UI legal counsel to chair Cedar Rapids Airport Commission

The University of Iowa vice president for legal affairs and general counsel was elected chairman of the Cedar Rapids Airport Commission on Monday.

Commissioner Carroll Reasoner was unanimously elected to lead the five-member panel that supervises the operation of The Eastern Iowa Airport. Commissioner Dee Baird, president of Priority One and interim president of the Cedar Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce, was elected vice chairman and Commissioner Joshua Schamberger, president and CEO of the Iowa City Area Convention & Visitors Bureau, was elected secretary of the commission.

Baird and Reasoner joined the airport commission on July 23, 2007. They were appointed to fill seats vacated by Tim Kintner, president of Bankers Trust in Cedar Rapids, and Connie Hung, then of Alpha International in southwest Cedar Rapids.

Newly-appointed Commissioner Patrick Baird, retired AEGON USA president and chief executive officer, attended his first commission meeting Monday. Baird was appointed by Mayor Ron Corbett to fill a vacancy created by the departure of former Commission Chairman Dan Theis, whose term expired June 30.

Also at Monday's meeting, the commission approve a $485,000 task order with engineering consultant Foth Infrastructure & Environment LLC to supervise the bid letting, design and reconstruction of a 1,500-foot portion of the airport's secondary runway as well as portions of two adjacent taxiways. The project, which will replace original paving material, will be done in the spring and summer of 2012.

The commission also selected a West Des Moines insurance agency's bids for the airport's liability and errors and omissions insurance policies. AON Risk Solutions submitted lower premiums than those provided by TrueNorth Companies in Cedar Rapids.