MONTAGUE — The Montague Airport Authority has completed the $1.45 million purchase of the Pioneer Aviation property at the Turners Falls Municipal Airport from the Bohonowicz family, clearing the way for new hangars and a modern refueling system at the municipal airport.
They’re upgrades airport manager Bryan Camden said will draw business to the airport on Millers Falls Road.
“It’s been carried as a project on our airport master plan for 25 years now,” he said. “We will be able to modernize the fuel services and control the price of fuel. We hope to add more ground services. If you build it, they will come.”
The real estate transactions were recorded in the Franklin County Registry of Deeds April 15 and follow an approval at a Town Meeting in February conducted via Zoom.
The airport, opened in 1940, was built by Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal-era Works Progress Administration.
Charles Bohonowicz founded Pioneer Aviation in 1971 on 10 acres at the airport purchased from the town. He died in 2017. His son, Bruce Bohonowicz, died in 2018. Charles’ son Gary and his daughter Doreen Tilley sold the property.
Camden said the Airport Authority will upgrade what’s now a full-service fuel station for aircraft to a self-service credit card kiosk more in keeping with what other airports have. The airport loses business now, with fliers traveling to Orange, Northampton, North Adams or Keene, New Hampshire, for fuel at a 24-hour kiosk.
That will cost $68,000 that the Airport Authority will borrow. The authority also wants to build eight T-shaped hangars on the property at a cost of $370,000, also in local borrowing. The authority has a waiting list for hangar space.
Town Meeting authorized borrowing totaling $1.85 million in anticipation of federal and state money.
The property purchase of $1.45 million was funded by $1.3 million from the Federal Aviation Administration and $72,500 from the state the rest in local funds.
An aircraft maintenance company and a flight school will continue renting space in the Pioneer Aviation building, Camden said. Other buildings on the property will get minor upgrades like paint and handicapped accessibility.
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