Inside Kirksville
A conversation show from the City of Kirksville to inform residents about the processes and people that help make Kirksville happen.
Inside Kirksville
Flying High: Kirksville Regional Airport Grows With New Terminal and Destination
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It has been a year of excitement at Kirksville Regional Airport. The new terminal is open to passengers, and a new air service destination is starting soon.
Airport Director Jeff Lafountain joins the show to talk about those subjects, along with a look behind the scenes at what a day is like at the airport.
Hello there, and welcome to a new episode of Inside Kirksville. As always, this is Austin Miller, Communications Director for the City of Kirksville. I thank you for joining me for this month's installment of the podcast. It has been a busy year at Kirksville Regional Airport. The construction of a new expanded terminal began last year. The facility recently opened for passengers, and a new destination will soon be available for globe trotters, expanding travel opportunities for the area. Joining me this month to talk about that is Kirksville Regional Airport Director Jeff LaFountain. We'll go over how the new terminal came to fruition and how it is an improvement compared to the previous building, how the Essential Air Service Program provides commercial travel in Kirksville, and what goes on behind the scenes at an airport. If you're curious about air travel and aviation, or you've always wondered how the airport operates as a part of the city, this will be a great episode for you to enjoy. So here is my conversation with Jeff. So this month we are joined by Kirkswell Regional Airport Director Jeff Flafountain. Jeff, welcome and thanks for joining us. Thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here. Jeff, as I do with all of my grits, I just wanted to kind of give you a chance to tell us a little bit about yourself before we get going. So can you give us a brief introduction on yourself, your position, and what are the things that are going on under your role at the airport?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so I've been uh employee with the city of Kirksville for 11 years now. Uh, been the airport director for the last three. And during my time as airport director, um, we've had a perfect part one through nine inspection. We uh maintain all the safety and fueling and keep the airport up to FAA flight safety standards for all operational duties.
SPEAKER_01What is a part 139 inspection for people who might not know what that is?
SPEAKER_00A part one through nine inspection is all FAA safety qualities. So we're they're looking underneath concrete, they're looking at grass heights, fence, fuel, fire safety, all of your training records, making sure you're in compliance for any air carrier traffic, and making sure the airport is being ran in the event just like all the major airports are, to make sure everything is up to standards for pilots.
SPEAKER_01So that's a comprehensive look at all facets of the airport to maintain the, like you said, safety, compliance with the rules and things like that. Correct. And so what's a little bit of history at the airport? I mean, for anyone who might not know that the the airport dates back quite longer than some might expect.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so the history from what I know, rough, is the airport used to actually be located where Home Depot is currently. And at some point in the early seven late 60s, early 70s, the airport got moved to where it is now. Just south of town, a few miles. Just south of town, about seven miles out. Um the not terminal, but the FBO building and the whole airport area used to be on the north end, right alongside Highway 63. And in the 1970s, all of that got moved to where it currently is now. Um, with the design not changing much since then until recently, with the addition of our new terminal building replacing the old one.
SPEAKER_01So that's a good segue into a lot of the excitement that's been happening on over the last year or so at the airport, with the new terminal having been built now, being open. Can you tell us a little bit about the the opening thus far and the the ribbon cutting that you've got planned?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so we do have a ribbon cutting planned. Um, still working on a time, but it is going to be August 12th. Uh, we will have flyers out and we'll be putting that out on all social media aspects and getting it out there for all of the public to be there, not just for the ribbon cutting of the terminal, but also at airport appreciation day and an airline appreciation day, all wrapped into one to really commemorize the event of the of this building being built and to move in the right direction for the essential air service for our regional area.
SPEAKER_01So, what was the the process on going from the old terminal to this new terminal?
SPEAKER_00So the process was really uh stressful. Um, we had a lot of dates that needed to be met. Um, we are not 100% done with the terminal right now, but we are functional to be able to operate out of it on a safety standpoint, and everything is functional for that. Um, but in order to move forward with the project, we had to move out of the old building so we can demo the old building, build the handicapped parking lot, and ultimately just finish up this project. Um in the new building, there's still a few last-minute odds and ends that need to be done. But uh, all in all, it really came together. We did have a few hiccups with TSA, and that was the real big binding move on why we had to move when we did. Um, scheduling for that was about seven months out if we didn't meet that deadline. And they only went two days without their X-ray machine and walk through metal detector to so they had to do extra searches. Um, but with the smallest airport we have, it didn't really make too much of a delay.
