Monday, February 22, 2016

Vernon Airport Plan on Agenda

Posted on 2/22/2016 by Pete McIntyre 107.5 KISSFM
Vernon council will make a decision today on future plans for the city's airport.Mayor Akbal Mund says the development options range in cost from around one million dollars, to 11 million which were briefly discussed by council last month."People got it wrong when the last council meeting that everybody decided that oh "why is council going ahead with a $5-million dollar expansion?" We didn't decide to do that. We decided to discuss it and have a further look at that."Mund says the options range from upgrading the existing facilities, to extending the runway for 5.2 million dollars."Option 1 and 2 are below the two million dollar mark, but option 2-B was the one with the runway extension which obviously meant work to divert the creek and so riparian issues and that's what drives up the cost to $5-million dollars." Some council members support spending 5.2 million dollars to extend the runway which would allow more types of planes to land, and spur economic development. Mund supports at least upgrading some of the facilities, but he's not sure which way council could go."I think you need to have something there. Some of the buildings need some help. No matter what options there is, I'm sure all the council members have had enough time to go through everything and gather all the information they needed."Others argue, it's not needed with Kelowna's airport so close by, or too expensive for taxpayers.
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