UC Airport Pursuing FAA Terminal Grant

The Upper Cumberland Regional Airport is working to increase their chances of receiving a grant for a new terminal.

Airport Manager Dean Selby said they are getting input directly from the FAA to make sure their application for the grant is as strong as possible. Selby said they applied for the grant once in the past and were turned down.

“We’re going ahead and doing the environmental assessments, which we’re working on now,” Selby said. “And we’re doing some preliminary design work to kind of have the better numbers of what it’s going to cost to do this. So having that together, those two things, already complete and paid for just by the airport as it goes along, increases our chances quite a bit.”

Selby said the grant would pay for a larger fixed base operator (FBO) terminal that would handle all of the airport’s arriving and departing general aviation traffic. He said offices for operations workers and fueling agents would also be included in the terminal.

“We’re looking at expanding this terminal that we’ve kind of outgrown,” Selby said. “Well, we’ve way outgrown it.”

Selby said the goal is to have the two projects done by October, which is when the grant application will be submitted. He said the work is “nowhere near completed.”

Selby said the FAA is looking for projects that can start as soon as the grant is issued.

“They’re looking for projects that are ‘shovel-ready,'” Selby said. “We hear that term all the time.”

Selby said it is common to get denied the first time someone applies for a reoccurring grant.

“Your first year of applying is kind of a learning curve to see what they’re looking for,” Selby said. “And the second year you refine your application to meet their requirements and what – and to kind of check their little boxes of what they’re really wanting to see.”