"Oregon airport launches terminal remodel plan"

Wednesday, June 23, 2004

Airport launches terminal remodel plan 
By Andrew Sirocchi
The Coos Bay (OR) World


Long neglected and undermaintained, the North Bend Municipal Airport is
on a new course to remodel its five-decade-old terminal and is in the
beginning stages of funding a new, multi-million-dollar passenger
building.

The Coos County Airport District on Tuesday accepted two grants to pay
for the separate projects - $25,000 from the Oregon Department of
Aviation to update its airport layout plan and more than $1 million from
the Federal Aviation Administration to rehabilitate the current terminal
building. 

Airport General Manager Gary LeTellier said the district needs to pursue
both projects because one terminal won't be enough to meet the airport's
future needs and the current building's age is making it increasingly
less viable.

"It wouldn't (need to be rehabilitated) if we were going to tear it down
but we're not," LeTellier said. "We're using it for a jet center."

A jet center would allow the airport to segregate general aviation and
private jets from commercial operations, such as Horizon Airlines'
regularly scheduled flights to and from Portland.

Director Helen Brunell Mineau said the airport needs to make
accommodations for the larger planes as well as the increase in
passengers headed to Bandon Dunes.

"We have more corporate jets than Portland," she said. "When we did the
plan, we were looking at six to eight passengers. Now, we're getting
30-passenger planes."

Mineau added that all of the airport renovation projects are part of the
district's plans to make the facility self-sufficient within the next 10
years.

"Everything we've done here is basically directed at those goals," she
said.

LeTellier said the rehabilitation of the terminal will cost about
$900,000. The remainder of the grant will be used for an environmental
assessment required for the airport to relocate a taxi way and fill a
portion of the bay.

The remodeling of the terminal should begin in August and be completed
by February 2005.

On a separate course, airport supporters had hoped to have a new
terminal funded and built in time for international professional
tournaments that will be held at the Bandon Dunes Golf Resort twice a
year, beginning in 2006. Plans for the new facility, however, now seem
to be at least five years down the road.

Airport District Chairman Clair Jones said a new terminal is necessary
to help make the airport self-sufficient, suggesting that along with a
new parking lot it would allow the district new sources of revenue. For
now, though, Jones said discussion for a new terminal are premature and
much of the future depends on whether funding vehicles can be found for
the construction of the terminal.

"It really is predicated on us being able to find the funds," he said.
"That's why we're going to do the remodel."

The construction of a new terminal is estimated to cost about $22
million but the entire project pivots on the completion of the airport
layout plan because any project not listed on the plan is ineligible for
federal funding.

An approximately $120,000 Airport Master Plan, which identified three
potential locations for a new terminal, was unveiled three years ago,
while the airport was under the management of the Oregon International
Port of Coos Bay.

Since the plan was finished, LeTellier said, new information has changed
the airport's needs. Bandon Dunes has begun attracting more passenger
jets than previously thought and it's now common to have nearly 30
private jets parked on the airport tarmac during the spring and fall.

LeTellier said the plan will be built upon and amended to identify a new
location for the terminal.

The terminal development is only one of a host of projects upgrading the
North Bend airport, much of which has long been neglected and
undermaintained. Another significant new project includes the
construction of an air traffic control tower, a $3 million project that
will allow North Bend local control over its air space.

Currently, air space is controlled by the Federal Aviation
Administration in Seattle, a condition that has limited local operations
at times when more than one airplane is in the air, according to
LeTellier. 

Attached Photo:

Renovation of the terminal building at North Bend Municipal Airport will
begin in August and plans are in the works for a new passenger building.

North Bend.jpg