Business View Magazine | February 2020

91 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE FEBRUARY 2020 including a lighting upgrade to its two longer taxiways. “So, now, they are fully LED,” he notes. “And we’re looking at expanding that across the airfield and upgrading all of our incandescent to LED to save energy; they’re longer lasting and provide better light, overall. And we’re looking at that for our runway lights, as well as our signs. And, we just got done doing some significant upgrades to our roads on the land side; they were in pretty bad shape.” Another major project is a redesign of the Airport’s main, general aviation apron. “It’s been neglected for a while, so we’re going to have a significant investment in completely reconstructing that,” Hume remarks. “That project is going to total about $3 million. There will be a brand new surface, new tie downs, with new opportunities for some of the larger planes to come in and park. The apron had been designed and the project has been awarded, and we hope to put a shovel in the ground around the first of the year. So that’s going to be a really big project. And it’s going to be a game-changer for us, for sure.” “Also, right now, we are in the midst of a significant upgrade to our security gates and our security system,” Hume continues. “Because our gate operators are very old, we can’t get the parts for them anymore, so we will have a fully- integrated security system with the gates tied back to our main terminal, so we can keep an eye on who’s coming and going. In addition, we received a grant from the FAA’s supplemental funding process for 2019 and we are going to be replacing our security perimeter fence. Right now, it’s a four-strand, barbed-wire fence that allows deer and cows and coyotes and all sorts of animals to freely come and go across the airfield – and people as well – and so, we’re going to be putting up a brand new perimeter fence, which will also improve our security and safety.” “We’ve also been doing a lot of rehabilitation on taxiways and taxi lanes and we have more in the pipeline for the next two to three years,” he adds. THE LAS CRUCES INTERNAT IONAL A I RPORT