Light issues dominate Fort Smith airport meeting

story by Marla Cantrell
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The bulk of January’s meeting of the Fort Smith Airport Commission on Tuesday (Jan. 26) consisted of a show-and-tell presentation by airport director John Parker.

Parker used slides to show commissioners a problem concerning the widening of Highway 255, more commonly known as Highway 45/Old Greenwood Road. Parker said the state’s current plan would force the airport to remove an FAA owned approach light on one of the runways.

The airport is now working with the Arkansas Highway & Transportation Department to resolve the issue.

“We’ve talked to them, the FAA has talked to them, there have been letters about the removal of that light and they’re now trying to redesign it,” Parker said.

To make that possible, the highway department will have to buy two parcels of land, one 74,000 square foot and one 110,000 square foot that the airport owns. Parker said he has received an offer, but is waiting on an independent appraisal.

Parker then brought out props, including a new LED fixture, to show the headaches the airport’s aging incandescent taxi-and runway light system is causing. The airport expects to spend $4.1 million dollars to upgrade the 920 fixtures. He said the cost will be offset by energy savings and that much of the transition will occur during planned construction projects, such as the installation of new taxiways.

The current system is integrated so that when one light on a circuit goes out, every other light on the system shuts down. While holding an underground cable covered in clumps of dirt, Parker described the antiquated way maintenance crews deal with the electrical problems.

“The wires, the transformers, the stakes, they’re all buried, so when we have a problem we have to dig them up,” Parker said.

Parker said a Delta flight, coming into Fort Smith just after Christmas, was diverted after the lights went out on one of the runways. But the occurrence was rare, and most of the lighting issues are on taxiways and those happen approximately 10 times a year.

The commission also approved the financial statements from 2009. Operating revenues totaled $2.5 million, 90% of the budgeted amount and down from last year’s revenues of $2.8 million. Parker blamed the recession, gas prices that didn’t rise as high as expected and gas royalties, which were $60,000 less than anticipated when the 2009 budget was created.

Commissioner Rick Deramus was elected to serve out the vice chairman’s term held by Marsha Melton, who is in the Navy Reserves. Melton has been called to active duty for nine months. Deramus will serve until the regularly scheduled election of officers in June.

The next commission meeting will be held Feb. 23.