PITTSFIELD, Maine — A little rural airport that relies on organization and tourism will extend its products and services thanks to $2 million in enhancements.
A new hangar and other improvements experienced been in the scheduling stage for the final a few years for Pittsfield Municipal Airport and will lastly start building in the spring.
The venture, which consists of a new building and other advancements to paved parts in which planes vacation on the floor, totals much more than $2 million and will provide in more cash for the town, which will rent room at the hangar. The advancements will with any luck , relieve the room crunch at the airport, and new functions could attract shoppers, City Manager Kathryn Ruth stated.
In October, the Pittsfield Town Council chosen Augusta-centered Blane Casey Making Contractor Inc., which has now ordered the hangar, she explained. The hangar will be built off website and moved to the airport.
“Our anticipation is that above time, and probably reasonably rapidly, the airport hangar will have several tenants and people tenants will deliver enterprises to the local community,” she mentioned. “It will be a much better area for their aircraft, fairly than staying outside or a more compact airport.”
The airport is run by the town, which contracts with Curtis Air to take care of day-to-working day functions at the airport. It features storage place, gasoline for airplanes and partners with Central Maine Aviation to present plane rentals, flight education and scenic rides, in accordance to its website.
Just much more than 30 planes are housed at the airport. Curtis Air and Pittsfield-primarily based Cianbro created their possess hangars past tumble, liberating room, Ruth stated. The new hangar will carry 6 new areas to the airport, which will be available for organizations to lease.
“For the last ten years, we have experienced tiny to no space accessible in the privately owned hangers. New corporations and new people that go to town or to the spot that want to property an plane are not able to do so,” Ruth stated. “There’s a waiting list. Persons simply call regularly seeking for room.”
Federal and point out funding for the challenge totals $1.9 million, which involves a $300,000 loan from Rangeley. The town’s contribution is $75,350, Ruth claimed.
Rangeley experienced gained federal funding for a venture and was not able to expend it owing to delays. Rather of shedding the income, Rangeley loaned it to Pittsfield, which will repay the entitlement resources in the future, Ruth mentioned.
She termed the approach “a miracle project,” looking at the airport’s measurement and mounting charges for materials and building.
The airport has been through a wide variety of improvements over the several years, greatly funded by grants from the Federal Aviation Administration and the Maine Division of Transportation. That features security enhancements, the addition of snow elimination equipment and a creating to house it, new lights, a runway designed in 2004 and a reworked apron in 2009 and 2010, Ruth stated.
