Airport board OKs flight training school’s hangar construction

TEXARKANA, Ark. — Texarkana Regional Airport Authority board members have tentatively approved allowing the Texarkana Flight Training School to construct its own business hangar, contingent on requiring the school to build an access road to it.

Besides the road, which will basically be a short extension of Globe Avenue, board members — who met last week — will also require the school to build a security fence, protecting both sides of the extended roadway, Airport Executive Aviation Director Paul Mehrlich said.

The hangar will be built close to the airport’s primary and secondary runway crossing points. It will have 12,000-square-feet of space to accommodate 11 aircraft of all shapes and sizes. The school’s ground lease will be 32 cents a square foot. Construction could take place before this year ends but much of the schedule will be dependent on the

weather, Mehrlich added.

The board’s decision came after about 16 months of discussion — the most recent involving the school’s director, Lonny Weitzel, seeking the have the board recognize the hangar as being only a private, personal-use hangar instead of a business hangar. Board members ultimately convinced Weitzel that the hangar needs to be designated as a business hangar as the school is a business.

In other matters, Mehrlich said the airport will continue having two flights per day to and from Dallas throughout next month, after which consideration for adding additional flights to the schedule could be discussed.