WM Airport wants community input for new 10-year plan

WM Airport wants community input for new 10-year plan

Public invited to forum tomorrow evening

news@theeveningtimes.com

The West Memphis Airport is seeking public input regarding its long-term planning.

The airport recently completed all the work outlined in its last 20-year plan, years ahead of schedule, and It’s time to go back to the drawing board. The first step is to get new ideas from the public. To that end, a community meeting is set for tomorrow evening, beginning at 5:30 p.m., at West Memphis City Hall, 205 S. Redding St.

“The FAA will be there,” said Municpal Airport Manager Lynda Avery.

“Forest Owens is our consulting planner with ETI and he wiill be there. It won’t take more than an hour depending on community particpation.”

The goal of the meeting is to get the ideas from the community on a list and to develop projects to meet those needs.

“We don’t have any specific projects in mind,” said Airport Engineer Stacey Morris with ETI. “The FAA was very specific that we just need input from the community about how they see the airport. We don’t have any pre-conceived ideas like ‘here is what we think we should do.’ It is a clean-sheet public brainstorming session. So, we just want the public input on the airport, what it is and how it can serve them.

A lot of people don’t understand how important the airport is to them.”

Morris said companies like Hino and Family Dollar considered the nearby airport in their decision to locate their new facilities in the community.

“They (the FAA) made it very clear they don’t want any proposals out there from us. But they want to hear from the community about their wants from the airport,” said Avery.

By John Rech