Manchester City Council Approves First Step in New Airport Plan

The Manchester City Council has taken the first step in a process that could potentially update the Manchester Municipal Airport.

Earlier this year, the council rejected the City’s initial plan to expand the airport runway and acquire land on a 3 to 2 vote. The City recently came back with a new plan that would only resurface the airport’s runway. 

The proposed project would consist of milling the existing runway, placing an asphalt overlay, installing edge drain tiles and repainting the runway markings. The project would not increase the length or width of the existing runway. The City says resurfacing the runway would extend its life for another twenty years.

The three members of the City Council – Joe Dittrick, Linda Schmitt and Bryan Gray – who voted against the initial plan asked for further information about this new plan, so a joint work session was held two weeks ago with the airport committee and Tom Chandler, Central Southwest Regional Manager of the Aircraft Owners & Pilots Association. 

On Monday night, the Manchester City Council approved the FAA’s Capital Improvement Plan update for the Manchester Municipal Airport on a 5 to 0 vote. City Manager Tim Vick says the Council’s approval gives him the authorization to proceed with submitting the Capital Improvement Plan update to the FAA for the Airport’s Runway Rehabilitation Project.

The engineer’s estimated cost for this project would be nearly one-point-two million dollars, with the City of Manchester’s share estimated to be approximately 85-thousand dollars. 

photo courtesy of Janelle Tucker/KMCH