Community gets involved with spaceport

Airplanes took flight Saturday morning at the third annual Community Spaceport Day at the Greater Green River Intergalactic Spaceport south of Green River.

The event was hosted by the airport advisory board and is a way to get have residents involved with the spaceport. The their motivation is to get the runway fixed up to meet safety standards.

The city has an Airport Master Plan that explains the importance of an improved airport. "It would act as an economic generator in town," City of Green River assistant engineer Holden Wright said. The runway would be used for small business planes, medical flights and personal flights.

"Many small towns have runways and the people don't know what they're used for until someone needs to be life flighted," Wright said.

The airport will not be a commercial flight airport because the area is too small for larger planes.

The board is trying to get an environmental assessment of the area. The assessment will see if anything in the environment is of concern that would decide if the project can proceed or not. It may also suggest ways to adjust the impacts the project would cause. The assessment is slated for this year if they can get the funding.

After the assessment, the board seeks to start construction on the runway this year as well. Currently, there is a large bump in the primary runway that doesn't meet safety standards. They want to fold out the bump so an individual who is five feet tall or taller can stand at one end of the runway and see all the way down to the other end. They would have to lower the raised area of the runway by less than ten feet. They do not know if they will get the funding to start this project this year.

The overall construction of the runway is estimated to cost about $2.4 million. Since this excavation is for safety reasons, the state would cover 90 percent of the costs, and the city would pay 10 percent.

"If we did this in-house, the city can absorb the cost. They could just pay the engineering department through our salaries," Wright said.

Sometime during 2018 to 2020 the board also seeks to install hangers, an eight-foot wildlife fence and a new road leading from the highway to the spaceport. The state will pay 60 percent of the costs leaving the other 40 percent open for funding because they are not safety related projects. These projects will only take place if they receive funding.