By BRETT R. WHITLING
Clarion News writer
With $1 billion in federal grants opening, the Clarion County Airport has an opportunity to make safety improvements.
Mark Scappe of RBS Consultants recently addressed the Clarion County Airport Authority with “good news and bad news.”
The good news was the information about the money being available. Scappe said the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration is offering $1 billion in grants to small airports to make safety upgrades and Clarion’s airport qualifies for funding.
The money comes 100 percent from the federal government with no county match needed.
The bad news of the situation is the competition for the grant money is intense.
Scappe said to receive funding in 2018, the project has to be ready to go out to bid by Aug 8.
Because so few airports would be ready to apply within a few weeks, he expects any airport applying for this year’s round of grants will be approved.
Funding for the round of grants in 2019 must to be submitted by November in letterform; although the requirements are unknown at this point.
Scappe expects most airports will be applying for the 2019 grant distribution which makes the competition much stronger.
A project’s approval could be dependent on how important the FAA sees a safety improvement.
Clarion County Airport Authority Vice President Dave Cyphert said runway lights have been a problem and would like to go to LED lights. He suggested a full electrical project to improve several components to the airport.
Scappe said lighting would probably be higher on the FAA’s list.
Another option the airport authority had in mind was relocating the airport’s fuel farm for safety reasons.
Moving the fuel farm to a different location was estimated to cost $700,000.
Scappe said airports are able to submit more than one grant application.
No decision was made on what project would be considered.