SPEAKER_01So, what what is the comparison of the new terminal to the old building? That way people can kind of understand why that that upgrade was necessary.
SPEAKER_00So, when the terminal was first built in 1970, the previous one. Yep, the previous one, the old one, um, was actually built for around a 15 passenger service. And that's what our Central Air Service has always supposed to start it off at and be is a 15 passenger service. Um, for a while there we downgraded to Cape Air, nine passenger service, uh, which that building was still operational, but then uh four years ago we ended up switching to Contour Airlines and that made a 30-passenger jet, and that building became too small. Now it was always in the process to get that building replaced to you know update it from 1970s style, plus making it economical with heating and air conditioning and electrical. But now we got it set up for a 30 passenger plus service. And over the recent years with our airline, we've shown that staying with a 30 passenger service is actually helping the airport, helping our community and getting us to better destinations that will get people further and actually use the essential air service to what it's actually designed for.
SPEAKER_01And we'll get into a little bit more of that later, but just on like square footage, how do those two buildings compare?
SPEAKER_00So the previous terminal was a little over 3,000 square feet. The new current terminal is over 6,000 plus square feet.
SPEAKER_01So well, doubling in.
SPEAKER_00Yes. Uh, right when you walk in the main lobby now, I mean you you're pretty much greeted with a giant wide open area, not having to make a decision to turn left or right, greeted with TSA right when you walk in. Now, when you walk in, you got a nice big lobby to make your decisions of using the restroom, go to the check-in counter, or go right to TSA to check in for your flight and go through security.
SPEAKER_01What have the reviews been thus far from travelers that you've heard?
SPEAKER_00So far, everyone's really liked it. They are extremely pleased with the hold room now because our previous hold room, there was no restroom. So if you had to go back through and go to the room, you had to go back through security. So now, once you get through security, there's actually restrooms in there for you to utilize while you're waiting to board your plane, plus water fountains for you to refill your water bottle to bring on the plane with you as well, so you don't get stuck drinking you know the soda and coffee and stuff that they serve on the flight.
SPEAKER_01And more space. I mean, that's that space is substantially larger. You're not cramming for 30 people into a side room. It's it's a space built to hold 30 plus people.
SPEAKER_00Oh, absolutely. Yeah. So I mean the previous terminal, the hold room held maximum 15, and with a 30 passenger jet, sometimes they had to run that through in two cycles. Um, well, now we got it set up seating-wise for 30, but the room actually holds over 60. But for now, we got it set up for our current airline, and there's tons of space everywhere, and a little extra is coming in the future, but right now it's uh looking good.
SPEAKER_01And then some modern amenities, some comfortable seating, charging ports. I mean, a nice big view of the runway as well. So very, very nice upgrade on that space.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. And uh there is the possibility of some for some future murals to go in there, but it's definitely a lot better space. You feel more relaxed and open while you're waiting for your flight to take off to board the plane. And again, like you said, you get to a whole visual of the entire airport to see the grounds crew out there maintaining the field, other planes that are coming in on the private side, and just getting a full look to see what's actually going on on the airport side rather than just looking through a tiny door like you had two before.
SPEAKER_01Aside from just the general excitement of a new building, there's also the the interesting backstory of how it came to be. So, could can you walk us through the the the funding mechanism of how this building came together?
SPEAKER_00So originally we were going to be using a few different pots of money that we had through the bipartisan infrastructure law, most commonly known as bill. So we were gonna use those funds to fund the terminal project, but then we Congressman Sam Graves' office funded our project mostly through his bill that he had. Um, and it made up about 80, a little over 80% of the funding for it. So then we went to the state for some congressional direct spending funds through uh Cindy O'Laughlin's office and got a $1.8 million to use towards the areas of this project that were not covered by Congressman Sam Graves' money, um, which would be the TSA suite, the TSA checkpoint, Contor's office, um, all those areas. And then we're also able to use it as a local match. Um, and the plus side to all that, I mean, so now we have our tax dollars are actually working for our area, and it it has made it where the the hardship on the city for a local match on a project of this size, a seven million dollar terminal project, our local match would have been six hundred plus thousand dollars for this pro and now it's down to zero.
