Portland Municipal Airport Chairman Doug Hunter (right) chats with Portland native Ken Webb outside the T-hangar, where Webb keeps his Cessna 177 Cardinal aircraft. The airport is scheduled to receive grant funding to extend the runway.
The Portland Municipal Airport will get a runway extension following a recently approved facility upgrade.
Portland councilors unanimously approved during their last regular meeting on July 2 to provide the city’s 10 percent share of an approximately $800,000 grant. The remaining 90 percent would come from the Federal Aviation Administration.
The Runway Safety Area improvement would extend the runway at Portland airport by 200 feet .
“This will make it safer because it will give them 200 more feet of roll out space to stop,” airport chairman Doug Hunter said. “If they had an emergency: for example if your breaks fail, these 200 extra feet will really come in handy. This is not making the airport bigger. It’s just making it safer and bringing it up to standards.”
Currently at 5,000 feet long and 100 feet wide, the Portland airport’s runway is the second largest after the Sumner County Regional Airport’s in Gallatin. The Portland facility now houses 45 airplanes, mostly private and some corporate, which travel nationwide.
With almost 60 industries in the northern Sumner city, however, the Portland airport is frequently used by companies for corporate visits, shipments and other industrial as well as retail activities.
The new extension would help better meet the needs of private and company users, said Denise Geminden, Portland’s Economic and Community Development director.
“Safety is a No. 1 priority for our growth plan,” Geminden said. “We’re very blessed to have our airport because it is a very valuable tool and it is crucial to economic development.”
Geminden also says the new extension is an important step towards economic growth and job creation in Portland making the city even a more attractive destination for industries looking to expand operations or relocate headquarters.
“When a company considers to move here, one of the first questions is: ‘How close is the airport?’” Hunter said. “And it goes on from there. If the airport is not close, they move on. I’ve seen it happen through the years.”
While two of Portland’s industries have permanent hangars at the airport, all of the city’s main industries and many local companies fly in and out of the facility regularly.
“It’s very important, and a lot of these industries wouldn’t be here if we didn’t have the airport,” Hunter said.
Hunter has been working on getting the grant approved for more than a year. With the extension planning and design already in place, the project now needs one final approval from FAA official before it goes out for bids in 2013.
“With every project we do, it takes about three years to have everything in place,” Hunter said. “Many people don’t realize this, but we have to move with baby steps.”
While working on the runway extension project, Hunter has already started the paperwork for the next airport improvement. He hopes to secure another FAA grant for a new terminal building to be three times the size of the current one, which would require approximately another $800,000.
Built in the early 1970s, the current terminal building was named the Larry Collins Aeronautical Business Center for a Portland native, who has developed more of Portland’s industrial base than any single individual in the city’s 100-year history.
Story and photo: http://www.tennessean.com
Portland councilors unanimously approved during their last regular meeting on July 2 to provide the city’s 10 percent share of an approximately $800,000 grant. The remaining 90 percent would come from the Federal Aviation Administration.
The Runway Safety Area improvement would extend the runway at Portland airport by 200 feet .
“This will make it safer because it will give them 200 more feet of roll out space to stop,” airport chairman Doug Hunter said. “If they had an emergency: for example if your breaks fail, these 200 extra feet will really come in handy. This is not making the airport bigger. It’s just making it safer and bringing it up to standards.”
Airport: 'crucial for economic development'
Currently at 5,000 feet long and 100 feet wide, the Portland airport’s runway is the second largest after the Sumner County Regional Airport’s in Gallatin. The Portland facility now houses 45 airplanes, mostly private and some corporate, which travel nationwide.
With almost 60 industries in the northern Sumner city, however, the Portland airport is frequently used by companies for corporate visits, shipments and other industrial as well as retail activities.
The new extension would help better meet the needs of private and company users, said Denise Geminden, Portland’s Economic and Community Development director.
“Safety is a No. 1 priority for our growth plan,” Geminden said. “We’re very blessed to have our airport because it is a very valuable tool and it is crucial to economic development.”
Geminden also says the new extension is an important step towards economic growth and job creation in Portland making the city even a more attractive destination for industries looking to expand operations or relocate headquarters.
“When a company considers to move here, one of the first questions is: ‘How close is the airport?’” Hunter said. “And it goes on from there. If the airport is not close, they move on. I’ve seen it happen through the years.”
While two of Portland’s industries have permanent hangars at the airport, all of the city’s main industries and many local companies fly in and out of the facility regularly.
“It’s very important, and a lot of these industries wouldn’t be here if we didn’t have the airport,” Hunter said.
Next project already in the works
Hunter has been working on getting the grant approved for more than a year. With the extension planning and design already in place, the project now needs one final approval from FAA official before it goes out for bids in 2013.
“With every project we do, it takes about three years to have everything in place,” Hunter said. “Many people don’t realize this, but we have to move with baby steps.”
While working on the runway extension project, Hunter has already started the paperwork for the next airport improvement. He hopes to secure another FAA grant for a new terminal building to be three times the size of the current one, which would require approximately another $800,000.
Built in the early 1970s, the current terminal building was named the Larry Collins Aeronautical Business Center for a Portland native, who has developed more of Portland’s industrial base than any single individual in the city’s 100-year history.
Story and photo: http://www.tennessean.com
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