Kenai City Council members accepted more than half a million dollars in federal grants for airport projects at their meeting Wednesday. Both grants come from the Federal Aviation Administration.
Most of that money is coming from one grant. It’s roughly $526,000 for replacement of the heating, ventilation and air conditioning equipment at the Kenai Municipal Airport’s Aircraft Rescue and Fire Fighting facility. The FAA’s contribution represents about two-thirds of the total project cost. The city’s on the hook for the other third.
The resolution accepting the money says the system is “obsolete” and a boiler heat exchanger is cracked with temporary seals. Kenai City Manager Terry Eubank says the FAA has a vested interest in making sure climate control at the building is in good working order.
“This is a facility that helps us maintain compliance with the FAA,” he said. “We are required to provide storage and safekeeping of the snow removal assets that the FAA purchases for our airport and this is one of the primary facilities that that takes place in.”
Council members awarded the project contract to Wasilla-based Orion Construction Inc. In all, the city will pay the company about $700,000.
The second grant, for about $35,000, also comes from the FAA, through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The city will use it to buy test fire fighting equipment, also called an Eco Cart. Having the test equipment means the city won’t have to test its actual fire fighting equipment, which may discharge potentially hazardous materials.
“Annually we’re required to test those systems,” Eubank told council members. “There’s a couple of ways you can accomplish that. You can actually flow foam — actually spray foam, and the foam that we have is A-triple-F, it does contain PFAS, which is now an environmentally hazardous substance, so we haven’t flowed foam in a number of years at our airport.”
Exposure to PFAS, sometimes called “forever chemicals,” may lead to adverse health effects. As previously reported by KDLL, PFAS are commonly associated with firefighting materials.
Acceptance of the grant comes as Kenai works to expand service at the airport. Last month, the city applied for a separate FAA grant that it hopes to use to incentivize new airline service, including potential direct flights to Seattle.
Wednesday’s full Kenai City Council meeting can be streamed on the city’s YouTube channel.
