After a year that saw more than 8,000 takeoffs and landings at the Poplar Bluff Municipal Airport, officials have turned their attention to an outdated masterplan and how to prepare for future growth.
The year-long process to update the masterplan is being paid for with a grant of approximately $200,000 from the Missouri Department of Transportation, and about $15,000 in city money.
The extensive plan helps define what capacity the airport has currently, as well as its goals for the future, according to airport manager Gary Pride. The document will include everything from maintenance and equipment upgrade needs to aerial photographs and documentation from engineers.
The masterplan will not only help guide the next 15 years, Pride said, it positions the airport to compete for future state and federal grant money. These dollars can help pay for projects like the runway extension that would be needed to serve the large passenger aircrafts currently offering commercial flights from the Cape Girardeau airport.
“We’re planning for the future,” said Pride. “We have to build it now so the dominos can start falling in the right direction, so that as our town and community continue to grow, we will have the infrastructure in place.”
One component of the effort is an updated emergency response plan, which started Thursday afternoon with a meeting of city and county fire departments, the police department, Missouri State Highway Patrol, city street department and other agencies.
These agencies needed to know more about the types of aircraft served by the airport and the activities that take place there, Pride said. The airport sees everything from 1-15 passenger planes carrying from 30-2,400 gallons of fuel, along with its own fuel storage capacity of 26,000 gallons.
“It gives them that perspective that they need, to understand how to gauge their response,” Pride said.
The meeting included an update on the amount of activity seen at the airport.
It saw 1,000 non-resident visitors in 2018, Pride said. Of those 150 stayed in local motels, and 45 rented cars. While the runways are open 24 hours a day, the visitor count is based on the 12 hours a day the terminal is staffed.
It also sold 160,000 gallons of fuel, more than any previous year, he said.
It is the permanent home of 38 private aircraft, as well as an Air Evac helicopter and fixed-wing jet.
The updated emergency plan will be part of the lengthy masterplan that must eventually be approved by the city council.
“MoDOT (Missouri Department of Transportation) in particular and the FAA and various others have to give their blessing to it also,” Pride said.
Parts of the masterplan, like updating the traffic count and description of daily use, will better allow the airport to compete for future grant dollars, Pride said.
“If we’re busy and have traffic counts, they’re going to spend money,” Pride said. “We are critical infrastructure, no different than bridges and roads because we are an exit ramp, no different than I-70 or I-55.”
The airport provides a way for corporations like Scotty’s and Fairfield Inn to travel to the community when scouting locations, Pride said. It provides a way for factories in the industrial park to ship emergency parts across the United States and to Mexico, he continued.
It also allows for doctors from other parts of the state to fly in once a week or on other schedules to operate practices here.
Goals for the future include extending the 5,000-foot runway to 6,000 feet, which would allow 50-passenger commercial plans to land. Replacing 4,000 feet of asphalt runway with concrete runway would also be needed for this, to allow for the weight of the large aircraft, Pride said.
Other goals of the airport include adding more hangars and making improvements to the terminal building.