Hillsdale Municipal Airport Proceeds with Fuel Farm Project
HILLSDALE — The Hillsdale Municipal Airport is proceeding with a project to erect a new fuel facility with construction anticipated to begin this spring at its new apron.
Airport Manager Ginger Moore said there are currently two fuel storage tanks on the airport that are owned and operated by the city of Hillsdale.
"Each underground tank has the capacity of 5,000 gallons," Moore said.
The city offers both 100LL and JetA types of fuel.
"The city purchased and solely funded the two underground storage tanks in the mid 1980's," Moore said.
The new fuel facility relocation and expansion will locate the fuel facility in its ultimate configuration adjacent to the new aircraft parking apron.
Relocation of the existing fuel facility is necessary to accommodate the future parallel taxiway C extension, Moore said.
These projects are both part of the airport's overall improvement plan.
"The proposed fuel farm would be located on the east side of the new concrete apron and is shown on our airport layout plan," Moore said. "The facility will be above-ground tanks serving both AvGas and JetA."
The new JetA tank will hold 10,000 gallons, Moore said, while the AvGas will match the previous 5,000 gallon tank.
Moore said the airport has experienced a large growth in JetA sales in recent years.
In 2017, the airport sold just 12,952 gallons of JetA fuel which nearly tripled in 2019 to 37,476 gallons sold.
Comparatively, only 5,649 gallons of AvGas were sold in 2017 and only increased to 6,113 gallons by 2019.
"Installing a larger JetA tank will give the airport flexibility to refill less often and accommodate peak traffic," Moore said.
The fuel facility is being paid for with entitlement funds the airport has been collecting for the past few years.
The bid for the project came in at $591,000 with Oscar W. Larson Company being awarded the bid.
The city of Hillsdale will be responsible for a five-percent match equalling $29,558, Moore said.
An airport fund will be used for the city's percentage portion. The airport fund gets its revenue from fuel sales and hangar rental, Moore said.
The airport profits around $1 for every gallon of fuel sold.
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