The Alva Airport Commission held a special meeting Thursday to finalize their budget for the next fiscal year beginning July 1. When budget figures were presented at the May 11 meeting, commission members didn’t think revenue estimates were conservative enough. Since Interim Business Manager Angelica Brady wants to have the proposed city budget figures finished early in June, a special meeting was needed.
The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted fuel sales revenue at the airport with fewer people traveling. Plunging oil prices have also affected the revenue the airport gets from an oil lease. Due to the uncertain future, the commission asked Brady to revise the budget figures. This also aligns with the city council push to plan for expenses equal to or less than revenue.
The airport budget is one of the restricted funds from which the city borrowed cash to cover the general fund expenses in recent years. While the auditor said this is not illegal, it is advisable to make up those borrowed amounts by the end of the year which did not happen in FY18-19.
Thursday, Brady went through the new budget proposal which shows revenues of $986,764 and expenses of $928,813 leaving a positive balance of $57,951 in revenue over expenses. All members of the airport commission were present in addition to Brady and the airport manager. Max McDermott sat in on the public meeting.
Revenue listed for the budget includes grant proceeds of $695,943 which includes a Federal Aviation Administration grant and a CARES fund grant. Charges for services are estimated at $201,209. These include hangar and ground leases, fuel sales and oil sales. License and permit income is listed as $100. Interest on investments totals $12,000.
In the miscellaneous revenue category, farm ag leases are listed as $35,512 and oil lease income at $42,000. Previously, the annual oil lease revenue was estimated at $180,000. However, the most recent income has been about $3,500 a month so that’s the new figure used for the budget.
In budget expenses, Brady said she used past years to figure most items like utilities and insurance. One full time and one part time employee are included, the same as this year.
A major change in expenses is the decrease in property maintenance from $39,000 to $10,000. Brady said this was a minimum to cover regular maintenance and required inspections. In case of some unexpected occurrence like repair or replacement of a fuel pump, the airport commission would have to go to the city council for approval of a budget amendment.
A previous listing of $35,000 for capital outlay equipment (the purchase of new equipment) was totally eliminated from expenses. Travel and advertising were previously listed at $1,000 each. Those were dropped to $350 and $250 respectively. The $5,000 contingency fund was reduced to $1,000. Catering and air show categories were zeroed out.
Paul Kinzie commented, “I think everybody is making adjustments.” He said the conservative budget would help him sleep better.
Brady said that she and Airport Manager Greg Robison also talked about changing weekend airport staffing to on-call status to save money if needed. Currently the airport is staffed from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. seven days a week.
“We know these are the basics,” said Kinzie. He said if the airport gets ahead on revenue in the next year, they will be able to use that money in the following year instead of relying totally on estimates.
Kinzie made a motion to approve the budget as presented, seconded by Kelly Parker. The motion was approved unanimously.
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