October 12, 2020
FALLS CREEK — DuBois Regional Airport Manager Bob Shaffer recently provided an update on projects to the Clearfield-Jefferson Counties Airport Authority.
With regard to the new terminal building project, Shaffer said he mentioned in August that there was a pre-construction meeting with the contractor and engineer, and through the month of September, they’ve worked on the selection of colors and materials.
“So, we’re looking at moving forward with that project,” said Shaffer, noting that once the contractor and subcontractors review some items, they will be able to move forward with a start date.
“We anticipate that it will be considerably less time than what’s allotted, but look forward to having that hopefully in the next three months here completed,” said Shaffer.
In February, the authority signed an agreement with GAI Consultants of DuBois for the design and engineering of the project. The amount of the agreement is $280,345.71, which includes a subcontractor fee.
The airport is eligible to receive FAA funding through a special grant that will be used to improve the terminal area. The project will include, but not exclusively, main lobby public restroom rehabilitation/relocation, relocation/expansion of Transportation Security Administration office and security line areas, and relocation/expansion of available restaurant area, water service improvements and access improvements.
The authority approved moving forward with disposing of the old tee hangar.
Prior to the approval, Shaffer said it hasn’t been an easy project to try to find somebody that was interested in it.
“This is a building that was built in 1916,” said Shaffer. “It has sliding doors with external piping that allows those doors to stack, and that piping has rotted off through the years. We’ve had a variety of welders and construction people try to look at it, figure out how we could fix it. It’s one of those homemade things, but the guy that did it, back when he did it, knew exactly what he was doing. And back to 1916, he had lots of time, and today to try to fix it, it just doesn’t seem that there’s any economical way, is the key. You can do anything, but the economical way to do it just doesn’t seem to be there.”
Shaffer said he tried to locate contractors interested in removing it.
“And I did that through going through a variety of scrap yards, and talking to the scrap yards and seeing who’s out there. And really, didn’t get any response until I found, especially looking at the internet, looking at the yellow pages, and found a contractor up in the Weedville area, Mr. Paul Blake, that was interested, and he actually came and looked at it and gave me two proposals,” said Shaffer. “One proposal is to remove the building in its entirety. And then the second is just to remove the outer skin and see if we had any interest in re-skinning that building and putting doors on it and try to make rentals out of it.
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