A twenty-year master plan for Stewart Airport is proposed Local news

“This is what we believe the demand justifies,” said David W. Jones, vice president and director of Delta Airport Consultants Inc.

Jones said the existing runway would be rehabilitated with additional asphalt.

Airport manager Rick Fulner said he would allow heavier planes to White Township Airport.

Meanwhile, a lawn runway will be available for lighter aircraft such as gliders.

“Hopefully construction can begin later this year or early next year,” said Jones, Stewart Airport plan project manager along with other Delta consultants Mary Ashburn-Pearson and David Leach.

They said a number of alternatives were developed in collaboration with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Aviation.

The preferred alternative would be to introduce six new hangars in the first of four phases. The first two will cover a five-year period each, the third – 10 years, and the fourth – what may be more than 20 years.

One hangar will be used for the alleged jumping school and parachute jump center.

Additional access roads will also be built and the weather station at the airport will be moved.

In addition, Jones said, there will be additional lighting around the airfield.

Also in the first phase, a playground is planned to be built near the place where the Cessna 310, which once belonged to actor Jimmy Stewart, rises, near the entrance to the airport.

Fulner said the money for the playground would be sought in collaboration with the Indiana County Center for Economic Operations from the Pennsylvania Department of Social and Economic Development.

The development of Indiana County Airport comes amid planning for other airfields in the region, including Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in Unity, Westmarland County, and John Murta-Johnstown-Cumbria County Airport in Richland.

In a comment made by airport manager Stewart for a recent Indiana Gazette article, he was quoted as saying that the expansion of Palmer Airport “could repel general aviation pilots from commercial airports.”

However, in these comments he was referring to Palmer Airport, not Stewart, as was wrongly suggested in this article.

As Byron G. Staufer Jr., executive director of the Indiana County Development Corporation, Indiana County Planning and Development Office and ICCEO, recently said, “Jimmy Stewart Airport is part of a general purpose aviation facility system that also has its niche and provides local access from corporate and / or charter services ”.

The presentation took place at the new Riziki Café at the airport terminal. Charts and photos showed plans, and restaurant operators served panini sandwiches, cookies, chips, pastries and cold drinks.

“Cafe Riziki has brought new consciousness to the airport as well as a destination for pilots who like to fly for breakfast or lunch,” Fulner said in recent comments before previewing the event on Monday.