Logan County Airport gets some big upgrades

 

[September 21, 2019] 

Like many things that are out of sight, the Logan County Airport is often out of mind and forgotten. Yet, the airport holds great value to the community.

The Logan County Airport serves as an economic resource bringing guests to our community for work, entertainment and other purposes. It hosts on-ground commerce opportunities in an aviation maintenance shop, and the crop duster operation supports our agriculture base. It offers recreational opportunities in flight lessons and other general aviation pursuits, and hosts an aviation museum.

The non-towered field and low traffic location makes Logan County an ideal cross-country stop for pilots to bring their aircraft in for fuel, and many from other central Illinois airports or on longer flights regularly do.

The Logan County Airport now has two major projects underway that will improve its usage.

The first project is the installation of a new aircraft fueling facility. “We have had a lot of trouble with the old self-service fuel facility for aircraft over the past years,” said airport manager Gene Rohlfs. The old system started with used equipment such as the fuel pump, and the credit card computer system that was used for payment.

“The new system will have all new components such as the fuel pump, and a brand new 10,000 gallon fuel tank. The new system will also accept more brands of credit and debit cards rather than just Visa and Master Card,” Rohlfs said. Because of federal regulations, the entire system will have to be moved from its current location to a new one at the intersection of the main taxi way from the runway and the aircraft parking ramp. “While it will have only one tank currently for aviation fuel, it will have room for a second tank when jet fuel is needed at the airport.

“We have been looking forward to construction of this new fueling facility for some time,” said Rohlfs. The project is scheduled to be finished in the next 90 days.

The cost of the new fuel system will be shared by the federal government which will pay for 90% and local funds will pick up 10%. No local tax money will be spent on the airport. The only revenue available for the local portion of projects is from fuel sales at the airport, crops grown on the airport, hangar rent, and rent from the maintenance shop. “This is an unusual arrangement. Most airports receive tax money from municipalities or from airport authority taxing districts,” said Rohlfs.

The second project is the rehabilitation of the main runway. The top two inches of the runway will be milled off, and a new surface applied. Much of the milled material will be recycled into other parts of the project.

In addition, the south turnaround for aircraft will be increased in size to match the one on the north end making it easier for larger aircraft to turn around.


After the new pavement is applied, runway markings will be painted on.

Since the runway was built in 1947, it has been 70 feet wide. The current project will add five feet to the width of the runway with two-and-half feet added to each side, making the runway a more standard 75 feet in width. The project will take approximately 65 days. It started about two weeks ago.

During construction, the hope is to keep the grass runway open as often as possible to accommodate those flying in and pilots with aircraft based at Logan County Airport able to fly out.

The runway project is being paid for with 90% federal funds, 5% State of Illinois funds, and 5% local funds.

The reason for the state participation in costs of the runway project is that the runway is a non-revenue producing project.

As opposed to the fuel facility, which does produce revenue; the state does not fund revenue-making projects.

The next large project that Rohlfs is looking forward to is the rehabilitation of the aircraft parking ramp in front of the administration building.

"Big projects are wonderful, but the airport needs day-to-day maintenance such mowing grass, plowing snow off the runway and taxiways, and maintenance on the buildings and hangars,” said Rohlfs.

“The Logan County Airport is a source of pride for the community. I have had many compliments on the look and feel of the airport. It is a definite asset to Lincoln and Logan County,” said Gene Rohlfs.

[Curtis Fox with intro by Jan Youngquist]