{"id":108018,"date":"2015-11-26T00:17:37","date_gmt":"2015-11-26T07:17:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-la-plata-county-airport-studies-environmental-impacts-of-expansion\/"},"modified":"2015-11-26T00:17:37","modified_gmt":"2015-11-26T07:17:37","slug":"durango-la-plata-county-airport-studies-environmental-impacts-of-expansion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-la-plata-county-airport-studies-environmental-impacts-of-expansion\/","title":{"rendered":"Durango-La Plata County Airport studies environmental impacts of expansion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The Durango-La Plata County Airport has begun studying environmental impacts of a proposed expansion.<\/span>Shaun Stanley\/Durango Herald file photo<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

An assessment of the potential environmental impacts of the proposed Durango-La Plata County Airport terminal expansion has begun.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, Environmental Protection Agency officials, Southern Ute Indian Tribe environmental planners, La Plata County officials and other local stakeholders met for the first of a series of public meetings to discuss the residual effects of the expansion on the environment and neighboring residents.<\/p>\n

Airport Director Kip Turner said the Nov. 4 gathering \u201cgot the ball rolling\u201d on public discussions that will continue throughout the assessment\u2019s two-year time frame.<\/p>\n

The airport commission will also examine the possibility of changing the airport\u2019s name to reflect its service to the broader region, rather than just La Plata County, and ramp up marketing efforts in the year ahead. The airport\u2019s 2016 budget proposal reflects an increase from $20,000 this year to $60,000 next year for marketing initiatives.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a concerted and well-planned outreach effort,\u201d Turner told the La Plata County Commission in a Tuesday meeting. \u201cIn the environmental assessment, the scope of work includes outreach initiatives that talk about what we\u2019re doing with the project to further educate people.\u201d<\/p>\n

The airport will likely form a marketing committee to advise on how those extra dollars are spent.<\/p>\n

Airport officials are also coordinating with the La Plata County Economic Development Alliance and the Durango Chamber of Commerce to raise awareness before next year\u2019s election when the expansion ballot item would go before voters.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s important in moving forward if this goes to a ballot question,\u201d County Commissioner Brad Blake said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the rule in advertising is someone has to see something six times before they get the whole picture, and I think telling the story is telling it often.\u201d<\/p>\n

Turner reported enplanements, or the number of people boarding at the Durango-La Plata County Airport, are down by 2.7 percent year-to-date compared with last year.<\/p>\n

Given Frontier Airlines no longer services the airport, Turner considered the figure indicative of the local airport\u2019s strong market.<\/p>\n

The airport is also receiving upgrades in the form of new carpeting and seating and fresh paint in the departure lounge as well as an additional advanced imaging technology screening machine, which will speed up lines.<\/p>\n

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

Director discusses marketing, name change and passenger numbers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":108019,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5742,5735],"tags":[915,13],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-108018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-news","tag-durango-la-plata-county-airport","tag-frontpage-lead"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108018","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=108018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108018\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108018"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=108018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}