John Baer, an engineer with the design firm Woolpert, shared the news during Monday’s monthly meeting of the BoAC.

“We did get a formal response back from the FAA and they are allowing us to build (the new runway) to the 75-foot width,” Baer said. 

“When you say formal, does that mean in writing?” board member Corey Murphy asked.

“Yeah, I made sure of that,” Baer responded.

The dimensions of the runway have been in question for the past several months.

Originally, the board was looking to construct a new runway 5,000 feet long by 75 feet wide. The FAA said the board failed to demonstrate a need for those dimensions and scaled the project back to 4,200 feet by 65 feet, which board members were not happy about because the idea behind constructing a new runway is to accommodate larger aircraft at the local airport.

“I’m just happy about this development because it’s been really hard to move forward until we had an answer on this,” Baer said.

“I’m glad to hear it,” board member Gene Clark said.

“It’s definitely a step in the right direction,” New Castle Mayor Greg York added.

Baer’s associate, Ryan Robison, provided an update on work associated with phase one of the runway project, which involves grading and drainage improvements to the western half of the construction area.

He said rainy weather delayed the re-start of construction begun last fall until this week. If the weather cooperates, this phase of the project should be completed soon. His hope this portion of the project can be closed out shortly thereafter.

“Everything is in place and it shouldn’t be more than two or three weeks before we have everything finished up with this phase,” Robison said.

Baer then discussed phase two, which includes additional grading and drainage as well as work associated with preliminary paving design. He anticipates advertising for bids June 3 and opening those bids for consideration June 27.

“It sounds like we’re going to get around $1.1 million this year (from the FAA), and if I can keep the grading down to around $600,000 that leaves us about half a million dollars to get some paving down this year,” Baer said. “It’s going to cost more than that to get all of the paving done, but I think we can get a pretty good chunk of it done.”

This update also was welcomed by the board.

In other BoAC news, Mayor York reported long-time board member Brad Crowe has tendered his resignation. According to the mayor, Crowe said he didn’t have the time he would like to dedicate to the board.

York said Crowe did a good job and that he appreciates his service to the board over the years. Crowe was a mayoral appointment and York said he expects to name Crowe’s replacement in the near future.