Jan. 17--Army Blackhawk and Chinook helicopters will be flying around the Pueblo area -- both day and night -- if city officials complete an agreement with Fort Carson to have Pueblo Memorial Airport provide training space for helicopter crews that could be arriving as soon as March.
Mark Lovin, city airport director, is negotiating with the Army to provide training space at the airport for helicopter crews that are part of a new aviation brigade being sent to Fort Carson's Butts Army Airfield. That airfield is being rebuilt for the new brigade which will start arriving this year.
If the Army agrees to Pueblo's proposal, 15 to 30 helicopters and their crews -- totaling between 150 and 400 soldiers -- will come to the airport for training sessions lasting up to three weeks at a time. They would fly training missions in the region, including to the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site northeast of Trinidad.
"The Army is looking for a 'turnkey' location where they can begin training classes while Butts is
being rebuilt," Lovin said Wednesday, adding the negotiations are continuing.
City Council President Steve Nawrocki said Lovin has described the negotiations to council and he doesn't believe the helicopters would be flying over Pueblo's residential areas. "I assume it would have minimal impact on our community or council will have concerns about it," he said Wednesday.
Lovin has been wooing the Army after the city was told by the Air Force last year that it won't continue paying about $500,000 a year to the city for the four-engine C-130 transport planes that have long used the airport for touch-and-go landings.
That loss in federal funding poses a serious budget problem for the city airport.
Lovin said the Army won't be paying landing fees for the helicopter flights because the Army built the airport during World War II and the deed giving it to the city includes a ban on the Army being charged to use it in the future.
"But they would be paying city sales and use tax on all the gasoline and other supplies," Lovin said. "Not to mention they will be bringing between 150 and 400 soldiers down for each training class."
Initial talks with the Army indicate crews would bus down from Fort Carson each day, but Lovin said a long-term agreement could mean the Army would want housing and office space in the airport park.
He said the Army wants to run three to five training classes in 2013, starting in March. That would mean both day and night helicopter flights over areas of the city.
Lovin emphasized that details of the possible agreement still are being negotiated.
Copyright 2013 - The Pueblo Chieftain, Colo.
