W. TERRY SMITH
Editor
TARBORO —
The Tarboro-Edgecombe County Airport accepted three grants totaling a half million dollars Tuesday that will help fund improvement projects at the town and country airport.
Each project improves safety, said consultant Dain Riley of The LPA Group in Raleigh.
“No one can say this is an antiquated airport,” Riley said. “It will have the best minimums it can have.”
Authority Chairman Jack Brinson added, “It’s addressing the needs of today.”
The authority voted unanimously to accept a $200,000 state grant that requires a 2.5 percent match ($5,128) and a $63,000 federal grant that requires a10 percent match ($7,000) for the transitional surface-clearing project.
That includes the clearing all trees on the newly acquired 58 acres the authority purchased from the Ralph Whitehurst family.
The authority Tuesday accepted the low bid of $218,250 by Sawyer’s Land Developing Co. of Belhaven. It was $44,150 less than the second lowest bid by Byrd Brothers of Wilson.
“I’m not familiar with (Sawyer’s),” Riley said.
“Sawyer’s does a lot of work for us,” said authority member Scott Fisher of Barnhill Contracting Co. “They will do a good job.”
Removing the trees will eliminate a crosswind that can bother larger, faster aircraft on the runway and make way for the new Automated Weather Observation Service (AWOS).
The AWOS will provide wind direction and speed, humidity, barometric pressure, ceiling, visibility, rain and temperature readings. It will also lower visibility conditions about 25 feet.
Equipment for the AWOS has been delivered and work is scheduled to start this month and be completed by October or November.
The third grant was for the taxi turnaround required by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The $237,000 federal grant requires a 10 percent match ($26,334). It is a $263,334 project that will have money left over, Riley said.
“We can use that to start on fencing,” Brinson said.
The taxi turnaround is to be advertised for bids in January and the job completed by May 30.
"The (taxi turnaround) costs about two and a half times what the airport cost to begin with,” Brinson said, chuckling.
The airport off N.C. 33 North was given to the town and county in the 1970s by Robert Barnhill Sr. Some residents still refer to it as “Barnhill International.”
