In this aerial file photo taken on May 28, 2015, the Packwood airstrip is seen just north of U.S. Highway 12 and south of the Cowlitz River.
Grant funds awarded to the Packwood Airport that have accumulated over the past few years will be put toward its project to redo the runway and make other improvements in 2016.
The airport will be using $550,000 in grants from the Federal Aviation Administration’s Airport Improvement Program, along with other funding for the project.
Larry Mason, airport systems manager for the Packwood Airport and the Ed Carlson Memorial Field-South Lewis County Airport in Toledo, said the airport has been receiving $150,000 for the past few years through the Airport Improvement Program’s Non-Primary Entitlement funds.
Some of the grant money has been used for projects as needed in the past couple years.
Mason said the plan is to use the $550,000 that remains in the airport’s account because the program requires airports to use the funds within four years or the money will transfer to another airport.
“We are grateful, of course, for the help from the FAA and the government because otherwise our airports wouldn’t be in as fine of shape as they’re in,” Mason said.
Sen. Patty Murray, who is a senior member of the Senate Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Subcommittee, wrote in an email that the funding from FAA will increase safety.
“This is great news for Packwood Airport’s long-term plan to make major infrastructure improvements,” she wrote.
Improvements planned for the airport in the 2016 construction season include redoing and widening the runway, installing LED runway lights and building a new power, among other things.
Along with the $550,000, the FAA has provided a grant that funds the majority of the $3.2 million project. The Washington State Department of Transportation Division and Lewis County are each contributing $178,850 as well.
