Room for growth: Airport breaks ground on hangar expansion
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By Ben Orcutt -- borcutt@nvdaily.com
FRONT ROYAL -- Warren County officials broke ground Friday for a new eight-unit hangar at the Front Royal-Warren County Airport.
Board of Supervisors Vice Chairman Glenn L. White, who also is a member of the airport commission, called the groundbreaking an auspicious occasion.
"This will be one of the first big steps we're in the process of taking in order to turn our airport from a gentleman's club, which it had been for much of the recent past, into what we hope will be a magnet for development in Warren County and will attract new people, businesses and make our lives that much easier all the way around," White said.
Mike South, airport commission chairman, spoke in a similar vein.
"As chairman of the airport commission, I want to thank all those that have helped us break ground, not only today, but over the last several years," South said. "And our special thanks to the board of supervisors who approved the airport layout plan that was developed by our engineers and the proposed building sites for this expansion."
South also offered thanks to the project management team, which consists of White, County Administrator Douglas P. Stanley, Deputy County Administrator Robert Childress and fixed base operator Reggie Cassagnol.
"Our mission is clear and we are prepared to meet the associated goals," South said.
South said each of the 35 existing hangars is being rented.
"Five out of the eight that we are going to build are already spoken for with down payments," he added.
First Class Contracting of Richmond has been awarded the bid for the project, which will be a pre-engineered T-hangar, according to a press release. The construction will be financed through the county's special projects fund, which will be repaid through rental fees.
Cassagnol said the hangar units will rent for $275 per month. Tom White of First Class Contracting said the cost of the project is about $279,000.
"We at First Class are excited to join with Warren County to endeavor to help Warren County grow," Tom White said. "We are excited to be here and have enjoyed our brief time up here, and look forward to building a great project with Warren County. ... We just started it [with the groundbreaking] and we're going to have this done before the end of July. We're going to have planes in here by the end of July."
Cassagnol was equally upbeat about the hangar expansion.
"Right now we have 60 aircraft based here, and a 50 percent growth in the last 10 years," Cassagnol said. "It's a general aviation basic utility airport. But we've added two new instrument approaches to make it more viable, and this is the most beautiful airport in the state of Virginia so we have a demand for hangar units. People want to be based here."View image
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