A special joint meeting was held on Tuesday afternoon regarding Salina Public Entities and what to do with over $95 million of environmental clean up inside the city of Salina.

The group, comprised of the City of Salina, USD 305, Salina Airport Authority and Kansas State University all came together to continue discussions on the environmental matter at the former Schilling Air Force Base.

The top item discussed at the Tony’s Pizza Events Center, the best way to go about cleaning up $95.2 million of contamination at the former Schilling Air Force Base.

Tim Rogers, Executive Director of Salina Airport Authority led the meeting which included the likes of Salina Mayor, Dr. Trent Davis; Mike Schrage, Salina City Manager; Linn Exline, Superintendent of USD 305 Schools; Martha Tasker, Director of Utilities of Salina; Eryn Wright, Legal Counsel for USD 305; Greg Bengtson, Legal Counsel for the City of Salina and Salina Airport Authority; Matthew Schroeder, Senior Environmental Engineer for Dragun Corporation; and Brett Shanks, Attorney, Stinson law firm (by telephone.)

Also present were representatives with Kansas State University.

The discussion centered with  Doug Curran, environmental counsel for Salina Public Entities, and the scheduled mediation with representatives of the U.S. Deparmtnet of Justice and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers associated with pending litigation in U.S. District Court.

The former Air Force Base opened in 1942 for deployment staging and maintenance of heavy bombardment aircraft and equipment. The Base officially shut down in 1964 before the property being transferred to Salina Public Entities in the mid to late 1960s.