SPEAKER_01So this was federal and state appropriations that that help secure this building correct. Correct, yeah. So as you said, that then that frees up local revenues that we can then use for for other things as well, and not having spent seven million dollars on absolutely so when you we talk about this new building, um what is the the benefit for the public, not just Kirkstall residents who are looking to fly, but also the the regional aspect of the airport services.
SPEAKER_00So the benefits to it, it it all revolves around the essential air service. Um, you know, we're able to expand in the future if we see that we can do that. Um, right now we're in a really great spot. We're getting a lot of extra funding because of our employments and our passenger numbers. But uh with this bigger building, we've shown that we can continue to build this program and get it to what it needs to be and what it's supposed to be because they're actually cutting out a lot of the smaller essential air service programs. And with us growing, it's showing that hey, this area needs it and we're utilizing it correctly, and we're growing in a point where you know we could potentially go over a 30-passenger plane and go to uh 50 to 60 passenger name brand American aircraft, uh, American Airlines, and go to the same major hubs that we're going to now. I think that's a good segue.
SPEAKER_01And so could you explain a little bit more about what the essential air service program is and how that basically operates the air service for the airport?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so the essential air service program is uh through the Department of Transportation, and the way it works is it's designed to get you from a rural community area where your major hubs are, you know, within over three hours away. And getting you to a major hub is to help you get further. So with our essential air service program in the past, we did go to St. Louis with a smaller airline. Um, we were going to St. Louis, and that was supposed to be utilized to get you from St. Louis and beyond after that. Uh, it was being utilized for a lot of day trips, but we also doing the switch to Chicago helped the colleges because a lot of those students were flying to Chicago anyway with the international students, and then flying to St. Louis and then flying to Kirksville on a nine-passenger plane. Uh, with a 30-passenger plane, we've been able to up our employments, get a lot of those students taken care of, and really show that we're moving in the right direction because, like I said before, they're cutting the funding for these small little essential air service puddle jumpers, and they're looking more for the longer routes that are actually using these funds and these subsidies correctly.
SPEAKER_01And then you said Department of Transportation, that is the U.S. Department of Transportation. So this is a federally ran program. Correct. And when you mention uh Chicago, can you go through the bidding process and selection and how that all works on and it's and its terms every few years?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so every three years the Department of Transportation puts out a request for proposals to all airlines providing central air service or providing any air carrier service. And you will get back sometimes, you know, 10 to 15 of those. Other other times, one this in this case in the recent round, we only got three. With that comes what we are requesting for service. So in this last round, we requested a multiple destination bid, and out of that, only two air are only one airline followed that, and the other two were invalid proposals.
SPEAKER_01And so then what was the process from there?
SPEAKER_00So from there we created a committee uh built up of uh some airport transportation committee members, um, tourism, um, a few other city officials, and then a few other uh people that work on the boards and commissions to go through those proposals um and then eventually meet with the airlines and hear their feedback. Um and and that it was a pretty easy, easy step because uh through the bidding, the proposal process, there was a lot of uh things that bleed pointed to one direction for following what was requested.
SPEAKER_01So I know we've we've announced what that that new run is a while ago and it's starting here soon. So could you just tell us about what that what what that run is now with Contour?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so Contour is gonna be now flying to Dallas, Fort Worth, Texas, and Chicago O'Hare. Um, the tentative schedule right now is gonna be they're gonna leave out of Dallas in the morning, come to Kirksville, and then go from Kirksville to Chicago, and then repeat the process backwards, going from Chicago to Kirksville, Kirksville to Dallas, and then we will still have they'll be doing that five times a week, and then the other two times will be just round trip flights to Chicago and back. Um, because we have seven flights to Chicago and five flights to Dallas every week.
