The monthly meeting of the Carroll County Airport Commission was delayed a week because of snow and ice, and those weather issues arose during the meeting.
The commission had hired a local contractor for snow removal with the understanding that the airport would have to wait until the company’s residential customers were finished. Last week, commissioners reconsidered that approach.
The contractor got to the airport 36 hours after the snow event, but even then, he did not grade all the way to the pavement, and a considerable amount of snow remained. Although the airport fell to the end of the list, it is one of the bigger areas for the contractor, and commissioners considered some alternatives.
The county used to scrape the runway after key county roads were graded, and the commission will check to see if that remains a possibility. They also considered letting volunteers handle snow removal, but commissioner Chase Tresler said the airport would fare better by paying a qualified contractor. Several alternatives were suggested, with the goal of quickly opening the runway and creating access to the fuel tank.
In other business:
- The airport will soon have a local weather reporting station. Pilots have often encountered local conditions that weather stations in Rogers or Harrison do not reflect.
- Consulting engineer Joey Wallace did not attend the meeting, but he sent a report about the airport’s plans for a new six-bay hangar. He said the funds are in place, and the airport should be able to put the project out for bids at the end of April. A federal grant may not cover the entire cost of the project, but state grants will make up the difference. The state grants have either 10 or 20 percent matches, and the airport has sufficient funds to cover the matching funds.
- A hangar tenant with a small jet asked to place a tank near his hangar. Commissioners initially expressed concern that a fuel tank might encroach on an adjacent lot, but they learned that the hangar they had proposed for that lot would not fit in the present space. A smaller hangar would leave enough room for a fuel tank. Commissioners said they would allow the installation of the fuel tank, with the provision that the tenant would only use the fuel for his own planes.
- With demolition under way at the eastern end of the airport, Larkin Floyd received assurance that the commission will repair his road after the construction.