PORT HASTINGS - With runway repairs heading into the home stretch, the Port Hawkesbury Municipal Airport has received a multi-level funding commitment for long-awaited terminal upgrades.
Port Hawkesbury Town Council has approved its share of the funding required to upgrade the terminal at the airport facility located on Trans-Canada Highway 105 on the north end of Port Hastings. Combined with funds from Enterprise Cape Breton Corporation (ECBC), the provincial government and airport’s other five municipal partners, the spending approved during last week’s council meeting at the Civic Centre will make an immediate impact, according to Port Hawkesbury Mayor Billy Joe MacLean.
“ECBC is providing the funds to put a trailer out there and a breezeway next to the office - it was getting cramped and awkward,” MacLean remarked. “Airports are tough to run and to try to make a profit from - there’s a fair amount of expenses. But when you share the expense, it’s not nearly as bad. And the government has recognized that we need help, and they’ve helped us.”
Airport manager Al MacDonald confirmed that the forthcoming renovations will help the Port Hawkesbury facility reach the standards now seen at other municipal airports in such areas as Trenton, Truro, Debert and Digby.
“We have the most humble terminal in the province,” MacDonald said. “So they’re going to put a pre-built section behind us, and join it on the west end with a walkway that goes into it from our kitchen. It will be a separate unit, and crews can go in there and relax or have a nap and watch TV, and just be themselves and have some privacy in there. Right now, they’ve got to sit around all day in the porch chair with us in the little lobby here. So this will start to bring us up a little closer to the rest of the province.”
This renovation project comes as the airport’s runway, measuring 5,000 feet by 150 feet, is reaching the final five per cent of a crack-filling and resurfacing project carried out by two firms, Dexter Construction and Road Savers, over the past year.
“Dexter used a couple of special machines and packed it in and it turned out nice,” MacDonald recalled. “Then we did our crack-filling, which was done by Road Savers, who are the same people that do most of the highway work. They’re the best in the province, they know their work, and they are all very good at what they do, so they work as a very good team. So they did a very good job of crack-sealing.”
With government partners stepping in to address the various issues facing the Port Hawkesbury Municipal Airport, MacDonald is optimistic that other long-standing concerns will receive attention in the short and long terms.
“There are a few other things that have to be done,” he noted. “The well should be replaced - the water is very, very hard, and there are a few other touch-ups we need.”