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Committee forwards Mead & Hunt contract for Airport Parcel 29 after questions about missing grant pages
Summary
Jackson County Public Safety and Transportation Committee voted 4-1 to forward a contract with engineering firm Mead & Hunt to the full board with a recommendation of approval, after commissioners raised concerns about missing pages in a related grant agreement and sought written documentation of the grant/reimbursement arrangement.
The Jackson County Public Safety and Transportation Committee voted 4-1 on July 14 to forward a contract with engineering firm Mead & Hunt to the full Board of Commissioners with a recommendation of approval for an Airport Parcel 29 land release and associated work.
Commissioners debated the paperwork backing a $19,213 reimbursement related to the project after Commissioner Bair said the copy of the subgrant agreement he received was missing pages and lacked detail tying Mead & Hunt’s scope to what the airport had directed the firm to perform. Committee members were told the funding originates from the Michigan Strategic Fund and is being funneled through Ann Arbor SPARK to Accelerate Jackson, which will reimburse the county for the local advance.
The matter mattered because the county will contract directly with Mead & Hunt and temporarily front the payment; staff said Accelerate Jackson will reimburse the county from a Strategic Fund grant administered through Ann Arbor SPARK and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. Committee members requested the missing pages be supplied before the full board meeting and stressed the need for complete documentation.
During discussion, Commissioner Bair asked for a document that would allow cross-referencing the scope the airport provided to Mead & Hunt with the scope shown in the contract. Staff said the airport and Mead & Hunt will prepare the materials the county must submit to the Federal Aviation Administration for a land release, and that the county will be the contracting party with Mead & Hunt. Committee members also asked how Accelerate Jackson and Ann Arbor SPARK were connected to the reimbursement; staff explained Accelerate Jackson is the local economic development partner that applied for and will administer the Michigan Strategic Fund award, with Ann Arbor SPARK acting as an intermediary in the subgrant paperwork.
Committee members flagged a scanned copy of the agreement that omitted multiple pages; staff acknowledged the error, said the missing pages would be provided to commissioners that afternoon, and accepted a request to correct any inconsistent titles or missing content prior to the full board meeting.
Duckham moved and Williams supported forwarding the Mead & Hunt contract to the full board with a recommendation of approval. The committee recorded four votes in favor and one opposed. The staff member present said they would distribute the complete agreement pages to commissioners as requested.
The committee’s action is a referral to the full board; it does not constitute final county approval of the contract or any FAA land-release paperwork. Any final contract execution or FAA submittal remains subject to later board action and to any conditions or paperwork the FAA requires.
