The Upper Cumberland Regional Airport Board will move forward with wildlife fencing for the facility to protect aircraft.
Airport manager Dean Selby said grant funding will cover the initial design fee of $71,000 and the additional environmental study, which will costs some $43,000. Selby said the federal estimate for the entire cost of the wildlife fence is $6.6 million.
“That’s just the initial engineering fee on this, just the initial design fee,” Selby said. “Then the actual design will be will come after that, that’s just for the environmental study to determine whether or not the overall grant is even what we’re looking for.”
Interim Airport Director Heather McBride said the board needs to move forward with the study to address safety concerns and meet federal guidelines. McBride said the study serves as a necessary step in securing the airport perimeter against local wildlife hazards.
“The USDA came in and did the wildlife assessment study,” McBride said. “They got 12 months of data. They brought a report back to us that said you need fencing for the airport for wildlife.”
McBride said the 10-foot tall barbed wire wildlife fence can be constructed in phases.
“We look at the areas that are the worst that, you know, the assessment showed us where the problems that were area problems and we could actually start with some of that and get that done in phases this project,” McBride said.
Cookeville Mayor Laurin Wheaton said she agreed with doing all they can to increase safety and reduce liability surrounding the regional airport. Board member Martin Ing said the board has an obligation to manage the airport as a professional entity for the entire community.
“Why would you rather not have an airport with more facilities that you use routinely that encourages more people to use our airport?” Ing said.
Board member Bill Austin said the airport should focus more on its original purpose as a community hub for Sparta, Cookeville, Putnam County and White County. Austin said he is concerned that the airport is becoming over-managed and is moving away from the efficiency of a local business.
“All this try to trying to build a fence that could potentially cost $6 million, how much is the grant going to be to maintain that fence?,” Austin said. “It’s going to come down to the airport’s going to have to maintain it. I mean all this free stuff we get, you know there’s not going to be any grant money to maintain it.”
Currently, the airport has a three-foot chain link fence to keep wildlife out, according to Airport Manager Dean Selby. Selby said, while the fence would not keep out birds, it would help limit wildlife interactions in general. Selby said airport staff frequently work to shoo animals off airport property.
“We have (raccoons), we have foxes, we have coyotes, we have all of that that we see, we haze them all the time,” Selby said.
The board also discussed the possibility of issuing a request for proposals for a second fixed-base operator to introduce more competition at the airfield.