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Show Woods Cress Looks To Sides By MARK FOTHFRINGHAM WOODS CROSS -- Woods Cross may one jay soon own the only airport in Davis County, The city is now negotiating with F.C. Stangl Construction, current ow ners of the Skypark airport, and studying means of financing if the city should decide to buy the facility. ALTHOUGH prices have not yet been agreed on, the proposal involves about 43': acres of land, according to Ralph Lew is, chairman of the Woods Cross airport committee. Above and beyond the purchase price, the city would also be looking at about $350,000 worth of necessary improvements to the airport. air-port. Despite the initial costs, however, officials expect the facility to soon become an income producer. "THE AIRPORT should pay itself off in five years," said Mr. Lewis. He projected that the airport would bring in about $ 150,000 per year in income. The Skypark is one of the few remaining privately pri-vately owned airports in the state. The low markup mar-kup of the aviation business and soaring mainte- nance costs have made private ownership difficult. diffi-cult. Certain tax advantages and better rates for improvement bonds have made municipal ownership own-ership a more feasible alternative. OFFICIALS from F.C. Stangl Construction report that although the Skypark has made money for them, they are just not aviation oriented. "We're an industrial park business," said Mr. Stangl. Although the private firm may lose some income in-come from the airport, an improved and expanded ex-panded facility owned by the city would likely benefit them by making surrounding industrial V . r P - a -, - " I :z : v I'iM'iTi ,. j .:, .j . w t.. .-J ' .trv -r. -. r t v: V - ' ' - ; v i AIRPORT FOR SALE If negotiations continue favorable, the city of Woods Cross may land itself an airport. The "Skypark" facility could one day bring in $150,000 per year to the city, but first, extensive repairs and upgrading upgrad-ing will have to be done. park properties more attractive to potential industrial in-dustrial developers. THERE ARE now about 120 airplanes located at the Skypark. If the project goes through, the city plans to expand the capacity of the airport to about 300 planes. Mr. Lewis explained that demand for another airport is growing since there is no more room for expansion at the Salt Lake International airport. air-port. "There is a two and a half year wait just for a hanger at International," he said. NEEDED IMMEDIATE improvements at the Skypark include paving an area for at least 90 more planes, cutting weeds and digging drainage drain-age ditches along the runway and improving tiedown facilities. Inadequate tiedowns caused thousands of dollars in damage to airplanes during high windstorms wind-storms earlier this year. FUTURE development at the airport might include a restaurant, parks, repair and storage hangers and added tiedown spaces. The airport would one day require a 20 person staff, said Mr. Lewis. Although there are yet several steps to be taken, Mr. Lewis is hopeful that the city will be able to begin improvements by August. Whether or not any public hearings on the prop-csd prop-csd ax sc!i?du!ed depends cn the method cf -financing chosen to pay for the project. "WE COULD just borrow money from the bank and buy it, but that would obligate the citizens of Woods Cross to pay it back. Or, we could form a special district so that people who use the airport are responsible. The only problem prob-lem there is that any money generated by the airport would have to remain in the special district dis-trict for airport maintenance," said Mr. Lewis. With city ownership of the airport, the city would have access to matching funds for improvements im-provements from a state airline fuel tax. The three and a half cent per gallon tax goes into a state fund that is unavailable to private owners. TRANSPORTATION studies by the FAA and the Wasatch Front Regional Council have shown that if improvements are not made at the Woods Cross facility, overflow traffic from S.L. International would have to be diverted to Tooele. "That's just too far away," said Mr. Stangl. |