SPEAKER_01So between those two, I mean those are two very large airports, there's a lot of connections that are then available from either of those two destinations.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I mean, and with that, it helps a lot of the people that have, you know, had to do what I call the southwest or yeah, southwest triangle that you see on their napkins where they do the little triangle stops. Um now they don't have to fly to Chicago to fly south. Now they can fly south and then from there decide if they want to go east or west or you know, even further south. Um it it makes it where there's a little bit more better connections and you're going to a little bit less of a busier airport. There's still you know top five. Um they're in the top ten, but uh it's a little a lot less busier than Chicago O'Hare. And so what when does that start? It'll start August 1st. And it'll be going through for the next three years.
SPEAKER_01How exciting is that to add as a second destination?
SPEAKER_00It it's very exciting. I mean, uh, like I said, it it opens up travel for everybody. Uh, it makes it where you're not having to worry about going north to Chicago to every year go down south for a beach vacation or wherever you might go. It it really paints a full picture and it's gonna help, you know, not just our rural community, but help everyone else because we try to mimic what Columbia Regional Airport does. And they're not subsidized, and we are, and we pick up a lot of traffic from Columbia travelers that will drive the hour and a half to Kirksville to get the cheaper flight. And in doing that, it also helps us when there is the rare cancellations or the delays, we can ground transport people to Columbia and they can hop on the plane from there because they're contours partner with American Airlines.
SPEAKER_01Air travel certainly, I mean, it comes with its risks of weather delays or mechanical issues. How does this second leg um help alleviate some of that stuff behind the scenes?
SPEAKER_00So with the Dallas run, with the plane is gonna most days overnight in Dallas, and that will make maintenance a whole lot better because currently they're doing their maintenance overnight in Kirksville, and sometimes when it's a major mechanical issue, it takes at minimum six hours to get apart here because some of these parts you can't just keep on the shelf. Um, so those times are gonna delay the weather in Texas. Yes, they still have bad storms, but it's less than Chicago and it's not as busy. Um, so I mean the delays and the cancellations for on the airline side are gonna be less. Um, we will still have those one-off, you know, weather events or you know, something along that nature, like Chicago with ground stops, Texas probably will have those too. Um, in the wintertime, if Dallas has any icing events, it's gonna be a delay or a cancellation. But uh it's definitely gonna minimize the cancellations for sure, and then the the delays will drop down a lot.
SPEAKER_01What are the ways that people stay in touch with you or the airport when it comes to air service?
SPEAKER_00So when it comes to the air service, the best way is to email me uh through my city email. But other than that, a a lot of times when it comes to any contour questions or answers, Contour is gonna be the one that can give you the best results and help you fix a reimbursement, help you fix anything like that. And they'll they'll defer you to their customer service line. Um but as far as the airport side of things, we we really don't have much involvement with reimbursements or complaints for Contour. We take a look into them and build a report, but when it is come for you getting reimbursed for a canceled flight or a delay or a missed flight or booking it improperly through a third party because you're not going to get this ticket cheaper there. Um, Contour handles those.
SPEAKER_01Because ultimately they are a federally selected vendor using our facility.
SPEAKER_00Right. Yeah, I mean they're they're their own entity, their own business. They just uh are providing our essential air service for us for the next three years.
SPEAKER_01And you kind of mentioned there that yeah, the the the encouragement when booking is to go through them directly, correct.
SPEAKER_00Them directly andor their partnered airlines. So American Airlines, United, um, I think it's also Alaskan and there's one other one. But going through their partnered airlines, who they can bring your carry-on bag with you all the way through, that is very beneficial because if they do have a cancellation or a delay that makes you miss your flight, they can rebook you. But if you do it through booking or Expedia or any of those third-party vendors, you're not getting a deal on anything because it's already subsidized and it's gonna be the lowest price you're gonna pay. Um, you might get a deal on the other side of the airline tickets, but it's they don't do reimbursements when you book it that way. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01We talked about the ways the new terminal benefits the community in the region. How does this additional service do that as well?
