Mason City Airport Commission closing in on a bid
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(ABC 6 News) – The Mason City Airport Commission met Thursday for a second round of bids for the construction of a new terminal.
This comes after all three initial bids were rejected because they didn’t meet certain criteria
The commission made the final cut on bids Thursday for phase 2 of the nearly 17 million dollar project for, what airport officials call, a much-needed upgrade to the Mason City terminal.
“This facility is 60 years old. It was not designed for the type of use it has today. This building pre-dates having security having TSA, 9/11. All those types of things have changed the airline industry and this building was never designed with all that in mind,” said Mason City Municipal Airport Manager, David Sims.
But for this long-awaited upgrade to be complete, the airport commission needs to accept a bid from a construction company. The first three were turned down because they didn’t have the proper documents
The Mason City Airport Commission met Thursday for a second round of bids for the construction of a new terminal.
“Because this project is being paid for by federal grant funding there are many federal provisions and requirements that are associated with that funding. That requires additional paperwork and documentation from the contractors to insure they are complying with those requirements,” Sims said.
Commissioners met again on Thursday and announced they will be considering two bids from Joseph company out of Austin, MN, and Dean Snyder Construction from Clear lake, IA.
The community is waiting in anticipation of a facelift at MCW.
Yauvaraj Thangaraj is a doctor in Mason City and uses the airport often he says he’s not just excited about a new terminal but the opportunities it could bring to the area.
“if you have a good airport and good connection to bigger cities. We can hire people, we can recruit people and we can retain people hear in mason city,” Yauvaraj Thangaraj said.
Commissioners are hoping to have a decision by the end of the month.
The original target date for the new terminal to open was July 20-24, but according to officials, now that they’ve been delayed in the bidding process, it’s unclear if that opening date will get pushed back.