Airport to add operator; Employee at Fall River Mills site would provide help for pilots

FALL RIVER MILLS -- As workers finish lengthening Tonkin Field's runway this week, a plan to add an onsite operator could make the small airport in the county's northeast even more popular.

Shasta County is advertising for a fixed-base operator at the airport, which attracts about 20,000 takeoffs and landings a year, Public Works Director Pat Minturn said.

That person would serve as a regular plane mechanic and could provide meals and possibly jet fuel to fliers coming and going.

In exchange, the county would be paid rent for a piece of airport land the operator would lease for 31 years, Minturn said.

And pilots might find they get faster, more personal customer service for their planes' oil changes and maintenance and for less than they pay at huge airports like Sacramento or Los Angeles, Minturn said.

"Here's a chance for Fall River to compete head-to-head with LAX," he said.

Meanwhile, work on lengthening the airport's 3,600-foot runway to 5,000 feet has closed it for almost two weeks, but it should reopen about 5 p.m. today, Minturn said.

The extension allows more plane types to land safer, in more extreme weather and carrying more fuel, said pilot and retired electric contractor Dick Nemanic

of McArthur.

That includes aircraft fighting fires and carrying emergency patients to Mayers Memorial Hospital, as well as crop-dusters serving ranchers and recreational pilots arriving for a weekend of Fall River trout fishing or golf.

Reporter Kimberly Ross can be reached at 225-8339 or at [email protected]