By Cindy Barks for Daily Courier
The long wait is over for the new Prescott Regional Airport terminal project.
During a Prescott City Council study session Tuesday, November 19th, Mayor Greg Mengarelli announced that he had just received word that the airport terminal project had been confirmed for a $10M Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) grant.
And that means that the postponed groundbreaking on the terminal project could occur by as early as December.
Mengarelli told the audience that he had heard from the office of U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema just before the start of Tuesday’s meeting.
City officials had long reported that FAA officials had assured them that a grant was coming.
City officials had expected to hear about the grant award by late summer, and originally scheduled the groundbreaking for construction on October 4th.
Because of the delay, the city announced in September that it would be pushing off the terminal groundbreaking.
Airport Director Robin Sobotta said a formal public announcement is scheduled for Friday, November 22nd.
Meanwhile, she said, city officials would be in contact with the FAA to talk about the schedule for processing the grant.
The grant will also require a review and approval by the Prescott City Council.
With the next regular meeting of the City Council set for December 10th, Sobotta said a special council meeting could take place in the meantime to speed up the process.
City Manager Michael Lamar noted that with the FAA’s $10M — in combination with the $1M that the city recently accepted from the state and the $3.5M that the city has allocated from its own funds — the project should be ready to go.
On Monday, the city received word from its contracting team Willmeng Construction/Fann Contracting that the $13.9M guaranteed maximum price for the project would be extended from its initial deadline of November 16th until December 16th.
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