SPEAKER_00So the additional service actually will help us build our employment numbers. Uh, recently, they have changed our funding eligibility for that. So in the past, we've always gotten $150,000 a year because of our employments because we did not reach the 10,000 employment goal of passengers served from Kirksville to our destination. So in this case, Kirksville to Chicago. And that's funding from USDOT. Yes. Okay. Yep. So and those and those funds can be banked for four years and used towards any projects you do within that time. And after four years, they expire and get recirculated back into the system and get awarded elsewhere. Um, but recently we actually have been upgraded. Uh in 2025, we got somewhere around 600 and something thousand, and then 2026, 400 and something thousand, coming up to a little over 1.2 million dollars just because of our growing numbers of employments and the passengers that we've served from Kirksville to Chicago. And all of that gets to be saved for four years to go for any other future airport improvement projects that we have our list, we have to submit to the MODOT and uh everyone else every single year to keep that list current for our capital improvement plan.
SPEAKER_01So if employments continue to go up, that means there are for future additions that improvements that are then open the door for you at the airport.
SPEAKER_00Correct. Yeah. I mean, if employments continue to grow and we actually do hit that 10,000 mark, we'll be capped off at $1.5 million every year as long as we meet that goal. So doing that, that's going to help fund some of those projects on that list, which is a wildlife fence skirt. Um, we have a runway, not a rehabilitation project, but a runway removal and replacement. Because this runway, we did do a rehabilitation in 2022, wrapped up in 2023, but it's a 1970s runway and band-aids need to be torn off sometimes and replaced. How are employments counted? Is there a certain direction or how does that work? Employments are counted solely by passengers leaving Kirksville and going to Chicago in this case, in the future, be Chicago and Dallas. Um with our previous runs, they were counted just to Saint just to St. Louis. And then I mean, because we always go over 10,000 passengers. There's some years where we get to 15,000, but that's round trip passengers. That's counting the passengers going from Kirksville to Chicago and Chicago back to Kirksville. But they solely want to know the number of passengers that we serve our area going to the major hubs and beyond.
SPEAKER_01Gotcha. Anything else on that new service that we didn't cover that you think would be worth mentioning?
SPEAKER_00No, I mean I look I look forward to it. I'm excited for it. It opens up a whole other area for people to go. Um, you know, Chicago has a lot of things offer for the people that do do still use it for day trips. Dallas, Texas has a whole bunch of things for people to do if they want to use it for a day trip as well. And with a 30-passenger plane, it opens that up for that. Whereas with the nine passenger planes from the past, people would be missing out on having to catch a connecting flight because there was no tickets available. So with this, it makes it a lot easier for both uses, even though the practical use is supposed to be to go to a major major hub and beyond.
SPEAKER_01So thus far we've covered a lot of the more public-facing side being the essential air service, but there's certainly more that goes on at the airport, just than folks flying to Chicago or soon to be Dallas. Upcoming, you're gonna get a lot of traffic for your private planes, passenger planes. Can you tell us about Oshkosh and some of that traffic and what all is entailed there?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so Oshkosh, Wisconsin, they do a big EAA air adventure fly-in. Uh a lot of people commonly refer to it as the Sturgis of Airplane shows. Uh everybody's kind of heard of the Sturgis bike rally, but that's what they compare it to. It's a week-long air show. I mean, they do multiple airshows during the day, they do nighttime airshows, they have firework events. And what what happens for us is we pick up a whole bunch of traffic that is coming from the southern area heading up to Wisconsin. So we'll pick them up from Texas and Arizona and everywhere and anywhere southern of us that are on their way to Wisconsin. And during that, we uh provide fuel discounts and lunch and bottles of water and all the things that they might need just for a quick little rest stop, and so they can head on their way. But it's also the might be the only taste of Kirksville that they get. So we always try to make sure the airport, like always, is looking like a golf course. Um, and all of our facilities are the best example that we can give them of what Kirksville has to offer. And, you know, it's really benefited over the past three years of doing the hamburgs and hot dogs and the chips and bottled water. Um, more and more people are coming back, even when fuel prices are doing what they're doing and getting a little bit above the normal.
