Friday afternoon Plymouth Mayor Mark Senter made the official announcement that the City of Plymouth was awarded a Federal Aviation Administration grant in the amount of $2,282,494. The grant will fund a reconstruction of the runway and a widening project from 60 feet to 75 feet. The project will also require new runway lights.
The federal government put in nearly $2.3 million on the project and INDOT and the city will each put in $126,805 bring the entire project to $2,536,104.
It has taken six years to gain approval for the project and members of the Plymouth Board of Aviation Commission are extremely pleased.
Phend and Brown was the winning bidder for the contract and work is scheduled to being in late March or early April. According to the contractor, the airport will be closed for 61 days while the widening and reconstruction project is completed.
During the press conference Mayor Senter said, “There has been a lot of talk for many, many years about lengthening our runway here. Don’t get me wrong…I am in favor of that when the timing is right.” He spoke of the direction the board he appointed took, improving what the city already had. Senter said, “We had buildings here that were in awful shape, garage doors that would barely open, roofs that leaked, our dimly lit hangers with airplanes that shivered in the cold winter, sidewalks cracked and an office area styled for the early 70’s.”
Since the city hired Dave Lattimer at the airport manager, nearly $500,000 in improvements have been made at the municipal airport on the city’s north side. Improvements include signage, sidewalks and landscaping, new pilot’s quarters and lobby, heating and A/C, roofs, siding of hangers and more.
