T-R FILE PHOTO The Marshalltown Airport suffered extensive damage due to straight line winds on Wednesday, June 17, and during last Monday night's meeting, the city council authorized Public Works Director Heather Thomas to proceed with repairs to the buildings not declared total losses.

Fresh off of an hourlong discussion about data center regulations, the Marshalltown city council wound down last Monday night’s meeting with a comparatively brief conversation on repairs to the airport north of town, which was badly damaged by straight-line winds on June 17.

Public Works Director Heather Thomas explained that she was simply asking the council for authorization to proceed with the repairs without going through a formal design, bid, build process, noting that it is allowed under city code and by ICAP insurance but wanted to ensure transparency.

As it stands, ICAP has declared three of the 11 buildings at the airport total losses, and a fourth was originally declared a total loss before a reversal with a more in-depth review underway.

“So in short, we have, for sure, three large I’m gonna call them executive or corporate type hangars, which means a large space with one large door, that are total losses, and one 10-unit T-hangar. Those are a longer building with 10 individual buildings, in the shape of a T, back-to-back,” she said.

Thomas thanked the 27 city employees who came to the airport to assist with debris cleanup that day along with Marshalltown Aviation CEO Steve Valbracht and Public Works Utilities Superintendent David Deemer for being “tremendous” throughout the process. She said the terminal was minimally impacted, but wide doors and roof on the large hangar were both badly damaged.

The maintenance shop, equipment storage buildings and an executive hangar are total losses, and another executive hangar will need a full roof replacement. After providing a brief summary of the condition of each building, Thomas told the council the damage was “definitely in the millions” of dollars already, and she explained that the request was to proceed with repairs on the buildings not deemed total losses in keeping with the city’s purchasing policy and ICAP.

“The reason for that request is time sensitivity. Winter will be here before we know it, and right at the moment, we are going to be hurting for an ability to maintain and minimize impact to those leaseholders out there,” Thomas said.

If the city goes through a traditional bidding process, she added, they would be “lucky” to get work started before winter. Thomas also noted that the city’s insurance reserve account balance is sitting at $372,000. Without any council questions or discussion, Councilor Greg Nichols motioned to move forward with the repairs as quickly as possible, and it passed by a unanimous 7-0 vote. After just over three hours, the meeting was finally adjourned.

Contact Robert Maharry at (641) 753-6611 ext. 255 or rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.