The Poplar Bluff Regional Business Airport is fortunate to receive support for some required equipment, manager Gary Pride told the city council Monday.
The city has the opportunity to extend the contract for some of these services through 2044, he shared.
The council is expected to vote Oct. 2 on a memorandum of understanding with the Federal Aviation Administration. This item relates to navigational aids, which all airports are required to have, Pride explained.
“The difference is who pays for them,” he shared. “We’ve been very fortunate in years past that most of the navigational aids for the airport have been paid for by the FAA, federal government. That is not always the case.”
This equipment allows aircraft to see in unfavorable visual conditions, he said.
“Most of these agreements are coming due right now,” Pride said.
While the FAA is not offering this at all airports, thus turning the cost over to local jurisdictions, Poplar Bluff has been fortunate to receive a renewal, Pride said.
“The ones they currently are responsible for, they’re going to continue to maintain, do repairs and put in new stuff as the current stuff expires,” he said.
Poplar Bluff also has a weather station that is monitored and managed by the National Weather Service of Paducah, Pride added. This would typically cost an airport several thousand dollars a year, he said.
Council members also moved to allow an alleyway to be vacated in an area west of 1109 N. 10th St., east of 1019 Harper St. It runs east to west between North 10th and North 11th streets.
The split vote was against the recommendation of the planning and zoning commission.
Mayor Shane Cornman and council members Mark Massingham, Billy DePew and Lisa Parson voted to support vacating the alleyway. Mayor Pro Tem Jerrica Fox and council members Robert Smith and Barbara Ann Horton were against vacating the property.
The section of land will go to the neighboring property owners.
The request was made by Jasmin Dugger and Belinda Perry. The Planning And Zoning Commission has recommended against the request, saying the city may need the property in the future for utilities or access to properties which back up on alley, city officials said when the matter was discussed at the Sept. 5 city council workshop. Resident Charles Thomas told the council there are no utilities in the alley and the city does not use it, but the neighboring residents have maintained it by cutting the grass for many years.
Cornman, and Massingham, as well as Horton and Parson had visited the property in separate trips, according to the discussion.
Parson and Cornman commented the neighboring landowner has maintained and mowed the alley for many years.
In a city council documents, members of the Planning and Zoning Commission expressed concern that vacating a portion of the alley adjacent to the applicant’s property left both ends of the alley only accessible on each end of the block. Vacating the entire alley blocks access to the rear of a number of properties on Harper and Mary streets, they reported.
In other business, the council:
• Discussed appointments to the disabilities, fair housing and planning & zoning boards. Vacancies remain on the building standards and HVACR boards.
• Approved changes to city ordinances related to medical marijuana facilities.
• Approved holding a public hearing regarding the annexation into the city of property at 3387 Kanell Blvd.