Work on airport hangars to begin next week|[01/05/07]

Published 12:00 am Friday, January 5, 2007

Grading in preparation for new hangars at Vicksburg Municipal Airport is to begin next week, members of the city’s airport board were told.

Real Dirt Inc. of Vicksburg is to begin the work at the airport on U.S. 61 South Chairman Kimble Slaton said at the board’s regular monthly meeting Thursday.

The work is expected to take about three or four days and cost up to $25,000, Slaton said.

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The work is the first step in a project that is expected to cost about $360,000 and result in a new hangar with individual spaces for 10 private planes.

A funding source for construction has yet to be announced.

Board member Jay Kilroy said he planned to go to Washington, D.C., with a local group early this year and present a request then for $500,000 in airport funding, $450,000 for the hangar-construction project and an additional $50,000 for a lighting system to allow better night visibility.

Separately, the board discussed potential problems with trees north of the airport and Warrenton Lane that cause planes taking off toward or landing from the north to alter their paths. The trees are 75 to 100 feet tall and effectively shorten the runway length available to incoming planes from that direction, said Frank May, the airport’s manager.

&#8220They have to ‘jump’ the trees,” leveling out and restarting their approaches after they clear the stand of trees, May said, describing how pilots often alter the descents they would make if the trees were not there.

The trees are on private property, May said. The Federal Aviation allows such trees to be shortened to a height of 50 feet but removing them would be a better alternative, May said. Slaton said the board may consult with city attorneys in the matter.

Also at Thursday’s meeting the board: