With construction of the new terminal building at Washington-Warren Airport nears completion, Washington’s City Council turned its attention to furnishing the facility.

During its Feb. 23 meeting, the council awarded a contract to furnish the new terminal building to J. Morgan Design Associates. Although five companies were asked to bid on the project, only J. Morgan Design Associates submitted a bid. It was for $64,842 (excluding sales tax). The budget for the new terminal building has the funds to cover this expense, according to a city document.

The new furnishings include computers.

The terminal project is coming in with some savings, according to a city document.

“At the last progress meeting, changes thus are in the (construction) contract will result in an approximate $6,000 savings in the construction of the building itself if things continue to progress as they are now,” reads a Feb. 13 memorandum from Allen Lewis, the city’s public-works director, to the mayor and City Council.

Lewis also wrote: “There should be no need to apply any of the contingency fund to this project. As a result, we are asking to have all of the contingency appropriate to cover any additional costs associated with furnishings beyond what was covered in the bid such as computers, etc.”

The council approved that request.

In addition to replacing the terminal building destroyed by a gustnado July 1, 2012, other improvements have been or are ongoing at the airport. The city has been using a combination of grant funding and city dollars to pay for airport improvements

One project includes replacing the runway edge lights, replacing the runway lighting circuit and installing a new, lighted wind cone, among other work.

In December, the council amended the city’s budget ordinance to complete funding for engineering services for the engineering of the approach surveys and analysis project at the airport. The approach study will focus on runway 5-23 and runway 17-35 at the city-owned airport.

City officials view the airport as one of the city’s economic-development tools. For that reason, they said, they are seeking funding sources, mostly grants, to help pay for improvements at the airport so it can complete with similar airports in the area.