Madison airport receives $287K grant
Bruce Campbell Field has received a federal grant that includes COVID relief monies to install weather reporting equipment and other maintenance.
The airfield will receive a grant in the amount of $287,000, with $27,000 coming from the $2.2 trillion in CARES funds issued by the federal government in March. The grant is issued by the Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administration.
Airport Manager Steve Hickok said that the grant monies are valuable and will be put to good use. He said the grant should fully fund two projects on their to-do list.
“We really appreciate this grant from the FAA,” Hickok said. “It will help us keep Bruce Campbell field up to date and operational.”
Hickok said that the meat of the money, $223,500, will go towards a new weather tracking system that provides pilots with wind speed, wind direction and visibility readings. He said it will also track thunderstorm warnings issued within a 30-mile radius of the airfield.
Hickok said the monies could not come at a better time. The current 20-year-old weather tracking system at the airfield is out of date and they do not make replacement parts anymore.
Hopefully, installation of the weather system will start within the next six weeks. It will take 30 days to fully install.
The rest of the funds, $63,500, will go towards engineering for future updates to the apron of the airfield.
Hickok said the full apron project will be next year with this year's engineering determining the scope and cost of the project. He said they hope to be ready to submit another grant application in November.
U.S. Rep. Michael Guest said that he was happy to see airfields from his district get the money they need to finish important projects statewide.
“I’m proud to announce these grants for our airfields across the district. Vibrant, robust airfields are critical to economic development, and these dollars will help provide safer air travel to meet our growing local economies,” Guest said.
Other FAA grant recipients include the George M. Bryan Airport in Starkville, Key Field Airport in Meridian and the James H. Easom Field Airport in Newton.