SPEAKER_01Why was that something that you thought would be important in terms of a kind of ambassadorship towards people who are maybe only going to stop for 10, 15, 20 minutes?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so I mean, we've always done a fuel discount, um, but a lot of people will utilize our courtesy card to go into town and grab some lunch. And sometimes they don't have enough time to do that because with Oshkosh, they only have certain windows where they can land to get into the airport before they close it down for all the air shows. So a lot of times they're eating their bag of chips and home sandwiches that they bring. And sometimes people don't have anything at all. So I saw that over the 11 years I've been there and started providing free hamburgs, hot dogs, chips, and bottles of water. Um, donations always welcome. But in doing that and advertising it on the Oshkosh website and getting it out there for any pilot that's trying to plan their route, we've picked up traffic during that time. And a lot of people remember that. And when Oshkosh is not going on, they come back to Kirksville to utilize our services because we tried treated them right the first time they came through.
SPEAKER_01So, what does that traffic increase look like during those couple of weeks that that's going on?
SPEAKER_00It varies from year to year depending on weather. Um, some years we could go through about 60 to 70 planes a day, and then other times you got your small little 10 to 15 planes. But I mean, every plane that comes in, it's not your average aircraft. I mean, you'll see a lot of ones you see constantly in the sky around Kirksville, but you'll see a lot of one-off airplanes as well, a lot of experimentals, home-built stuff that have their own little special flair to them that really catch your eye. And then you'll see a lot of old military planes come through, like the Mustangs and the Texans and the T9s and stuff. I mean, you'll you'll see we had B B2s and uh uh DC three come through. I mean, lots of cool things come through for Oshkosh on their way up there.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, what is it like to see a variety of aircraft come in, but also get to meet people from Texas or Louisiana or somewhere on their way?
SPEAKER_00I've always said that's one of my favorite things about working at the airport is number one, you never the days are never the same. You never know what you're gonna do, you never know who you're gonna see. But at any given day, I could talk to anyone from across the United States because we're we advertise as we're the midway point to everywhere. We're a uncontrolled airspace with no tower, so they can get in and out, and we can get them filled up in 15 minutes and get them back on their way. And in doing that, and then seeing all these wonderful old antique aircraft, um, it just really makes your days go by and really makes it exciting to be out there because you never know what you're gonna see. I mean, one of the coolest planes I ever saw was is called the long easy. And when the way that that plane gets parked, is the pilot hops out and has to hand crank down the nose gear. So the nose of the plane sits on the concrete and it looks looks like it's not like something bad happened, but that's how it, that's how it gets parked. And it's it's just one of those cool little things you wouldn't ordinarily see anywhere else.
SPEAKER_01Along with just that kind of traffic, there's also a lot of people who come and go through the airport that the general public would have no idea whether it's business related, uh government related. There's a lot of um entryways for a lot of stuff that happens that happens over at the airport.
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah. I mean, just this morning we had a back Blackhawk come in again today for getting some more fuel on a training run that they were doing. Um, and then right now, currently we have the helicopter doing the groundwater survey operating out of the airport. Um, all of that, even anybody else coming in for business, every single one of them buy fuel from us. And I mean, the the groundwater survey, they're buying 3,000 gallons worth of jet fuel for their survey. And I mean, all that goes back into our city because I'm selling fuel as as a city-owned airport, and all that goes back into it. So, I mean, the way all the airport helps the community is it a lot of these businesses that come in, their first stop on a big corporation deal is they're gonna stop in at the airport and then go into town and look at the resources. Kraft Food flies in, Menards, Hobby Lobby, Walmart, all of the all of our major corporations here in town utilize the airport. Even our newest bank, Equity Bank, they fly in constantly to check in all their branches. Um, so everything kind of falls through the airport in some way or another when it takes not just for Kirksville growing, but also the surrounding communities.
SPEAKER_01And then when you add in your your hobbyist flyers as well, just kind of there there is a steady bit of traffic that comes through and out of the airport.
