Business View Magazine l November 2022

246 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 9, ISSUE 11 “Phase Five, which is currently underway, will be the construction of the new terminal/ FBO building,” Lucas explains, “We began with the opening of a temporary 3600 square foot terminal/FBO building this past June. This space includes airport operations as well as the passenger waiting area, pilots lounge, shower facility, computer facilities, and restrooms.” “Back in October of 2020, the county created Sky Blue Aviation to serve as their FBO at the airport, and ever since then, we have been preparing to sell fuel here at Ridgeland-Claude Dean. Well, as of last week we began to sell Avgas as well as Jet Fuel. We have a 1200-gallon Avgas truck, and we have a 3000 5,000-gallon Jet Fuel truck. We have now funded a new AWAS weather system and we hope to have it operational in late February of 2023, although it is very difficult to predict with supply chain and labor shortages,” Lucas describes. “Then we will see the installation of an instrument approach so right after the AWAS system is up and running then the FAA will come in and install an RNAV GPS instrument approach for runway 1836. We are also going to be constructing a new 84,000-square-foot ramp to attach to the current 84,000-square- foot ramp. Construction on that will start in December. And we have also commissioned the construction of a new fuel farm that will include a 12,000-gallon add gas tank which would also be self-serve. We’re being told, unfortunately, that it’s taking anywhere from 42 to 48 months to construct the fuel tanks.” As with most airports, Ridgeland-Claude Dean relies on the FAA as an integral part of its capital improvement funding. They are paying for 90% of the land purchase as well as 90% of the cost of construction for the new runway and taxiway for example. The funding for the terminal building is coming largely from the South Carolina Aeronautics Commission which has allocated $500,000 towards the project. “The new building will be a 7700 square foot two-story building,” says Lucas, “the last project for phase five will be the construction of a