Airport Authority has plans laid if money comes through

Published 9:26 pm Monday, January 29, 2018

MOULTRIE, Ga. —The Moultrie-Colquitt County Airport Authority has big plans over the next five years for renovations to the local airport since Gov. Nathan Deal has announced that $25 million will be allotted to 11 different airports in Georgia.

With no idea on how much will be allotted to the Moultrie airport, plans are being made on how the money would be used if some of it were granted locally.

With a current rebidding for renovations, there are plans to expand the width of the runway to 100 feet and add taxi-way lights. The current width of the runway is 60 feet.

While there is no contract in the works yet, the estimated cost of these expansions would be a little over $1 million said former Airport Authority Chairman, Tony Brock.

The projected date that these changes will begin is March 31.

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At the top of the list is the runway extension. The Airport Authority hopes to extend the runway to 6,000 feet. Currently, the length of the runway is 5,127 feet.

“It’s a safety factor for jets coming in and out of here,” said Brock. “It will allow bigger jets to land here also.”

Sales tax money will be used for some of the renovations and additions to the current facilities.

Some $750,000 of that sales tax will be used to build corporate aircraft hangars and updates to existing hangars. The construction of one of those hangars could cost half a million dollars.

A road leading to these hangars and for improvements to current hangars, including revamping the 25-year-old paint could cost $50,000.

The Airport Authority also wants to renovate the terminal building by installing new carpet, new paint and new ceiling tiles The cost of these renovations is estimated to be around $30,000 to $40,000.

“We don’t have issues of where to put money,” said Brock. “We have issues getting the money.”

Meanwhile, the Colquitt County Development Authority wants Spence field to be extended to a full 10,000-foot runway. Only 4,500 feet of it has been resurfaced and is in use at the moment.

Costs for this renovation could be between $4 million and $5 million to make it into a functional runway, complete with a required terminal building, and taxiways, according to the airport authority.

“They had an engineering firm look at it several years ago and they gave them an amount, but it’s old enough that we can’t say the amount is good,” said Mike Boyd, current chairman for the airport authority.

Boyd took over the chairman’s reins as of Jan. 1, but will officially take over once Brock has a final meeting as chairman.