SPEAKER_00Oh, oh, absolutely. Yeah. I mean, on any given day, it all really depends on the weather. A lot of them are fair weather flyers, but I mean, you never you're always gonna see a plane land at the airport every day because I mean it's you never know who's gonna come in, but people people are flying, and there's a lot more things provided at Kirksville than there is in the surrounding smaller airports for safety-wise. So they they like to utilize us.
SPEAKER_01You talked about selling fuel, and earlier you talked a little bit about the things that you have to keep in check as part of your inspection, but kind of give us a look at your your operation, your staff, and what that looks like on a day-to-day.
SPEAKER_00So to run the entire airport, we are ran with four people. One of those people is myself, and then I have three other airport operators underneath me. Our daily tasks are to fuel planes, mow grass, push snow, fix any of the airport lighting, fix fence. Uh, we're first responders on a what on a plane crash because the fire department's seven miles away. So we have to go every year through a live training event to go through a burning aircraft and get certified on those firefighting practices. And then, I mean, it's it's just you never you never know what you're gonna do every day because there's this wide range of things we have to do, and it just keeps it mixed up and keeps it where you're you know not falling in the same routine every day. You're doing something different, and it's fun and exciting, and you always you always have something new to do.
SPEAKER_01Do you have an acreage total of how many of how much ground you have to maintain?
SPEAKER_00I used to know that number. It uh it's it's it's a lot. I mean, it's I th I believe it's somewhere over 400 acres, be my guess inside the fence. Uh, we do lease out areas close by the fence that are airport property for farming and agriculture because those areas are part of our noise abatement area. So uh buildings and stuff can't go in there, but we can do farming in those areas. Um but we we mow everything, we have to keep it to FA height restrictions, we can't let it overgrow, and that also pulls in wildlife and can cause you know some serious things when aircraft hits it because those are just soda cans in the sky, and uh soda can hitting a bird or a deer or anything like that can cause some very serious damage, and uh so we have to keep everything to kind of deter that, but also keep it looking nice.
SPEAKER_01That's yeah, I think something people a lot of people maybe not take into consideration that yeah, you have a large amount of wide open space that then leaves room for other things to get in, no matter how how much you can try to keep those things out.
SPEAKER_00Oh, absolutely.
SPEAKER_01What what does that look like then?
SPEAKER_00Um so every every two to three days we do a whole perimeter fence check. Uh we go through and it doesn't matter how many times you fix a spot, you'll fix it, and a raccoon or something will dig a few feet off to the left or right of it, and you gotta go and fix that area and add more rock and everything. Uh, in the future, that's gonna be better for us because one of our capital improvement plan projects is a wildlife fence skirt that will be down underneath the ground. So if they dig down, they'll be keep meeting fence for for a ways down. So we won't have to replace so many digs and uh do the training with the wildlife more frequently than we do now to keep things off the airfield to prevent them from hitting an aircraft.
SPEAKER_01And then when you talk about maintenance, last year you did some uh striping and painting renovations as well. Can you talk about that aspect of well of the of when it comes to the runway and keeping that stuff maintained that way when people are trying to land, they can do so safely?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so there's some pretty uh severe paint marking rules and regulations through the FAA that you have to keep maintained, especially because we're a part 139 airport, we're held to the same standards as all the major airports. So if we have you know rubber buildup or paint's fading and reflectivity's not there, we have to go through and repaint. And when you do that, you have to do the entire airfield, you can't just do the few spots that are losing it. Um, because that's the regulation on you can't do touch-ups. If you're gonna touch up an area, you gotta do the whole thing. And so we did that last year. We've we've been very good with our snow removal plan and staying off of those paint areas to gain life out of it. Our, you know, currently we're getting about two and a half, three years of paint life with reflectivity and wear on them from snow removal. A lot of that has helped with our mild winters we've had. But uh ordinarily all airports are having to repaint their entire airfield at least once a year. So we've been pretty fortunate on that with the plans we have in place on staying off of those areas in the winter time and uh some other plans we have to get rid of the rubber buildup from when planes land on those painted areas have helped the longevity of not having to paint every single year.
SPEAKER_01And that's a specialized kind of paint, not just going to a hardware store and getting a bucket.
