The Farmville Regional Airport recently received sizable funding in order to improve its access entrance and provide more space for public parking and for airplane storage.

According to an announcement from the offices of Sen. Mark Warner and Sen. Tim Kaine, the Farmville Regional Airport received $3.5 million through the Federal Aviation Association’s Airport Improvement Program within the Department of Transportation.

The Middle Peninsula Regional Airport in King and Queen County also received $1.5 million for improvement projects.

“The program supports infrastructure improvement projects at airports across the country, including runways, taxiways, aprons, terminals, aircraft rescue and firefighting vehicles, and snow removal equipment,” the release cited about the improvement program.

Farmville Town Manager Gerald Spates said the town was surprised, but glad to have received the funding.

Spates said the funding will be used to relocate the access entrance to the airport, shifting to closer to the Farmville Municipal Golf Course. This shift, Spates said, would allow for more room for public parking and to build additional T-hangars, facilities used to store airplanes.

“It’s a much-needed project,” Spates said.

Spates said his hope is to begin the access entrance program at the same time officials begin to repave and install LED lights for a separate project.

The town was awarded grant funding from the FAA and the Virginia Department of Aviation to pave and improve the lighting at the Farmville Regional Airport in August 2018.

According to documentation from the town, total grant funding from August 2018 came to $389,320. The FAA paid 90 percent, or $350,388 for the project, the Virginia Department of Aviation paid 8 percent, $31,145 and the Town of Farmville is paying 2 percent, $7,787, making the amended amount total $381,533.

Spates said there may be temporarily closures as a result of the projects, but he added that a definitive date for a potential closure has not been established.

Spates said the final inspection for repaving the apron area, or the section of the airport where airplanes park and taxi to and from the runway, took place Tuesday.