BALDWIN — A woman who grew up on land being used for expansion of the Habersham County Airport says her grandfather, an entrepreneur who was ahead of his time, would be proud of what’s taking place there now.
Nancy Shore Loftin, granddaughter of W.A. Shore, participated with county officials in Monday morning’s groundbreaking ceremony for the new Habersham County Airport terminal building adjacent to the former Runway Fish House in Baldwin.
The new terminal building will be about 3,000 square feet, according to Habersham County Commission Chairman Victor Anderson.
“This is an exciting day for Habersham,” Anderson said. “We are about to break ground and begin work on a new terminal building at our airport. It’s something that is part of a larger scope project, which is going to add a parallel taxiway the full length, all 5,500 feet of our airport runway — a huge improvement from a safety standpoint.”
The current terminal building, which houses airport management, communications, pilots’ area, and limited public space, is outdated and in a bad location once the airport’s new configuration is completed.
“The new terminal building is going to replace a building that is decades old, inadequate as far as size, and really is not the most presentable front door to the county from the airport,” Anderson said. “This building will be something that will be functional. It will be built as efficiently as possible, but at the same time it’s going to be a building that we will be proud of to welcome visitors into the county.”
The county is paying only a portion of the cost of the new building.
“It’s going to cost about $880,000 to build,” Anderson said. “Seventy percent of that is coming from a grant from the Georgia Department of Transportation, so we’re very appreciative of them.”
The new building will be constructed past all rows of current hangars at the airport, in the direction of Duncan Bridge Road.
“The location of the new terminal building is farther down the runway from the original building,” Anderson said. “That’s going to give us a couple of options to add additional hangar space. It’s going to also make the building a little more central to the runway than the existing building, so we’re really looking forward to this as an opportunity primarily to give us more space for hangars.”
The new terminal building location was not selected simply for centralization of facilities but was necessitated by other factors, including safety.
“With the addition of the parallel taxiway, the existing terminal building is going to be too close to that taxiway for most larger planes’ turning radius and that sort of thing, so we really had to back off the runway farther anyway, whether it’s this location or not,” Anderson said. “Turns out this is best location from grade standpoint and from a final project standpoint, so that’s one of the drivers to do this is to give us adequate coverage. We’re getting larger planes in the airport and that will only increase as we go.”
Pilot and aircraft owner Douglas McDonald has been active at the Habersham County Airport since the mid-1970s, and he shared some of that history both during and after Monday’s ceremony.
“Habersham County is very fortunate to have its own local airport,” McDonald said. “I can remember in 1975 when some developments were made out here. The airport was originally 3,750 feet long, which made it hard for high-performance airplanes to land. Our governor at that time gave the money to have the oldest building on this airport erected. It was the old hangar where the offices were.”
McDonald has watched development in the community, especially with recent industries, drive aircraft traffic to the facility located just outside the Baldwin city limits. The addition of jet fuel several years ago, and a fuel truck more recently, is helping better serve those visiting Habersham County or simply passing through.
“As we developed down through the years, it was apparent that the airport was growing, the county was growing, and there was a great need to extend the runway and to build a terminal,” McDonald said. “Today, with the jet traffic we have and the high-performance traffic we have, the county has been opened to industry from near and far, from around the world. We’re just thankful that the state and federal authorities and the local county government has seen the need to improve our airport.”
Habersham County Airport Commission Chairman Ken Schubring said he looks for the current construction to bring more business to the county.
"I think this is really a historic time in Habersham County," Schubring said. "We're getting ready to kick off a new FBO office. I think this will generate a lot more business, a lot more economic development. I think that's going to be the key to growing this county."
Anderson said the airport expansion project, which has been done in phases to coincide with federal and state funding cycles, is being bolstered by work on the county’s industrial park, and vice versa.
“We are adjacent to Habersham County’s 120-acre Airport Industrial Park,” Anderson said. “The development authority and the airport commission and the county have all been working together to try to make this project go hand in hand with their project, using cut and fill from one location to help out in the other. In the long run, it’s going to save the county taxpayers over $1 million just in grading and dirt expense for the build-out of our industrial park by being able to take dirt that needed to go somewhere from there and use it to fill in valleys and areas to get the grade right for our parallel taxiway.”
Anderson explained how the airport expansion projects are being accomplished, mostly with federal and state funding.
“The airport project is being funded as a collaborative effort between the FAA, the Georgia Department of Transportation and Habersham County,” Anderson said. “Most of the work out here is being funded 90 percent by the FAA, 5 percent by the state DOT, and 5 percent by Habersham County, so in essence most of this work we’re getting a dollar’s worth of results for 5 cents,” Anderson said. “The terminal building, however, is slightly different. This one is actually 70 percent funded by the Georgia Department of Transportation and 30 percent locally, but we felt that the need and the improvements here, along with everything else that’s going on, was well worth the investment that we’ll have there.”
McDonald said an airport is one of the gateways to a community, and often a major consideration for corporate officials looking to locate in an area.
“When someone comes to the community and is thinking about putting up a plant and hiring our people in our communities, they look to the airport as the very first thing to see the availability of transportation,” McDonald said. “I want to thank everybody involved. I’ve been a pilot for 43 years, still have an airplane, have an airplane here at the hangar, and just so fortunate that I don’t have to go to Gainesville or some other location to fly.”
McDonald said the airport is a county property that residents can be proud to have in their community.
“I would encourage the public to come out and take advantage of what we have here – view it, bring the children, take advantage of flying lessons, and I think you’ll all be pleased for that,” McDonald said.
Similarly, Loftin is happy to see progress taking off at the airport and on the surrounding acreage.
“It’s been extremely sentimental to walk out here,” Loftin said following the ceremony. “But knowing that my father and my grandfather, W.A. Shore, was an extremely progressive person. He would have appreciated this. He owned hundreds of acres around here in peaches. He had five stores throughout the county, a bank — he was such a great, progressive entrepreneur for the community. I’m sure he’s looking down and smiling on this progress.”
