The Jefferson Municipal Airport will soon have a new addition.

The Jefferson City Council approved at their recent meeting in April a $1,190,028 base bid from Jensen Brothers to construct a new 100-foot by 100-foot box hangar. City Administrator Mike Palmer says Jensen’s bid was almost $200,000 under Bolton and Menk’s cost estimate for just the hangar. He points out the majority of funding for this project is from federal entities, including entitlement funds from the Federal Aviation Administration of $600,000 and about $300,000 from the newly signed into law, infrastructure bill. Palmer talks about where the local match will come from, which isn’t through property taxes.

“Plus the airport itself is kind of its own business. They get their own money from land leases, renting hangar spaces, (and) fuel sales out there. So the whole idea is they’re self-sustaining.”   

Palmer explains that the airport is running out of hangar space and he describes why this size of hangar is needed.

“It’s always been on the long-range plan for economic development. If those funds are available and the feds are pushing those kind(s) of expansion, I guess why not?  If we don’t use it, it just gets transferred to another airport. It’s kind of the next step up. We’re getting big enough industries and things here, and with the casino, for having small jets come in.”

There were some alternatives included with the bid documents such as installing additional pavement and a tug for larger aircraft, which can be added on if a grant is awarded from the Iowa Department of Transportation.