Airport board nearing completion of Airport Master Plan

At their March 12 meeting, the Saratoga Airport Board heard from Saratoga Middle/High School student Milo Hunter.

Hunter is currently working on his Eagle Scout project and proposed building and painting a sign for Shively Airfield.

“The reason why I chose to do the sign is so that wealthier people who fly in and see the sign would want to come back more often,” Hunter said.

Hunter requested that the board provide him enough money to complete the project. Though Hunter was not able to provide exact dollar amount, he estimated funding for the project at around $200.

The board approved Hunter’s project and said they would be willing to help with Hunter’s Eagle Scout project in any way they can.

Michael Haak, of Sage Civil Engineering, said the Airport Master Plan is near finalization.

“We are cruising right along,” Haak said.

The process still has a few more regulation issues to work out, but the board as a whole was impressed with the work that had been done with the project.

“As a board, I would just like to say this is everything we wanted,” board chairman Mike Patterson said. “We wanted a hard copy (of the master plan) on the shelf that everyone had access to, we also wanted something that would address our issues 20 or 30 years down the road, and we have that.”

One of the changes the board proposed was allowing Michael Haak to convert five acres of the business park for nautical use, including adding a taxi-way for planes. The motion was approved by the board unanimously.

The board said they inspected many of the hangers at Shively Field and found a few concerns.

Most notably, Patterson said Kim Lorenzen’s hanger, the fixed base operator (FBO) of Shively Airfield, was covered with oil.

“There was oil on top of barrels, oil on the floor. I think we need to address that,” Patterson said.

Lorenzen agreed to clean up the oil by the next inspection in April.

Patterson also noted that several cars with expired license plates needed to be removed from the airfield, saying that they were an “eye sore.”

The next Airport Board meeting will take place at 1 p.m. on April 9 at Saratoga Town Hall.