With the Tampa Bay Executive Airport at Trinity closing in October, a state official is trying to get more hangars built around the bay area to house displaced aircraft.
By BRIDGET HALL GRUMET and MELIA BOWIE
Published May 14, 2004
Saying local aviators are facing "a bit of a crisis" with the closing of the Tampa Bay Executive Airport at Trinity, a state official plans to ask for $3-million in emergency funding to build hangars at nearby airports for about 100 displaced aircraft.
John Roeller, head of aviation programs for the state Department of Transportation in District 7, said the money could help build up to 10 hangars, each holding 10 planes. The extra space most likely would be provided at the three closest, publicly owned airports: Zephyrhills Municipal Airport, Clearwater Airpark and the Hernando County Airport.
All three facilities have received calls within the past week from pilots who will need a new home for their planes once the Tampa Bay Executive Airport closes Oct. 1.
"That's our effort now, to try to scrape up money to fill that gap," Roeller told the St. Petersburg Times on Thursday.
"We've known for awhile this (announcement of the airport closure) was coming," he added. "Now that it's happened, and the date has been picked, we've got to react as fast as we can."
Roeller plans to ask his bosses in Tallahassee for the money, but there's no guarantee he will get it.
If he does find funding, he said, the local airports would have to provide a 20 percent match.
The state Department of Transportation provides about $14-million to $16-million a year for airports in District 7, which includes Pasco, Pinellas, Hillsborough, Hernando and Citrus counties. The airports are primarily used by leisure pilots, although some businesses also rely on the facilities.
"We think it's an important asset for a community," Roeller said. "It can pull in certain kinds of business, but it's an expensive item."
Tampa Bay Executive Airport on State Road 54 is home to a few small businesses, including aerial photographers and charter planes. But the facility has not been a factor in luring new businesses, said Mary Jane Stanley, president and chief executive of the Pasco Economic Development Council.
"No one in the five years I've been here has made a relocation decision based on that airport," she said. Although, she added, "I do know there are corporate executives who fly in and out of there."
At a meeting Wednesday night, some pilots said airport officials gave them short notice of the closing, forcing some to scramble for hangar space up to an hour's drive away.
Leisure pilot Bill Stewart of Tarpon Springs said he now plans to sell his $45,000 plane rather than hunt for a hangar.
"It's left a lot of people out in the cold," Stewart said of the move.
And although some expressed interest in trying to keep Tampa Bay Executive open, others said the focus needs to be on creating a new airport in west Pasco - a prospect that could easily cost $10-million, according to Roeller's estimates.
Airport representatives did not return phone calls Thursday, but pilots there say the facility already has been sold "and so it can't be saved," said Bob Langford, a recreational pilot and New Port Richey City Council member.
"They do have a buyer for the airport," added EDC president Stanley, although she did not know which developer was involved.
Earlier this week, airport official Lew Friedland cited road widenings, difficulty in getting insurance, and residential crowding for the Oct. 1 closure.
As news of the closure spread, the waiting list for hangars at Clearwater Airpark jumped by 20 names in three days.
Bill Morris, the city administrator who oversees the municipal airport, said room is tight already.
"I don't have enough space to put maybe more than 30 planes, max, on the property we've got," he said. "And then that's it. I'm built out."
The Hernando County Airport has received two or three calls a day from pilots seeking space, airport director Donald Silvernell said Thursday.
The handful of vacant hangars has filled up, and Silvernell expects more tenants to come - perhaps 20 percent of the aircraft that were at Tampa Bay Executive.
"That's what we are hoping for," he said.
Emergency state dollars might not be needed, Silvernell said, as the Hernando County Airport has long planned for additional hangar space. The airport is slated to get DOT dollars for new hangars in 2005, he said.
- Times staff writers Jennifer Farrell and Will Van Sant contributed to this report.
