The next time pilots from throughout the region who frequent the South Lewis County Airport — also known as Ed Carlson Memorial Field — land at the small airport near Toledo, they’ll notice a brand new above-ground refueling station.
South Lewis County Airport also has a new manager.
Lewis County Airport Operations Manager Russell Morton has now taken over for John Roe, who retired.
Morton met with The Chronicle at the South Lewis County Airport on Thursday, Feb. 6, to talk about the new refueling station.
It replaced the airport’s previous refueling system, which included an underground fuel storage tank.
“The old system out there, it was over 40 years old,” Morton said.
On top of the system’s old age, there were also concerns the underground storage tank could be leaking and contaminating the surrounding soils.
“We got fortunate. When they did the core sampling, they didn’t find any fuel leak into the ground, so we were able to abandon the tank in place,” Morton said.
The new refueling station tank is above ground and holds 12,000 gallons.
Morton officially took over for Roe in mid-October, when construction to install the new above ground fuel tank was already underway.
Originally from Napavine, Morton was a flight instructor at the Chehalis-Centralia Airport for 25 years and has already been working for the county for more than three decades in its road department.
“I was part-time seasonal labor for about 14 to 15 years, and in 2006 an opportunity came up to work full time for the road department,” Morton said. “So during that time, I worked for the road department during the winter, and during the summer I was flying, doing flight lessons and fire patrol for Weyerhaeuser and Rainier Timber.”
Now, he’s managing the county’s airports, which aside from Toledo include a small airport in Packwood.
As for the new refueling station project, Morton is happy with how it turned out.
“It’s looking good, though. I haven’t gotten any final numbers on the money that was spent, but it looks like we’re going to come in under budget,” he added.
While Morton didn’t know the exact figure for what the refueling system construction project cost, he estimated it was at least a “couple hundred thousand.”
Morton also hopes the new refueling system will help generate more revenue for the county to fund future airport improvement projects, including new weather monitoring equipment, a new beacon system and more hangars.
“We’ve sold about 2,300 gallons already so far. The first weekend we were open, it was super nice weather, so we had a lot of traffic,” Morton said. “And we’ve been able to keep our prices pretty competitive compared to what they’re charging up north. Some of the airports up in Pierce County, the greater Puget Sound area, they’re charging somewhere between $6.60 to $7 a gallon. We’re charging $5.40 a gallon. We get a decent price on the delivery.”
During The Chronicle’s visit to the airport, a pair of pilots, Karl Seuring, of Kirkland, and Mark Miller, of Bellevue, flew in from Puyallup to use the South Lewis County Airport for training, and utilized the new refueling station.
Seuring was observing Miller as Miller underwent recertification for landing and taking off with crosswinds.
“We’ll do a couple more landings for crosswinds. He’s been out of it for a few months and this is a good place for crosswind training,” Seuring said.
South Lewis County Airport was originally built by the U.S. Civil Aeronautics Administration during World War II to train pilots with crosswinds, and many pilots from throughout the region still use it for that purpose today.
“It’s one nice facility. Can’t get any easier than that,” Seuring said after refueling. “... Cheaper than Puyallup, too. It’s almost worth just coming down here just to refuel.”
The South Lewis County Airport is located at 5239 Jackson Highway near Toledo.
For more information, visit the county’s website at https://tinyurl.com/yt4n3f9r.
