accordingly. It appears now that the plans did not jibe completely with what they thought an airport should be, as a result of which the Department of Commerce, now, through that particular agency, CAA, is trying to collect from the city of Clayton for work that was done in the airport at the instance of CAA itself under their approval, under their specifications, under their own plan.

But I would rather have Mr. Edmondson, who is the city manager, and who knows the story from the start to now, to tell you about this bill.

Mr. Edmondson, are you ready?

Senator MONRONEY. Will you come forward and take a seat here, Mr. Edmondson.

STATEMENT OF MANSON EDMONDSON, CITY MANAGER,

CLAYTON, N. MEX.

Senator CHAVEZ. I have known his family for many, many years. His father and mother were very close friends of mine. We were next-door neighbors. Clayton is only 14 miles from the Oklahoma line.

Senator MONRONEY. Right up against the Panhandle.

Senator CHAVEZ. Yes. You may proceed if you are ready, Mr. Edmondson.

Senator MONRONEY. We are very glad to have you here, Mr. Edmondson, and appreciate you making the statement for the city of Clayton in your own way.

Mr. EDMONDSON. I might give you some history, to begin with. Before doing so, I will submit for the record, Senator, the summary and report I have prepared on the Clayton Municipal Airpark project. Senator MONRONEY. Without objection the report will be admitted. (The document referred to follows:)

SUMMARY AND REPORT ON CLAYTON MUNICIPAL AIRPARK

(Federal Aid Project No. 9-29-001-7)

This summary and report is prepared by Manson Edmondson, city manager of the town of Clayton. The writer has served in this capacity since 1943 and has been in the employ of the town of Clayton since 1930, having lived in and about Clayton since 1912.

The writer and Charles D. Alsup, city attorney, have been authorized to represent the town of Clayton in this matter by resolution duly adopted at the regular meeting of the Board of Trustees of the town of Clayton held on Monday, June 27, 1955.

The Clayton Municipal Airpark was originated by leasing a section of land about 1928, and in 1948 an additional one-half section was acquired, making a total of 968 acres. The town of Clayton owns all of the lands pertaining to the Clayton Municipal Airpark, and efforts have been made by the town of Clayton to improve and enlarge upon this airport since 1928 on up to the present day. Clayton is where airmail service was first instituted in 1914.

In 1941 and numerous times subsequent thereto the town of Clayton offered the use of the Clayton Airport to the Air Force. In 1946 the town of Clayton made a project request for Federal aid to the Civil Aeronautics Administration. There was much correspondence with Mr. E. C Metz, district airport engineer, and during the same period of time we made application with the Texas-New Mexico Airlines for air service in Clayton. In the early part of 1947, we had correspondence with Mr. L. C. Elliott, who was regional administrator of the CAA, relative to our proposed airpark improvement. There was much correspondence with Mr. E. C. Metz, relative to a master plan for our airpark. In February of 1947 Mr. Metz met with the mayor, city council, and a committee of businessmen in

The following is the grant agreement sent by the Acting Regional Adininistrator:

AMENDMENT TO GRANT AGREEMENT C4CA-5800, CLAYTON MUNICIPAL AIRPARK, CLAYTON, N. MEX., PROJECT No. 9-29-001-7

Whereas the Administrator of Civil Aeronautics has determined that, in the interest of the United States, the Grant Agreement between the Administrator of Civil Aeronautics, acting for and on behalf of the United States, and the Town of Clayton, New Mexico, accepted by said Town of Clayton on June 29, 1949, should be amended as hereinafter provided:

Now, THEREFORE, WITNESSETH:

That, in consideration of the benefits to accrue to the parties hereto, the Administrator of Civil Aeronautics, on behalf of the United States, on the one part, and the Town of Clayton, New Mexico, on the other part, do hereby mutually agree that the described airport development as shown on page 1 of the Grant Agreement between the United States and the Town of Clayton accepted on the 29th day of June 1949, relating to Clayton Municipal Airpark, Project No. 9-29-001-7, reading as follows:

"Grade NE/SW runway, taxiways and apron; Construct stabilized base for apron and approximately 1000′ on each end of runways; Construct fire reservoir, administration building, waterline, powerline, and access road" is hereby deleted and the following description is substituted in its stead:

"Grade NE/SW runway, taxiways and apron; Construct stabilized base for apron and approximately 1000' on each end of runways; Construct fire reservoir, administration building, waterline, powerline, and access road; landscaping in vicinity of administration building and turfing."

