FAA allots $2.7M in grants to upgrade 15 airports in state

The Federal Aviation Administration has awarded improvement grants totaling $2.7 million to 15 Arkansas airports, the state’s congressional delegation announced.

The grants will help pay for improvements to the airports’ navigation aids, lighting, aprons, taxiways, runways and other infrastructure.

“Infrastructure investments are critical to growth and economic development,” the delegation said in a joint statement. “These funds will upgrade facilities across the state … to better serve the needs of Arkansas businesses and families.”

The largest grant — $337,793 — will go to Billy Free Memorial Airport in Dumas to help pay for a taxiway extension. The extension will eliminate the need for aircraft to “back taxi” on the airport’s 5,000-foot runway. Aircraft typically land on the airport’s runway and must turn around and taxi back on the same runway to reach the airport’s apron.

The airport traffic features a mix of high-performance business and agricultural aircraft. The traffic includes a Beechcraft King Air, a twinengine turbine-powered aircraft. It flies to the airport twice a week to shuttle executives for the Diamond Pet Foods manufacturing plant in Dumas.

The taxiway extension will allow the “ag aircraft to get off the runway quicker,” especially in weather in which visibil-

ity is compromised, said Steve Stevens, the chairman of the Dumas Airport Commission, which oversees the airport. “It’s a safety issue.”

The other airports receiving funding, the amount and their upgrades are:

■ Clarksville Municipal Airport, $332,526 to reconstruct runway lighting and install runway vertical/visual guidance system.

■ Manila Municipal Airport,

$297,000 to rehabilitate the taxiway.

■ Smith Field Airport in Siloam Springs, $208,265 to install runway vertical/visual guidance system and reconstruct perimeter fencing.

■ Carlisle Municipal Airport, $206,392 to install weather reporting equipment and rehabilitate the taxiway.

■ Blytheville Municipal Airport, $172,800 to rehabilitate the apron and taxiway.

■ Springdale Municipal Airport, $175,766 to reconstruct runway lighting and rehabilitate the runway.

■ DeWitt Municipal Airport Whitcomb Field, $172,077 to rehabilitate the apron, runway and taxiway and conduct an aeronautical survey for a new navigation approach.

■Carroll County Airport in Berryville, $168,983 to rehabilitate the runway.

■ Melbourne Municipal/John E. Miller Field Airport, $165,535 to construct a taxiway.

■ Sharp County Regional Airport in Ash Flat, $134,370 to install navigation aids and rehabilitate airport beacons.

■ Piggott Municipal Airport, $94,950 to install airport beacons.

■ Clarendon Municipal Airport, $83,385 to install perimeter fencing.

■ Saline County Regional Airport in Bryant, $82,581 to rehabilitate the apron and taxiway.

■ Frank Federer Memorial Airport in Brinkley, $72,000 to rehabilitate the runway.