Midvale Airport needs funds to rebuild airstrip

   The runway at the Lee Williams Memorial Airport in Midvale is approaching the end of its life span, triggering an effort to raise the estimated $400,000 cost to have it replaced.
 Formerly composed of dirt, the 2,800-foot airstrip was first paved in 2000 and is now showing signs of age, according to Airport Manager Karson Craig who attended a July 19 Washington County Commissioner meeting in Weiser to discuss possible funding assistance.
 Midvale’s airstrip is not in poor condition.
 There are cracks that are regularly repaired, but Craig said they are getting a little bigger with each passing year.
 “We are asking the County to bump up the amount of money we get annually for the airstrip,” he told the Weiser Signal American. “There is going to be a cost sharing to get it paved. We have to come up with about $100,000, but we’ll never be able to save up enough money to pay our percentage of it with the rate we are getting from the County.”
 Currently, Washington County, through its mill levy, appropriates $5,000 to the Midvale Airport for maintenance and other airport expenses, according to Craig.
 The County’s mill levy is a property tax based on assessed value. The rate of the tax is equal to one dollar per $1,000 of assessed value, according to Washington County Assessor Debbie Moxley-Potter.
 Craig said he is seeking the increase on a temporary basis.
 “This wouldn’t last forever,” he said. “Once we get the runway paved, we would be completely in favor of dropping this money back down to a more realistic level, maybe even back down to $5,000.”
 Carson, who also works in excavation and is the assistant fire chief for the Midvale Fire Department, said he never spends the annual appropriation, relying on revenue from rental space, which includes two hangars, a jet engine repair shop, and five tie-down spots.
 “All the money the County gives us, I don’t spend hardly any of it,” he said. “Ground rental and tie-down fees pretty much pay for all of the yearly costs – maintenance, power bill, weed spraying, just the day-to-day maintenance of the airstrip.”
 At the July 19 meeting, commissioners agreed to take the matter under consideration, which would involve, in large part, taking a look at how an increase would affect the levy.
 “Even if they do raise our County share of money, it’s still going to take three or four years to save up 25 percent of the cost of re-paving,” Craig said. “Any money the County gives us, including the increase, would go directly to re-paving the strip.”
 Craig added that he has been saving the annual County appropriation in anticipation of replacing the airstrip, and currently has about $33,000 earmarked toward the looming project.
 The bulk of the funding would be the product of a grant award from either the Idaho Transportation Department’s Division of Aeronautics, under its Idaho Airport Aid Program (IAAP), or the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
Funding: how it works
 The IAAP, which specifically funds airstrip re-paving projects through Idaho’s aviation fuel tax, is one of many project funding sources under the ITD’s Division of Aeronautics.
 The IAAP program receives $1 million per year for awards distributed through project grants.
 How the funds would be distributed, and from where, as well as the amount of local matching funds required depends on a number of factors, such as airport size and the number of permanent onsite aircraft, and whether the airport is part of the National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems (NPIAS), according to ITD Division of Aeronautics Administrator Jeff Marker.
 “We score the project based on criteria established in our implementation manual, and then the amount the community would actually have to pay – ‘the match’ – is dependent on the size of the airport,” he told the Weiser Signal American. “The amount we provide in grants to NPIAS airports is different than the grant amounts we provide to non-NPIAS airports.”
 NPIAS airports go through the FAA, receiving 90 percent funding, with the respective community matching the remaining 10 percent. The IAAP, in turn, helps the community come up with that match requirement.
 “For non-NPIAS airports, the smaller ones not part of this broader network, we (the IAAP) provide, typically, the bulk of the project cost and we can provide either 50 percent or 75 percent based on some population criteria,” explained Marker who confirmed that the Midvale Airport is a non-NPIAS airport and would be eligible for a 75 percent award under the IAAP.
 A $300,000 project award represents a hefty chunk of the program’s $1 million annual grant budget, Marker suggesting incremental grants to fund smaller projects that would extend the life of runways, taxiways and parking aprons.
 “You end up with smaller grants as opposed to one astronomical grant every 20 years, because that does present a challenge for us,” he said.
 Craig said the asphalt receives some protection during winter that does extend the runway’s life.
 “I don’t plow in the winter because the snow protects the asphalt,” he said. “You don’t get that freeze-thaw effect that results in potholes. I can do that because we are listed as a no winter maintenance airport.”
 Karson said seeking funding directly from the FAA would mean spending $50,000 on engineering that has already been completed.