Among the bills gaining final approval at Monday night's Jefferson City Council meeting was one dealing with planning for several future projects at the Jefferson City Memorial Airport.
About 90 percent of a project at the airport is funded through federal grants, like the $7 million project to reconstruct the main runway finished last year. The remaining 10 percent is funded through the city's half-cent sales tax for capital improvements.
Throughout the next five-10 years, the city will be working to get more federal dollars for a different projects.
The City Council gave final approval Monday to an agreement for $88,581 with engineering firm Burns and McDonnell to be the airport's consultant for the next five years.
"That allows us to have continuity from one project to the next, but at the same time ensuring that we're getting the best person to do the projects as we go forward," Jefferson City Operations Division Director Britt Smith said.
With reconstruction of the main runway complete, the first priority is to reconstruct the crosswind runway.
The entire project would cost about $3.2 million, including design and construction. The city hopes to start design work on the project next year, Smith said.
Next, the city plans to design and reconstruct the south taxiway for about $2.5 million.
The city also plans repairs to the parking area around the terminal for about $700,000, with a nearly $3.7 million project ifor the air traffic control tower several years down the road.
The Jefferson City Memorial Airport has about 35,000 operations a year and nearly 70 based aircraft.
In other business Monday:
The Council delayed a final vote on approval of a bill to set the minimum age for the sale of tobacco in the Jefferson City limits to 21 instead of 18. The bill does not prohibit the possession of tobacco and related products by those 18 and older. This is the second time the council has delayed the final vote in respect to the bill's sponsor, 4th Ward Councilman Carlos Graham, who has been dealing with illnesses and deaths in his family recently and was not able to attend Monday's meeting.
Among the other bills getting final approval Monday was an agreement with Rehagen Electric for $111,264 for the Madison Street Garage lighting upgrade, which would also approve a supplemental appropriation from the city's Parking Fund to pay for the improvements. Besides the parking garage, the project also includes lighting improvements at the Jefferson Street parking garage and the Miller Street bus storage barn. This project will replace existing metal lighting with energy-efficient lighting.
Also getting final approval was a bill to allow the city to accept a $121,832 grant from the Missouri Department of Transportation to replace two Handi-Wheels buses, which have operated beyond their useful life of 150,000 miles.