Placing planes, Mondell airport will add 8 hangars to address lack of space

Mondell Field Airport in Newcastle plans to add several box-style hangars this fall, thanks to grant funding that will allow people to store their planes inside instead of just anchoring them down.

“This is the largest hangar project that Mondell Field has ever seen to date,” said Weston County Commission Vice Chairman Garrett Borton, who’s on the airport board, in a phone interview on July 25.

About two years ago, the airport board started engaging with some of its layouts of its master plan for the airport, according to Borton. Working with engineers from Morrison-Maierle, a Gillette consulting firm, the board found that the project received a bid for hangars with the “completely astronomical” price of more than $240 per square foot for what is “more or less a tin shed with a concrete pad and a fancy power lift door.” The board continued to research and fine-tune the project so it could get different bids.

“My goal was to get with the money that we had somewhere between eight and 10 hangers, put up, installed, ready to rock and roll for the same money,” he said. “We were less than half of that at the time.”

The second time the board opened the project for bidding, it received a bid of $100 per square foot, according to Borton.

“Ultimately, it paid off to hold tight,” he said.

The airport can lease the hangars to travelers and aviators, Borton said.

Mondell, a small general aviation airport at 4206 U.S. Highway 16, doesn’t have commercial air service, but it is a regional hub, airport manager Tuff Streeter said in a phone interview on July 27. Much of the traffic tends to be aircrafts that are stopping to get fuel on their journey between other destinations. Often, the people who fly in these aircrafts, however, will use Streeter’s courtesy car to visit restaurants or cafes or to stay at a hotel or motel in town. About half of the airport’s traffic is business-related. Other traffic includes emergency medical response, Streeter said. Life Flight Network fixed-wing airplanes use the airport when weather conditions make it impossible for helicopters to land at Weston County Health Services.

“The helicopter is mostly just fair weather going back and forth from Rapid (City),” he said.

Fixed-wing airplanes will also pick up patients if they need to go to a hospital that’s farther away, such as in Denver or Billings, Streeter said.

The airport has been able to lengthen its runway over the past two decades, allowing small- to mid-sized business jets to use it, according to Streeter. He believes the last runway extension was around 2016.

Government officials, military members and the oil and gas industries also use the airport, he noted. The military flies helicopters into the airport to practice using Mondell’s very high frequency, or VHF, omnidirectional range, which is a radio navigation system. The VHF omnidirectional range resembles a triangular cone, and people driving by on the highway can see it atop the hill. This system is common at airports around the world but not in the United States, which uses GPS. With other instrument approaches, or navigation systems, that the airport has, Mondell also receives more traffic  when weather is bad in Rapid City and fine in Newcastle.

Borton said coyote hunters and people who like to land in less-congested airports also use the airport. The airport also sees “a fair amount” of traffic from people who are flying up from Houston to do business at the refinery. He also anticipates that the airport will see more traffic with the Rare Earth Resources work in Upton, and the board wants the airport to be ready for that traffic. He anticipates executives, inspectors and other stakeholders will want to use the airport to visit the site.

“It’s just the fastest way to travel,” he said.

Streeter said that all but one of the hangars at the airport are privately owned, and there is a big shortage at the airport and regionally. The airport received a grant from the Federal Aviation Agency and the state to purchase an eight-unit hangar. When the construction is finished, the airport will have 16 hangars. The ones the airport is building this year are single-stall, and the others are multi-stall. The airport also has one building that the county and the city, which both fund the airport’s operational costs, own together.

People from the area surrounding Newcastle, not just those living in Newcastle, use the hangars because there is a shortage in the area, according to Streeter. Other airports in the area, such as those in Spearfish, Rapid City, Gillette and Custer, are extremely limited on hangar space, and he receives calls “all the time” from people across the area who are seeking hangar space. Two people in Custer rent a spot at Mondell, and a man in Gillette has “shown interest” in acquiring a spot at Mondell. From what he’s heard, the problem is not just regional. It’s national.

According to Streeter, the airport is a selling point in Newcastle’s real estate market too. People who are moving to the area will ask him about the airport’s services and whether there is hangar space available.

Streeter said that when people build airports, hangar space is not a top priority. People who don’t have a hangar tie the airplane to the ramp, which is “fine” except for when there is bad weather, such as thunderstorms and hail.

“It’s just like having your vehicle sit outside all the time,” he said.

Streeter said the general aviation population has increased over time, and there are a limited number of airports. Airports are limited in space and funding for hangars. Over the years, there have been more and more airplanes, and fewer and fewer places to put them. Mondell allows private construction of hangars, but that’s often cost-prohibitive for private individuals.

“It’s a little different than building on a garage onto your house,” he said.

The FAA is willing to give grant funding for hangars but it prioritizes other projects, he said.

“We were lucky to get a grant from the FAA,” he said. “That’s really, basically, the only way we’d be able to afford it.”

According to the Wyoming Department of Transportation Aeronautics Commission’s July 16 business meeting packet, the FAA distributes the money in two parts: AEC008A and AEC008B. Funding for project AEC008A consists of $853,312 from the federal government, $56,887 from state government, and $37,925 from local government. There is $336,000 in federal dollars, $22,400 in state dollars, and $14,933 for project AEC008B.

For both projects, 90% percent of the grant is federal funding, and 6% is state money, Streeter said. The rest of the funding comes from the city and the county.

Streeter said the airport is hoping to complete the construction this fall, but it is still waiting for the grants to be issued by the FAA. After the FAA issues the grants, the county and the city will sign them and the contractor will determine when to build the hangars.

“The wheels turn slow in government sometimes,” he said.