By Josh Bergeron

josh.bergeron@salisburypost.com

SALISBURY — As the Rowan County Airport grows, its current runway must go.

Rowan County commissioners on Monday will consider a contract with engineering firm Talbert, Bright and Ellington to oversee a runway resurfacing project at the airport. If approved as presented, the work authorization could result in $308,714 in payments to the engineering firm.

The meeting will be at 6 p.m. in the county administration building — 130 West Innes St.

To help pay for the runway resurfacing project, Rowan County received a grant in November totaling $2.74 million. The grant came from the N.C. Department of Transportation. Rowan County would need to match grant funds with $304,700 of its own money.

Work performed by Talbert, Bright and Ellington could include topographic surveys, quality assurance testing, a full-time project representative, preparing designs for construction work and overseeing bidding and construction administration, according to Monday’s agenda documents. The resurfacing project will create a raised center and grooves to channel water off of the runway. It will minimize the chance of hydroplaning for incoming planes.

In the work authorization scheduled for consideration on Monday, there’s no defined schedule for when work might start.

“Work shall be completed in accordance with the schedule established and agreed upon by the owner and engineer,” the work authorization states.

The resurfacing will come as commissioners market the Rowan County Airport as a destination for corporate airplanes. In recent years, commissioners have built two, 15,000-foot hangars at the airport.

The runway resurfacing project is separate from a planned runway extension, which has been estimated to cost more than $20 million.

In other business on Monday’s agenda:

• Rowan County commissioners will consider a request for funding from Salisbury-Rowan Crimestoppers.

The request for $1,500 in funding would allow the Salisbury-Rowan Crimestoppers to continue funding its p3tips online reporting program. If funded, it would be the second year of the program. Crimestoppers Chairman Mike Jones said the p3tips program has been “very promising,” especially after media reports began mentioning the web address as a way to report tips about crimes.

The tip website to report information about a crime in Salisbury or Rowan County is http://tips.salisburyrowancrimestoppers.org/.

• Commissioners will consider approving a design for an airport conference room renovation.

The renovation will build a new conference room at the Rowan County Airport. An existing conference room will become a pilot’s lounge. The existing pilot’s lounge will become an office.

Once the design receives approval, the county will solicit bids for the renovation.

• Commissioners will consider a proclamation naming April 23-29 “Animal Shelter Volunteer Appreciation Week.”

The proclamation states the Rowan County Board of Commissioners “calls upon all citizens to recognize the selfless efforts of shelter volunteers for their dedication in caring for the animals of Rowan County.”

Traditionally, volunteer rescue groups are responsible for a majority of adoptions at the Rowan County Animal Shelter.

• Commissioners will go into closed session to consider an undisclosed property purchase and for attorney-client privledged communication regarding a pending zoning appeal.

• Commissioners will receive a presentation about a job fair that’s scheduled to occur on Wednesday.

• On the consent agenda, commissioners are scheduled to approve proclamations for the following: naming May “Shield a Badge with Prayer Awareness Month,” naming May 14-20 “Law Enforcement Week” and May 18 “Peace Officers Memorial Day” as well as a proclamation naming May 6 “Paint the County Purple Week” for Relay for Life events throughout Rowan County.

Contact reporter Josh Bergeron at 704-797-4246.