Airport not immune to tornado’s damage

By Uriah A. Kiser

Published: May 14, 2008

STAFFORD — Not even the Stafford Regional Airport was immune to the effects of last week’s damaging tornado.

The Stafford Regional Airport Authority’s monthly meeting was moved from its regular location at the airport’s terminal to the Stafford County Board of Supervisors’ chambers.

Airport Manager Ed Wallis said the May 8 tornado lifted up just 300 yards from the airport’s fence, missing the airport. However the storm did dump leaves and debris into the downspouts of the hangars and terminal.

With the spouts clogged, water seeped in to the air vents and throughout much of the building, causing more than $3,800 worth of damage, according to Wallis.
Wallis said the terminal’s sheetrock walls must be removed and the wood behind them ripped out, and then replaced for the water damage to be repaired.

“The worst part of the odor is gone this morning,” he said Tuesday, “but with mold you got to stop it. “You can’t assume it’s gone.”

Wallis said that no important documents were lost in the storm, as they were not being stored in the terminal at the time.

“The history of the airport is safe,” said Wallis.

No aircraft sustained any damage from the storm.

As airport staff cleans up, they are continuing to look at installing new security lighting in the terminal’s gravel parking lot. Right now there are no lights in the area where most visitors conducting business at the airport park their vehicles.

A representative from Campbell and Paris Engineers, the company contracted to complete the project, said the lighting would come at an estimated cost of $250,000, with the federal government offsetting some of that cost with grants and other funds.

Tough economic times have also hurt the airport’s daily operations, according to airport authority Treasurer Walt George.

When the board reviewed its general operating budget performance, George said the airport’s budget was $88,000 less than projected.

George also added that the airport has missed multiple opportunities to garner federal grants for the airport. The treasurer put the total number of grant dollars lost at at least $1 million.

Despite the sluggish numbers Wallis said the sale of jet fuel, which is the main source of income for the airport, was not bad.

Wallis said the facility sold more than 26,000 gallons of jet fuel in April.

It was “a really good month,” Wallis said, despite that the price of fuel was up.