Airport plans new lounge, deals with funding cut
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ST. IGNATIUS – The St. Ignatius Airport may have a new pilot’s lounge soon, although cuts to the state airport board make it unlikely for runway upgrades to be on the horizon in the near future.
Lake County Joint Airport Board representative Rick Newman told the St. Ignatius Town Council on April 7 that local pilots have agreed to chip in to fund a new, bare-bones pilot’s lounge at the facility.
“The old pilot’s lounge is sinking into the ground and the blocks are falling apart,” Newman said. “It’s not worth even trying to fix that thing.”
A barn company has agreed to put up a 10x20 building, and volunteers have offered to sheet the inside, Newman said.
“We’ll have a couple lights and couple plug ins for a computer,” Newman said. “That’s it. There’s not going to be living quarters. We’ll have an aerial map, and we’ll probably put the map of St. Ignatius up on the wall with any information about local businesses on there, so people can take the pilot car if they want and go get anything they need.”
Newman said local pilots and businesses are donating the funds for the lounge, and he hopes that the new structure will be up by July 19 for the St. Ignatius Fly-In.
The project will likely be the only major improvement to the airport this year, as the airport’s grant application to the Montana Aeronautics Board was denied.
The board’s funding was slashed in half this year and only five projects were funded statewide, Newman said. The St. Ignatius Airport had asked for funding to update the runway pavement.
“We didn’t get a grant this year,” Newman said. “We’ll resubmit the same grant next year to see if we can get some funding for pavement maintenance. We’ll do some battle patching in some of the worst areas and keep the weeds down.”
In 2014, the St. Ignatius airport received a $4,800 grant and $10,000 loan from Montana Aeronautics Board to purchase a tractor and brush hog for the airport.
In addition to hosting the fly-in each year, the airport also hosted an exhibition of motor-powered model aircraft last year. Newman said the model aircraft exhibition might be repeated this year.
The airport also served as a hub for aircraft used to suppress the Firestone Flats fire that burned more than 1,700 acres near Arlee.
