GUTHRIE — A project to update runway lighting and make needed upgrades at the Guthrie-Edmond Regional Airport is scheduled to start in October.
The project will include replacing the rotating beacon that is out of operation and the windsock that shows pilots the direction of the wind. Work is expected to take about four months
The Federal Aviation Administration awarded a grant that will cover 90 percent of the $343,060 project. The city of Edmond and the city of Guthrie will split the remaining 10 percent of $34,306.
“We’re taking all of our runway lighting and changing it out to LED,” airport Director Schellon Stanley said.
The lights are currently connected by cords making it difficult to locate cracks or damages in the electrical lines.
“With the new system, it will allow us to be more efficient,” Stanley said. “After we do something like that, you rarely have any problem with your lighting anymore.”
At night, runway lighting can be controlled by pilots. They can turn on the lights to high, medium or low.
The airport houses more than 130 aircraft. Refueling and maintenance can be handled on site by the fixed base operator.
Hangars are privately owned but are leased out for 30 years at 17 cents a square foot. After 30 years, tenants can rent the hangars for five years at a time.
“What we’d like to do is have some more large hangars built and bring in corporate businesses or businesses that will fill up that hangar with smaller airplanes,” Stanley said.
Every year, the Guthrie airport and others in the Airport Improvement Program receive $150,000. If the money is not used by the end of the year, it can be saved for a future project.
The airport was owned by the city of Guthrie, but a partnership with the city of Edmond was started in 2004.
An airport advisory board with three board members from Edmond and four from Guthrie oversee the operations. The board meets on the second Tuesday of each month.