Upton Municipal Airport Master Plan Presented

23 Mar 2023


This past Tuesday, the Upton Town Council was joined by Upton Municipal Airport Manager Lori Materi, Tim Wick of MorrisonMeirle and AJ Schutzman, Senior Planner, WYDOT Aeronautics for the third meeting with council, to present the findings of options discovered in the Upton Municipal Airport Master Plan.

Wick presented Chapter 5 of the plan to the council, explaining “the preferred alternatives to the Upton Municipal Airport that would be the best fit to the community.”

Wick displayed drawings of the airport concept plan, helping the town council to identify the airport concept regarding land owned by the city, as well as forest service property the Town of Upton has a lease with.

"What we ultimately came up with, we identified a runway. It’s 3,800 in length and 75 feet wide. Per the directions we were getting, with the setbacks in the safety areas, buildings and construction lines, we followed the FAA guidelines. The goal is to get you going on the right step, if you ever do receive federal funding, your airport is actually built per their directions or guidelines, or regulations,” Wick stated during the meeting.

Mayor Trandahl inquired as to if the Master Plan to receiving any future funding from the State of Wyoming or the Federal govenment. Wick confirmed it was essential.

Wick also presented chapter six of the master plan, which focused on the financing aspects of what it would cost to renovate the airport in the future, to build some of the things explained in the master plan. “When you start to talk about paving a runway, you’re talking in the millions of dollars. Building a fixed base operator (FBO) site, building a fuel site, building aprons and tiedowns. That’s not what we’re trying to push the community to commit to. What we’re trying to do is to give your airport a plan, something that if there is an economic development or business professional that comes to town that wants to construct a hangar, they could do that,” Wick mentioned to the council.

It was mentioned by Wick in his presentation that there are a lot of buildings that are currently too close to the active runway, stating that “you’ve got some existing features up there, that if you look at the runway surface, you have to protect your runway surface. A lot of those buildings, those structures are too close to what we’re calling your runway strip.”

A majority of the continuation of the Upton Municipal Airport Master Plan discussion focused on more short-term actions that can be taken by the council to improve the airport, specifically in current features that are either inactive, or are a more cost-effective fix. These short-term plans, mentioned by Wick, are geared toward the town-owned land, which does not have the certain restrictions for development that the Forest Service leased land has.

Some of the short-term plans that came out of the discussion included the old lights, which current do not work and are considered a hazard, as well as runway identifying markings, tie-downs and bathrooms. The discussion between council and Materi, Wick and Schutzman on potential short-term plans explained how the council could add new runway markers at the airport, as well as what it would look like to get next level explosion of a 5,300-foot runway.

Mayor Trandahl asked if the Airport Board will bring upgrade recommendations to the Council and airport manager Lori Olson confirmed they would.

Councilman Joe Watt posed the question of “what financial obligation does the town have to any of these renovations to the airport,” that of which Wick replied there is no financial obligation the city has to take, stating “it is whatever you as a council want to do.” Wick explained how the master plan is just concepts that give the council plans in place to move forward in the future.

Materi, Wick and Schutzman will be having an open house on Tuesday, April 11 at 6:00 p.m., at the Town Hall Council Chambers, to present Upton Municipal Airport Master Plan to the public.

Article courtesy of the Weston County Gazette.