Ground broken for Construction of Terminal at Airport

Charlie Bauder
WNEG

Ground has now been broken for construction of a terminal at the Toccoa-Stephens County Airport.

Local leaders gathered Monday for the groundbreaking ceremony at the airport on Tugalo Street in Toccoa.

Toccoa-Stephens County Airport Authority Chairman John Taylor said the project will give the airport an official terminal, something it has not really had before.

“It will be a fairly large building, about 6,000 square feet,” Taylor said. “Primarily, it is for the passengers coming and going. We will have a very nice conference room available for public use. It will be a really great place for pilots to hang around while waiting for customers to come in. It is just an improvement we wanted. We really need this.”

Taylor said the total project cost is expected to be about $1.5 million, with construction of the building costing about $1.1 million. Some of the funding for the project is coming from a $500,000 OneGeorgia Grant. The rest of the money is coming from revenue generated by special purpose local option sales tax V in the county.

“We are very fortunate to have an airport of this quality here,” said Toccoa Vice Mayor David Austin. “This new terminal building is going to be another great asset for us.”

Stephens County Commission Chairman J.B. Hudgins said an addition has been a long time coming at the airport.

“I started flying out of this airport in 1955, and it had not changed much until now,” Hudgins said. “This will put us where we will able to improve service and be more efficient.”

Toccoa-Stephens County Chamber of Commerce Chairman Lee Hicks said the new terminal is a positive step.

“This is economic development in Toccoa and Stephens County,” Hicks said. “We are proud to be a part of it and support it.”

Stephens County Development Authority Chairman Cam Parker said, “I want to thank the one group that is probably more responsible for this, and that is the citizens of Stephens County. They voted in SPLOST V for projects like this.”

Grading will start at the airport for the terminal this week, Taylor said, and construction is expected to take seven or eight months to complete.

Airport Terminal Groundbreaking

The Toccoa Stephens County Airport Authority breaks ground on its terminal. Local leaders gathered Monday for the groundbreaking ceremony at the airport on Tugalo Street in Toccoa. Toccoa-Stephens County Airport Authority Chairman John Taylor said this project will give the airport an official terminal, something it has not really had before. Completion is expected in the fall.

EDGE Award to fund new airport terminal in Toccoa

Pictured from left: Angela Steedley, The Steedley Firm; Toccoa Mayor Ron Seib; Bob Davis, terminal project manager; Governor Sonny Perdue; John Taylor, Airport Authority Chairman; Cam Parker, SCDA Chairman; Tim Martin, SCDA Executive Director.

Excerpt from Governor's office press release regarding the recent EDGE award made to the Toccoa Airport Authority by the OneGeorgia Authority:

Toccoa-StephensAirportAuthority – Building Construction

Equity grant funds will be used to assist with construction of a 5,948 SF terminal facility at the Toccoa-Stephens County Regional Airport at R.G LeTourneau Field. Presently a small office within a privately-operated maintenance hangar serves as the airport terminal. The airport, located in the northeastern corner of the state, is centrally located near the Georgia and North/South Carolina borders and serves as a gateway to the Northeast Georgia Mountains. Statistics reflect that this Level II airport handles comparable traffic to other Level III airports (Cornelia, Blairsville) and is Georgia's northernmost airport before entering mountainous terrain, serving as a hub for Blue Ridge and Smoky Mountain tourist traffic. While neighboring Franklin and Hart Counties are served by two airports, neither have adequate facilities to welcome/meet prospective business clients. This proposed airport terminal will play a pivotal role in attracting regional business and tourism prospects to the Northeast Region. After losing 2,000+ furniture manufacturing jobs and similar amount of textile jobs, this region has adopted a plan to attract smaller diversified industry.

• Equity Grant Award: $500,000 / Total Project Cost: $3.2 million

OneGeorgia Grant awarded

On Monday, December 7 a delegation from Toccoa-Stephens County travelled to Thomasville for the official awarding of a $500,000 OneGeorgia Authority grant to Toccoa's Airport Authority.

Pictured (from left): Cam Parker, Stephens County Development Authority; Bob Troup, City of Toccoa; Representative Michael Harden; Harold Andrews, Stephens County Commission; Senator Jim Butterworth; Dean Scarborough, Stephens County Commission; David Austin, City of Toccoa; A.J. Pavliscsak, City of Toccoa.

Airport Authority receives $500,000 for new terminal

Stephens County's Airport Authority was notified this week that it will receive a $500,000 grant from the OneGeorgia Authority to fund improvements to the R.G. LeTourneau Airport. The grant will be used toward a project to build a terminal building, new ramp, and new fueling station.