Council gave final approval Tuesday evening to an agreement with the Missouri Department of Transportation, allowing work to restore runway lighting at Neosho’s Hugh Robinson Memorial Airport to move forward.
The Neosho airport has been without runway lighting since May 22, 2011, when lightning struck the lighting.
Since that time, the airport runways have operated daylight to dusk, and the airport has been unable to allow any nighttime landings on the dark runways.
The project is being funded 90 percent by a MoDOT grant, with a 10 percent match from the city.
Council’s approval Tuesday allowed an amendment to the original agreement, allowing the timeline of the project to be extended and the price of the project to increase.
The amendment increases funding to an amount not to exceed $316,635.
The amendment also extends the project time period to Dec. 31, 2013, though Neosho City Manager Troy Royer said the city expects the work to start this summer.
Royer said on Tuesday that council’s final approval of the agreement allows the city to move forward with the project, though the city will wait until after the Celebrate Neosho event is held at the airport in late June to begin the project.
He said the city expects work to begin in July.
In November, council awarded a bid to Strukel Electric Inc, to perform the work, which includes replacing the medium intensity runway lighting system for runway 1-19, medium intensity taxiway lighting system for the mid-connecting taxiway, runway end identifier lights system, precision approach path indicator system, runway holding position signs and primary and supplementary wind-cones, as well as repainting the existing rotating beacon tower.
“It’s been something we’ve been working on for the last couple of years,” Royer said.
In November, Mayor Richard Davidson said the city had hit several roadblocks in the process of replacing the lighting system, the first soon after the damage was done, when the city learned that the airport was under-insured.
In other business, council members voted Tuesday to approve an agreement between the City of Neosho and Waste Corporation of America, which should result in slightly lower trash rates for Neosho residents.
The City of Neosho re-bid their trash service, and selected Waste Corporation of America, the current provider, in the May 7 council meeting.
The new agreement adjusts rates to $8.88 per household, per month for the first year of the contract, and $9.10 per household for the second year.
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