreed that they should look into it further.
Commissioner Jerry Daniels said they should consider putting a storm shelter at the airport so employees and customers would have a place to go during bad weather events.
VETERANS Committee representative Alana Kinzle said the group plans to purchase two benches to be placed by the Veterans Garden.
Symes said he was fine with the benches being placed by the garden as long as it didnt impede foot traffic on the nearby sidewalk.
