SPEARFISH | After spending nearly $1.5 million to acquire land adjacent to Black Hills Airport/Clyde Ice Field, the city of Spearfish is awaiting approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to take over sponsorship of the airport from Lawrence County.
Following an executive session April 7, the Spearfish City Council unanimously voted to purchase 165 acres of land off Rainbow Road east of the airport for $1.465 million, City Administrator Joe Neeb said.
Reportedly once owned by Deadwood entrepreneurs Seth Bullock and Sol Star, the land was sold by Jane Carlstrom after four generations of her family had farmed and operated a dairy on it.
“This advances our efforts for growth and economic development,” Neeb said. “We believe the airport is an economic driver for the city and generates more than $12 million in annual economic impact for the state. Much of this land will be dedicated to a new crosswind runway, while we hope to develop the remainder for aviation-industry-type businesses.”
Neeb said the initial purchase was paid for with unrestricted funds from city coffers, but the city anticipates that the FAA and the state will assume as much as 95 percent of the costs of the acquisition.
City and airport officials have previously said the expansion of Clyde Ice Field was critical to the future growth of Spearfish. The state’s busiest general-aviation airfield, tucked on the eastern flank of the Northern Black Hills, it has gotten even busier in recent years due to the Bakken oil boom in western North Dakota, Niobrara developments in Nebraska and increasing production in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin, officials said.
In addition, mounting business activity in Spearfish and second-home owners who flock to the Northern Hills throughout the year are increasingly using the facility, Airport Manager Ray Jilek explained. He said the airport has 10 on its waiting list who are seeking hangar space, and two additional parties who sought cover for larger corporate aircraft.
“We need to make sure we can provide for these guys before they go somewhere else for their aviation needs,” Jilek said Friday morning, minutes after greeting U.S. Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., who had just landed at Clyde Ice Field.
At certain times the Spearfish airport is hit by crosswinds that prevent small- and medium-sized aircraft from landing on its existing 6,401-foot runway, forcing them to be diverted to one of two existing turf runways, Jilek explained.
But because of snow, frost and moisture, those turf runways are unusable eight months of the year, and the planned 4,000-foot surfaced crosswind runway would alleviate that problem, he said.
Optimistically, Jilek said he hoped construction on the crosswind runway would be underway in two to three years.
Spearfish Mayor Dana Boke said the process of changing sponsorship of the airport, designing a new runway, acquiring the necessary property, and gaining FAA approval required a great deal of patience.
“There’s a lot of hoops to jump through in order to be ready for the federal government to come in and do what they need to do,” Boke said Friday. “This is a multi-year process, and we are doing what we need to do so that when they say, `Go,’ we are ready to go.
“But that’s what we do to keep our airport vital and relevant to the needs of our community,” she said.
Source: http://rapidcityjournal.com
No comments:
Post a Comment