It being further understood and agreed that the maximum amount of the obligation of the United States payable under said Grant Agreement shall not be increased by this amendment.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, the parties hereto have hereby caused this amendment to said Grant Agreement to be duly executed as of the 27th day of March 1950.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

THE ADMINISTRATOR OF CIVIL AERONAUTICS,
By J. B. JAYNES,

Acting Regional Administrator, Region 4.

It will be noted that in the amendment which was written on June 29, 1949. and which we received on March 6, 1950, the only addition was landscaping and the fire reservoir and the administration building, as finally constructed, were included as allowable project costs without any exceptions and that in this agreement it was further understood that the obligation of the United States in said grant agreement should not be increased by the amendment and as a matter of fact of the $100,000 approved maximum obligation of the United States the sum of $89,535.03 Federal aid money was expended, including the sum of $5,266.03 which represents the final payment due the town of Clayton which has not been paid. Thus, there was a balance in favor of the United States on its approved maximum obligation in the amount of $10,464.95.

It was about this time that a representative from the Administrator's office in Washington, D. C., came to Clayton and interviewed the writer. His name was Mr. Merrybella and after the interview he stated that he felt sure that we would receive our final payment in the not too distant future.

From the early part of 1950 to date we have had a number of inspections as to the upkeep of our airpark, and have always had favorable approval upon such inspections.

We in the administration of the town of Clayton insisted that the application to the Civil Aeronautics Administration be completely reviewed before acceptance, by the Civil Aeronautics Administration, and therefore, after this application was approved by the Administrator, the regional administrator, and the district engineer's office of the Civil Aeronautics Administration, we felt justified in believing that the town of Clayton was entering into an agreement that had been thoroughly reviewed by the CAA officials, which led us to believe that our project would go through to completion and final settlement without any question whatever. Had we known that the question of final settlement woud have been raised, that we would be asked to repay to the Federal Government these moneys, and that the Government would later take the position that some

portion of the project were not allowable project costs, the town would never have entered into the agreement. In fact, from an economic standpoint, the town simply could not have afforded the risk of such a contingency. We operate on a close budget, the town's main source of revenue being its income from its municipally owned and operated electric plant and waterworks. Respectfully submitted,

City Manager, Town of Clayton, Union County, N. Mex.

Mr. EDMONDSON. To return to the Clayton Municipal Airpark project, I might say that I have been manager of Clayton since 1930, having lived in Clayton since 1912, and relative to the airport in Clayton, the present land of the airport was started as an airport for the town of Clayton in 1928.

Senator MONRONEY. It was one of the early day ones. I don't remember many cities and towns that had many landing fields of any character.

Mr. EDMONDSON. Yes. Under the direction of Mr. Vender, who was manager at that time, we started correspondence with the Air Force, the CAA, Weather Bureau, and anyone else we could contact to develop, under their directions, the airport that we have now.

Senator CHAVEZ. Speak a little louder so the reporter can hear you. Mr. EDMONDSON. All right. sir. In 1946 we started to correspond with the Civil Aeronautics Administration relative to our present airport. During this time of 1946-47, we had quite a number of wonderful visits from representatives of the CAA, from the State offices, the regional offices, and a few from the Washington office. Some of those gentlemen are very good friends of mine.

As time developed and we went along, we became very good friends. In 1947, we gave a history of what we would like to have constructed at our airport. It was in our mind that if we could develop the thing to create greater interest among the younger people in aviation by bringing them to the airport, by recreation such as a golf course, trapshoot, target range, and so forth at the airport, which we have done. The golf course and target range and a lot of the extras we have put there in later years.

During the time that this was started we visited with the CAA representatives many times at the site.

Senator MONRONEY. Who were those representatives?

