Wiscasset Municipal Airport Manager Frank Costa’s quest for a pickup or other utility truck goes on. He said he’s been doing airport business with his own truck for more than a year.

Airport Advisory Committee member Steve Williams asked Costa March 1, how urgent the matter is. On a 1-10 scale, he’d call it a 10, Costa said.

Updating Williams and member Bryan Buck in a workshop, Costa said he looked at a Wiscasset Water District truck with 49,000 miles on it but was no longer considering it due to rusting he said was underneath. He planned to look at vehicles the state plans to sell at auction. Costa said he would be looking at them with the town mechanic.

He told committee members, “The last thing we want to do is spend an enormous amount of money.”

Buck and Williams differed on whether the town mechanic should join Costa in looking at the state vehicles; no vehicle there is going to satisfy a mechanic, Buck said. But Williams said it was a good safety step. “It’s not like buying a vehicle for yourself.”

Costa told the committee he was still seeking $24,000 for a truck as a capital request in the next budget. In a phone interview Friday, he said he would pull that request if he finds something used, cheaper, and that would not need too much money put into it. “If it’s not cost-prohibitive we may just pick up something there,” he said about the planned trip to Augusta. The state gives towns a chance to buy the vehicles before they go to auction, he said.

Also in the workshop, Costa said Maine Aeronautics Association had a turnout of about 55 participants for its Soup Sunday event Jan. 29. Some drove, some flew there, he said, adding that even in the airport’s slow season over winter, the facilities continue to get use. Williams said the nonprofit association will host pilots again March 18 for a chili cook0ff and safety seminar. For more, contact Lisa Reece at lisacub503@yahoo.com.

Down two members due to open seats, the committee continues to lack a quorum. It meets instead in workshop sessions. Members and Costa meet next at 5 p.m. March 15 at the airport’s terminal building.