Pullman-Moscow Regional Airport nears money goal

The Pullman-Moscow Regional Airport is preparing for construction this summer on the realignment of its main runway and is inching closer to its high-end local match goal of $9.6 million with two recent pledges from Whitman County and the Port of Whitman County.

Whitman County Commissioner Art Swannack said the county has pledged $250,000 from its .09 economic development fund, made up of state sales tax, and the Port of Whitman chose to match the county’s contribution.

The total cost of the runway realignment is estimated at $89 million to $119 million, and the Federal Aviation Administration is requiring an 8.125 percent local match of the project’s total cost. The runway realignment local match ranges from $7.2 million to a high-end side of $9.6 million.

The $500,000 in contributions brings the airport runway realignment project’s local match to about $8.35 million, which includes pledges of $2.5 million from Pullman, $2.5 million from Moscow, $1 million from Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, $1 million from SEL founder Ed Schweitzer and his wife, Beatriz Schweitzer, $500,000 from the University of Idaho, $250,000 from the Washington State Department of Transportation Aviation and $100,000 from Latah County.

Swannack said the county commissioners haven’t taken action on the contribution, but it has been thoroughly discussed and he expects the commission to approve the contribution.

“We believe the Pullman airport is a great benefit for the county,” Swannack said.

Debbie Snell, properties and development manager at the port, said port commissioners have already signed a resolution to contribute $250,000 to the airport during the next two years.

So far Pullman has contributed $1.9 million of its $2.5 million pledge and Moscow has contributed about $2 million of its pledge.

During Tuesday’s Pullman City Council meeting Pullman-Moscow Airport Executive Director Tony Bean asked the council to preauthorize the acceptance of another $250,000 grant from WSDOT Aviation to help further aid the local match. Bean said the grant was awarded to the project in 2015, and he expects the project will very likely be awarded the same grant for 2016 and in each of next three years of the project.

If so, WSDOT Aviation would contribute $1 million more to the already $8.35 million local match, bringing it to $9.35 million.

Bean said if the WSDOT Aviation grants are awarded to the project, the airport will be able to fund the remainder of the runway realignment project itself with Passenger Facility Charges, which bring in about $200,000 of revenue per year.

The $9.35 million the airport could reap for the runway realignment doesn’t include a $1 million pledge from Washington State University, but Bean said he isn’t entirely counting on that money at this point. WSU recently received an offer from the airport for the purchase of more than 100 acres of land – that includes 40 research buildings and Tukey Orchard – that will fall in the airport’s runway protection zone. University officials have said the offer falls far short of their expectations in terms of dollars.

“They will look at impacts and take it off their match,” Bean said. “If their impacts don’t exceed that, the money would go to the airport.”