The Madisonville City Council approved a motion during its meeting Monday to seek bids to build a new T-hangar at Madisonville Region Airport.
The hangar is needed to open up space in the airport's large, climate-controlled hangar in the event a flight training company for helicopter pilots locates an operation here.
That possibility was first made public at the Nov. 27 meeting of the airport board when Madisonville-Hopkins County Economic Development Corp. President Ray Hagerman said he had been working with the company and Madisonville Community College to bring a flight training operation here.
Such an operation could eventually have a $300 million impact on the local economy, Hagerman said.
If approval comes down at the state level, the first students could start at MCC next year, with flight training commencing soon thereafter. Hagerman said it would be a two-year, year-round program. Relatively quickly the company could ramp up to 75 students or more, with perhaps a dozen helicopters based at the airport.
The economic impact would include fuel sales, tuition, housing, meals and jobs, among other things.
The motion to seek bids Monday night specified a 7,350-square-foot building with room for six airplanes. Mayor David Jackson said the city would not incur any debt to build the new hangar. Airport board member Jimmy Riddle has said such a hangar would cost about $266,000.
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