Airport improvements under consideration

Tuesday, October 26, 2004

By Ralph Pokorny

Nevada Daily Mail

Sometime this winter, users of Nevada's Municipal Airport may be able to see the first concrete signs of the multi-million-dollar upgrade project currently in the works at that facility.

Thursday night Rich Wedell and Dave Hadel, who work in Burns & McDonnell aviation services division, met with the airport board to update them on the work they have done during the past months and what they were going to be doing in the next couple of months.

They will be back in early December to meet with the airport board to go over the airport layout plan that must be submitted to the Missouri Department of Transportation for approval of work to be done at the airport.

After that, work can begin on installing water and sewer lines as well as foundations for buildings. Any above ground level work must wait until the airport layout plan is approved by MoDOT and the FAA.

Part of the project has involved looking at the use of the airport over the past 20 years and projecting future usage based on those figures.

Rich Wedell said that he has conducted an inventory of the airport as well looked at the history of the facility as well as the growth of the area over the last 20 years.

"There are currently 21 aircraft based at the airport and based on that usage you can expect another five aircraft at the airport over the next 20 years," Wedell told the board.

If more hanger space is provided these numbers could be proved wrong, he said.

Mike Saathoff, who would like to see some of the boats and other items cleared out of some of the hangers so he can put his plane there said that he knows of at least seven people who would like to have hanger space here.

Hadel told the board that the project, right now, is in the phase of determining what alternatives need to be considered in developing the final plan.

Right now, based on past usage MoDOT will probably only approve having a runway that is about 4,500 feet long, since current usage only justifies a 4,300-foot runway. The current runway is more than 5,500 long.

We hope to retain a 5,500-foot runway, Wedell told the board.

Hadel told the board that to convince the FAA that Nevada needs a 5,500 foot runway they need letters from companies like Precision Aero Services and other businesses and people indicating that if there were a 5.500 foot runway they would make use of it.

A runway of this length is needed to accommodate the large corporate jets that Precision Aero Services will be working on.

The $900,000 in state and federal grants and loans that will pay for much of the work on a new terminal building and infrastructure work at the airport are based on Precision Aero bringing in new jobs to Nevada and to bring in the jobs the airport must be able to handle the large jets they work on.

"It's a chicken-and-egg sort of thing," Craig Hubler, city manager, said.

The current plan for renovating the airport calls for building a new terminal building outfitted with high-speed Internet so pilots can check on weather, as well a meeting room so local businesses can hold meetings there with people who fly into town.

Hubler said that the city is looking at running a fiber optic line to the airport as part of a five-year capital improvement plan that will provide the broadband access as well help upgrade the security at the airport.

Since the attacks on the World Trade Towers small rural airports are looked on as potential bases of operations for terrorists to launch an attack on a metropolitan area.

The fiber optic line would allow video monitoring and other security measures to be used at the airport.

Other work at the airport will include widening and resurfacing the main runway to handle larger planes.

Hadel said that they are considering recommending the current crosswind runway be discontinued since it is in poor shape and would be very expensive to renovate.

However, he recommends that nothing be built that would prevent rebuilding the crosswind runway at a later time.

Other work at the airport will include the construction of several new hangers as well attracting businesses to lease some of the property at the airport that faces on U.S. Highway 54.

There is several hundred feet of property that fronts on the highway as well as nine acres of property west of the main part of the airport.

"Many airports lease some of their property to businesses to provide a revenue stream to help pay for things like new hangers," Hubler said.

While state and federal grants can be used to help build the terminal building and install things like water and sewer lines, they cannot be used to build hangers.

The city has been notified that the money for a $500,000 Community Development Block Grant for the terminal building, has been approved and the city can get a low-interest, $250,000 STAR loan to cover other improvement costs.

Other federal grants that require five-percent local matching funds are available to resurface the runway.

Hubler said that they hope to have the new terminal building finished late next year.

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