Coos County Airport District board members, who have tackled numerous financial decisions related to a new terminal at Southwest Oregon Regional Airport in recent months, Thursday found two more funding requests dropped on their plates.

One was to fix a 40-year-old leaky roof on a maintenance building, and the other to fill an area where construction crews unexpectedly hit a watertable on the taxiway leading to the partially constructed new terminal.

The bill for the roof will come in at a little over $16,000, and the cost to fix the taxiway will be about $43,000.

Although the taxiway drainage problem was a surprise to board members and the repair cost more than twice as much as the new roof on the maintenance building, it was the re-roofing project that proved to be contentious.

For board members Mike Lehman, chairman; John Briggs; Clair Jones; Joe Benetti; and Helen Brunell Mineau, the question was whether to have the labor done in-house or hire a roofing company to do the work. Airport Executive Director Gary LeTellier presented two bids, both in the $16,500 range. He recommended the work be done by airport employees during hours they would be there anyway. The labor cost was a little more than $8,000, and materials were also a little more than $8,000, adding up to about the same.

“By committing the staff to do this, are there other things they could be doing?” Lehman asked.

LeTellier said there are other projects, but the roofing would take about a week and a half and some of the other projects were indoors and could be done during the winter.

“The big advantage is we'd be paying our employees already,” LeTellier said.

Briggs pointed out that the roofing company's workers would already have workers compensation benefits.

LeTellier said he wasn't sure about the airport workers, as far as workers compensation, and would have to look into it.

“You guys spend money like crazy. Go ahead and do it,” said Jones.

“Don't give me this about saving money!” Lehman said. “It's going from one pot into another.”

The acrimonious exchange continued as board members reached a decision.

“I feel if we're close to one of the bids, that we should go with one of the bids,” said Benetti.

At Benetti's suggestion, board members voted 6-1 to take approximately $12,500 from the maintenance fund, which the board had estimated for the project in the budget, and transfer it to one of the airport district's general reserve fund and hire James Bush Roofing to do the estimated $16,412 re-roofing project.

Jones voted no.

“What the hell. It's only money,” he said to the other board members.

Airport district board members have been dealing with financial issues surrounding the new terminal that is under construction, and a tower that, if the Federal Aviation Administration approves of the site, could enter the permitting process by September, Clifford Newton, the terminal's project manager, announced Thursday. The $17 million terminal will be paid in half by Oregon Lottery funds, with the remaining $5.9 million borrowed through a contractual agreement with the Oregon Economic & Community Development Department; and $4 million obtained through a series of federal entitlement funds. The $3 million tower will be funded through a Federal Aviation Administration earmarked grant.

Newton told board members about an approximate 10,000-foot stretch of taxiway, starting with the apron directly in front of the terminal, where workers have excavated down to the groundwater table level. He said the area is at 20 percent saturation and it needs to be at 12 percent. The project's construction company, Skanska USA Building Inc., a subsidiary of Skanska AB, Stockholm, Sweden, needs $43,000 to replace about a foot of sand with 4 inches of drain rock, cover that with a fabric, then move soil on top of that to get ready for paving.

“We've examined the prices and it seemed very reasonable, although higher than we hoped,” said Newton.

The board unanimously approved paying for the repairs of the taxiway from a terminal project contingency fund.