The five-year capital improvement plan for the Jefferson Municipal Airport was recently approved by the City Council.

City Administrator Mike Palmer says the plan is updated and approved by the Council every year. The ultimate goal for the next five years is to extend runway 14/32 from 3,200-feet to 4,000-feet to handle twin engine and small corporate aircraft. The Council approved purchasing an additional 52-acres of land to allow for the extension earlier this year. One of the components before the runway can be extended is to relocate a county road that acts as the approach to the runway. Palmer points out some key benefits of the runway extension project.

“Small business or light industrial complex could have a light jet come in rather than just have to take a bigger jet and go over to say Carroll or Boone. They can actually come right here. The airport does have it’s own courtesy car. So people, when they land a plane, they can leave it and take the courtesy car and come into town or go where they need to.”

$90,000 will be used to design the road relocation for the 2017 fiscal year, with construction to happen the following fiscal year. Palmer adds that payment for the design is a 90/10 match with 90 percent coming from the Federal Aviation Administration and 10 percent from the airport commission, through land that is cash-rented.