The Holbrook City Council met on Sept. 25, with a presentation by Jason Musselman with the Armstrong Consultants engineering firm regarding the Holbrook Municipal Airport improvement plan schedule for the next five years. Musselman presented the Airport Capital Improvement Program and Airport Layout Plan for the council to review and provided information on the upcoming projects.

Two projects being addressed first include the reconstruction of the airport runway and the rehabilitation of the apron. The reconstruction of the runway is planned for July of 2020 and will be funded by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) entitlement funds, of which the city receives $150,000 each year. According to Musselman, the entitlement money from FAA is allowed to be spent based upon the needs of the project and can be banked over a four year period for major projects. For a single project larger than the available funds, the FAA can kick in with discretionary funds or state apportionment funds. “The $4.7 million project far exceeds the entitlements available so we are anticipating money from the FAA to help facilitate this project.

“This project has been on the list for several years. It has been pushed off several times to help the FAA schedule their money, they didn’t have it several years ago,” stated Musselman.

Musselman noted that there is supplemental funding that has been approved for the FAA in the amount of $1 billion that has been set aside for rural airports. These funds are only for certain communities based on economic criteria and five were earmarked in Arizona. “St. Johns being one of them. Holbrook was not one of them but we are trying anyway. That’s 100 percent funding. We are hoping to move that runway reconstruction up a year and perhaps get it 100 percent funded,” he said.

It was also noted that the grant was received about a month ago for the electrical improvements at the airport and executed with the contractor Scenic Electric is underway. “Once that contract process is completed, they can actively move forward,” stated Musselman, who added that should begin next week.

The second item on the project is the airport apron, which is the area of an airport where aircraft are parked, unloaded or loaded, refueled, or boarded. That project will not be addressed until the 2023-24 fiscal year. Musselman noted that the apron is in rough shape and has been patched over the years with slurry seal that was done on the southern portion of the apron. The project has an estimated cost of $2 million.

In the future, another project is slated on the north end of the runway that will be a runway shift and extension. Musselman explained that at the south end of the runway is the runway protection zone and it does not meet regulations. “The FAA says that the runway protection zones should be clear of residences and businesses. At the time that this was constructed that criteria wasn’t really enforced,” said Musselman. Now it is a severe issue that requires the runway be shifted to move the protection zone onto airport land. This shift would also allow for an extension of the airport and allow for larger aircraft.