Republic file photo Aerial photo of former Walesboro airport property taken in 2012, when discussions about developing it for a commerce park grew serious. Woodside Industrial Park, which has its first tenant open in 1981, can be seen in the foreground.
COLUMBUS, Ind. — Cummins, Inc. has plans to make a few minor improvements to its existing test track at Walesboro.
The Board of Aviation Commissioners has approved a lease agreement with Cummins regarding property at the former airport, contingent on the company’s legal counsel also giving its approval. Commissioner Lisa Prentiss, who is a Cummins employee, abstained from the vote.
“You’ve seen this document for quite some time,” Airport Director Brian Payne told the board. “This is the document we’ve continued to work on with Cummins in regard to the test track at the Walesboro property. We have gone back and forth with them.”
The agreement is for a slight expansion of the amount of land currently leased by Cummins for its test track, he said. The company’s plans to add a portion of different track surface, more buffering around the test track and some additional parking.
The board’s motion, as recommended by attorney Mary Stroh, included amending the lease with a provision that the land will be returned to its “base condition” at the end of the lease if the board so desires.
In discussing the agreement, Commissioner Brad Davis asked whose responsibility it would be to remove the improvements if Cummins eventually decided not to renew its lease and these changes were not desired by prospective tenants.
“Typically, it’s written in there that they’re responsible for giving the land back as it is, in the condition that they’re receiving the land,” said Payne.
According to Stroh, this section of the lease was “tweaked” because of Cummins. She agreed it would be in the board’s best interest to include the statement.
“That was one of the pieces that we were going back and forth on,” she said. “And so, we can certainly add that back in and make that. That does lessen your potential costs, if you have to return it to that. So that’s certainly advisable. This is a negotiation, so that won’t necessarily get approved.”
For more on this story, see Thursday’s Republic.
