RTA agrees to commit money for airport terminal project

$250K over 20 years

by Mark Reaman

The Gunnison County Rural Transportation Authority board of directors has agreed to enter into a MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) with Gunnison County to help pay for a renovation of the Gunnison airport terminal. The county agreed to sign the MOU Tuesday. Under the agreement, the RTA will contribute $250,000 to the project cost annually for 20 years, starting in 2022.

“The project is evolving and we are currently in the schematic design phase,” Gunnison County sustainable operations director John Cattles told the RTA board at the February 28 meeting. “We think we can do an impactful project for $10 million to $12 million. We have commitments from the FAA for grants of approximately $6.2 million over the next three years and another $861,00 in CDOT [Colorado Department of Transportation] and local matching funds. Having additional revenue streams is important to fill the gap. The FAA is also making real efforts to find more money as it sees more local participation like the RTA coming on board.”

Cattles emphasized that the county wanted real improvements to the terminal and not simply Band-Aid fixes. “We can make a big difference at the terminal and really improve the passenger experience,” he said.

County manager Matthew Birnie said RTA participation was significant since the FAA could see that that the board is made up of government representatives from throughout the valley. Birnie explained that the goal of the county was to end up with a $500,000 annual debt service over 20 years to pay for the improvements. In addition to the RTA funding, airport fees and county sales tax will make up the balance of the debt service.

“We want a transformational project,” Birnie said. “And we don’t want it to take years and years and impact passengers for a long time. This could be a really awesome project.”

Cattles said the goal is to start the project with some behind the scenes work in April 2021. “Overall, I have no idea of the timeline,” he admitted. “We will know more at the end of March when we get back the RFP [Request for Proposals] from the contractors. If I had to guess, I would say it will take a couple of years but could be a lot less.”

RTA executive director Scott Truex laid out the RTA financials for the board and said the RTA could afford the expenditure. Because of the relationship of subsidizing airline flights into the airport, Truex said it made sense to help with the project in order to improve the experience of arriving visitors.

The GUC terminal was originally built in 1979. Additions were completed on the facility in 1993 and 1995.