ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Belmont County has an asset in the Barnesfield-Bradford Airport in the Barnesville area.

On Wednesday Jeff Britton, vice president of the Belmont County Regional Airport Authority, and Greg Batts, board member, updated the Belmont County Board of Commissioners on the airport’s status and new additions Wednesday.

“The airport is a general aviation airport, and we have 12 tenants that rent hangar space that do recreational flying and some business flying. We also have a aviation school. We have a tenant who gives flying lessons and teaches people how to fly and assists them in getting their pilot’s license. We also host medical air evac, Lifeflight-type helicopters that provide air transport for the local hospital,” Britton said.

A major new addition is upgrades to the runway. The $3 million project was begun after the Federal Aviation Administration said it was a safety issue that had to be addressed as a top priority.

“The FAA had concerns with a displaced threshold issue, meaning that the access road was too close to the end of the runway, so about three years ago we started looking at a project of how we could correct that issue so we wouldn’t have to shorten our runway, so we purchased about 50 acres of property to the west and designed a project where the access road could be lengthened and circled out around the end of the runway,” Britton said. “We’re real excited about this.”

“The next thing that’s on our agenda is hangar space,” Britton said. “We get calls regularly from private pilots for hangar space. Our existing hangars are old, antiquated and need replaced. … All of our hangars are full. We have a waiting list of pilots who want to rent hangar space.

“It’s just a matter of saving enough money and planning and engineering it. We’re still two to three years away,” Britton said.

He added they may also remove the taxiway, since it is not needed and serves to inhibit incoming flights

“There are people in Belmont County that don’t know there’s an airport in Barnesville. There’s people in Barnesville that don’t know there’s one in Barnesville,” he said. “This airport is a great outreach event. It brings a lot of people to our facility. We’re very proud of our facility.”

He said the oil and gas industry and others have found the airport useful, and flights and fuel sales have increased.

“The airport is really a foundation for economic growth in Belmont County,” he said. “The airport is very instrumental in allowing companies or corporations to come in. … They need a place to land, to purchase fuel and house their airplanes and their helicopters while they’re in the area.”

Britton said while the airport has a paid manager, it is reliant on volunteerism from the board members.

“Any additional costs we have, emergency repairs, things of that nature, we really struggle to find the funding to pay for it,” Britton said.

Britton added that like other businesses the airport is facing financial hardships due to fuel costs and economic issues.

“It’s drastically increased our expenses, because we have about 65 acres of grass that we mow every week, and we spend about $6,000 in the summer just in fuel,” Britton said.

The public is welcome to get a closer look at the airport’s operations and all it has to offer 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. June 4, when the airport will host an open house and a tour for the community.

“We’ll give some flights to community members that have an interest in taking a flight,” Britton said. “Some of our board members are pilots, so they’re offering their planes.”

Britton added this was the airport’s second open house, with the first in 2019 prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and the runway project.

In 2019, about 114 airplane rides were given. Britton and Batts said about 600 people attended, and they expect about 1,000 attendees this year.

The airport is located on Fairview Road.