Manhattan’s Regional Airport has been working on expansion plans for quite some time, and Tuesday night’s Manhattan City Commission moved plans forward a bit. Airport Director Peter Van Kuren brought the next phase of improvement to the Commission, the design development and bid services stage. Also included in the proposal was the acceptance of a 90-10% funding grant from the Federal Aviation Administration. The commission approved the package by a unanimous vote.
The item that garnered the most discussion, however, came from the consent agenda. The debate resulted from a proposal to explore options for moving Parks and Recreation offices to City Hall, upgrading City Hall’s Auditorium, and renovations to the Manhattan Community Building. The explorations would cost around twenty to forty thousand dollars, a fact that had some Commissioners a bit skittish during budget season. In the end, the Commission approved the proposal by a vote of four to one, with Commissioner John Matta being the single “nay”.
