HILLSDALE — Plans to upgrade the Hillsdale Municipal Airport's fuel farm are near completion.
Contractors finished erecting two new fuel tanks last week and the project is currently at a stand-still awaiting the arrival of fuel pumps in October, Airport Manager Ginger Moore said.
The new fuel facility location located the fuel facility in its ultimate configuration adjacent to the new aircraft parking apron.
Relocation of the existing fuel facility was necessary to accommodate the future parallel taxiway C extension, Moore said.
These projects are both part of the airport's overall improvement plan.
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 bid for the project came in at $591,000 with Oscar W. Larson Company being awarded the bid this spring.
Moore said 90-percent of the funding came from an annual $150,000 entitlement payment from the federal government which the airport has been saving for a few years for the project.
The Michigan Department of Transportation contributed $26,000, or five-percent, and the city of Hillsdale was originally going to contribute another five-percent. However, federal monies provided by the CARES Act for aviation purposes covered that, Moore said.
The old fuel farms underground tanks will eventually be taken out in order to pave the way for a full length parallel taxiway.
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