We're gonna start with the Pledge of Allegiance.

Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.

For which it stands.

One nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all.

All right.

We have I guess two things on the agenda, kind of the same thing.

So uh first off is an approval of special ordinance S 265 to amend the FY 2026 budget for the purchase of a new HVAC system for the air traffic control tower at Frederick Municipal Airport.

Good evening, Council members.

Andrew Moore, Airport Manager.

Thank you very much for having this special meeting.

Um I'm gonna go ahead and just go over the whole executive summary, which I think counts for both items if you're okay with it, and just give the whole story.

Um we'll vote on them separately, but you can present once.

Okay, that's fine.

I'll just go ahead and explain everything else.

So um the air traffic control tower at the Frederick Airport was built in 2012, uh primarily funded from an FAA grant.

It's a contract tower setup, so that means that we own and operate the building and almost all of the equipment inside, and the FA pays for the air traffic control or staffing in there.

That's kind of how that works.

Um we've been working on this for almost a year, this HVAC system.

The industry wide is going through a refrigerant switchover, which further complicated this.

It's a six-story building with a greenhouse at the top and only two doors in the building.

So that makes it very complicated to do air conditioning.

Um we have repaired it as much as we could and pursued a um an IFB, and that's where we're at now.

Um to address something the way I have it word in the executive summary, um, it is using our fund balance.

We currently have applications out for two FA uh bipartisan infrastructure law grants and that are competitive, and I don't know the answer to that yet.

And also um as a backup with the state, we have the approvals in place um that we can pursue that on a reimbursement basis later to help fund this at about 75% for the state and a hundred percent for the FA if we get it.

And with that, I'm happy to answer any questions.

Any questions from the council members?

No, Andrew, I think you answered.

I was gonna ask about the FAA MAA whether or not it was reimbursable.

Um I appreciate the information on that.

Thanks.

Yeah.

So just to elaborate, a lot of these things are really good uh to not have to follow the grant rules to be able to do them.

They're very time sensitive, and then get them on a reimbursement basis.

So that's how we're pursuing this.

And Andrew, previously in the past we have received FAA grants, correct?

Correct.

Yes.

Okay.

Yeah.

Can you I know it's many, but can you go through what they what they are and what they were for?

Um so the typical form of a of a grant is is a lot of these big ol bigger capital projects, right?

Um primarily it's 90 to 95 percent FAA funded.

And these are runways, taxiways, pay big pavement projects.

Um and and really what we do is we we kind of we kind of play that game with all the different grant sources and pursue which one works best for different projects, like a fence project.

We've used a state grant because it just went faster.

Um we'll have a project coming up for some additional pavement um that we will probably pursue a state grant because we've exhausted all of our federal grants and we're adding on more pavement.

So we kind of just have our avenues and try to use them, but largely it's 90 percent federally funded, five percent state funded, and the rest locally.

Any other questions?

Uh just too.

What's the current state of the HVAC system?

Is it working at all?

Just a little bit.

We uh that's a great question.

So um timeline sometime in the winter it was running at half capacity, and we were gonna run through that and put it in our fiscal year 27 budget.

And then at some point in the winter, we'll say February maybe, uh, that other half died.

And then we were it's actually easier to heat that building, because keep in mind, six stories, greenhouse at the top.

There's no openings in the building except for the bottom and a half door up top.

Um so it's easy to heat the building, sort of, really hard to cool it.

So that's why we're putting we're putting this through so quickly.

And we did work as as I did work as quick as possible.

Um I got a lot of help from procurement and everybody to get this through.

It was just a very complex repair, just the way it was and the industry where it's at.

So what's the lifespan for a system like this?

Um we got 14 years out of this last system.

The lifespan is typically 10 to 20 years, more so like 10 to 16 years.

Okay.

So I don't love so much that we're spending this much and we're gonna get a little over a decade out of it, but there's just no other way to solve this problem, unfortunately.

Okay, thank you.

Yes.

Do you do you want to go ahead and speak to the actual purchase order?

Right here.

We'll vote on them separately, but you can go ahead.

Yeah, I mean, there's I don't have too much to add to it.

Um, as we went through the bid process, um again, the the the overarching thing here is the industry is switching refrigerants.

So the solution for this was not clear.

Um they actually talked about ending this refrigerant at the end of 2025, and then we went into this bid process not knowing that they actually extended it to the end of 2026.

Um so we're going with this as a direct replacement, um, and this was the best option for us.

And there's not too much else to say on that.

Any questions on that issue on the purchase order itself.

Can I go back to the previous one?

Oh, yeah, sure.

Uh as far as securing the grants, do you have any idea kind of when you'll know whether or not they've been secured?

The FAA ones um they're competitive.

I don't know.

I would expect in the next 60 to 90 days, I would know, and we're gonna wait till we hear back on that that we either did or did not receive, and there'll be it, there'll be a distinct cutoff for both of those, right?

Um and then after that, I've already notified the state that we are doing this project, and they'll send me back basically an eligibility letter letter.

And what that does is if we don't get the two FAA grants, which are our primary sources if we can get them, um also they're covered at 95 or 100 percent, which is why we like them.

Um we'll pursue the state reimbursement.

Now the state reimbursement after we get that eligibility letter back can happen at any time in the future.

Okay.

So yeah, and that that one will be um it very likely won't be this this next fiscal year 27.

It'll probably be the one the next one or the one after.

Okay, thank you.

Any other questions?

No.

Okay.

Uh ask any public comment, but there doesn't seem to be already here.

So uh we need to vote on those two items separately.

So for the special ordinance looking for a motion.

Motion to approve the special order.

Motion to approve the special ordinance.

Second.

All right.

Move by council member Brem, second by council member Taylor.

All in favor.

13456 out of six.

Okay.

And then for the purchase order.

Move to approve the purchase order.

Second.

Move by council member Brem, second by councilmember Taylor.

All in favor.

Six.

Thank you, sir.

And that concludes the special session.