The Boone County Airport board was busy recently awarding bids for future work to be done at the airport.
New installed vice-president of the board Blaise Koch conducted the meeting.
Greg Thomas, an engineer for Garver Engineering, presented the board with bids on terminal construction.
He reported that the bids came in under the expected total.
The bid of $6,865.184.50 was awarded to Harrison company Davis Construction. There were a total of four bids which included one from Butch May Construction of Harrison; Baldwin & Shell of Rogers; and C.R. Crawford Construction of Fayetteville.
The board directed airport manager Judy McCutcheon to combine with Thomas to submit a grant proposal to the FAA.
Last week Jim Sprott presided over his last meeting as the president of the airport board.
Sprott, who served on the board for 33 years, is relocating to Russellville. Gwen Hoffman was appointed to serve on the board as his replacement.
Board members elected new officers with Lad Brooks being selected as the president and Koch as the vice-president.
McCutcheon gave a review of the Air Race Classic that began in Harrison.
There were a total of 38 teams that flew into Harrison on Tuesday, June 17, and five more that arrived the next day.
Because of inclement weather, race organizers began the race in Harrison.
McCutcheon praised the volunteers of the community for their dedication and being able to pull together to adjust to the changes that were made at the last minute.
In other business, the board approved Chloe Hubbard to work an airplane detailing business at the airport. Also, the board approved the use of the north end of the airport in April, 2026 for the CASA Jeepin’ event.
McCutcheon stated that the event would not interfere with normal airport traffic.
The last order of business was an address from Southern Airway’s Keith Sision, Director of Operations for Southern Airways
He spoke of the changes that have been taking place with the company. A major change of the company was the relocation of the corporate offices to Addison, Texas.
Southern will gradually integrate new aircraft into its fleet.
The last topic presented by Sison was the discussion of Essential Air Service (EAS) funds.
“We are the leader in lobbying for the commuter airline industry in (Washington) D.C.,” he said. “We don’t see Armageddon for most of the EAS locations. There will probably be some reform. But for Harrison, there will be nothing to worry about.”
He went on to explain that the purpose of the EAS funds is to provide air service to regional hubs from smaller communities. He stated that Harrison is doing it right by flying to Dallas, Texas and Memphis, Tenn. The trouble that he could see would be for the airports that were skipping over regional and national hubs and flying to another hub.
HRO Terminal Bids
Construction Company Location Base Bid Site Base Bid TerminalTotal
Davis Construction Harrison $1,363,405.50 $5,51.779.00 $6,865,184.50
Butch May Construction Harrison $2,048,502.10 $5,751,483.00 $7,799,985.10
Baldwin & Shell Rogers $2,085.846.00 $5,172,533.12 $7,258,379.12
C.R. Crawford Construction Fayetteville $1,836,748.00 $5,561,252.00 $7,398,000.00
