A long-time piece of the Jefferson Municipal Airport is set to be put into motion at tonight’s City Council meeting.

Airport Commissioner Jim Forbes says for years they’ve been negotiating with adjacent landowners to acquire more land to extend runway 14/32 to accommodate larger aircraft.  The runway needs to be extended from 3,200-feet to 4,000-feet to handle twin-engine corporate airplanes.

The 4,000-foot minimum runway length is required for larger airplanes to be able to safely stop, especially “if the runway is wet or snowy or icy.” It also helps the larger airplanes abort a takeoff if needed.

The minimum land that is needed for the project is about 43-acres south of the airport.  David Hall owns the 40 acres for the runway extension. An additional 3.2 acres would be needed to relocate the gravel road and is owned by Betty Reinhart.  Forbes notes that the FAA requires a number of feet from the runway to the angle of the gravel road for airplane entries.

Forbes adds that a bonus for the residents of Jefferson is that FAA funding will make up 90% of the around $1 million project.  He says the project could be completed by late 2016 or 2017.

“We’ll probably be well into 2016 before any grading or changing of the road or any concrete goes down.  So it would be mid- to late 2016 on into 2017 before it is actually in use.”

The City Council will decide whether to approve the land acquisition at tonight’s meeting.