By Sara StrongThe State Transportation Committee has awarded grants to municipal airports — including $150,000 to Luverne’s.First District Congressman Gil Gutknecht announced the grants in his district.He said, "Transportation infrastructure is critical to rural development. Using taxpayer dollars to improve our airports is an important investment in Greater Minnesota."The grants were given for snow removal equipment, land acquisition, runway rehabilitation, runway seal coating, airport beacon replacement and other related projects. Luverne will be using its grant money for snow removal equipment.Other airports receiving grants were: Blue Earth — $163,312New Ulm — $146,800St. James — $14,202Springfield — $102,285Waseca — $13,500Worthington — $500,000Other airport businessThe Luverne City Council last week amended the agreement with engineering firm Bolton & Menk to complete the Environmental Assessment for the airport runway expansion.That is the phase the project is currently stalled at.The Minnesota Department of Transportation Aeronautics Environmental Service, the Federal Aviation Agency and review agencies requested more information: an analysis of the flood plain impacts, a wildlife analysis of the county park area east of Highway 75, and to develop and update land use estimates for now and over time.The analysis of the flood plain impacts is to measure the impacts to the 100-year flood plain of Rock Creek due to the proposed runway construction. The wildlife analysis to determine whether there are any specific endangered species that would be negatively impacted by the airport improvement project. The land use estimate is to update the operations at the airport to verify the 500 operations needed to justify the 4,200 feet runway request.The city’s cost for the extra requests is $3,200.
