Airport committee to finalize layout for roadway today

TEXARKANA, Ark. — The Texarkana Regional Airport Authority Board’s Operations Committee will meet at 9 a.m. today to finalize the layout of an entry roadway leading to the Texarkana Flight Training Center’s future aircraft hangar.

The road, which will be a short extension off Globe Avenue, will require the flight school to build a security fence protecting both sides of the extended roadway.

Earlier this month, Board members tentatively approved allowing the center’s owner, Lonny Weitzel, to construct his own business hangar, contingent on requiring his school to build an access road to it.

The hangar, which will be built fairly close to the airport’s primary runway, 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 per square foot, and construction could take place before this year ends. However, much of the building schedule will be dependent on the weather,

Airport Executive Aviation Director Paul Mehrlich said during the Board’s last meeting on Sept. 3.

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

The full Board plans to have a normal monthly meeting at 9 a.m. Thursday inside the airport’s administration building, where its Operations Committee will be meeting today.

The airport still has two flights per day — to and from Dallas — a schedule that will continue throughout next month, after which consideration for adding additional flights to the schedule could be discussed.