Paso Robles Municipal Airport

P aso Robles Municipal Airport is a public, general aviation airport, four miles northeast of downtown Paso Robles, in San Luis Obis- po County, California. Recently, Business ViewMagazine spoke with Airport Manager, Roger Oxborrow, to find out about Paso Robles’ facilities, capabilities, and future plans.The following is an edited tran- script of that conversation. BVM: Can you talk a bit about the history of theAirport? Oxborrow: “The Airport consists of 1,300 acres of what used to be a dry-land, barley farm out in the flat eastern part of Paso Robles. In 1943, the federal government bought up about five small ranches and combined them all to make up what became the Estrella ArmyAir Field. It served as an auxiliary field to support the pilot training activity at the Santa Maria AAF, about 60 miles to the south. “The military developed it, and a squadron of P-38s was based here for about sixmonths. It was used, sporadically, until it was declared surplus in 1949,when it was deeded to the County of San Luis Obispo. The county held on to the property and did very little with it up until 1973,when it was decided that the facility was not financially viable. The City of Paso Robles agreed, at that point, to purchase the Airport from the county for a dollar.The city took it over and proceeded to develop it.