EYES TO THE SKIES

WASILLA — With an influx of fresh federal dollars, the Wasilla Airport is looking to keep up with the Joneses — or at least Palmer.

The 2010 federal Omnibus Appropriations Act awarded the city $500,000 to expand the footprint of the airport.

Wasilla Public Works Director Archie Giddings said the money is intended to be used to clear a hill on the airport’s property. The city wants to pave the area to expand the apron and dump the fill at the end of the runway.

The apron would allow the city more space for airplane tie-downs or future commercial activities. The airport already has a waiting list for tie-downs, and a larger apron means more companies can lease lots on-site, Giddings said. Placing the fill is the first step in building an expanded runway to handle more and larger air traffic.

“We are just trying to stay ahead of the curve. … We asked for $1.7 million for the next phase of the project. We will probably need $3 million or $4 million to take down the whole hill,” Giddings said.

While the federal money is less than hoped for, it is one of the only earmarks in the budget headed to the Valley. Giddings said a contingent from Wasilla makes annual trips to Washington, D.C., with a book of projects they hope to get included.

Getting federal appropriations is a new avenue of funding for airport project, Giddings said. Money normally gets passed through the Federal Aviation Administration to help airports with areas of need identified in their master plans. The last Wasilla Airport master plan was created in 2003 and expired in 2008.

“We had a good five-year run with the FAA, but now it’s up. We need a plan to show them how we are spending the money,” Giddings said.

Giddings said USKH Inc. won the bid for the two-year project of drafting a new plan. The engineers and planners should have a draft document for public hearings and comments some time next year, he said.

Giddings said the document will identify how much and what type of future use the airport should accommodate. With the land the city has, he said the flexibility is there. There is the potential for increased private planes, another Forestry plane, even commuter traffic from the North Slope, Giddings said as suggestions.

“We just need to gauge what type of interest is out there. What kinds of use do we want at the airport? Do we want to tailor certain areas to specific businesses?” Giddings said. “We are trying to anticipate the market to see what trends are out there.”

But before this increased traffic can really happen, Giddings said the apron needs to be expanded and a new road needs to be built to access the airport. He said the $500,000 will help, and the city is actively pursuing other sources of funding while the master plan is being completed.

The Palmer Airport has perhaps less lofty goals, but is looking to make improvements nonetheless. A new master plan was approved by the city council in May and focuses on updating the existing infrastructure rather than expansion, Palmer Airport Manager Chris Gates said.

Gates said the airport is handling about 28,000 flights into and out of Palmer each year. The master plan predicts this will jump to 40,000 by 2016. The 6,000-foot-long runway can accommodate planes up to 180,000 pounds. The second cross-wind runway means planes can land with the prevailing wind 90 percent of the time, Gates said.

“We spent a lot of time looking at the facts. Palmer has a reputation of being a windy place to land,” he said. “But 82 percent of the time, the wind is less than 10 knots. Only 0.8 percent of the time is the wind over 28 knots.”

Plus, Gates said, Palmer Airport has a great reputation for being a place for engine, avionics and airframe repair and maintenance. Hageland Aviation Services moved its aircraft maintenance facility to Palmer from Anchorage because of the ease of operations, Gates said.

While the airport master plan includes adding more shelters and electrified spaces to plug planes in, it identifies more “incremental” improvements, he said. For example, the airport is working on getting a precision instrument approach system to allow planes to land in inclement weather.

“We are not looking at major facilities. We are just trying to do a better job to facilitate aviation over the next 20 years,” Gates said.

Even as both airports move forward, Gates said it is not a competition between Palmer and Wasilla.

“We are both part of a national program for an integrated air program through the FAA,” Gates said. “The airport in Willow has a great facility as well. All three are needed for a good system.”

Contact Todd L. Disher at todd.disher@frontiersman.com or 352-2252.