CLARKESVILLE – A medical helicopter will be locating to Habersham County later this year.
Commissioners voted Monday night to accept the Air Methods Corp. lease to utilize the former terminal building at the Habersham County Airport as a base for a medical helicopter. The vote followed discussion in closed session about the property.
“I’m excited about this,” Commission Chairman Stacy Hall said after the meeting. “Air Methods Corp. is going to use our airport as a base of operation, so they’re going to have a helicopter there to transport folks that would need immediate medical attention.”
Hall said the new lease agreement will benefit Habersham County and the surrounding region, putting air medical care closer, but also makes financial sense for the county’s taxpayers.
“It’s really two-fold,” Hall said. “It’s fantastic for the community regarding healthcare needs, but also from a business standpoint it’s going to be great because they’re going to be paying us market rent for our old airport terminal, and also be buying a considerable amount of jet fuel.”
Air Methods Corp. is the parent company of AirLife Georgia.
“Everybody wins on this deal,” Hall said. “It’s a five-year term. They’ve got opportunity to renegotiate at market rental rate for two successive three-year terms after that, but this is a great win for Habersham.”
Hall said the U.S. Forest Service currently has a short-term lease on the former terminal building and will be relocating a modified construction/office-type trailer behind and in the general area of that building to continue supporting a helicopter based by USFS at the airport.
Once the USFS crews vacate the county building, minor renovations will be made to the structure to accommodate the needs of Air Methods Corp. crews, who will occupy the facility 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
“Those helicopters eat up jet fuel, so that’s a good situation,” Hall said. “And it just shows you there are dividends of the work that we have been doing at our airport now that we’ve got Air Methods and the U.S. Forest Service that are using our airport as a base of operations, and it continues to attract more air traffic so it’s a good opportunity for the citizens.”
