With plans weeks behind schedule for a Federal Aviation
Administration-funded high-tech security fence around the Hollister
Municipal Airport, city staff are saying the specs could take up to
another two months to complete, unless they can find time for the
city’s only qualified engineer to finish the plans sooner.
Hollister – With plans weeks behind schedule for a Federal Aviation Administration-funded high-tech security fence around the Hollister Municipal Airport, city staff are saying the specs could take up to another two months to complete, unless they can find time for the city’s only qualified engineer to finish the plans sooner.
Though the airport’s had a shaky history of FAA support in the past, city officials close to the project aren’t worried the delay will jeopardize future funding. It had been five years since the FAA had awarded any grant money to the Hollister airport, but when Airport Manager Bill Gere and City Engineer Matt Kelley met with FAA officials in March they were told they could get a $600,000 grant for the fencing project with the promise of more funding later on if all went well.
“We’re trying to increase our reputation with the FAA,” Gere said. “Every time I talk to them, I say ‘Is this OK?’ And every time they say they’re fine with our timeline as long as we’re doing it right.”
Kelley, who is supervising the project and putting together the plans single-handedly, estimates the plans may not be finished for another month or two, taking construction into September or October. Because Kelley is also working on several other high-profile city projects, including the North Street Extension and the Pavement Maintenance Project, he doesn’t have the time a project like this requires to be completed by the deadline, he said. And, he added, the city would be hard-pressed to hire additional engineers or consultants, even though the FAA grant would cover the cost, because “it’s kind of a specialty field” and local engineers specializing in airports are hard to come by.
While Kelley and Gere insist the delay won’t affect the FAA’s willingness to fund future projects, at least one city council member said he still had doubts. Hollister’s struggling airport desperately needs all of the funding and help it can get, Councilman Robert Scattini said, and it’s too risky to put grant money in jeopardy.
“The airport reminds me of a freckle-faced buck-toothed kid that nobody wants. It doesn’t get the attention I think it really needs,” he said. “The Feds, from my understanding, are a little upset with Hollister, and rightly so, because we’re not getting things done. Bill (Gere) said ‘I’ll have you a plan by April 8 for the fence’ and it’s not ready yet. I know (Kelley) is working really hard on this and I applaud him for that. But he’s got all these other projects and when I asked him he said it’d be a month (to finish the plans) and the Feds were told that we would have it up there on the eighth (of April). And that makes us look bad.”
City Manager Clint Quilter informed the Hollister City Council Monday night the city is working on allowing Kelley more time to work on the project, and Gere later explained that would involve spreading some of Kelley’s other duties among other city engineers. They’re also talking about trying to find outside consultants for the project even though the pickings may be slim, Gere added, but that all depends on whether they can find someone qualified enough for the job.
Quilter also told the council he would be sending them a new timeline for the project today.
Gere said Monday the deadline of April 8 he and Kelley had originally proposed for the plan’s completion was “pretty arbitrary” and would not be held over the city’s head by the FAA. When Gere and Kelley had met with FAA officials in March and been told they could get a $600,000 grant for the project, which the FAA designated as a top priority, “they pretty much asked us how soon we thought we could get it done,” Gere said. “We said maybe a month, but we just kind of threw it out there.”
Since then, Gere said, he’s been in contact with the FAA several times a week checking in to make sure the administration is aware of the project’s progress and its delayed completion date.
The city council appeared convinced by Gere’s assurances Monday night.
“We need to have it to where we have the airport secure so the FAA looks back and says ‘OK, you did step one.’ What I don’t want to see is the dollars brought in and then we don’t do it right,” said Councilman Brad Pike, who represents the district that’s home to the airport. “There is a design out there and we’ll follow it. I guess I just want to make sure everything is done; all the specs are getting met by the FAA so we don’t lose any funding. There’s no reason we should lose funding. We’ve been given a directive and we’ve been following it.”
“We’re going to continue to awaken the sleeping giant,” he told the audience at Monday’s council meeting.
And Gere insists there’s more FAA funding on the way as long as the fence gets built properly.
“The FAA has already promised to give us several million more dollars,” he said. “More than timeliness, they want to see us do it right the first time. A lot of airports don’t do it right the first time and then they have to go back and redo it. I think in the big scheme of things we’re gaining points with the FAA because there are so many airports around California that they give $1 million to build a fence and they go out and buy a wrought-iron fence that’s built by somebody’s brother-in-law.”
Jessica Quandt covers politics for the Free Lance. Reach her at 831-637-5566 ext. 330 or at jq*****@fr***********.com.