Mr. EDMONDSON. Mr. S. E. Travis, Mr. Phil Tocker, and Mr. C. R. Seybold are three of those. Mr. Travis, at that time was the airport engineer out of Fort Worth. Mr. Phil Tocker was advisory counsel, I believe, an attorney, to the CAA in the regional office.

Mr. C. R. Seybold was district airport engineer at Santa Fe. There were others-it is hard to remember names unless I go through the files that we visited with.

As we explained what we would like to have, or a dream that we would like to develop, it entered into the water situation. Firstly we needed more water for fire fighting if necessary. That is when the fire reservoir was talked of, and naturally with a fire reservoir, if there is a hole in a dry country, the boys want to swim, so it was developed along those lines.

Senator MONRONEY. This reservoir was built at the time the airport was constructed.

connection with the development of our airpark. In August of 1947 we began to correspond with the regional administrator, Mr. L. C. Elliott, as to financing and preparations of our proposed project. It was at this time that the project No. 9-29-001-7 was assigned to the Clayton Municipal Airpark. In 1948 the town of Clayton acquired the services of the consulting engineering firm, Herkenhoff & Turney, of Santa Fe, N. Mex., to do the engineering on the Clayton Municipal Airpark.

In the early part of 1948 Mr. Witt, architect, who was employed by the Civil Aeronautics Administration, discussed the plans that we had proposed, and at this time our verbal description of the proposed project, which included a fire reservoir "swimming pool," was given the Civil Aeronautics Administration.

As is usual, during the planning stage and discussion, there was much visitation and preperation and in the discussions in Clayton we visited with Mr. S. E. Travis, Jr., and Mr. Phil Tocker, Mr. Travis being superintendent of airports branch, and Mr. Tocker being legal adviser, both being with the regional office in Forth Worth, Tex.

In 1948 the town of Clayton made a request to the War Assets Administration. through the Civil Aeronautics Administration, for a number of items for use in our municipal airport, but we never were able to obtain any of this machinery.

In July of 1948 Mr. C. R. Seybold sent us a model set of plans, airport paving manual, airport design manual, airport drainage manual, airport turfing manual, and technical standard order No. N-5. In July of 1948, we submitted by letter a detailed cost estimate, as prepared by the writer, to the CAA in Santa Fe, The estimated cost at that time was $136,968.30.

On September 7, 1948, the writer received a letter from Mr. Seybold which stated, "Proceed with the design and construction of the swimming pool, just as though it were an eligible Federal-aid project, with the definite understanding that the review committee may decide that this portion of the project is ineligible for Federal participation." On October 2, 1948, Mr. S. E. Travis, Jr., and Mr. Seybold flew to Clayton and reviewed our proposed plans, which included the swimming pool and the pilots lounge and all proposed improvements.

In November of 1948 we explained again our proposed plan to the representative from the regional CAA office and were encouraged to submit these plans again. In December of 1948, after many visitations with officials of the Civil Aeronautics Administration, we instructed our engineers to continue with the master plans, so that such plans could be submitted to the Civil Aeronautics Administration.

In December of 1948 and January of 1949 we had requested that the major part of the work on our airport improvement be done by force account by the town of Clayton. The writer received a letter on January 21, 1949, from Mr. C. R. Seybold which stated that our application for force account, in excess of $15,000 Federal share, would be approved, and in the same letter Mr. Seybold stated, "We have positive indications that the application for Federal aid in connection with the fire reservoir and its pertinences will be approved, provided again that we can establish sufficient written justification."

In promoting this project sec. 36, T. 26 N., R. 35 E., Union County, N. Mex. was purchased from the State land office. The surface lands were sold to the town of Clayton, and Mr. Guy Shepard, Commissioner of Public Lands, informed the writer that they would make the proper restrictions on the oil and mineral rights that were owned by the State of New Mexico, so that the Clayton Municipal Airpark would be protected, and in his letter of May 19, 1949, he made the fol lowing statement: "Appropriate notation will be made of this restriction upot the tract books of the land office."

On May 20, 1949, our engineers submitted to the district airport engineer of Santa Fe the proposed construction dates.

