BoCo seeks improvement grant for Sandpoint Airport

By Lyndsie Kiebert
Reader Staff

Bonner County commissioners approved a grant application Feb. 16 seeking nearly $800,000 to relocate a portion of North Boyer Avenue and attached infrastructure outside of the Runway Object Free Area of Runway 20 at the Sandpoint Airport.

Bonner County Airport Manager Dave Schuck presented the memo at the commissioners’ regular Tuesday business meeting, stating that the grant was part of the Federal Aviation Administration’s Airport Improvement Program. If approved, the county would receive $797,520 from the FAA, and be required to put up $55,826 in matching funds.

The project would include relocating 600 linear feet of North Boyer Avenue beyond the Runway Object Free Area, which is the area around a runway where objects not tied to aerial navigation are disallowed.

“This is not new, it has been this way since Boyer was re-routed many years ago,” Schuck told the Sandpoint Reader in an email Feb. 17. “The FAA wants to clean this up for safety reasons.”

According to Schuck’s memo, “associated work elements” for the project also include installation of about 200 feet of culvert, relocation of about 800 feet of airport fencing and relocation of approximately 400 feet of trail on the east side of Boyer, along with the existing trail crossing sign. About 160 feet of fill or retaining wall will also need to be engineered and constructed on the road’s easterly right-of-way, Schuck told commissioners.

“This grant is part of the FAA’s Airport Improvement Program, which is funded completely by user fees in the form of passenger fees on airline tickets and taxes on aviation fuels,” the memo concludes.

The board unanimously approved the grant application.