Most Woodring Hangar Lease Rates Set for Increase; Several Airport Construction Projects Planned

Nov. 4—Aircraft owners leasing the Enid airport's hangars could see minor increases to monthly square-footage rates in the coming weeks.

One- to 2-cent increases to lease most of 113 hangars at Enid Woodring Regional Airport would provide an extra $15,548.88 total per year, airport officials said.

Lease rates are calculated per square foot per month, and increases are done every few years to match competitive lease costs, Airport Director Keston Cook said Tuesday during a study session presentation to the Enid City Commission.

Commissioners likely will consider revising the rates ordinance at their next regular meeting on Nov. 16, City Manager Jerald Gilbert said.

Rates would be increased between $9.27 to $12.76 a month, depending on the hangar series. Varying corporate and ground leases — currently at 16 cents and 15 cents, respectively — also would each be increased by 1 cent and 2 cents, for a total annual increase of $5,257.44 and $3,695.04.

Cook said this proposed rate increase would help keep up with what he said were major maintenance cost increases that airport staff had seen over the past few years.

The rates would not be changed for only the largest 45 and 46 Series hangars, at 12 cents and 22 cents per square foot per month, respectively.

These "port-a-port"-style hangars, initially temporarily installed in the 1970s, often have water leak onto them pretty badly, Cook said. To keep prices competitively desirable for these hangar styles, these rates were not increased.

"These are aging hangars, so they definitely have some problems," he said.

Ninety of the hangars are city-owned, while 23 are privately owned. About 85% to 90% are occupied, Cook said, with the only spaces currently available being in the port-a-port hangars.

The leaking hangars themselves are set to be replaced in the next five years, as part of a reconstruction of Woodring's south ramp, Cook said during an overall aerial-view presentation of the airport Tuesday.

As Vance Air Force Base reconstructs its ramp during fiscal year 2023, Woodring is set to sell 1,000 gallons of fuel a month to the military, then use those profits to fund its own ramp reconstruction and hangar replacements, Cook said.

Also within the airport's five-year capital improvement plan, which was submitted to Federal Aviation Administration, is a more immediate reconstruction of the airport's smaller 13/31 runway, set to start next spring.

Cook said the runway will be narrowed from 108 feet wide down to a more "nationally consistent" 75 feet. LED lights also will be added.

Cook said smaller, general-aviation planes mainly use the runway — instead of the 8,000-foot 17/35 runway — when winds pick up in the east or west, usually during storms. The former is the only so-called "cross-wind" runway in Northwest Oklahoma, he said.

"It shouldn't have a major impact on the operations of the airport," Cook said of the project. "That runway doesn't get used 100% of the time by the general aviation (planes)."

He said reconstructing the runway, which hadn't been repaired since 2010, now was cheaper than continually fixing it.

Construction projects are funded mostly by grants from FAA or other state organizations, he said.

With a total estimated cost of $2.1 million, about 75% of the project will be funded by an FAA grant, 5% by Oklahoma Aeronautics Commission and the rest by local airport funding, he said. Bids will go out for the project in March.

A few weeks ago, the airport finished ramp repairs on crack seals and panel replacements on all three ramps, Cook said. That cost about $300,000, with about half of the funding coming from Oklahoma State Military Planning Commission.

Ewald is copy editor and city/education reporter for the Enid News & Eagle.

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