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Airport to repair existing wildlife fence, mark property-line corners; full property-line fence deferred
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Summary
Airport manager said staff ordered materials and equipment for a wildlife fence repair, plans to place corner posts marking the property line with help from Southeast Conservation Corps, and will defer installing a full rigid property-line fence until a later phase due to material quantities and survey needs.
Chaffee County airport staff said they will repair the existing wildlife fence now and mark the property line with corner posts so a future phase can extend a rigid fence along the property boundary.
“We ordered 2,000 feet of 8 foot wildlife fence. I think I have 60 10 foot posts. And, we also got a hydraulic post pounder for the equipment to put in the post for, all the wildlife fence. So we'll be starting on that in the next few weeks,” Zach Papp, airport manager, said.
Papp said staff is weighing whether to move the wildlife fence to the property line now or to repair the current fence and later install a property-line fence. He described a plan to place corner H-post markers at property-line corners now and then fill in the fence between those markers in a later phase. “What I might do is at the corners where, the property line is north of here. We have to put a corner post, h post in there. I think we might have them help us put in those corner posts and at least get them in the ground. No fence. And no fence, just the post,” he said, describing anticipated work with the Southeast Conservation Corps.
Staff said the full move to the property line would require roughly three times the material they have on hand (Papp said the 2,000 feet currently purchased would likely cover only part of a property-line installation and that the full property-line fence might be closer to 6,000 feet). The airport manager said the FAA prefers airport property to be fenced but that the immediate goal is to exclude wildlife and repair currently non-electrified fencing.
Papp described a new attachment for equipment that will unspool an 8-foot roll while the operator drives down the fence line, making installation faster. He also said staff has a hydraulic post-pounder on order to set posts and that volunteers or partner crews from the Southeast Conservation Corps will assist with corner-post placement.
Decision/direction recorded in the meeting: staff will repair the existing wildlife fence where it is not electrified and will install corner H-post markers on the property line now; installation of a full rigid property-line fence is deferred to a later phase pending survey and additional materials.
Background: The wildlife-fence work is part of a set of airport projects staff described as priorities alongside the taxiway and fuel-farm projects.