On June 16, 1949, the writer received a telegram from the Civil Aeronautics Administration which stated: "Clayton grant offer has been authorized and should be in this office next week. Construction cannot start until informat of and changes requested in meeting of June 14 are submitted to this office and Clayton accepts the offer."

It was during this time that Mr. Phil Tocker visited us in Clayton and made his report to Mr. S. E. Travis, Jr., superintendent, Airports Branch, Fort Worth Tex., and Mr. Travis wrote the writer on June 18, 1948, stating that he believed that our proposed development program would be more favorably received if we would designate our airport as the "Clayton Municipal Airpark," and also statel that we should present our preliminary plans to district airport engineer at Santa Fe as soon as possible.

On June 18, 1949, the writer received a telegram from Mr. Seybold which stated: "Breakdown of cost for powerline, waterline, building and access road on Clayton Municipal Airpark approved. You are authorized to begin construction at once. Advise by wire starting date." The starting date was July 18, 1949. Mr. Floyd Hake was the low bidder and started work on the fire reservoir construction and runway construction August 18, 1949.

Work was started on the waterline, powerline, and building, the town of Clayton doing this work under force account, and the laws of the State of New Mexico were complied with in purchasing the materials used in doing this. The town of Clayton and our engineers were constantly in touch with the district airport engineer in all phases of finance and construction, and we were informed from time to time by Mr. Seybold and Mr. Leary of the Civil Aeronautics Administration that our procedure was satisfactory, that our accounting was satisfactory, and that the engineering and supervision was satisfactory.

In October of 1949 after we had proceeded with construction we saw that the total cost of construction would be somewhat less than the amount the review commission, headed by Mr. Lee, had insisted that we set out in the final applications; and it was therefore made possible for us to increase the size of the pilots lounge, inasmuch as the total cost, even with such addition, would be considerably less than the total approved amount. On November 15 the writer received a telegram from Mr. Kimbell, district airport engineer, stating: "Our Fort Worth office has advised that change order No. 1 on your force account, airport project, has been approved." The approval that the regional office received was from Mr. D. W. Rentzel, Administrator of Civil Aeronautics.

As the force account work and the contract work on the project progressed, our accountant and city clerk, Mr. W. L. Adams, sent our financial reports and requests for payments of the town of Clayton, along with the reports of our engineer, to the regional office in Fort Worth, Tex., to which the payments were made by the CAA, and the accounting was approved by the accounting department of the CAA, and we received a final inspection approval from M. W. J. Leary on March 1, 1950.

The final inspection was made by Mr. Kimbell, Mr. Leary, our engineer Mr. Turney, and the writer, and as we made this inspection the CAA representatives commented, from time to time, upon condition of the building, runways, and fire reservoir. At the time of this inspection we were told that final settlement would be made in the near future because of the efficiency with which this project had been prosecuted during the total construction period. At the same time there were many favorable comments relative to the manner in which this project had been pushed to completion and also relative to the efficiency of finance, as well as comments as to this project being one of the few that had not asked for additional money, and of the fact that we were not using all of the money that was allocated. In short everyone concerned was very well pleased with the project.

On March 6, 1950, Mayor Douglas Cornwall received the following communication from the acting regional administrator:

Subject: Amendment to grant agreement, Clayton Municipal Airpark, Clayton, N. Mex. Project No. 9-20-001-7.

Hon. DOUGLAS CORNWALL,

Mayor, Town of Clayton, Clayton, N. Mex.

DEAR MAYOR CORNWALL: Reference is made to grant agreement on the subject project between this Administration and the town of Clayton, N. Mex., dated June 23, 1949, and accepted on June 29, 1949.

The Administrator has authorized me to present the attached amendment, modifying the project description on the subject project.

If the amendment is satisfactory, it should be executed in sextuple by officials duly designated to take such action by a resolution of your governing body. Such resolution should be in the same form and quoting in full the amendment authorized to be accepted as was passed by your governing body in connection with the grant offer. The original and four copies of the resolution should be delivered to our district airport engineer at Santa Fe, N. Mex. You should retain the sixth copy of the amendment.

Very truly yours,

65183-55

J. R. JAYNES, Acting Regional Administrator.