Dubois County Airport Authority meeting notes

There are two major projects that the Dubois County Airport Authority Board is working through right now. The first is the 500-foot runway extension. The second is getting runway number 9 back in use for night landings.

The runway extension has been a priority since the board decided drop plans to build a new runway and focus on extending the existing runway. The extension will allow larger aircraft to land and take off, opening the airport up to more traffic.

Runway number 9 is the west approach to the airport and is currently under FAA restrictions for night landings due to visual obstructions from tall trees and the three signal towers on the west approach.

The board heard updates on both topics from airport engineer Chris Snyder of Woolpert Engineering in Monday night’s board meeting.

Snyder said that the board is discussing purchasing land from the owner of the property that lies just west of the runway. The property has several trees the FAA says must go so that circle-in and straight-in landing approaches can begin again.

The board was originally told they would have to consider the purchase of eight to nine acres of the land but last night they learned they would only need about three acres.

Before the purchase is made the board will have to have the land appraised. “The airport has been working to get appraisers and tree professionals in line to kind of look at the property itself and hopefully get an easement over the property in that area that we need for a ‘straight-in’ approach,” Snyder explained.

Snyder also informed the board the Environmental Assessment by the FAA for the runway extension may be nearly complete. This brings the extension another step closer to being complete. “It’s a long, big drawn out process but, at the same time…if you chop it in ‘thirds,’ we’re at the last one-third of the process,” he explained.

Since the airport has taken over as fixed-base operator for the airport, they have been struggling with a spreadsheet system of invoicing fuel customers. Airport Manager Travis McQueen reported that several board members recommended that he look into accounting software to replace spreadsheets that they are currently using to track the accounting for the airport.

McQueen reported he is exploring using an online version of the popular accounting software Quickbooks to help with the accounting and specifically tracking and reporting on customer activities – specifically on fuel purchases. The monthly cost could be about $40.