GUNTERSVILLE AL- Guntersville Mayor Leigh Dollar was pleased to announce at the last City Council meeting what is the largest single-year FAA General Aviation grant in Alabama in the past 20 years. The Guntersville Municipal Airport- Joe Starnes Field has been awarded a Federal DOT Discretionary Grant for initial work on the City's runway expansion project. The total funding amount is almost $6.3 million.
The grant includes $5,000,000 in funding made possible by support from Senator Richard Shelby, Senator Jeff Sessions and Congressman Robert Aderholt. Additional FAA funding brings the total of $6,297,000 for the 2-13-14 funding year, she said.
More than $6 million has already been spent on the Guntersville airport expansion, including the initial engineering and land acquisition phase. This new grant will start the actual construction project to realign and expand the runway to 5000', making it available to small jet aircraft and much more attractive to corporate and private traffic. New hangars will be built along with development of a new FBO facility and updated Airport Master Plan.
"Guntersville's Conners' Island Business Park, located adjacent to the airport, is already receiving additional inquires because of this project. And Guntersville's already robust seaplane activities are expected to grow due to the expansion," said Guntersville Mayor Leigh Dollar.
"This is a wonderful economic development opportunity for our community and north Alabama's entire mountain-lakes region, and we appreciate so much the support of our congressional delegation, FAA and ALDOT Aeronautics. -Staff Report.