It’s been nearly a decade since a 5,000 foot long, 100 foot wide north/south runway was built at Clinton Regional Airport, opening the facility to corporate jets.
In two months, Clinton Regional Airport will have a first-class terminal to welcome pilots and passengers.
“Warrensburg has a terminal that is eight to ten times bigger than this, but we have everything it has,” said Joel Long, airport operations manager. “We have a passenger waiting area, a pilot waiting area, a shower room and a kitchen.”
The terminal at Clinton Regional Airport, which is owned by the City of Clinton, was built with funding from the Federal Aviation Administration. A non-profit board of volunteers, The Clinton Airport Association (CAA), oversees the operation of the airport. Westport Construction of Clinton is handling the building project.
“It should be completed and open by the end of September or first week in October,” said Don Wheeler, site manager, of the terminal.
Mayor Carla Moberly, MODOT Commissioner Gregg Smith and Wallace White, the former airport manager and a CAA member, broke ground for the new terminal last November, but cold weather delayed the start of construction until February, Don said. The structure is visible on the access road to the hangar area, looking south from Highway 7 S., three miles east of the Clinton city limits.
Now, the exterior is almost finished, with dry-stack stone installed on the bottom half, topped with a band of stainless steel with lights underneath that will reflect off the steel at night. Lap siding will be installed above the steel band, he said.
Inside, the building has been wired and plumbed, Don said, and he was doing some minor clean-up last week after Johnny VanWinkle of Recovery Painting had finished painting the interior. There are normally four or five workers there every day, he said.
The next step is to get the vinyl flooring installed, Don said. The crew is also waiting on doors and cabinets to arrive from the supplier, as well as the components of the drop-in ceiling.
Before the new terminal, Clinton Regional Airport just had a small nondescript building, consisting of one large common room furnished with a conference table and chairs. The room doubled as Long’s office and a place where pilots checked in. In one corner the AWOS, Automatic Weather Observing System, chirped away, providing continuous, real-time information to pilots landing at the airport in lieu of a control tower.
Clinton’s new terminal is a lot more recognizable to pilots landing at the airport. A large central hall with 12-foot ceilings faces the runway, visible through large windows and double glass doors. There’s no furniture yet, but it’s easy to imagine passengers sitting in the waiting room, to the left of the main doors, and pilots leaning over tables, making flight plans in the large pilot’s room behind that. Pilots also can use the shower room and the quiet room in the back left part of the building while they are waiting for charter passengers to arrive.
Another amenity in the new terminal is the break room, to the right of the front entrance, which will have vending machines and an oven, Joel said. At center right will be the receptionist’s desk fronting Joel’s office, then a back hall with two restrooms, not just one like the former building had. As soon as the tile is put up on the walls, the fixtures will go in the restrooms, Don said.
The new terminal will offer a welcome to pilots flying in to Clinton. Joel said he’s already had two pilots stop to refuel on the way on their way from Texas to Oshkosh, WI, for the EAA rendezvous the last week in July. An international aviation organization, the EAA holds the largest fly-in air show in the world, drawing 10,000 planes, with five separate airports set up for different categories of aircraft, including vintage military.
Every year, Joel makes sure he has enough fuel on hand, as some airports run out of fuel before EAA.
Don said he was surprised to discover how much traffic Clinton Regional Airport gets— he’s seen four private jets there in one day. A perk of the job is watching stunt pilots practice maneuvers — he’s watched Redline Airshows’ aerobatic flight team practice for Wings over Whiteman AFB, and the Shetterly Squadron, a family that flies up from Nevada, Mo, practice loops and rolls for air shows. The Shetterlies reserve an ‘aerobatics box,’ a section of airspace, to practice, Joel said.
The FAA maintains a network of airports throughout the United States for safety and security reasons. Clinton Regional Airport supplies a base for military exercises of Missouri National Guard units, and supports police/law enforcement activity, environmental patrols, medical doctor transports, and forest firefighting. The Missouri Department of Conservation utilizes the airport for search and rescue missions, and agricultural businesses and aerial photographers use the airport, also used for pilot training. The runways and navigational aids are owned by the City of Clinton, as well as the terminal, and is providing a small percentage of funds for its construction.
The city council and City Administrator Christy Maggi are always supportive of airport improvements, Joel said, which are vital to corporate business travel and economic development.
“To get grants, projects have to be shovel-ready and funding-ready,” Joel said, “The city of Clinton always is.”
Joel said Don and Westport Construction have also been great to work with, and Brett Holt of Garver Engineering stops by once a week and takes photographs to send back to the architects.
The new terminal is more visible than the old one, being right on the main runway, with windows that look out on the planes landing and taking off. It was built to the strict specifications of the Federal Aviation Administration, Joel said, which covered $1.9 million of the $2 million cost. The terminal is designed to withstand strong winds, with extra anchors to hold it to the foundation and shear walls that flex, Don said.
The quiet room/storm shelter has 8-inch thick concrete walls on a 6-inch thick concrete pad. It holds about a dozen people, Joel said, and will be available to the public as an emergency shelter.
This is the first airport terminal he has built, Don said. He also supervised the construction on the Backroom addition and social hall remodel of Clinton Methodist Church, and did the remodel of the Clinton Swimming Pool House and addition at Artesian Park. He was just over there to repair the parking lot, he said.
A drum roller and a ‘dozer are parked at the new airport terminal, waiting to create the parking lot off the access road into the airport. The gate to the hangar areas will be moved closer to the highway.
Clinton’s new terminal will also have something many regional airports offer— fresh baked cookies. Joel, who has a degree in aerospace management, worked in the hospitality industry for many years, and plans to welcome pilots and passengers with warm cookies. He found a cookie warmer on Ebay, he said, has already ordered cookie bags, and has two airplane cookie cutters ready to roll.
“I have made a few trial runs,” he said.
Civic groups in Clinton are scheduled to tour the new terminal starting at the end of this month, Joel said.
The surface of the main runway, 18/36, is also in first-class condition, having been ground and sealed last September. The cost was $453,000, of which $408,000 was funded by federal grants. The remaining $45,000 came from the city, but the city has the option to use monies granted to it from the Federal Aviation Administration.
Block grants come to Missouri airports through the Missouri Department of Transportation, and are funded by aviation fuel taxes and passenger facility charges, the $4.95 on your airline ticket.
Joel noted that the Warrensburg Airport is owned by the University of Central Missouri, and was built with alumni donations, and has a pilot training program with a waiting list.
