The Reporter newspaper, Camdenton Missouri

The Reporter covers Miller, Morgan and Camden County in Central Missouri's Lake of the Ozarks and is published once per week on Wednesdays.

Published March 26, 2014

Construction to begin on taxiway

By Jeff Thompson
CAMDENTON - Construction on the Camdenton Memorial Airport Taxi Lane project is expected to start the first week of April with a proposed completion before Memorial Day.

City Administrator J. Jeff Hancock made the announcement at the Board of Aldermen meeting last week.

The announcement follows actions taken by the board on Feb. 18 to push the project ahead, including awarded the reconstruction project to Strait-Line Construction, Inc. at a cost of $374,574.20.

Hancock pointed that the taxi lane project should not be confused with the city’s long-range plan to extend the airport’s runway. The runway extension project will begin soon with land acquisition, he said, with grading to run from 2013 through 2016.

The complete extension should be finished sometime in 2017 at a cost of approximately $470,000, Hancock stated.

Like the Taxi Lane Reconstruction, the runway extension project would have federal funding with a 90-10 split through the federal Airport Improvement Program; the city would pick up the remaining 10 percent.

“Those are ‘10-cent dollars’ with matching funds,” Hancock said.

In other business at the March 18 board meeting:
* The board approved a request from Fire Chief Drew Stark to seek bids for the replacement of 15 self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) units.

“They’re 15 years old,” Stark said, “and have hit their life-spans.”

Stark also noted that calls for the fire department are up quite a bit from last year and year-to-date. “Brush fires are a big chunk of that,” he said.

* John Wilson gave the monthly airport report, noting that fuel sales overall were down because of a drop in flight training as well as dicey weather conditions.

“As the weather improves, we should see more traffic at the airport,” Wilson said.

Although total fuel sales were down, Wilson noted that Lebanon Airport purchased 1,400 gallons of jet fuel and 400 gallons of general aviation fuel due to temporary supply issues.

* A marked drop in crime reports from the Camdenton R-III School District was noted by Camdenton Police Department, represented by Officer Jeff Beauchcamp in Police Chief Laura Wright‘s absence.

“Crime at the school has really decreased,” Beauchcamp said. “We’re really proud of that.”

He added that the police department would be participating in upcoming DWI saturation patrols funded through the Missouri Department of Transportation.

* City Administrator Hancock noted that sales tax revenue was up 4.8 percent last month compared to the same time last year, and the year-to-date total is up by 1.65 percent.

* Public Works Director Bill Jeffries said that weather had hampered his department’s efforts to get the city park’s ball fields ready for play, but that the work should be completed soon. In addition, he noted that work had begun on the asphalt project on Clint Avenue.