By Dylan Marsh
EAGLE TIMES STAFF
CLAREMONT — On Wednesday, October 12, 2022, the Claremont Municipal Airport held their ribbon cutting ceremony, celebrating significant improvements made at the facility.
The ceremony came as a celebration of completing some years long projects that the city had been working on. Some major improvements include a new terminal building, as well as a rehabilitation of the terminal apron, and obstruction removal.
Funding for the roughly $6.8 million dollar project was received largely from the Federal Aviation Administration, which contributed 90% of project costs. According to Claremont Mayor Dale Girard, other five percent was funded from the New Hampshire Department of Transportation Aeronautics Program. The final five percent being a local match from revenue raised by the airport itself.
“Consultants with Stantec have been really helpful and have gone out and found grants to help us. If it wasn’t for those folks working on these projects, we probably wouldn’t have come up with a lot of the funding,” Girard said of Stantec, the consulting firm the city employs.
Claremont’s Municipal Airport was founded in 1927, when many Claremont residents were excited about the future of Claremont and saw the airport as an avenue to promote major economic growth in the region. Today, the publicly owned airport is used by everyone from the average aeronautical enthusiast to business owners coming to visit Claremont.
Members of Claremont’s administration spoke to the impeccable quality of the facilities and reasonable fuel prices as a major draw. While fuel prices are high nationwide, the Claremont airport strives to offer visiting aviators the ability to fuel their crafts at reasonable rates.
During the ceremony, crowds witnessed helicopter pilot Adam Weaver land his craft at the airport. Weaver, who built the helicopter himself, departed from the Lebanon airport earlier in the day and chose the Claremont airport as the destination of his first airport to airport flight.
The airport is also unique in the fact that it is seemingly the only public airport also run by the city’s Fire Chief, Brian Burr. At the ribbon cutting ceremony Burr spoke to the importance of the success in the improvements made at the facility for not only staff but pilots as well. “We have a lot of dedicated pilots that come and go. Today is a long time coming and it’s a great day,” Burr said at the opening of the ribbon cutting ceremony.
Improvements, such as the complete rebuilding of the terminal building and runway construction, were completed by Pine Hill Construction of Claremont. Terminal apron rehabilitation construction was completed by Todd Osgood Construction and off-airport obstruction removal was completed by Casella Construction.
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