Save Our Airport

Cleared for takeoff; $1.9 million to be spent on airport runway reconstruction
Posted By Michael-Allan Marion and Vincent Ball
Updated 1 hour ago
http://www.theexpositor.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=851401

Brantford Municipal Airport manger Bob Michalchuk is flying high after city councillors cleared the way for $1.9-million in runway improvements.

“It’s wonderful news and we’re feeling really happy to be able to move ahead,” Michalchuk said Thursday of council’s unanimous support the evening before to include runway renewal project in this year’s list of public works projects.

“I’m really, really pleased that it was unanimous. We’d heard that there could be some opposition, which would not have been surprising because a lot of money is involved. But having everyone vote for it sends a big signal.

“We’ve proved to council and the community that the airport is an important component in the area’s transportation network.”

Plans call for reconstruction of the airport’s main runway and a secondary one.

The unanimity of the vote stems partly from Coun. Greg Martin’s persistent lobbying of colleagues from his position as chairman of both the finance and estimates committees.

“I was confident that it would win, but I was surprised that it was a unanimous vote because some I spoke to would not give a definite answer when I was lobbying them,” said Martin.

big turnout

He said the ability of airport supporters to get about 500 people to a public meeting on the future of the facility when it was up for a service review last year probably influenced many councillors.

“Obviously, the message that we had to show a strong commitment to improving the airport resonated enough that all councillors could support it.”

Local flyers are delighted.

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“I just spoke to a couple of people from the flying club and they’re ecstatic,” Dr. Lee Deimling, chairman of the airport commission, said Thursday.

“I think it’s fantastic news because those runways were almost to the point where they were unusable.”

A recent report rated one of the runways as being fair to poor, while the other was on the verge of becoming unusable.

One of the runways hasn’t been repaved since 1941.

Airport officials were also receiving complaints from corporations who said the landing gear of their planes is being harmed by the poor condition of the runways.

The Department of National Defence recently sent airport officials a letter highlighting concerns with one of the runways.

The airport is the site of the annual Brant United Way Air Show, a huge event featuring the Snowbirds that attracts thousands of people. Although no one from the Canadian Forces said the Snowbirds would not appear at the show unless the runways were repaired, local officials cited the letter as another reason to back plans to upgrade the runways.

“That letter really makes you think,” said Martin. “The military will tell us they’re not coming to the airport because of the shape of the runways, but how many corporate executives don’t tell us that? How many investment opportunities are we losing that we don’t know of, because corporate fliers don’t like the state of a runway?” Michalchuk said winning more corporate clientele is the way of the future for the Brantford airport

“If you want to get the corporate aircraft flying in, you have to make them comfortable with the facility,” he said.

“A lot of people don’t see the corporate aircraft coming and going, because they think mostly of small aircraft. We’re trying to build a better image for the city. The airport is the corporate front door.” The airport runways allocation is expected to receive final approval when the 2008 operating and capital budgets come before council later this month.

That allocation is part of a total capital works plan of about $3.1 million. The other $1.2 million is for upgrades to ramp areas.

Martin says he’s already working on gaining support for that project.