VIENNA — An announced $108,000 Federal Aviation Administration grant to replace a wind cone at the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport turned out to be about twice the actual cost for the project.

The office of U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Howland, touted the $108,000 figure for the wind sock at the airport in Vienna in a June 10 news release.

“I was surprised by the amount in the press release,” said Randy Partika, project manager and development engineer for the Western Reserve Port Authority, which operates the airport. “It caught me off-guard.”

Anthony Trevena, WRPA’s executive director, also said: “I was caught off-guard by the price” in the announcement.

That’s because the project’s cost is actually $54,550 — $36,550 for parts and construction costs and $18,000 for engineering work. Of that amount, the grant is covering $49,095 of it with the rest coming from the airport’s funds.

The $108,000 amount was approved by the FAA based on a pre-application from six months ago when the WRPA requested money to replace the wind cone, Partika said. That was based on a preliminary estimate that included replacing electrical components to light the cone, he said.

But the current lighting by the cone is in “good condition” and doesn’t need to be replaced, Partika said. Also, the WRPA got a proposal of $36,550 for the work from Declan Construction Inc. of Brookfield. That was well below the $55,000 estimate, he said.

The $108,000 was “an up-to amount and after we got cost estimates and did all of the evaluations, we’re going to spend only what we need,” Trevena said. “We set a preliminary budget. You don’t want to get into a project and not be able to finish it because you don’t have the money. You don’t know what the cost will be.”

Trevena added: “This is an example of great fiscal responsibility. Every dollar we put into the airport is well thought out.”

WHY SO HIGH?

So why did Ryan send a news release June 10 touting the $108,000 grant?

Caty Payette, Ryan’s spokeswoman, said: “We announced the $108,000 amount from the FAA, the (Department of Transportation) agency responsible for disbursing the fund as outlined in the notice of grant award.”

Payette provided a copy of that “notice of grant” award that states the WRPA was receiving $108,000 for the airport’s wind cone “that has reached the end of its useful life and no longer meets Federal Aviation Administration design standards.”

Reached to comment, an FAA spokeswoman didn’t address why the “notice of grant” listed $108,000, but was aware of the actual cost.

“The remaining balance of the $108,000 grant will be carried over and available to the airport next year for AIP (Airport Improvement Program) eligible projects,” the FAA spokeswoman said.

The $108,000 award was “entitlement money” and the $58,905 not used for the wind cone will go toward a 2023 project at the airport that would need approval from the FAA, Partika said.

“We always need to do pavement repairs,” he said. “We can always do a pavement project every year.”

Trevena said: “We can apply for something else. We get $150,000 a year. You don’t get to spend it willy-nilly. It has to be part of a plan.”

IT’S OLD

The current wind cone is 50 years old and during an FAA inspection last year, the WRPA was informed it needed to be replaced, Partika said.

The wind cone is “used by anybody who flies a plane to Youngstown,” Trevena said. “Aircrafts need it to know the wind speed and the direction. This is primarily for general aviation. A lot of the smaller guys may lean on it a little more than instrumentation.”

Construction of the new cone will begin in August and take a couple of weeks to complete, Partika said.

It will be built next to the existing one.

The major cost of the work is excavating and concrete along with the 16-foot-tall pole, Partika said. The cone is 3 feet long.

The airport gets up to $150,000 annually from the FAA for projects. But Ryan and U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson, R-Marietta, introduced legislation in March to designate any airport in use by an air reserve station as a “primary airport.”

That would allow the airport to be eligible for up to $1 million a year from the FAA for projects, Trevena said.

Youngstown-Warren is the only commercial airport in the country with an air reserve station that does not have commercial air service. It would be the lone airport impacted by the bill if it passed, Trevena said.