News
In the News: Russellville Airport runway to be restriped, resealed with FAA grant
Posted on August 26, 2015
Originally published by WHNT.
With plenty of other projects underway to redevelop downtown Russellville, city leaders said now is the best time to upgrade the Russellville Municipal Airport.
“The airport’s really great for economic development,” Mayor David Grissom explained. “We use that as one of our economic development tools. ”
Grissom applied for a grant through the Federal Aviation Administration, and got approved for the money. It will go toward addressing maintenance issues.
“Resealing the runway. The runway is about a mile long. It’ll be resealed and restriped and new markings on the runway.”
The grant totals about $183,000. Unlike most other projects, the city is only responsible for paying back a fraction of the cost.
“90 percent of that is federal money,” Grissom explained. “The city’s portion is five percent match, which is just over nine-thousand dollars, and also the state’s part is five percent.”
So, in the grand scope of things, the airport will get an almost $200,000 makeover, for less than ten. Not a bad deal.
“Anytime we can work on the maintenance, we got to keep it maintained, and we’re glad to be able to do that.”
There’s no timeline yet on when that work will start, but Mayor Grissom hopes to have most projects done in the next few months. They are also currently working to streetscape a few side streets to make the downtown area more uniform.