By Lindsey Rowland
lrowland@wbcowqel.com

Three Bucyrus City Council committees gave the green light on Monday to proposed improvements at Port Bucyrus Airport.

In the Planning and Zoning meeting, the committee approved the acceptance of 5.534 acres of land donated by the Hord Family. The addition of this land provides enough room to have the needed “fly safe” zone which will be a part of the project that includes resurfacing, paving, and other maintenance tasks.

The land, while donated to the city, is valued at 6,505.24 dollars an acre. It will qualifiy as the city’s share of a 90/10 grant split to fund the project. A portion of the excess value will be put aside for future programs. Ultimately, the committee approved the acceptance of the property.

The Service Committee met second and continued the discussion of the airport project. It was noted that the entire endeavor costs $161, 801, but the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will pay 90 percent, leaving the city with a balance of $16,180 the donated property will qualify as the city’s share. In the end, the committee approved to move ahead with entertaining bids.

The discussion of the airport project, and the evening, concluded with the Finance Committee, who took a look at the FAA grant application and authorized Service Safety Director Jeff Wagner to apply for said grand and to advertise for bids for the project.

The Finance Committee went on to discuss a multitude of things. The first of which is to appropriate money for increased police department testing for the captain and lieutenant. This will help to insure the quality of the police force.

From there, there was a long discussion about manpower, the highlights of which delved into the introduction of “light duty” which will help employees who are injured to still be able to be at work while meeting all of their restriction requirements.

While that decision helped workers to not miss their shifts, another discussion centered around how many hours an employee may be excused in the case of a funeral of either family or a co-worker. In the end, the committee allowed up to eight hours for such an event and even opened the floor to thoughts on potentially providing life insurance to city workers and elected officials. That discussion will be continued at a later date.

The Bucyrus City Council will hold its regular meeting on June 17.