Aircraft-parking work set to begin next week at Carson City Airport

Carson City’s Airport Authority approved new mailing addresses for the city’s airport Wednesday to deal with emergencies, and it heard reports about a $2.3 million project upgrading its apron, or aircraft-parking area, that’s set to start next week.

First-phase work on the south apron is expected to start Monday, with a second phase to follow and work on the northwest apron in the works for next year. Federal funding is expected to cover much of the work, with the airport providing 6.25 percent of the project’s funding, airport Manager Tim Rowe said.

A more ambitious project aimed at considering a new terminal building was pulled from the meeting’s agenda, although an authority member afterward voiced enthusiasm for proceeding on it later. Such a terminal would cost $4 million or more, Rowe said. Before the meeting, he noted that efforts to find public and private financing partners had stalled.

Authority members unanimously approved changing some addresses at the urging of Carson City Fire Chief Stacey Giomi in part because airport terminology doesn’t work with the 911 system and his department’s needs during an emergency. Giomi said the idea was to respond more quickly.

The motion authorized airport and city staffers to convert a conceptual plan presented at the meeting into reality, although minor changes might be needed.

In his manager’s report, Rowe told members that a new instrument approach for airplanes coming in over Mound House to land on westerly runway 27 was set for Federal Aviation Authority publication today. He said it would be ready for flights perhaps as early as next month and could help attract some business aircraft.

“We’ve been working on it for some time,” Rowe said earlier in the day. “It’s a way to draw larger aircraft into the airport.” He said, however, that FAA approval for other approaches during the day and for any approach at night were still going through review channels.

With the plan to work toward building a new terminal delayed, Rowe indicated it wouldn’t necessarily return soon to another agenda. He said housing city fire department operations center at a new terminal had been contemplated.

The scrapped agenda item was a proposed agreement to have Atkins Global provide architectural services for a terminal design. Rowe was encouraged by Karl Hutter, an authority member, to return to the idea as soon as feasible. Hutter and Authority Chairman Guy Williams also voiced support for business development at the airport.

The authority did vote unanimously to continue working with Atkins Global on engineering and consulting matters, renewing a pact that calls for $500-per-month meeting and for other fees to be set on a project-by-project basis.