Building to house firefighting equipment at airport approved

Debby Woodin, The Joplin Globe, Mo.
·3 min read

Oct. 4—With a bid price of just north of $7.9 million, construction of a building to house firefighting trucks, equipment and snow removal machines at the Joplin Regional Airport can go forward.

The Joplin City Council this week approved a contract with Crossland Construction for the project.

Airport Manager Bart Starkey told the council at a meeting Monday that plans to construct the building had been in the works about a year.

The airport construction consultant recommended the city award the contract to the lowest bidder, Crossland Construction Inc., and the Federal Aviation Administration concurred. Crossland's bid was $7,945,238. The other bids were $8.577 million by Branco and nearly $8.9 million by Home Center Construction.

With the added costs of project design and construction management, it is estimated the building will cost a total of $8,681,710. The FAA will pay more than $8.2 million, and the city's share will be about $455,000.

Construction management will be provided by the firm of Crawford, Murphy and Tilley Inc. at a cost of $637,832.44. That also is to be covered by a federal grant.

The airport's maintenance staff are certified firefighters who can respond to aircraft emergencies on the grounds of the airport. They also take care of other maintenance needs on the airfield, including removing snow from the runways and around the terminals.

In another airport project, two contracts were authorized with Wolen LLC for $491,730 to purchase and install updated equipment for the air traffic control tower. According to city documents, the project costs exceeded the engineer's estimate, but the FAA agreed to award the contract to the only bidder, Wolen, of Merritt Island, Florida.

That project goes along with another, the installation of a new airport lighting and control management system, bringing the amount of the two projects to $1,060,310.

A contract was authorized by the council to buy the equipment from Reinbold Electric Inc.

An FAA grant will pay $860,000 of the tower and lighting costs, and more of the cost will be paid with another grant for the upcoming fiscal year. It will pay $190,295. The city's share of the cost will be $10,015.

In other business, the council approved a request for a type of zoning that had only been requested here once before.

The owner of Wildwood Ranch asked that a 10-acre tract in the development be rezoned from single-family residential to MUC, which stands for mixed use and commercial use.

Troy Bolander, the city's director of planning and neighborhoods, said that type of zoning is used for higher-density residential construction with nearby small commercial uses such as offices and neighborhood retail services.

That type of development is called new urbanism and is growing in popularity. It is seen more in places like Northwest Arkansas, Bolander said. He said Joplin's downtown with its mixed uses is an example of that type of development, which provides some services within walking distance rather than requiring motor vehicle transportation.

In other business, the council voted to meet in closed session after its regular meeting on a legal issue or matter involving communication between the city attorney and the council, and for a personnel matter.