News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
The Upper Cumberland Regional Airport is in need of more capacity, but the price tag for a new T-hangar will be hefty.
Airport Manager Dean Selby said a phased approach is the best move to make the multimillion dollar project feasible.
“Paying for the infrastructure for the roads and the electric is a bigger cost then the actual hangars in a lot of cases,” Selby said. “And that’s the problem we are running into is finding a way to cover the cost of the asphalt and the sub-grading and the base stone.”
Selby said the airport has the cash flow to build a new hangar, but getting to them is the issue. Selby said there is no unused asphalt space remaining, so that is why a new ramp is needed.
“Think of the ramp like the county roads out to where you need to get to,” Selby said.
Members of the Airport Board asked Selby Tuesday to come back with specific costs at a future meeting. Selby said he has been looking for funding options such as low interest loans and grants, but the money available has been decreasing.
“Funding across the state for airports has been decreasing in the last several years,” Selby said. “I think there are multiple reasons for that. They’ve changed the way taxes are levied on aircraft, fuel sales and it has kind of impacted a lot of the smaller airports and regional airports in that it has cut down on the amount of funding that is available through state grants, so we are looking for different approaches in ways we are going to be able to fund our infrastructure going forward.”
Hangar availability is scarce in the Upper Cumberland with the regional airport having a 50 person waiting list. Selby said this has caused the board to reconsider the rent, so a new hangar will pay for itself in the long run.
“That probably tells you that you are probably not at market rate,” Selby said. “I think that is what the board was getting at. We need to make sure we are at the correct rate. The state has been doing some studies on that to help us look at that. It is a difficult subject, because you don’t have a huge pool to look at. If you are looking at buying a house for instance, there are a lot of comparisons.”
The most basic hangar at the Upper Cumberland Regional Airport runs at about $170 a month with the highest in the $600 range. While the funding is the main question at this point, Selby said he and the board will find a solution to make it work.
