By BECKY KISER
Hays Post

City officials aren’t wild about it, but the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is demanding a wildlife fence be built at the Hays Regional Airport.

Bids for the large fence were opened Tuesday and will be presented during the Thu., June 15, city commission work session.

“This is a requirement by the FAA,” explained Jacob Wood, assistant city manager.

“Several years ago they came in and did an audit to see what kind of wildlife we have around the airport. They feel like it’s really a safety thing for the commercial airlines coming in and out. So they want to have a fence around it to keep wildlife out. Deer are the main thing,” he said.

In 2010, FAA inspectors observed several deer on the Hays Regional Airport, which prompted a Wildlife Hazard Assessment (WHA) in 2011. One recommendation of the WHA, performed by the USDA Wildlife Services, was the construction of a wildlife fence around the airport property.

Wood described the fence as “substantial.”

“It’s 10 feet tall and it will also skirt underground by about four feet. So, it will keep pretty much keep animals off the airport (grounds) so we won’t have any issues with a plane hitting any wildlife,” he explained. The chain link fence will have barbed wire outriggers on the top.

The project cost is a 90/10 split with the FAA paying the biggest portion. The city of Hays will pay the remaining 10 percent out of the Airport Improvement Fund. The Capital Improvement Plan within the 2017 budget included $200,000 in 2017 for the city’s share.

“The FAA requested this several years ago, that it be put on our Capital Improvement list,” said Wood. “We’ve pushed it off as far as we could. We feel like it’s probably not as necessary as they do, and especially the skirting underneath the ground. We fought that pretty hard.

“But they’re pretty stuck on that’s what they want us to do. And when it’s the FAA, you just kind of have to do it,” smiled Wood. “It’s one of those things.”