In a leisurely meeting on May 16, the Carroll County Airport Commission reviewed some current projects while looking forward to future expansion.
The airport has just acquired 14 acres on the south side of the airport. An adjacent parcel includes two-and-a-half acres, which has been offered at $11,000 per acre. Commissioners discussed various grant opportunities to make the additional purchase, but the current owner wants to retain mineral rights to the property.
Although that provision may not ever matter, commissioner Morris Pate expressed his concerns about “owning property without total control.” The commission will continue to pursue the purchase, and the owner may be willing to include the mineral rights.
The commission may find additional room for new hangars on the existing acreage and discussed excavating a hillside area and installing a retaining wall. The resulting space would accommodate four or five small planes in an open shed hangar. Consulting Engineer Joey Wallace said the Arkansas Division of Aeronautics prefers to fund enclosed hangars, but the cost of open hangars would be recovered in 10 years, while enclosed hangars would take 15 years. The airport currently has a waiting list of pilots wanting hangar space here.
In other business:
- Airport Manager Mark Pepple said he is about to make a fuel purchase and will monitor prices to make the purchase under the most favorable rate.
- At the west end of the airport, a building has been almost completely razed, and removal of materials should be completed by the end of the week. New hangars will be built in that area.
- A weather system has been installed to give pilots more localized information. Pilots reported receiving the signal from significant distances.
- The commission has plans to install a generator, but prices were not available at this meeting.
- Pepple said he had purchased a wooden picnic table, but said the airport would be better off spending more for metal tables in the future.
- Commissioners continued to discuss periodic inspections of hangar doors. They may hire a contractor to inspect the doors and then evaluate the cost for future inspections.
- The current lease rates will remain until the end of the year, but commissioners began the discussion on increasing the amount per square foot.
- The commission had discussed adding a shower for pilots, and they went as far as seeking bids on the necessary plumbing work. However, they discovered that they would have to make the shower handicapped-accessible, and the space under consideration for the shower would not accommodate that. The plan was dropped.
- Some commissioners will attend the June 17 quorum court meeting, to provide an update on airport activities.