If the Federal Aviation Administration approves, Cyril E. King Airport may simply replace a baggage belt rather than completely rebuild its baggage handling system, saving tens of millions of dollars for the time being, the V.I. Port Authority board decided Friday.
Dale Gregory, Port Authority’s director of engineering, said cost estimates for the proposed rebuild at the St. Thomas airport had shot up to nearly $40 million.
"In my thought process, I had expected we would replace a baggage belt with the same sort of belt," he said. But expanding the baggage facility meant major construction on the airport itself, as well as changes to the runway apron and taxi lane, he said. "But with the expansion, this has spiraled out of control in terms of cost," Gregory said. Simply replacing a belt would cost in the neighborhood of $1.8 million.
"So are you saying there may be an intermediate solution of just replacing the belts, as opposed to spending $38 million right now on the overhaul?" asked Attorney General Vincent Frazer, a member of the board.
"The simple answer is yes," Gregory said.
Getting a new belt "wouldn’t resolve the FAA’s concern about manual passing of bags, but it would resolve our internal problem with the baggage system," Frazer said.
The board voted to direct Gregory to research and determine if the smaller-scale fix would be acceptable to the FAA and report back at the next monthly meeting.
In other business, plans to open new passenger screening gates in both territorial airports were held off while a replacement magnetometer and generator are secured for St. Croix’s Henry Rohlsen Airport. A magnetometer, or metal detector, purchased some time back for St. Croix, went missing while in storage on St. Thomas. And when the crate for an X-Ray machine destined for St. Croix was opened, "its generator was gone and nobody knows nothing about it," said David Mapp, assistant executive director of the Port Authority.
Chairing the meeting in the absence of Chairman Cassan Pancham, board vice chairwoman Beverly Nicholson-Doty directed Mapp to start an investigation into the absence, even if it seemed futile.
"Before we go on, I just need to go on record and say it is not acceptable to just shrug and get new ones when we discover we can’t find them," Doty said.
Handheld magnetometers have been ordered and the additional gates should be open by the time of St. Thomas’ Carnival, Mapp said.
The board also approved a lease modification at Red Hook Terminal on St. Thomas, allowing its bar to expand and build a separate area for video lottery terminals, and approved several other more minor lease changes elsewhere under its purview.
Financially, the Port Authority is spending more than it is taking in right now, said Director of Administration and Finance Judith Mills. Total operating revenues as of Jan. 31 were $15.1 million, while operating expenses were $17.5 million, for an operating loss of $2.4 million. Once other income and expenses are taken into account, the Port Authority experienced a net decrease in assets of $1.4 million as of Jan. 31, she said. While a loss, this is an improvement over last year, when operating losses were $2.9 million over the same period, she said.
Present were Doty, Frazer, Gordon Finch, Robert O’Connor, Darryl Smalls, Yvonne Thraen and Hector Peguero. Pancham was absent.
