(KAIR)--Airplane hangars at Atchison's Amelia Earhart Memorial Airport, destroyed by a storm last summer, are one step closer to being replaced.

City Public Works and Utilities Director Justin Pregont presented a proposed contract with Bottorff Construction to City Commissioners Monday afternoon, for the construction of a six unit airplane hangar building for a total cost of approximately $252,000.

Pregont says the city did attempt “to go through a state funding process to see if there was possibly some KDOT aviation money that could trickle down to us to help replace that hangar.” The application was denied, and the city was told that that the state wanted to worry mostly about runways and other similar structures.

The Commission decided to upgrade the hangar to eight units, and City Manager Trey Cocking says it will be “roughly $3,045 extra a year that the city will have to subsidize if the hangars are all rented. If the hangars don't all get rented, that's a risk that the city is taking on with this hangar project.” He adds that there is good news in that once the city finishes paying off the lease purchase, then the rent from the hangars will come directly back to the city as additional income.

The city's insurance will cover approximately $137,000 of the replacement cost, with the additional funding coming from a resolution passed by Commissioners Monday that authorizes a ten year lease purchase agreement with Exchange National Bank.

The contract with Bottorff was also approved by Commissioners with an unanimous vote.