The final piece of a community match for a federal grant that aims to provide westbound flights from Golden Triangle Regional Airport is presumably in hand.
Columbus City Council approved, during its regular meeting Tuesday a resolution committing the final $125,000 toward a $500,000 community grant match shared among local governments in the Golden Triangle. Lowndes County also committed $125,000, while Starkville and Oktibbeha County committed $100,000 each. West Point and Clay County will chip in $25,000 apiece. Each entity will reflect the expenditure in its fiscal year 2016 budget.
GTRA Executive Director Mike Hainsey said the match is part of a $1.5-million incentive package to recruit an airline to provide westbound air service from the regional airport. The airport is one of 16 nationwide to secure a $750,000 Small Community Air Service Development grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation. GTRA will also provide $200,000 in gate fee waivers and $50,000 in marketing expenses, according to Hainsey.
The airport currently provides three Delta flights per day to Atlanta. Hainsey hopes to add an airline to provide two non-stop westbound flights daily. He said GTRA is focusing on recruiting American Airlines for flights to Dallas, since companies like Airbus Helicopter and PACCAR (a subsidiary of Peterbilt) have corporate headquarters there. If that doesn’t work out, Hainsey said GTRA would look to either Houston or Denver.
“The industries we have here need air service in that direction,” Hainsey said. “Right now, they are flying to Atlanta, then flying right back over us. Or they are driving to Jackson, Birmingham or someplace else.”
Hainsey said money from the grant and community match funds weren’t a gift to the airline. Instead, GTRA will negotiate a revenue guarantee with the carrier for the first year of service. If the air service doesn’t reach that revenue threshold, the airport will pay 60 percent of the difference from the grant and 40 percent from the community match. After year one, however, the carrier would be on its own.
“If they don’t lose money, then we won’t pay them anything,” Hainsey said. “We’re not giving them money to come. It’s more that we’re providing a risk abatement.”
Mayor Robert Smith said he supported the project, calling it a “win-win” for the airport and the region.
“This gives us an opportunity to bring in another airline, which is much needed,” Smith said. “We’re just elated to support the project.”
After an executive session, the council handed down a pair of employee suspensions — a 15-day suspension for a public works employee and a 3-day suspension for a patrol officer in the police department.
City officials declined to release the employees’ names.
In other business, the board:
■ approved Lewis Electric’s low bid of $48,860 for traffic signal improvements at Martin Luther King and 14th Avenue;
■ accepted a $27,675 low bid from Precision Approach to rehabilitate the rotating beacon at the Columbus-Lowndes County Airport, as well as a $1,070 bid from Smith Landscaping to complete obstruction removal near the airport; and
■ agreed to advertise for bids for exterior improvements at city hall.
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
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