The most controversial part of a proposed five-year master plan for the Clay Center Municipal Airport is to re-install lighting and remark the runway to make it 200 feet shorter in 2015 in order to meet FAA guidelines without having to purchase neighboring land.
Last week Clay Center’s Property and Rec. Committee reviewed the plan, and will present details and a recommendation at an upcoming council meeting.
Mayor Jimmy Thatcher emphasized that the city would not destroy part of what exists at the airport by shortening the runway, saying the city is just “remarking what’s there.”
The change is required to meet a new guideline requiring more area for displaced thresholds around entrances onto the runway. Unless the city shortens the runway or buys neighboring land, the city won’t have the ability to allow certain planes to land at night in inclement weather.
The reason purchasing nearby land is not desirable besides the expense is that those owning the land next to the airport don’t really want to sell, Thatcher said.
The FAA would pay for 90 percent of any such expenditures, including those proposed in the master plan.
As of now larger planes, including air ambulances, can’t land at night on instruments only during inclement weather, but the shortening in the proposed master plan will get that clearance back without having to buy land, Thatcher said.
Pam Spicer, of Spicer Aircraft, expressed concern that shortening the runway may mean some larger planes which occasionally use the airport would be unable to land under certain circumstances, either because of insurance or other industry standards. Pam and her husband Mike currently run the municipal airport.
The Spicers are particularly concerned that air ambulances would not be able to land during inclement weather.
Brad Waller of Benesch Engineering, who drafted changes to the airport master plan, said the shortened runway will still allow EagleMed aircraft (air ambulances) and most other planes to land at the airport “under most conditions.”
KDOT Aviation and EagleMed confirmed that a 4,000-foot runway that’s 60 feet wide “is accepted as the minimum length of runway to land the EagleMed aircraft, Waller said.
The existing runway is 4,200 feet long by 75 feet wide.
“The potential shortening of the runway, as long as it leaves the runway a minimum of 4,000 feet, should have a negligible effect on the operations of air ambulance or business aircraft,” Waller said in an e-mail. “In our preliminary analysis, the displaced thresholds that will be required should not shorten the runway more than 200 feet.”
Waller said both KDOT Aviation and the FAA want rural communities to have access to air ambulance service.
“I can assure you that KDOT Aviation’s primary goal and one of FAA’s main goals is to ensure that every person in the state of Kansas is within a half hour of Air Ambulance service,” Waller said. “That is a critical component to rural airports, and steps will be taken not to jeopardize that.”
On Tuesday the city council will hear a presentation on ACIP data sheets for submittal to FAA, a step required before updating the master plan.
“These are basically the planned projects the city would like to complete at the airport using FAA funding over the next several years,” Waller said. “The first one will be the Master Plan, and once that project begins there will be several opportunities for public input regarding the planning for the airport’s future. We plan to have six public meetings total, three with the Property and Recreation Committee and three with the City Council, so that the process is transparent, and feedback can be given at several junctures in the process.”
On other parts of the plan:
-- In 2014 the city proposes to replace/resurface just the main part of the runway, not the taxi-way or apron, an estimated $58,000 expense.
-- Items proposed for either 2016 or 2017 include a wildlife hazardous assessment, and sweeper and snow plows for the airport runway.
-- In 2018, the city will again update the airport master plan.
Story: http://www.ccenterdispatch.com
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