BY DAN HILDEBRAN
Telegraph Staff Writer
KEYSTONE HEIGHTS—The city council approved a $3 million bridge loan with Capital City Bank to assist the airport with improvements to the facility’s taxiways, lighting, and signs.
Federal Aviation Administration and Florida Department of Transportation grants are funding the improvements.
Airport board chair David Kirkland told the council that the financing would help the airport manage its cash flow between the times it receives invoices from contractors and is reimbursed by the federal and state agencies.
“A contractor gives us an invoice for, let’s say, paving that’s three hundred, four hundred thousand dollars,” he said. “We, in turn, give that to Capital City and say we need three hundred thousand dollars out of the bridge gap fund to go into our checking account. From there, our accountant writes a check to pay that invoice, and that documentation then is sent to the FAA or FDOT…Within 48 hours, they’re reimbursing us for that money that we then put right back into the bank, into the bridge loan, so there’s never a liability, if you will, to the city.”
Vice mayor Chris Thompson said she preferred to vote on the resolution after Mayor Nina Rodenroth returned from vacation. However, after Kirkland explained that the parties wanted to close the deal the day after the council meeting and added that large invoices were expected from contractors the following week, Thompson voted in favor of the resolution.
Kirkland reminded the council that bank, airport, and city staff have discussed the loan agreement terms over the past several weeks.
“Please keep in mind that the FAA and FDOT fully back these projects, so they’re fully funded already, and we’ve already paid out a lot because we could pay out-of-pocket,” he said.
Council member Steve Hart requested several changes to the loan agreement, which he described as “tidying up language.”
Those changes included pledging as security the airport’s net fuel sales instead of gross fuel sales, excluding non-airport city revenues from securing the loan, changing the title of a city officer in loan documents from Deputy Mayor to Vice Mayor, and clarifying that city staff members are not personally liable under the loan agreement.
