SPANISH FORK -- It's been years since a Lear jet used the Spanish Fork-Springville Airport.
The more-than-60-year-old airport can easily accommodate the sleek corporate jets. But the local airport board wants even larger aircraft to be able to use the facility. And it wants more hangars, another apron and a better road.Improved landscaping at the entrance would be nice, too. And why not? Everyone has a wish list at Christmas.
A 1,200-foot runway extension should get under way in the next two years to meet Federal Aviation Administration guidelines.
"We're applying for funds through the FAA," said Richard Nielson, assistant public works director. A five-year plan has already been adopted and a 20-year plan is in the works. The five-year plan includes improved hangar access, an apron or aircraft parking area and an improved taxiway and rehabilitation and extension of a runway.
The airport board's wish list also includes acquiring land to enlarge the airport, road relocation and construction. The pilot's lounge, now no more than a block shack, will also be refurbished.
Meanwhile, a 20-year master plan is undergoing a revision, Spanish Fork city manager Dave Oyler said. City councils in both Spanish Fork and Springville recently awarded the bid to upgrade the plan to Armstrong Consultants of Grand Junction, Colo.
Built in the 1930s and dedicated in 1941, the airport owned by both cities is overdue for a facelift. But it will never be a commuter airport, said Allen Woodhouse, whose father Ralph Woodhouse helped launch the facility in 1936. Allen and his brothers Tom and Rex still operate it.
The biggest threat to expanding the airport is encroachment, Allen Woodhouse said. County officials are taking steps to see that that threat doesn't materialize. An overlay zone is in the works to prevent building close to the airport. If it's approved, airport authorities would have to submit a plan to the county to take advantage of the overlay zone, which would keep growth at bay, said Jeff Mendenhall, county director of planning.
"It's not automatic. It could be the same for Provo or any other licensed airport," Mendenhall said. "Growth is the concern of any airport (to make) sure they can last and not be eased out or not be able to grow any bigger."
If construction is allowed near the facility, it could lay waste to the millions of federal, state and local dollars that have gone into the airport, said Cris Child, newly named airport board chairman.
"If you don't protect your airspace, you doom the airport," he said.
Most of the money spent on the airport -- about 90 percent -- comes from the federal government. The other 10 percent is split among Spanish Fork, Springville and the state, Child said. Last year the airport had a budget of $71,000. This year it ballooned to $635,000 because of the new projects, anticipating grants to cover the expansion and refurbishing.
The new hangars and hangar access could cost as much as $230,000, rehabilitating the taxiways could cost $200,000 and reconstructing the apron about $100,000, Nielson said. But while the expansion would tap heavily into federal funds, it would also increase airport and city revenue, Child said.
The federal government has an interest in airports even as small as the one in Spanish Fork because of their use to the country. They are needed to fight fires and for occasional military use, he said. Business executives with their own private planes also use them, as small airports promote commerce. Situated in the heart of Utah County's farmland, it serves a major local industry -- agriculture. Its primary use is general aviation, but crop dusting, repairs and maintenance are major uses.
The Spanish Fork-Springville Airport is known throughout the West for refurbishing vintage and damaged aircraft, Child said. "It brings in a lot of business throughout the west," he said. That means more tax revenues for Utah, Spanish Fork and Springville.
Among the larger planes a longer runway would accommodate are aircraft used in fighting fires. Now helicopters dominate the type of firefighting aircraft that land and take off there, Child said.
A flying club houses its three aircraft there, including a Super Cub and a 200-mile-per-hour Bonanza. Child's vintage Piper Cub is also housed there. One of about 35 people who belong to the club, Child often rents the Bonanza to take long cross-country trips.
Budding pilots can also learn to fly through the Spanish Fork flight training school.
Child is pushing an interlocal agreement between Spanish Fork and Springville. For years the two cities have shared airport duties on a handshake. An agreement between the two cities that defines each city's responsibility has never existed. That will change within the next six months, he said.