$15.9-Million Budget Approved for Burbank Airport

Burbank Airport officials have approved a 31.7% increase in expenditures, including almost $5.4 million for extending taxiways, designing a terminal building and studying noise.

The budget unanimously adopted by the nine-member Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority provides for $15.9 million in spending during the 1985-86 fiscal year, up from $12.1 million last year.

Except for withholding approval of $200,000 for the expansion of a storage building, the authority made no significant change in the budget revealed last month.

About $2.5 million has been allotted to extend taxiways. That improvement will separate privately owned planes from commercial airliners and eliminate cross traffic on runways, said Victor Gill, airport community relations manager.

Also in the budget is $525,000 for preliminary design of a terminal building. The Federal Aviation Administration has said that the terminal, built 55 years ago, is too close to the runways. Its replacement will be twice its size.

The airport allocated $350,000 for a noise-impact study expected to take almost two years. Representatives of homeowners, government agencies, small businesses and industry are participating in the study of reducing the effect of noise on surrounding communities.

Another $600,000 was allocated for improvements in parking and $460,000 was set aside for construction of ticket counters and an alternate terminal entrance, said Dwight Scoville, deputy airport services director.

In other action, commissioners hired Dean Witter Reynolds, a financial-services company, to help develop a tax-exempt bond issue to pay for construction of a parking garage at the proposed terminal. The airport hopes to issue bonds before the end of the year.