Rota airport in need of tractor for grounds

Commonwealth Ports Authority board director Barrie Toves would like funding for a tractor to maintain grounds within and outside the perimeters of the Rota International Airport.

Right now, he said parts of the airport’s tractor are obsolete. He said insects in the tall grass cause birds to congregate in the area.

“We want to be able to mitigate that. Our staff down there won’t be able to do that if we don’t have adequate equipment,” he said.

According to him, CPA’s finance committee agreed to fund this tractor through a supplemental budget request after it was taken out of the proposed 2015 budget. The funding was not included in the $185,345 supplemental budget approved by the CPA board this week through surplus from CPA’s airport gross revenue fund but the finance committee stated they would work on the matter.

Toves said Rota asked earlier that CPA’s financing and accounting work with Rota to find three quotations and from there work toward a supplemental budget. He said he was surprised that that did not happen at the board meeting this week.