Airport and Storey community center win funding from Senate

The Carson City Airport and proposed Storey County Youth and Community Resource Center are among the beneficiaries in the U.S. Senate's Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Bill.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the bill provides nearly $20 million in funding for Nevada projects.

One of the biggest grants, $3 million, is earmarked for the Carson Airport project. The money will replace pavement on the runway, realigning it to slightly improve safety, removing a hill that has long been an obstruction for pilots, and constructing a new taxiway. The airport will also get an automated weather observation system, new aprons and new automatic entry control gates.

Airport Manager Yvon Weaver said the grant joins the $5 million grant the airport has been awarded by the Federal Aviation Administration and will jump start the projects.

The next step, she said, is completing the deal with John Serpa to buy 27 acres of land to allow moving the east end of the runway 30 degrees more to the north. She said that will get the runway farther from the houses on Apollo Drive. She said Serpa has been working with Airport Authority attorney Steve Tackes on the deal and has been a strong supporter of the airport and its needs. She said Tackes was also instrumental in getting Reid's support for the grant.

The taxiway reconstruction is needed, she said, because under new FAA regulations, there isn't enough separation between the runway and taxiway.

By the time it's completed, she said, the entire airport project will cost about $25 million.

The Storey County community center project will get $200,000 toward construction of a multi-purpose community resource center serving low- and moderate-income individuals.

The 6,000-square-foot center will be built on the little-used tennis courts near the swimming pool at Carson and H streets.

Over the past dozen years, Community Chest has raised $400,000 of the estimated $2 million cost and the county is donating the land. No one was available to comment on the project but Community Chest Executive Director Sean Griffin said in an earlier interview they are still looking for donors to make the center a reality.

When completed, it will provide space for the public health nurse's offices, for child-care programs and for a business center with free computers and phones provided by NevadaWorks.

It will provide a community gathering place and even house some nonprofit groups such as the Comstock Arts Council and UNR Cooperative Extension.

The center will even have a half-size basketball court and stage area for performing arts.

Other Northern Nevada projects funded in the bill include the Meadowood interchange on Highway 395 in Reno and covers for selected parts of the ReTRAC train trench project.

• Contact reporter Geoff Dornan at gdornan@nevadaappeal.com or 687-8750.