Lethbridge Airport. (Lethbridge News Now)

By David Opinko

First phase of Lethbridge airport renos approved for $7.5-million

Feb 24, 2020 | 4:57 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – The City of Lethbridge is moving ahead with renovations to the local airport, but not quite to the extent originally thought.

The motion that was introduced to city council on Monday was to approve over $13.8-million in funding to tackle all five phases of renovations and expansion.

Of that, $11.9-million would have come from a provincial Municipal Sustainability Initiative grant, $700,000 from the Pay As You Go (PAYG) program, and $1.2-million would be from the Community and Subdivision Surplus (Surplus).

Instead, Mayor Chris Spearman explains that council voted to only approve the first phase at an estimated price tag of $7.52-million. The PAYG and Surplus money would still be the same, but the city will use a smaller portion of the grant from the provincial project.

“If MSI funding continues to be reduced and money flowing to municipalities continues to be reduced, we’re going to be making some difficult decisions between tax increases and delaying projects.”

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Phase 1 will expand the customer hold area, add washrooms to the customer hold area, and upgrade the washrooms to “modern standards” for handicapped accessibility. Most importantly, however, the H-VAC system will be replaced.

The City’s Real Estate and Land Development Manager Michael Kelly said the current H-VAC system is not up to code, and regardless of what happens to the rest of the airport project, this work needs to be done.

The $1.2-million dollars from the Surplus will upgrade the water service at the airport. This will increase the capability to fight fires in the airport or for the areas surrounding it.

According to Kelly, most complaints about the airport are in regards to the washroom facilities and that, after you go through security, there are not any washrooms that are publicly-accessible.

Spearman says the work in Phase 1 will not only address that but will make the airport better-suited for airlines to stay in Lethbridge or open up shop here.

“In the last year, services have been curtailed to a number of western cities by the major carriers. We want to make sure that these services are maintained in Lethbridge for the benefit of passengers and the businesses that exist in Lethbridge.”

Phases two-to-five will still be considered in the future but are being put on hold for the time being.

Some items that are part of that include better utilization of space, upgrading the food service area, and expanding the building with new services.

Modalis Infrastructure Partners recently completed a detailed report on the Lethbridge Airport and suggestions they made for future improvements. You can access that here.