Terminal terminal no good for HALO

Air ambulance service understands plan to have airport ready for development, but thinks terminal building set for demolition could be put to good use by them

Redeveloping the Medicine Hat Regional Airport may be needed, say officials from HALO Air Rescue Society, but tearing down the former terminal building is an opportunity missed for their organization.

This month council heard a new plan to rework sites at the airport’s entrance to bring new commercial land on the market, as well as clean up other sites and utility lines.

That work, say planners, would provide a slight profit, but ready the rest of the site for future development.

HALO board chair Dale Thacker told the News Thursday that as recently as January his group was in talks to lease space in the former terminal building, which will now be demolished under the plan.

It sits at the Y of the traffic loop in front of the airfield’s recently expanded main terminal — a position that Thacker says would give high exposure to his group, which operates entirely on donations from the community.

“It would be ideal for our needs,” he said, adding that he understands the move toward modernizing the area.

“The city has to make things work but it’s a shame to knock down a perfectly good building that we could put to good use.”

City development officials said however, that while the building is functional, it hasn’t been needed for years, and leaving it in place would hamper new area design and flow.

Grant MacKay, manager of the city’s land and properties, said discussions about office rental with HALO were ongoing at the same time as his office was tasked with developing options to stage commercial land offerings at the airport.

That plan was completed in early 2017.

When it became apparent that the terminal building would be torn down as part of a new plan, MacKay said, the decision was made by administrators to pull back the offer rather than offer a month-bymonth lease.

Thacker agrees the talks involved the knowledge that the building may come down in the future.

However, he added, having office space open to the public would help raise the profile of his organization that relies entirely on fundraising and often competes with other air ambulance services for donations.

As it is, the administration in done as volunteer homes or in the hangar area behind security gates at the airfield.

“You could have a minister get off a flight and walk across into our front doors,” said Thacker.

The demolition schedule isn’t set but MacKay said there is little economic argument to keeping the space.

“It’s been a surplus building for many, many years,” he said.

The previous terminal has not been highly utilized since it was replaced in 1980, he said.

It was most recently used in 2011 as a site safety office and also as an alternate emergency operations centre, said MacKay.

“It’s a visual impediment from the highway and, really, just in the way for other development.”

MacKay said removal of the terminal will add some parking but the greater benefit will be better flow to the site.

Council heard during debate that the city’s heritage resources committee saw no extraordinary value to the building.

The development plan, approved by city council on March 6, will see three commercial lots near Viscount Avenue readied for marketing by the end of 2018.

The city would also remove and remediate large foundations that remain from Second World War hangars, as well as landscape portions of the entrance.

A dedicated exit for crews located at the city’s No. 3 fire station is planned, but contingent on approval from Alberta Transportation.