The Smithville Aldermen Monday night approved requests from the Airport Board to establish monthly fees for the lease of the new T-hangars to be built at the airport and to extend the leases of the tenants of the existing T-hangars.
Ten years ago, the city entered into an agreement with a group of aircraft owners, under which they would put up their own funds to build T-hangars at the airport and the city would not assess them a rental fee for ten years. That agreement ends this month.
The city is also in the process of building additional T-hangars and making other improvements at the airport, after receiving state and federal grants to help fund the project. The city’s local matching obligation is 10%.
Roth Terrell, a member of the Airport Board, presented his proposals to the Mayor and Aldermen. “We are erecting a new set of T-hangars. There will be eight individual T-hangars for single planes and at the end of those T-hangars will be one large corporate hangar that will hold a larger corporate size aircraft or multiple airplanes. Currently we have a list of tenants who have already put their names on a list to reserve a spot so hopefully once the T-hangars are finished, they will be filled immediately. The airport board, the manager, and others got together a while back and discussed what the T-hangars should be leased for. We did some research on surrounding airports and found out what they are charging. For individual hangar, we would recommend that it be leased for $115 per month, and for the large corporate sized hangar, that would be leased for $225 per month. We would ask you to take that into consideration.”
Terrell also asked for an extension in the lease agreements of the current T-hangar tenants. “We do have another set of T-hangars just like the ones being erected now that was constructed ten years ago. At that time, they were paid for by seven individuals who put up their own money to have these T-hangars built. Their ten year lease is up at the end of this month. Under the lease, they’ve paid $12,000 of their own money for an individual hangar. One individual spent a little more because he had a corporate size hangar. The city, at that time, agreed to a ten year lease for that.”
“A lot of the surrounding airport boards have agreed in the past that when people are interested in building their own hangar for their own use, they have typically received a 20 year lease. The individuals here only received a ten year lease. Since their lease is coming up at the end of this month, I would like to propose that the city consider extending the gentlemen’s lease by five more years under the same terms, with a five year extension. That would give them potentially a twenty year lease which is fair since they put up their own money in advance.”
“The benefits to the city from these T-hangars is that the city will receive eight individual T-hangars and one corporate size T-hangar in just a few months at only 10% of your investment. 90% of it was done by the government(grant). We have a list already compiled of people who want to lease those.”
“The individuals who put up the money on the other (existing) T-hangars, they are going to be staying there. Some individuals (who originally participated) have left so those T-hangars will be becoming available also. We’ve proposed the same fees be applied to those as the new ones.”
” The city’s total investment for these sixteen T-hangars and two corporate size hangars is approximately $88,000. Your monthly income would be somewhere around $1,715 per month. Shortly over four years, the city will have recuperated their investment and will be making money at that point. Not to mention the added fuel sales the city will receive from those extra airplanes based at the new hangars. Also having extra airplanes here provides the potential for an aircraft mechanic based at our facility which would add revenue for the city.”
Again, the aldermen approved Terrell’s requests.
In other business, the aldermen set the regular meeting dates of all 2010 city council meetings. The meetings will be held on the first and third Monday nights of each month, except for Dr. Martin Luther King Day in January and Labor Day in September. No meetings will be held on those dates.
The board also hired Larry Dickens as an employee at the Water Treatment Plant.
The city firefighters have requested a workshop meeting with the Mayor and Aldermen. That will be held on Monday, January 11th at 7:00 p.m. at city hall.
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