City Council Authorizes Grant Application for Work at Plainview-Hale County Airport

Mar. 28—The Plainview City Council authorized the submittal of a grant application to the Economic Development Administration to fund the construction of a new terminal building and improvements to the east ramp at the Plainview-Hale County Airport.

The resolution was unanimously approved with a 5-0 vote. Council members Steve Martinez and Lorie Rodriguez were absent.

The approval came about two weeks after the Hale County Commissioners approved the resolution, which was acknowledged by Mayor Charles Starnes Tuesday night.

While presenting the resolution to the City Council, Tim Crosswhite, capital improvement project manager for Plainview, said explained that the bid for a $2 million grant through EDA was rejected.

"It had nothing to do with our application or anything like that," said Crosswhite. "It's just that EDA ran out of funds and couldn't fund that project."

EDA encouraged the city and county to reapply for $1.5 million and gave some pointers to enhance the application which would cover costs for the terminal building.

What is the 'terminal building' and why is it important for the airport?

The local airport is a popular stopover destination. According to John Tye, a longtime member of the Plainview-Hale County Airport Board, the airport provides competitive rates for fuel, a perk of Tradewind FBO (fixed base operator) being a member of the Corporate Aircraft Association.

It's also a convenient cross country stopping point, added Tye, who is a longtime pilot.

Guided by the Airport Master Plan, which was established in 2015, the board set out to make improvements with the ultimate goal of evolving the airport into a place that would entice more visitors as well as draw more funding.

The terminal building would be the first place visitors would stop.

Located on the southeast side of the airport, the existing terminal building has long been vacant. The plan is to knock that building down and make way for a bigger terminal building.

The new facility would essentially be a visitor's center. The vision for the building is to create a place where pilots can pop in for a break before their next flight and where FBO and other airport employees can have office space. There are also plans for a conference area and a restaurant, Tye explained.

As the Airport Board put plans together for the terminal building and other projects around the facility, an advisory committee toured five different airports, John Hamilton told the Herald. Hamilton is executive vice president for engineering for Parkhill. He worked with the board to develop the plans while his title was still engineer for the company, which at the time was called Parkhill, Smith & Cooper.

"We went around Texas and Oklahoma and sat down with airport leadership teams," Hamilton said.

The committee asked what they'd do differently if they had to do it all over, what they would change if they could, what amenities are used the most and least, etc. The goal was to put together an efficient and functional terminal building.

The results of those discussions are the basis for what's guiding the terminal building project today.

During Tuesday's City Council meeting, Mayor Starnes mentioned tours of airports in Dalhart and the Enid, Oklahoma. Other facilities toured include airports in Odessa and Tradewind Airport in Amarillo.

"We look terrible," Starnes said. "We need our new terminal to put us on a competitive par with these other similar-sized airports in our region so we can continue to capture that cross-country revenue."

Currently, when pilots land, their first stop is typically the FBO office which has a sitting area surrounded by windows that leads into office space and conference rooms.

It's a well-kept space but the tours of other facilities showed how much better it could be. While Tye couldn't say how long the office has been there, he noted that he's been a local pilot for about 50 years and in the time since the airport was established, the building hasn't changed.

With the designing phase underway, stakeholders, like Tye and Hamilton, are looking forward to the project's completion.

"We're probably one third of the way through the design phase," Hamilton told the Herald in late February.

Plans for parking, fencing, paving, fueling systems, and security aspects are still being hashed out, he added.

That's why the grant funding is important.

"It's all contingent upon funding," Hamilton said. "We're working with all the different funding agencies."

While the terminal building is an important piece of the changes at the airport, there are other changes underway including the replacement of hangars, improvements to the ramps and more.

During his presentation to the City Council Tuesday night, Crosswhite happened to mention the airport's change in classification this year. He said it went from being classified as a general aviation facility to a regional aviation facility.

"What that means is more dollars for us to help operate the airport," he said. — Here's a look at a few topics the Herald has covered:

Hale County Commissioners approve airport's EDA grant application

Airport Master Plan guiding development progress airport

Hale County airport improvements approved as updates still ongoing

Plainview-Hale County Airport Board mulls designs for renovations

Plainview-Hale County Airport has deep history

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