There is no shortage of interest in the Cameron McIntosh Airport from aviation enthusiasts who want to set up there.
That is based on a recent request that came up for discussion at council’s Oct. 28 meeting. Battleford resident Robert Turpin had approached the city seeking lease space to build a new private airport hangar at the airport.
In this case, the city couldn’t accommodate the request, as there were no available lots for lease at the airport. But the issue did spur on discussion about developing the airport in general, in part due to the interest shown.
According to Councillor Don Buglas, Turpin was among a group of people interested in seeing the airport grow, and Turpin had mentioned “several others” would like their own hangars there as well.
“They would just like to see that opportunity in the near future and just want to make sure we are all aware of that,” said Buglas.
Mayor Ryan Bater said that was “really encouraging to hear,” because the city had “been making significant investments in our airport on the runways in the last several years. Sometimes that gets criticized because a lot of people aren’t even aware that there is an airport, and those that are aren’t aware of what condition it’s in.”
Currently the airport has two hangars owned by a third party. There is also room at the airport to build four new ones, according to Director of City Operations Stewart Schafer, on space also currently held by a third-party.
The main problem, according to Schafer, is that the city would need to invest in taxiways in order to accommodate any new hangars.
“We don’t have the taxiways to the land where we can lease out,” Schafer said. Those would need to be constructed.
Also, to create usable hangar spaces an airport master plan study would also need to be completed. The study would cost $40,000, but has been deferred in the last two budget cycles according to administration officials.
Investment in new taxiways would then be required after that is done. But as it stands, new taxiways rank behind a host of other priorities for the airport at the moment.
The city’s main priority is completing its multi-million dollar, multi-year resurfacing project of the main runway. According to Director of Planning and Development Jennifer Niesink, the final leg of that project runs at a little under $300,000.
After that, Niesink said, the next priority would be addressing the crosswind runway, which was ordered closed by Transport Canada in 2018 and is in need of repaving.
“All of those improvements would need to be made previous to more taxiways being built,” Niesink told council.
Schafer mentioned that another item is lighting. Some lighting signs need to be updated, as the existing signs are “slowly fading out and need repaired.”
The priorities, according to City Manager Randy Patrick, are to put “safety first.”
In speaking to reporters, Mayor Bater reiterated those safety concerns would be addressed first before they consider private development at the airport. Coming soon are budget deliberations at which time administration will outline their plans for the airport in 2020 and any funding needed.
“When we meet in a couple of weeks now to talk about budget we’ll see if there are proposed investments in the airport.”
