Austin City Council approves bid for 10-unit T-Hangar project at Austin Municipal Airport at Monday meeting

The Austin City Council approved the bid of The Joseph Company, Inc. of Austin of $1,873,274 for construction of a 10-unit, T-Hangar project at the Austin Municipal Airport at their regularly scheduled meeting Monday evening.  The project is calling for the construction of a 52 ft x 230 ft steel framed structure, concrete footings, a concrete floor, bifold doors and approach aprons, and the funding package for the project includes 5% local, 5% state and 90% federal.  The bid was approved on a vote of 4-1, with councilman Geoff Baker voting against.  The council also approved a bid from Uland Brothers, Inc. of rural Glenville of $2,464,584 for an 8th St. NE and Institute Lift Station project, as work will consist of lift station and force main construction, sanitary sewer gravity main replacement, storm sewer improvements, concrete and asphalt paving, and sidewalk replacement.  Assistant City Engineer Mitch Wenum stated to the council in a memo that the project will be funded using Municipal State Aid Street Funds, plus the city’s Capital Improvement, Wastewater Treatment Plant and Stormwater Utility funds.  

In other business, the Austin City Council approved the bid of Sir Lines a Lot of $14,240 for pavement striping of approximately 25 miles of roadway for the city for 2024, and they also discussed the painting of the Municipal pool with Parks and Recreation Director Jason Sehon, who stated that staff has been researching and gathering quotes to repair damaged pool surfacing for the main pool and the dive well.  Sehon stated to the council that the pool was last painted in November 2022 by an outside contractor, but he indicated that the paint has failed and has been peeling away from the concrete surface, creating safety issues as well as issues with paint flakes entering the pool’s filtration system.  The council approved the bid of Anderson Sandblasting, Inc. of $44,779 to sandblast the old, flaking paint from the main pool only, and with the cost of paint and supplies for repainting the main pool, roll off containers and debris removal, along with the labor cost for Park and Rec staff to repaint the main pool, the total project cost would come to $123,000, which was approved unanimously by the council.  

In a work session following their regularly scheduled meeting, the Austin City Council agreed to move forward a proposal from the Austin Bruins to remove the ice from Riverside Arena to allow the team to change logos, ads and other details when new ice is installed.  The cost of the project would be split between the Bruins, who would pay $12,000, which would include supplying volunteers and labor for the project, and $10,000 would come from the city for electricity costs, other labor, materials and equipment.  A motion to move the issue forward to the next City Council meeting was approved on a vote of 3-1, with councilmembers Paul Fischer, Mike Postma and Jeff Austin voting in favor, while councilman Geoff Baker voted against.

The next regularly scheduled meeting for the Austin City Council is scheduled for Monday, May 6th at 5:30 p.m. at the city council chambers