Business View Magazine Jan-2019

83 speaking; and the traffic to get up here is less than going to one of the other airports. So,we have those kinds of competitive advantages. But again,we don’t view ourselves in huge competition with either of those, because they’re prettymuch at capacity; they’re turning away people–at Hillsboro, in par- ticular.We see folks coming to us who originally looked at Hillsboro, but then came to us because we were cheaper,we were more accessible, and we had space we could offer.” According to Allison, upgrading that space is an ongoing mission.“As I mentioned,we’re closely aligned with the FAA and their grant program and we’re always carrying a list of projects with them that we ask for funding on and get,”he remarks. “We’ve had miscellaneous infrastructure projects over the years, including roads and parking lots, lighting systems, and things like that.We did just finish one of our biggest projects, ever,which was to relocate one of our parallel taxiways further to the west–to rebuild it, as well as make it safer under current standards.We added new lighting and new cross taxiways; it was about a $4.2 million project. That also enabled us to confidently offer the field for operations by somewhat bigger aircraft.We’re still what they call a ‘B-2 field’-B-2 being an aircraft designation based on length, performance, and tail height. But within that,we’ve increased the margin of safety and separation to allow operation by a greater group of turboprop or business jet custom- ers.” With a lot of commercial and corporate interest both inside and outside its property,Allison sees Scappoose Airpark as an essential part of a growing economy in a growing part of the county.“We offer it as a field that can service commercial clients in the area,whether they have facilities here or not and be part of that growth pattern,”he avers.“We have some land inside the fence that we would want to develop by building a facility for someone.And then, surrounding us is a great deal of open land,which has just been pulled into the urban growth bound-