Saratoga airport CARES about entitlements

Saratoga Town Council discusses grants and funds for Saratoga Municipal Airport

by Joshua Wood

Though there was a complete agenda for the first time in several weeks, the regular meeting of the Saratoga Town Council on May 5 was relatively short. With all business concluded in under 30 minutes, most of the discussion had by Saratoga’s governing body pertained to the Saratoga Municipal Airport and the Saratoga Airport Advisory Board.

In the absence of Mayor John Zeiger, Councilmember Steve Wilcoxson served as Mayor Pro-Tem.

Saratoga CARES

One of the major items of business was money allocated to the Saratoga Airport by the Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act. The same piece of legislation which authorized the Paycheck Protection Program for small businesses and issued stimulus funds to citizens also allocated money to airports throughout the country.

“The CARES Act did appropriate a bunch of money to airports. Saratoga was the recipient of a $30,000 allocation and so, assuming we want that, we need to submit the grant application which is in the packet,” said Councilmember Jon Nelson, who serves as the Town’s representative on the airport advisory board.

In recent weeks, it has been announced that the A-Bar-A Ranch will not be opening for the season. Additionally, Councilmember Judy Welton announced at a previous town council meeting that the annual gathering of the Conquistadors, which usually occurs in September, was cancelled for 2020. Rumors have also circulated as to the status of the extent of Brush Creek Ranch’s operations this year. 

All of these would have a significant impact upon the traffic normally seen at the airport.

Under the CARES Act, approximately $10 billion was appropriated to be awarded to airports within the United States to be used as prevention of, preparation for and in response to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) website, “The CARES Act provides funds to increase the federal share to 100 percent for Airport Improvement Program (AIP) and supplemental discretionary grants already planned for fiscal year 2020. Under normal circumstances, AIP grant recipients contribute a matching percentage of the project costs. Providing this additional funding and eliminating the local share will allow critical safety and capacity projects to continue as planned regardless of airport sponsors’ current financial circumstances.”

Nelson informed the rest of the council that he had talked with a contact in the FAA about repurposing the funds from the CARES Act for airport development at a later date rather than for operational and maintenance offsets. He recommended that the council authorize the mayor to sign the grant application, adding that the Saratoga Airport Advisory Board would discuss at their next meeting how to use the grant funding.

The motion for Zeiger to sign the grant application passed unanimously.

Airport Entitlements

Another topic of discussion for the town council was the transferring of entitlements from the Saratoga Municipal Airport to the Pine Bluffs Municipal Airport. Stating that his understanding of the practice was limited, Nelson informed the council that it was common practice for the FAA to transfer entitled monies from one airport to another if an airport was in need of additional funding.

“My understanding is that there’s money that is appropriated to different airports for entitlements throughout every fiscal year and that the process of moving them around so that they’re utilized effectively by all airports in a district is not uncommon,” Nelson said. “I know Tom (Thompson) was on an email with Dave (Shultz of Sage Civil Engineering) earlier and they had some more in-depth discussions about some statute, so I don’t know if there’s anything Tom would like to add to that.”

Thompson, in addressing the council, referenced United States Code 47117(c)(2) which reads, “A sponsor of an airport may make an agreement with the Secretary of Transportation waiving the sponsor’s claim to any part of the amount apportioned for the airport under sections 47114(c) and 47114(d)(3)(A) if the Secretary agrees to make the waived amount available for a grant for another public-use airport in the same State or geographical area as the airport, as determined by the Secretary.”

“Upon sending that to Dave, Dave represented that the Town of Saratoga would have these amounts available next year. If not from the Pine Bluffs Municipal Airport, that the FAA would make these amounts available through some other entity,” said Thompson.

Following Thompson’s comments, Shultz, who was also joining via phone, confirmed Nelson’s earlier comments that the transfer of entitlements is common practice among airports and is a way for different funding agencies to make the most of their money. According to Shultz, the funding agencies will often save up as much of the allocated money as possible before then having to spend it on a project.

“They save it, as much as they can, but after they save it for probably three or four years they have to spend it, it starts to expire. So that’s how they keep these funds alive,” said Shultz.

Shultz added that while the money had been allocated to the Town of Saratoga, it was not any money that had been specifically sent to the Town for the airport. He also informed the council that he had confirmed that if that money were needed this next fiscal year, the FAA would reallocate funding from another airport.

“Just to be clear, this isn’t money that’s been paid to the Town of Saratoga. It’s money appropriated by the FAA to the Town of Saratoga but hasn’t been given to us yet. It’s not like we’re writing Pine Bluffs a check,” said Nelson.

Shultz confirmed Nelson’s statement. A motion was made to authorize the transfer of entitlements from the Saratoga Municipal Airport to the Pine Bluffs Airport. The motion passed unanimously.

The Saratoga Airport Advisory Board will meet at 3:30 p.m. on May 13 at Saratoga Town Hall.

The next meeting of the Saratoga Town Council will be at 6 p.m. on May 19 at Saratoga Town Hall.

 

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