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Aerial of the Oneida County Airport inb Malad, one of the small airoports that would benefit from the planning innovation.

Innovation for funding small airports
could generate big results

An innovation for standardizing the funding approach for small airports throughout Idaho not only streamlines the process, allowing needed repairs to be undertaken more quickly, but also should save ITD, and taxpayers, about $53,000 over the next five years of the program.

Jennifer Schildgen, the Planner at the Division of Aeronautics, noticed upon reviewing the small- airport funding requests that they each varied in scope, complexity, and pricing scale, which led to confusion and an increase in consultant fees.

The non-standardization of the processes and plans meant that Aero was using five separate firms that each had their own processes for producing a Small Airport Plan, which required 13 separate Professional Service Agreements, invoice processing, and contracts.

“The first thing we needed to establish was a standardized scope of work that would meet our needs and be comprehensible to the airport sponsor,” Schildgen explained.

An airport planning study acts as a guide for capital-improvement projects, pavement- maintenance needs, comprehensive land-use guide, facility inventory, and an Airport Layout Plan illustrating the required protection zones for safe airport usage.

The division was able to develop a scope template that would meet these needs and cut unneeded elements.

Standardized the scope of work allows the chosen firm to save on administrative costs, since they can produce one document for each airport and only have to change the individual variables for each airport. This means a savings of $9,512 in consultant-firm administrative costs, with a projected five-year savings of $45,000 for ITD.

Grouping airport planning studies reduces administrative cost for the department as well. Instead of four separate Professional Service Agreements, Aeronautics only need one per year now and only has to process invoices for one firm, saving 60 staff hours and $1,596 in estimated yearly salary expenses -- a predicted five-year savings of $8,000. Overall predicted savings over the next five years totals $53,000.

Schildgen said plans for the Carey Municipal Airport, Craigmont Municipal Airport, Hyde Memorial Airport-Downey, and Mackay Municipal Airport are underway, while four more are out to bid right now – the Cottonwood Municipal Airport, Camas County Airport, Lee Williams Memorial Airport-Midvale, and Oneida County Airport in Malad. There are 13 additional airport plans still to be done. The plans need to be updated every 10 years.

The runway at the airport in Craigmont, another of the small airports around the state that the planning innovation specifically targets.