WARSAW — Business was quiet at the monthly meeting of the aviation commissioners Tuesday, Jan. 9. The meeting focused on reinstating board members for the next year and discussing future plans for the airport.

To start the meeting the board swore in Gene Zale for another four year term. Zale has been serving the board for an estimated 38 years, the longest serving board member. Mayor Joe Thallemer was present to do the swearing in.

“You’ve given a ton of time and blood, sweat and tears, and vast institutional knowledge that certainly has benefited this group,” said Thallemer about Zale.

“I made a promise to somebody that I’d stay on this board until the power lines got lowered,” commented Zale, a project that is in the works for the near future.

Having Zale sworn in and able to vote, the board re-elected their existing officials for another year. That is, Jay Rigdon, president, John Yingling, vice president, and Gene Zale, treasurer.

While the claims for last month weren’t out of the ordinary, Dan Robinson was concerned about yet another bill to maintain and repair hangar doors on the Zimmer-Biomet hangar. In estimation the airport has paid around $20,000 in the last calendar year to keep up with the doors.

Airport Manager Nick King explained that a resolution to the problem is in the works, with brand new doors being engineered for the hangar. It was explained that the issue stems from doors being installed improperly. King was also recently told that the doors are too heavy for the tracks, with the tracks initially supporting uninsulated doors before insulated doors were installed in the early 2000s.

King stated that they have been advised that a complete redesign is in order and he is currently finding that most economically feasible option.

King then went over the 2019-2023 capital improvement plan. In that report it was noted that the power line reconstruction, phase III, will be pushed back one year. The FFA had stated that the airport would not be receiving funds for the project within the 2018 year.

In place of the power line project, the airport will be focused on the north-south runway rehabilitation and reconstruction.

In other business:

• Fuel usage was down roughly 50,000 gallons in 2017. This was attributed to Depuy not flying in to the airport like they once did.