After all the fights the local citizens and aviation community have had to go through just to get the 2007 Master Plan approved, after all the work to undo all the years of willful neglect of Valkaria Airport... March 23, 2010 will live on as a big day that will be celebrated for a long, long time! The Brevard County Commission is set to accept two year's worth of FAA Airport Improvement Program (AIP) grants, which will be used to bring the airport up to the basic safety standards expected for any modern airfield (these are the first AIP funds the airport's ever been permitted to apply for or accept!)
This grant/JPA package is divided pretty well equally into two parts ("A" and "B"), which will be used for the following high-priority safety improvements:
- Runway and taxiway painting and other re-marking
- Airport beacon installation
- Lighted windsock installation
- Precision Approach Path Indicator (PAPI) installation
- Runway End Identifier Lighting (REIL) installation
- Segmented circle installation
- Drafting of a property map
- Engineering drawings for future apron resurfacing
- Authorization for the BOCC chair to sign both grants and JPAs from FAA and FDOT, upon receipt, as consistent with these improvements
In essence, approving this agenda item begins the actual physical implementation of the airport's most urgent safety needs, in accordance with the 2007 Master Plan's recommendations. While there will be more improvements to come in future years, this group of items is "the big one" for restoring Valkaria to being reasonably safe for use... and that's just looking at the EXISTING operations that have gone on there for years, such as nighttime mosquito control flights and the many transient student training operations. After decades of outright neglect, the airport is coming back to life! The total value of this particular AIP grant (including AIP funds combined from both 2009 and 2010) and FDOT Joint Participation Agreement (JPA) package is $315,000. And guess what... the local (county's) required commitment is only ONE PERCENT of the cost!! These urgent safety items will cost Brevard County only $3,160. What a great deal for the local taxpayers! Also remember that the airport is operated as an enterprise fund, and does NOT take money from the county's general fund... thus, the airport is fully self-supporting.
Below are various documents associated with the project.
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BOCC Agenda Item Summary - 3/23/2010, Item III.A.10
This is the short agenda summary for this item.
(PDF Format, 95 KB)
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BOCC Agenda Attachment - 3/23/2010, Item III.A.10
This is the full attachment to the agenda item, which contains the details that the Commission is given and which they actually vote to accept. This document contains an financial overview (p.1), the sign-off from county department reviews (p.2), FDOT's JPA agreement (p.3), the project responsibilities (p.17), the budget (p.18), program assurances (p.19), FAA AIP approval letters and project management checklists (p.31), more FAA AIP letters and a grant agreement (p.35), and a letter from the town of Grant-Valkaria supporting safety improvements at the airport (p.56).
(PDF Format, 2.82 MB)
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FAA Letter Re: Grant Status for X59 (Pedro Blanco, 3/19/2010)
This is a letter from FAA Program Manager Pedro Blanco concerning the current status of the first half of the AIP grant process. This letter emphasizes the time-critical nature of getting the County Commission to approve the acceptance of the grants before the deadline.
(PDF Format, 445 KB)
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