Published Oct. 9, 1968 in Public Ledger/The Daily Independent
If all things are equal, the Fleming-Mason Airport ought to be in use by July 10, 1969. That is the target date for completion in the current advertisement for bids to be opened November 8, 1968 at 2 p.m. Jr. R. Lunsford, chairman of the Fleming-Mason Airport Board, will preside at the bid opening.
Once the airport is in use — with a sod runway in the beginning — the project will represent an investment totaling about $250,000. Specifications for the current bid letting envisage a spending in excess of $150,000.
The plans provide for the excavation of approximately 330,250 cubic yards of dirt. The project consists also of the grading, drainage and seeding of the runway which is 300 feet wide and 4,100 feet long and includes a taxiway turnaround. Also the project calls for the grading, draining and paving of the approach road from the fence line of the airport property and likewise for the site grading of the building area.
Laurence L. Browning Jr., secretary of the Fleming-Mason Airport Board, said his board is borrowing $50,000 from the Kentucky Airport Development Loan Fund and in addition local contributions from private sources in Fleming and Mason counties have amounted to approximately $35,000.
Earlier the state made a previous grant of $25,000 to the Fleming-Mason Airport Board and after July 1, 1969, the Fleming-Mason Airport Board will be given another state grant of $75,000.
Mr. Browning said that while in theory the Fleming-Mason Airport Board will have to wait a year, maybe two years or longer to get the airstrip paves, he means to start at once trying to raise the the money to get it paved, lighted and instrument equipped.
This involves substantial sums of money and a total investment in excess of a half million dollars.
