County proposes Airport Road, parking lot paving

On most days, pilots have a much smoother ride landing than they do driving into or out of Minden-Tahoe Airport.

Douglas County commissioners are being asked to approve a $774,007 contract to rebuild Airport Road and the parking lot on Thursday. Commissioners meet 10 a.m. at the Douglas County Courthouse, 1616 Eighth St., in Minden. Meetings are online at www.douglascountynv.gov

That’s $265,000 more than the airport has budgeted for the reconstruction and will require a transfer from the Airport Fund Improvement Reserves.

“The road and parking facility is severely cracked and beyond its pavement life,” Road Engineer Jon Erb said.

The April 6 bid by Sierra Nevada Construction was the low one by almost $25,000, and $18,000 below the engineer’s estimate.

The county acquired Airport Road from the state in 1988.

Airport Manager Bobbi Thompson and Assistant Manager Frank Monack are scheduled to make a presentation on the airport at Thursday’s meeting.

Minden-Tahoe is the fifth busiest airport in Nevada with 90,500 movements a year, only around 14,000 fewer than Reno-Tahoe International.

Without commercial passenger service, most of that activity comes from 24 operators dealing with flight training, glider rides, maintenance, avionics and fire suppression. There are 400 aircraft based at the airport.

The county owns 80 hangars and has nearly on the waitlist of 73. There are 47 private hangars and a waitlist of 35 to purchase one of those.

Work on the airport for the current year includes $2.3 million for Taxiway Z and $950,000 to upgrade the airport’s offices.

Most of the funding for those two projects comes from federal grants generated largely from airline tickets. Another $203,125 is from local matches generated by airport revenues.

While Douglas County owns the airport, it contracts for its management with Airport Business Solutions.

Upcoming events scheduled for the airport include an open house on May 21, the arrival of a B-29 Superfortress May 24-26 and the Oct. 1-2 Aviation Roundup Air Show featuring the Navy’s Blue Angels.