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The Warsaw Board of Aviation Commissioners unanimously approved the airport’s capital improvement plan (CIP) for 2027-32 at their meeting Tuesday.
In presenting the plan, Mary Kerstein, aviation project manager from CHA Consulting Inc., the airport’s engineering firm, said the CIP is sent annually in December to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT).
“This is not obligating you to spend any of this money. This is really just for FAA’s and INDOT’s planning purposes,” she explained. “This is similar to what we submitted last year. This coming year, the projects that we’re having for grant purposes are the aligned taxiway for 18-36. This is going to be the design and bidding for that, and also some of the obstruction removal.”
She reiterated the CIP is kind of the “worst-case scenario” of funding the airport would need. “Depending upon grant funding, we could see that this project of obstruction removal may be shifted down to 2028, and that’s just dependent upon where the aeronautical survey, when we get that back. But we always want to show kind of worse-case scenario to plan and budget for.”
The final phase of rehabilitation for runway 9-27 is put in the CIP for 2027.
For 2028, Kerstein said they move into the improvements for runway 18-36. “This is the construction for the taxiway work. We talked about this months back, but this is basically removing the connector taxiways on both ends of 18-36 and doing some mitigation work there,” she said.
Starting in 2029, that’s where they get into the design and later on construction of taxiway A. That’s broken up into two different phases.
“It seems like there’s a lot of different projects in the years 2030 and 2031. The FAA likes to see the pavement be electrical and the signage all broken out for their budget purposes, so this is all one project, even though there’s three different items for it,” Kerstein said.
In 2032, she said they’d start to look at the extension of runway 27. “So this would be some of the planning and environmental assessment work that would be existing with that.”
She asked for board approval to submit the CIP to INDOT at the beginning of December.
Board President Dan Robinson asked, “When you’re putting together the numbers, that are listed throughout here, Mary, how do you account for inflation? Because this is going out six, seven years, and we all know that by the time budgets approved and get to it, costs rise.”
Kerstein said they look at historical data and normally factor in a 3% inflation rate per year. Robinson said the 3% is probably not enough.
Board member Steven Smilay made the motion to approve the CIP, board member Ernie Wiggins seconded the motion and it was approved 4-0.
Airport Manager Nick King then told the board a new grant was announced earlier this year from the state of Indiana and they’ve received guidance on what that grant could be used for.
“It is a reimbursement for any pavement maintenance that airports are doing. It is a - I forget if it’s 80/20 or 70/30 - but it’s up to $100,000 total,” King said, asking for the board’s permission to submit the grant to INDOT.
“Our runway project actually qualifies, so it’s just INDOT Aviation giving us $100,000 for the project we just completed. So, it’s a pretty easy way to reimburse ourselves and have some money in the pot for next year for our ... project,” he said.
Robinson asked if the grant was a maybe issuance, but King replied it was long as they’ve got money in there and he talked to the state Tuesday and the state still had funds available. He was going to send out the grant application as soon as possible so the airport can get its share of the funds.
“All it is, is a brief project scope and timeline of what we did with the runway when we reconstructed it for the phase II, and what the total project costs were. And it just breaks down the administrative and then construction costs for that project,” King said, and all they have to do is submit the paperwork and the state will wire the airport $100,000 in reimbursement “for us doing what we’re doing. And they’re hoping to keep this grant funding moving forward. Now knowing what it is, next year we’ll be able to apply much earlier in the year and get it down to them to help cover our costs for the project next year.”
The board unanimously allowed King to submit the grant application.
Kerstein also presented, and the board approved:
• Two invoices for the taxiway B rehabilitation completed phase 3 work.
The invoice from CHA is for $26,185.71, with the local share being $654.64 as it’s an FAA-funded project.
The invoice from Phend & Brown is for $404,061.10, with the local share being $10,101.58.
The work included the demolition of the northern taxiway connector, lighting and pavement marking removal. She said all the pavement has been done and looks very good. Due to weather and temperature concerns, the seal coating of taxiway B and the final paint applications has been pushed back until spring.
• Two invoices for runway 9-27 rehabilitation.
The invoice from CHA is for $13,445.45, all being the local share, with the invoice from Phend & Brown for $92,272.11.
All of the milling and overlay work, south of taxiway B, has been completed.
Kerstein said now they’re just waiting for the final documentation so the final change order and release of retainage can be completed.
In other business, the board:
• Approved the purchase and sale agreement for hangars 6B and 6D from the Gangers. The two hangars will be purchased for $25,000.
• Approved the 2027 board meetings to be at 5:15 p.m. on the second Tuesday of every month.
• Reviewed an update to the airport rules. A public hearing on the rules will be held in 2027.
The December 2026 meeting will be Wednesday, Dec. 9 at 5:15 p.m. instead of Tuesday, Dec. 8.
