Airport Upgrade Gets Off The Ground

A runway improvement project at the Vernon Airport will go ahead this summer using city crews and some contract workers.

Mayor Akbal Mund says a tender process for the repaving only drew two bids, the lowest which was a half million dollars over available funding.

“The tenders are coming in high because the economy in British Columbia is booming. You can’t do anything about that. It’s supply and demand. When you have the demand, people are going to raise their prices,” says Mund.

Rather than scrapping it, city staff developed a revised 1.3 million dollar project, which includes using an 823-thousand dollar provincial grant.

“The crews still have to do their own work so there might be some overtime involved, but if we can get the job done and save the grant, that’s the important part. We didn’t want to lose the grant,” adds Mund.

The city had to do the work by the end of March 2018 to qualify for the provincial funding.

Photo: MLA Eric Foster announcing the airport grant back in March