CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia International Yeager Airport is setting aside the funds for ongoing projects and developments that’s continuing to move them into the future.
Wednesday, CRW board members approved the budget for the Fiscal Year 2025 at just over $13 million which starts July 1.
Yeager Airport Director and CEO Dominque Ranieri said this puts them ahead of the game with all of the plans they have in store moving forward.
“The board has worked very closely with our finance department to do a good job putting together a very attractive Fiscal Year 2025 budget that really puts the airport in the position moving forward with future development and projects,” Ranieri said.
Ranieri said they have now entered the summer construction season and having a solid budget to work with is crucial in helping to manage everything they are trying to do.
She said they have a few projects that are currently out for bid now as well as determining what other construction projects will be forthcoming.
A major and ongoing project in the works at CRW which Ranieri said is going out for bid this week is the GA Apron Expansion project. It will provide additional pavement at the General Aviation Area of the airport for more parking for aircraft carriers.
She said getting this project underway will be a huge advantage for them in the creation of more space at the airport.
“We’re very fortunate, our General Aviation Area is very busy with corporate aircraft as well as the Bill Noe Flight School and other tenants of the airport, so they need additional space, especially when the military is here doing exercises, it gets a little cramped,” she said.
A congressionally directed spending grant is helping to make the over $5 million project happen. Raneiri said they hope to have construction underway on the project by late summer or early fall.
She said they also continue to focus their efforts on the major Airfield, Safety and Terminal Improvement Project.
However, while work on the airfield portion of the project was paused in March to allow for additional planning, Ranieri said their focus has majorly shifted to modernizing the airport’s 77-year-old terminal building.
She said they are currently looking into competing for federally available terminal improvement funds from the Federal Aviation Administration’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Airport Terminal Program to help fund the project.
Ranieri said while they receive support on a federal level to make such projects at the airport possible, she said nearly everything they do is centered around fostering a sufficient budget.
“We have to always be thinking about the next ten years at CRW, so everything that we do with regard to budgeting puts us in a position that we can utilize the federal funds that becomes available for airports and really think to the future of operation at the airport,” she said.
Ranieri said they are also making progress on a property claim on their insurance to replace and repair some of the buildings at CRW that had received damage from the severe storms that hit Kanawha County on April 2.