Airport resurfacing project ‘a go’ this year
$67K still needed to meet the $235K total cost of repaving runway and transfer pad
BY KIM LANGEN
After 15 years, the local airport is to receive a fresh layer of pavement this summer – plus much-needed paving for the patient transfer pad used for ambulance gurneys.
It’s a big decision, and it is definitely going to fly, say organizers.
“We are going to get the money, and we are going to get it done,” said Bob Wiebe, a local pilot and member of the Killarney Flying Club. “Our completion will be in July. We are a go this year.”
The airport runway was last paved 15 years ago, and an extra surface layer was never applied at the time, he said.
Wiebe added that the Killarney Airport is used more often than people might think, and for a variety of purposes.
“It gets used almost every day by someone,” he said. “People think it’s just the STARS helicopter that comes in, but there is also Lifeflight Air Ambulance, local pilots, local aerial applicators (crop sprayers), business travellers, and also flight school students, who make stops here.”
Total cost of the upgrade will run to $235,000, and fundraising has been ongoing for some time. Just under $67,000 still remains to be achieved, he added, in order to pay for the whole project.
“We are trying to get some funds out there,” he said. “People can donate in town at the civic offices, and receive a tax receipt. Cheques can be made out to the Municipality of Killarney-Turtle Mountain, which holds the account.”
To find out more about the project, contact Bob Wiebe directly at 204-523-6316, or the Town Office at 204-523-7247.
Lifeflight Air Ambulance
Lifeflight provides rapid inter-facility air ambulance transport for critically ill or injured Manitobans from areas outside a 200-kilometer radius of Winnipeg.
Lifeflight is staffed by flight nurses with advanced critical care training and experience, and may be supplemented by critical care or emergency physicians, obstetricians, neonatology physicians, and respiratory therapists, depending on a patient’s needs.
Lifeflight operates out of the Manitoba Government Air Services Hangar at 900 Ferry Road in Winnipeg, and is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
AIR TRANSFER IN PROGRESS – Pilot Bob Wiebe snapped these photos at the Killarney Airport on Friday, April 24, as a patient transfer was taking place. The Lifeflight aircraft in the photo is a King Air turboprop, and the patient (still inside the ambulance) was likely being transferred by air ambulance to a city hospital for treatment.
5K CO-OP DONATION – Boundary Co-op marketing manager Cheryl Rushing recently presented a $5,000 cheque to Bob Wiebe of the Killarney Flying Club for the resurfacing project.