By Michael V. Hannigan
The efforts to expand the Athens Municipal Airport continued Monday night with the City Council giving its approval to move forward with updating the Master Plan and the Financial Management Plan.
The council’s action included a letter of intent requesting grant funds to pay a consultant to help with the updates.
Sounds complicated, doesn’t it? Well, it isn’t quite as bad as it sounds although it is a very important step in the process.
Monday night, the council heard from Steve Grant of the Airport Advisory Board and Phil Becker, who has been helping the board with the project. Grant and Becker told the council that talks with TxDOT about the possible runway expansion were going well, but that it was time to take the next step. That means working with TxDOT — which must approve the expansion — to study both the need and the financial feasibility of building a new runway in Athens.
Grant said the letter would “give (TxDOT) the go-ahead to work with us on a financial feasibility study of the airfield itself and some other aspects of development of the airfield. It is critical we do this with them.”
The study will cover the two important aspects of the project: The needs of the airport and the actual construction of a runway (Master Plan), and how to pay for building a runway (Financial Management Plan).
As part Monday night’s action, the council requested an airport grant to pay for the study consultant, which will cost between $150,000 and $200,000. It is expected that the city will have to pay between $10,000 and $20,000 of that cost.
The efforts to expand the airport include the City of Athens, the Airport Advisory Board and the Athens Economic Development Corporation.
Officials say that expanding the airport will have a significant impact on economic development and help attract bigger businesses to the area.
Late last year, AEDC President Jess Laird said the lack of a runway to serve larger planes has been a common issue during development talks with companies thinking about building in Athens.
“The reality of economic development is that the people who can afford to build a business like what we want (for the city) want to be home for supper,” he said. “If they have to drive all the way here from DFW and back in a day, then they’ll find somewhere else. That’s the reality.”
“A longer runway would definitely put us in a better position to attract new industry to Athens,” Laird said.
This airport expansion is a large waste of tax payer money. Only 1 jet lands and takes off on a regular basis. How long is it going to take everyone to figure out Athens sets 1/2 way between Dallas and Tyler and is not going to land a significant bunisess because of its location other jobs for our growing Mexican population.