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The Farmville Regional Airport is located at 130 Wedgewood Drive, just five miles northwest of town. During its time in operation, the airport has housed July 4th fireworks and other public events, law enforcement training, agricultural spraying and search and rescue training operations. While it’s for private airplanes, it’s similar in many ways to the airports you’ll find in Charlottesville, Richmond and Roanoke, just a bit smaller.  

A combination of Farmville tax dollars, land lease fees for hangers and the sale of gas to pilots helps cover part of the expenses. The town has also used state and federal grants where available, as well as just pulling money from the General Fund to cover costs. Currently there’s $379,565 set aside for it in the upcoming budget. 

But beyond the budget numbers, Farmville Town Manager Dr. Scott Davis is recommending changing a couple of things. During the council’s Wednesday, May 7 work session, Davis pointed out the price Farmville charges for leases, rental and maintenance fees hasn’t increased in several years. Currently, the hanger leases are $360 a year and $120 for the maintenance fee. Davis is proposing an increase to $450 for the lease and $250 in the maintenance fees. 

“We looked at other general aviation airports that are owned by municipalities and we want to update our lease,” Davis said. “That will help us begin hopefully to incur more revenue.”
And the town needs more revenue for the airport, Davis said, because of a looming bill. The gas pumps at the airport will need to be relocated, moved from below ground to above ground. However, the cost estimate for that is over $1 million. 

“There may be some state funding but there is no federal funding for that, so that would be mostly incurred by the airport and the town,” Davis pointed out. As a result, Farmville needs more airport revenue, to start setting money aside for the project. 

A push to expand airport leases

Beyond the hanger lease fees, Davis is also proposing a significantly longer lease term. Currently, people have to renew every year. There is no option for a 5 or 10-year lease. And that’s reduced the amount of investment people have been willing to make in their respective hangers, Davis argued. After talking with several lease holders, Davis said, he feels they would do more to their individual hangers, they would invest more, if they had a longer term. Under his proposal, the leases would be able to stretch out for 20 years, renewable every five years. 

“We’re hopeful we will see some people take better care of the hangers out there,” Davis said, with the new lease terms.

This was just an information session, so no actual votes were taken. Instead, discussion will continue at the next Farmville town council meeting this week.