The city council this week approved a new layout plan for
Hollister Municipal Airport that calls for such changes as building
a helicopter landing pad, improving the sign guide, changing the
water drainage system, switching the yellow reflectors on roads and
taxiways to blue and trimming the runway edge lighting down to
allow for gliders to land.
The city council this week approved a new layout plan for Hollister Municipal Airport that calls for such changes as building a helicopter landing pad, improving the sign guide, changing the water drainage system, switching the yellow reflectors on roads and taxiways to blue and trimming the runway edge lighting down to allow for gliders to land.
The airport layout plan maps out improvements and additions, which airport officials will use when they apply to the Federal Aviation Administration to receive grant funding. The plan was unanimously approved by Hollister City Council members Monday and was sent to the FAA for its approval, Interim Airport Manager Mike Chambless said.
Recently, local developer Ken Lindsay submitted the lone bid on a multi-million-dollar private project at the airport and he said he’s ready to get construction crews working as soon as the city’s building moratorium is lifted – possibly this summer. He has estimated a price range of $5 million to $35 million and said it will take three to five years to complete.
“This airport project has been like climbing a mountain,” Lindsay said. “It was easy at first in the foothills but now it it’s getting harder towards
The plan includes an area set aside on the 20.5 remaining acres available for development for a new CalFire Air Attack base. City officials for years have been negotiating with CalFire over the state agency’s intention to build the new base here.
CalFire officials have been frustrated at times over lagging talks and, most recently, the city’s willingness to solicit airport bids from developers while keeping open the option of leaving CalFire off the current plans. CalFire officials, meanwhile, have expressed concern that the state funds already approved for building the base may be lost if an agreement with the city is not met soon.
The Hollister Airport Commission will meet with CalFire officials Thursday in an effort to agree on an approved plan for the base.
Reno DiTullio, CalFire assistant chief of the Monterey-San Benito region, said he hopes this meeting will be the final step in getting the base approved and construction crews working.
“We’ve got a cookie-cutter plan for the base ready to go,” he said. “I can only hope will get this done on Thursday.”
The CalFire base, if approved, would be built by state contractors, and DiTullio said the “cookie-cutter” plan he spoke of would have the blueprint looking almost exactly like a recently built air-attack base in Paso Robles.
Meanwhile, City Manager Clint Quilter said the city will begin recruiting for a full-time airport manager within the next four to six weeks. Chambless was hired in February to replace former manager Bill Gere, who came under fire after changing the airport commission-approved layout plan – which did not include an area for the CalFire base – before it reached the council for its consideration.
