CHRISTINA EICHELKRAUT / PVT R. John Sanders, project manager for Aries Consultants, Ltd., shows the Airport Technical Advisory Committee the proposed layout of the future Pahrump Valley Airport to be located near the California border south of Gambird street. Advertisement

It won't be too long now before the proposed Pahrump Valley Airport takes flight.

Granted, it'll be a few years yet before construction begins, but if the Pahrump Technical Advisory Committee meeting last Thursday was any indication, it won't be long before planes are taking off right from the south end of town.

The proposed airport, to be located near the California border about two and a half miles south of the end of Gamebird Street, started off as an idea in 1983.

Since then, meetings have been held, paperwork and applications have been filled out, and funding from various national and state grants has slowly been trickling in.

Last week, over a decade since the inception of the idea, the board was given a presentation of the draft final of the airport's master plan.

Aside from a few minor changes from previous drafts (the runway was moved slightly to the northeast so the entire facility is located in the state), the comprehensive plan established a set schedule for the airport's construction and its funding.

Just about anyone who would be needed to make the draft report a reality was in attendance, including representatives from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT) Airport Planning Sector.

John Sanders, of Aries Consultants Ltd., the company which prepared the draft, walked the board through the several planned phases through which the airport will need to pass before its completion.

"We can't go from having no airport to a complete airport overnight," Sanders said. "We have to look at how we're going to phase that, and also just as important is how we're going to pay for that."

First things first, however. Sanders reminded the board that the proposed airport was designed to be a general aviation airport and not meant to service scheduled commercial flights.

Basically that means the airport would accommodate smaller planes such as personal aircraft, chartered flights (think corporate Cessna or Lear), the smallest of mail delivery planes, or the increasingly popular "air taxi," which is exactly what it sounds like -- a small plane hired to take a person from point A to point B.

The town already has a pretty good start on the first phases of the 500- to 600-acre general aviation airport.

As Sanders pointed out, the first step is to actually acquire the land.

So far, Pahrump has worked in conjunction with the FAA to get the land from the ubiquitous Bureau of Land Management by placing it on the Nye County Mini-Lands Acts, the shorter and quicker legislative equivalent to the county's proposed Public Lands Act.

Next, the town needs to conduct various weather and environmental studies, some of which, including a year's worth of wind studies, have already been completed.

In addition, Nevada Sen. Harry Reid announced Tuesday that Pahrump would receive $475,000 of a U.S. Department of Transportation grant to pay for the environmental study.

The first phase of the airport is expected to last until 2012 and includes constructing the first 5,000 feet of what eventually will be expanded to a 6,000-foot runway.

The phase also includes installing fencing, grading access roads, and extending utilities, possibly from Gamebird Road.

Next, hangers (which could potentially be rented out to the private sector, thus generating revenue) will be built, taxiways will be added, and parking areas for private planes (including a tie-down area) can be built and gradually expanded.

Finally, a terminal administration building, fire station, more hangers, a maintenance, and "aircraft pollution abatement facility" (the fancy terminology used to described a place where pilots can wash their planes) will be added.

The goal is for Pahrump to have a complete new airport by 2025, although it's possible it could be in use prior to that date.

The initial phases of construction are slated to begin in approximately two years.

The price tag for an airport is pretty hefty; reaching an initially staggering total estimated cost of $33,746,000.

However, thanks to the FAA Airway Improvement Act of 1982, which establishes a trust fund used to assist the development of airports nationwide, up to $25,535,075 could be funded through FAA grants.

In addition, NDOT also has been given the authority to award grants to match money a town or community receives from federal aviation funding programs.

For example, last January the town approved an NDOT grant for $15,789 that was the state match to a $375,000 FAA grant the town received in 2003 from the Airport Investment program.

However, the state's contribution, capped at 5 percent and not to exceed $50,000 a year, is currently facing a perilous legislative path and may be cut in the near future.

Still, as Sanders pointed out at the meeting, plenty of options exist for the town to raise revenue to support the project.

In addition to private financing, such as commercial aviation facilities like a flight school, there remains the option of general bonds, in-kind services, revenue bonds, donations, tax exempt financing, or additional grants from the federal public works program or the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Pahrump is also fortunate enough to have Charlie Gronda for its airport planning director.

Gronda is not paid for the many hours he has invested and continues to invest in the airport project; in actually the time and expense he invests in the airport is the in-kind exchange the town gives for the NDOT grant.