By Nick Cusack, Shelby News
Published: Saturday, May 25, 2013 7:07 AM US/eastern
The Shelbyville Municipal Airport is perhaps one of Shelby County's best kept secrets when it comes to economic development.
The airport sits on 500 acres and has two runways, one asphalt and the other grass, tucked into Shelbyville's northwest corner near the National Guard Armory and Interstate 74.
Each year the airport facilitates more than 20,000 flight operations per year -- that is, takeoffs and landings. As a comparison, the Indianapolis International Airport facilitates almost 10 times that.
Those operations are a mix of recreational fliers and corporate fliers, who often arrive in large jets that park beside and tower over the airport's administrative building.
These are the people ultimately responsible for many of the factories, businesses, services and jobs in Shelby County and the surrounding region. For many of those executives, time is money. A small airport near their targets saves hours and days.
"Companies are making decisions on where to travel based on distance from the airport," said one of those corporate jet pilots, Jason Greubel, who was at the airport with his plane on Tuesday.
That unnamed company flies in regularly to meet with clients, he said. The corporate jets saves busy executives hours of large airport delays and driving time.
Greubel and fellow pilot Kent Tipping insist that the jets pay for themselves.
"Our people don't waste a lot of time," Tipping said.
Darrell Schrader, manager of the airport, said the airport played a factor in several businesses locating in Shelby County. He said executives and interests from everything from a truck stop franchise to Indiana Grand Casino come in for business, including several manufacturing companies.
"There are big companies that wouldn't be here if we didn't have this airport," Schrader said. "Some in the general public don't know we're here."
The airport has its origins in the 1930s, and was purchased by Shelbyville in the 1950s.
Since then, corporate jets have brought in executives from companies such as General Electric, who built a factory that has come and gone in the city.
Besides those that fly in and out are those who used to fly in, but changes in the economy and public image have stopped their flights, at least temporarily.
That, and a loss of military planes from the adjacent armory, have hurt the airport in terms of fuel sale.
"It's affected us tremendously," Schrader said.
Despite the economy and a slowdown at the airport, the federal government continues to invest in airport infrastructure. The mile-long, $5.1 million runway at the Shelbyville Municipal Airport was paid for using 90 percent to 95 percent with federal funds.
The government might recognize the economic impact to places such as Shelbyville, but Schrader also argues the cost to the federal government is in some ways more efficient than building highways. A mile of highway, he says, can only get a car a mile.
"You build a mile of runway," he said, "you can go anywhere in the world."
Story: http://www.shelbynews.com
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