SPEAKER_00Correct. I mean, those the glass beads for the reflectivity, those are a special FAA spec, and they have to be, they go through the reflectometer and check to make sure that they're beaded in there correctly and not going to be loose to get ingested by a plane engine. Um it's a long process.
SPEAKER_01Are there other aspects to the airport that are maybe common to you at this point, but you think the general public might be surprised by or not as knowledgeable about?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I mean again, I think we touched on it just a little bit. Uh I know anywhere I go and I say I work for the airport, they always ask, I mean, in the past, how do you how do you like working for Cape Air or how do you like working for Contour now? It's the common misconception, you know, the airlines are there because we're there. It's not we're there because the airline's there. We we run the entire airport and we keep it going. We have 30 other tenants that fly out of the airport that are occupying our tea hangers and other private hangers on the field and dealing with them on a you know weekly, daily basis, depending on how much they operate out of the airport. But uh it's you you never know what you're gonna see, and we encourage the public to come out. We do a lot of tours with the schools. Um, we're a public use airport, so it's you know, even though we're apart 139, we have security regulations, we're gonna see you when you walk through the gate and we're gonna stop you. But we we encourage people to come out and uh we can talk about the airport and give a tour. You can see planes land, and uh typically if you look around the contour schedule on when they're gonna come in and come out, that's a great time to see that whole operation from the private side. Uh, we have picnic tables for you just to sit out and check things out.
SPEAKER_01Do you have folks that like to just come out and watch the plane land over the course of an afternoon or something like that?
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah. Usually every evening on a weekend on a nice cool summer night. I mean, people will come out and check out those the planes coming in because a lot of times uh the older style, cool, antique aircraft, they'll fly in the late evenings and do touch and goes on the runway and the grass strip and do you know when the weather's not too hot in there because these planes they perform the best when it's hot out and they perform the worst when it's cold out. Um, but a lot of these older aircraft they don't have AC, they're really hot when you're flying them, so they they gotta be mindful of what time of day they're flying just leisurely. And uh, but I mean every every evening someone's always out there checking out stuff.
SPEAKER_01Any other parting information about the airport or ways that people could get involved if they ever have any interest in flying?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I mean, uh in the future here we do have a flight school that is in the in the works of getting operational. Um, I'll have more information on that, you know, hopefully soon. But we'll we we got pilot instructors here, and it's just a matter of getting everything set to be rolled out for them to actually be operational here through the FAA and the TSA and uh give people instruction on becoming an uh a pilot, a private pilot, and then potentially getting enough hours to move on to the airlines or move up in their training. Well, that's exciting and pretty neat to hear. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Any other additional information about the airport, Jeff? Nope, that's that's all I got. Well, one more time, do you want to roll us through and remind everybody about the ribbon cutting on the terminal?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so again, ribbon cutting on the new terminal building and project is gonna be August 12th. Uh, be on the lookout for the flyer with the times and exactly what kind of events we're gonna have because it's not just gonna be an event for the ribbon cutting for the terminal, it's also gonna be an airport appreciation day, airline appreciation. Um, I believe the airline is working on getting some door prizes, possibly a few free round trip tickets thrown in there as well. Um, but we're we're gonna make a grand, grand event out of it because our elected officials that funded this project will be there, or someone from their office will be there. Um, everyone that this building affects on the airport side with TSA, the airline, um, the FA MODOT, everybody that's been involved in this project will be there. But we want we really want the public to come out and see what what they will have now and go from there.
SPEAKER_01Well, Jeff, I appreciate you taking time out this month to chat with us.
SPEAKER_00Thank you very much for having me.
SPEAKER_01Thanks again for listening to this month's episode of Inside Kirksville. I hope you're enjoying the show and learning more about the people and processes that make Kirksville happen. If you're liking the show, make sure to share it with friends and family. Jeff mentioned the upcoming ribbon cutting for the airport terminal, so make sure to follow the City of Kirksville on Facebook and Instagram to know when those details are announced. It's also a good way to stay up to date with things that are happening around the city. Subscribe to Insight Kirksville on your podcast platform of choice. That way you see when a new episode releases each month. I'll see you again shortly in August.