Airport wants to buy new fire truck

60th anniversary celebration is also on the radar.

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Martha's Vineyard Airport is planning to buy a new fire truck. - Gabrielle Mannino

While dealing with newly found contamination is taking a lot of time and energy for Martha’s Vineyard Airport officials, there was other business for the airport commission to consider at Thursday’s meeting in West Tisbury.

Commissioners unanimously approved $696,000 to purchase a new fire truck for the airport rescue fleet. It will replace a 2002 model, airport manager Ann Richart told commissioners.

It will mostly be paid for through the airport’s funding from the Federal Aviation Administration, Richart said, which covers 90 percent of the purchase. An additional 5 percent will come from the state, leaving the airport’s share at $35,000, she said.

After some deliberations that included commissioner Clarence “Trip” Barnes III thinking aloud that he could get a friend to do it cheaper, the commission unanimously approved spending $84,000 to hire Green Environment Inc. to remove a well house that has asbestos and lead among the hazards. The bid came in double what an airport consultant said it should cost, but off-Island companies were reluctant to bid on the project, Richart said.

Commissioners also approved $17,200 for an airport consultant to oversee the removal of hazardous waste, though Richart doubted it would cost that much.

Barnes bristled before joining the unanimous vote: “$17,200 to watch someone fill a dump truck?”

The actual decommissioning of the well should not be as costly, Richart said.

All of it paves the way for the commission to lease lots in the Airport Business Park.

And speaking of leases, the airport will be seeking bids on the terminal restaurant. The current lease runs out at the end of December, but the Plane View can continue on a month-to-month basis.

Commission Kirstin Zern wondered aloud what the public reaction would be if the Plane View was replaced after 10 years operating at the airport.

When the gas station and car wash went out to bid nearly two years ago, Lou Paciello won the lease, and the former leaseholder removed the station and tanks. The new gas station only recently opened.

Zern said she’d like to avoid a situation where the airport is without a restaurant.

Richart said the current restaurant leaseholders are welcome to bid. The airport is seeking some changes, and will write into the request for proposals preferences for bidders who provide service to what’s known as the “circus tent” (a holding place for summer passengers), those that use farm-to-table ingredients, and those that use more recycled and recyclable materials.

Airport officials are talking with ACE MV about providing educational programs for young people interested in careers in the aviation field, Zern told the commission.

And the airport is celebrating its 60th anniversary in 2019, from when it was handed over by the U.S. Navy. A barbecue is being planned for July, Zern said.