City Council workshop weighs who should pay for airport hangar electrical upgrades

At a city council workshop, councilors heard that decades-old, daisy-chained 120-volt circuits serving west-end airport hangars have been overloaded by added appliances and equipment, and that Idaho Power has determined the wiring does not meet code and may cut service if upgrades are not completed.

Randy Neary, chair of the airport advisory board, told the council that an overloaded Gate 1 panel failed about two years ago, interrupting power to about 70 hangars. Neary said Idaho Power inspected the site, installed underground transformers and junction boxes for the 200-hangar rows, and warned the city that the existing arrangements were “grossly illegal.” He said the board compiled a three-phase plan: Idaho Power infrastructure at row ends (phase 1), city-contracted meter packs and underground conduit to each hangar (phase 2), and individual hangar owners hiring electricians to run wiring and install roughly 100-amp panels and interior circuits (phase 3).

Neary and Scott Swanson, the city irector of Aviation, presented cost estimates from a distributed packet and spreadsheet. The board cited roughly $80,000 for the Idaho Power-related infrastructure already accounted for in airport ledgers, a phase-2 estimate near $250,000 (an AME bid of $170,000 was noted as excluding some underground work), and a rough $5,000 estimate per hangar for owner-side interior wiring. Neary summarized the city—xposure on the utility infrastructure as about $600,000 and said the total all-in cost including owner upgrades could approach $1.14 million. He presented illustrative cost splits: owners paying 100% (~$5,556 each for 108 hangars), the city paying infrastructure costs that would lower owner shares (~$4,259 each), or a 30/70 split (~$2,981 each).

Councilors asked whether hangar owners had signaled preferences. Neary said 4–6 owners had attended advisory-board meetings; none demanded the city pay the full cost and some indicated willingness to contribute several thousand dollars, but the board had not yet presented the full financial picture to all affected owners. Councilor Allgood asked whether owners could carry insurance for occupants; Neary said leases require insurance. Councilor Denber asked whether the advisory board represented all owners; Neary said he could not speak for every owner and expected some would resist spending until Idaho Power actually disconnects service.

Councilor Denber asked whether a local improvement district (LID) or business improvement district (BID) could finance the work. Justin, a city staff member, said his understanding is that LIDs are typically used to finance city-owned public infrastructure such as streets, sidewalks and water/sewer and do not usually apply to private power infrastructure; he said he would research the law and report back.

Swanson said the airport board favored the city covering phase-1 costs and that his recommendation to staff and council was to proceed with Option 2 (city cover phase-1 infrastructure). He said staff will return the item on the August consent calendar for council approval and that the next step would include stakeholder outreach to affected hangar owners and further legal or financing analysis.

The workshop closed after the presentation and questions; no formal vote was taken during the session.