City celebrates Runway 4/22 Project

By CINDY TOOPES, Courier staff writer

OTTUMWA — Line of sight. The “bird man.” A growing landfill.

Believe it or not, the above three things pertain to Ottumwa Regional Airport and the struggles of city government, the Federal Aviation Administration and the Iowa Department of Transportation to correct airport problems.

Mayor Dale Uehling remarked on those three things and a lot more during the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Runway 4/22 Project at the airport. The project included a parallel taxiway.

“Here we are in this terminal building, which was a big achievement,” he said. “We had to remove the old one, which had line-of-sight problems.”

Uehling also mentioned the $4.1 million investment in the infrastructure and the “greatly improved” Runway 4/22. Monies from the FAA and IDOT helped.

“We had to resurface the runway to achieve compliance,” he said.

The mayor said the city’s trips to Washington, D.C., helped a lot. One example is Ed Cleary, the “bird man” with the FAA, who visited the area where the landfill’s space and the end of the airport runway were too close.

One sure indication of the proximity of the two was the birds. A landfill provides a daily “banquet” for many types of birds.

“Cleary checked and agreed we had a problem,” Uehling said.

Planning Director Dave Shafer said Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) standards required a 10,000-foot separation between the runway and a landfill cell (an area opened up for burying solid waste).

Because of the desired location for the landfill cell expansions, there was a conflict. In 2007, FAA officials sent Cleary to Ottumwa to observe the situation. The specialist determined the birds were too close to the area, according to the April 2, 2007, Courier.

Airport improvements included relocating the threshold of Runway 4 by 1,075 feet to provide the required separation between the airport and the landfill and adding 500 feet to the threshold of Runway 22 to provide a 4,600-foot runway length.

Another improvement has been the addition of a parallel taxiway, which gives aircraft a safe place just after landing. Aircraft can be on the taxiway rather than the runway and can see half the length of the runway. This eliminated the need to “back taxi” on the runway.

Don Wasson, chairman of the Airport Advisory Board, noted various uses for the airport.

“There’s a possibility of charter aircraft, personal and recreational,” he said. “In agriculture, planes are used for aerial applications.”

A longtime airport board member, Wasson noted several projects, including the T hangars, roof, doors and openers, pocket doors and a new door on the big hangar.

Rob Garber of Clapsaddle-Garber has worked on the airport projects, including the master plan.

“No project has been more fun,” he said.

The celebration also included a tour bus ride around the airport grounds.

Cindy Toopes can be reached at (641) 683-5376 or via e-mail at cindy@ottumwacourier.com.