City of Stillwater submitting grant proposal in hopes of moving airport roads projects along
Feb. 22—Although the roads near Stillwater Regional Airport are the City of Stillwater's projects and not SWO's, the Payne County Board of Commissioners, in support of the airport master plan, is writing a letter of support for the airport to put into a grant application package that could potentially secure $3 million for reconstruction and relocation of the airport access road and a new roundabout.
In a letter to Chairman Zach Cavett, Kellie Reed, airport director, requested the commissioners' help in bolstering the airport's application for federal funding to the discretionary grant program of the U.S. Department of Transportation of Rebuilding Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity, which they will submit Monday.
In Reed's letter, she described the proposed project as one that "will have significant impact on the environmental sustainability of our airport's access and parking, on safety along this busy stretch of roadway and on continued tourist development."
She also wrote, "Stillwater Regional Airport is one of only four commercial service airports in Oklahoma.
"SWO serves as an economic, cultural and air service hub for North Central Oklahoma. This week we welcome a second American Airlines upgauge to a larger aircraft at SWO and continued passenger growth."
In Tuesday's meeting, County Commissioners agreed to support the application package with their recommendations.
Should the grant be won, this will be a separate roads project from the Hargis Road project, which is still going through planning and has not yet begun.
Airport Industrial Road (renamed as Hargis Road for former OSU President Burns Hargis and wife Ann) currently runs north/northeast towards the airport from Lakeview Road.
The big takeaway from the proposal is that this roads project proposes an access road closer to the terminal and in conjunction with the plan for the completion of Hargis Road.
In the end, the airport access road will interloop with Hargis Road.
Right now with the way roads are constructed in front of the airport, and from where the parking lot is, people have to cross a main road where motorists drive fast. They have to use a crosswalk and it's not a great situation, an airport spokesperson said.
The idea behind the road and roundabout design is that it will clean up the airport entrance, parking lot and roadway area.
It will provide a road that runs outside of the main parking so the busy access road that currently bisects the airport parking area will no longer do that and force people to run a gauntlet of traffic to get to the terminal.
It's an interim step that will serve the traveling public when looking at the long-term planning and extension of Stillwater's airport, and it will greatly improve things, especially in terms of safety, if the grant is won, the spokesperson said.
City of Stillwater City Engineer Candy Staring said, "Hargis, when final, will be a road that is a straight thoroughfare. It will be a road you take if you don't want to go to the airport and need to go around it, but you can also exit it there at the new airport access road if you want to go to terminal."
Currently, plans for the Hargis project are delayed due to the need for the City to identify replacement parkland for baseball and softball fields currently in areas the City would like to reconstruct, Staring said.
In 2020, Stillwater News Press reported the ballfields near SWO presented a challenge to airport progress; in 2024 they remain impediments to the proposed airport access roads and future development at the airport itself and its master plan.
The City of Stillwater is using federal funding for the Hargis Road project, which will be done in two parts once it commences. In 2020, start of the construction was scheduled for fiscal year 2023-24, but tasks for final approval remain before the City can begin.
