{"id":103215,"date":"2017-10-11T11:52:07","date_gmt":"2017-10-11T17:52:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-la-plata-county-airport-plans-terminal-remodel-to-aid-airline-staff\/"},"modified":"2017-10-11T11:52:07","modified_gmt":"2017-10-11T17:52:07","slug":"durango-la-plata-county-airport-plans-terminal-remodel-to-aid-airline-staff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-la-plata-county-airport-plans-terminal-remodel-to-aid-airline-staff\/","title":{"rendered":"Durango-La Plata County Airport plans terminal remodel to aid airline staff"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Durango-La
Durango-La Plata County Airport Aviation Director Tony Vicari is proposing a terminal construction project in 2018 to remodel areas used by airline staff members.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The Durango-La Plata County Airport may remodel part of its terminal next year to improve space used by airline staff members.<\/p>\n

The airport <\/a>expects to spend $465,000 on the remodel and $350,000 on parking lot maintenance, a water storage tank, snow-removal equipment and security upgrades in 2018, according to a presentation of the city\u2019s proposed 2018 budget.<\/p>\n

The building remodel will improve working conditions for airline staff members. It could also make room for an additional airline to serve the airport, Mayor Dick White said.<\/p>\n

\u201cExpanding that area to give the airlines room to work effectively, I think, is very, very important,\u201d White said.<\/p>\n

After a property tax measure to build a new terminal on the east side of the runway failed in November, the Durango City Council and La Plata County commissioners in February asked airport officials to work on short-term improvements.<\/p>\n

Aviation Director Tony Vicari said in a meeting last week that the long-term direction of the airport is unknown.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat left us in limbo,\u201d he said about the failed measure. \u201cWe don\u2019t have a concrete direction,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The timeline for the city and county to revisit the long-term vision for the airport is not set, but White hopes to discuss the issue next year, he said. The city and county are both facing major fiscal challenges, which will factor into the conversation, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFunding a new airport terminal may not make the short list,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

La Plata County Commissioner Julie Westendorff said there has been research about a public-private partnership to fund airport improvements, but there are many unanswered questions about that kind of arrangement.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really more kicking tires at this point to see if there is anything worth exploring,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Interim improvements are important, especially for airline employees, who are working in an area that smells and looks like a garage, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not a good environment for anybody\u2019s employees,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The airlines are expecting to pay the airport 3 percent more in rent and landing fees starting in January, and those increased fees will result in an additional $13,700 next year, according to the budget presentation.<\/p>\n

The airport is also planning to hire a contractor to study the airport\u2019s fees. Vicari expects results of that study next year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe should not be throwing away potential revenue,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The cost per out-bound passenger to the airlines at the airport is $2.68, less than half of what airlines pay at other comparable airports, Vicari said.<\/p>\n

The airport also plans to eliminate funding for the Aviation Celebration next year. In years past, the event featured aircraft of all kinds, including drones, private planes, military aircraft and experimental craft such as ultra-light planes.<\/p>\n

The event required too much staff members\u2019 time to continue, and a third party to run the event could not be identified, Vicari said.<\/p>\n

The airport plans to increase its marketing budget by $47,100 in 2018. The increased budget includes funding that would have been used for the Aviation Celebration.<\/p>\n

mshinn@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Long-term vision for airport still in limbo, director says<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":103216,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[459,1020,915,1680],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-103215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-construction-and-property","tag-durango-city-council","tag-durango-la-plata-county-airport","tag-la-plata-county-commissioners"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103215\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103215"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=103215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}