Emergency airport spending to be considered Tuesday by Colorado Springs City Council

UPDATE: The Colorado Springs City Council on Tuesday unanimously voted to approve allocating $5 million to repair damage caused by last week’s fire at the Colorado Springs Airport.

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A week after a roof fire that caused extensive damage to the Colorado Springs Airport, the City Council learned how much repairs will cost and how they’ll be funded.
Greg Phillips, the airport’s director of aviation, said the estimated cost of repairing fire, water and smoke damage is at least $5 million.

“That’s clearly an estimate,” he said. “We’re hoping it won’t cost more, but with each passing day as we continue to delve deeper into the damage, we find more damage that needs to be repaired.”

But Phillips reassured the public that the taxpayers won’t foot any part of the bill.

“The airport doesn’t take tax money, anyway,” he said. “Any repairs that we do will be spent from insurance proceeds to cover (costs) up front, get the work done and be able to pay for it.”

Until insurance payouts arrive, the money will come from the airport’s capital improvement fund, pending approval in an emergency vote Tuesday by the City Council.

Phillips said the airport’s insurance is sufficient to cover the cost of repairs, but any payout by the insurer for Weathercraft Roofing, the contractor in charge of roofing repair at the time of the fire, depends on the outcome of the investigation into the fire’s cause.

“We also have two eateries in the airport that closed because of the fire,” he said, referring to The Bristol Taproom and Novo Coffee. “They may file claims, as well.”

Several council members expressed concerns about the airport situation.

“That’s a lot of water damage,” he said. “It was our position to have two additional companies to put tarps on everything in a commercial building, automatically, to avoid this particular thing,” said Councilman Bill Murray. “I didn’t see any tarps. Maybe they’d already been removed.”

Councilman Don Knight wants to ensure the money is spent properly.

“This can only be used for restoration to its original condition,” he said. “You can’t add other features that are nice, and say you want to go ahead and do that while you’re there.”

Councilman David Geislinger disagreed.

“This is an opportunity to do something (extra),” he said. “I would encourage that.”Phillips said that, coincidentally, the airport’s budget for this year includes spending $500,000 on modernizing the airport.

“Maybe we can look at different carpeting, a different flooring style, wall coverings, ceiling tiles, etc.,” he said.
On Tuesday, workers were ripping out and disposing of water-damaged drywall. Construction areas are sealed off from the public and fresh air is being circulated to prevent dust accumulation.
“It’s a six-month project,” Phillips said. “We hope to be finished by Thanksgiving. The fire forced us to relocate our staff offices and conference room. But the work should have little to no impact on daily airport operations.”
It’s unclear whether propane tanks or other equipment on the roof caused the fire. Much of the water damage resulted from the building’s sprinkler system being on for four hours.
The airport reopened after being closed for a day, and council members said they were impressed with how quickly it reopened.