BY DAN HILDEBRAN
Monitor Editor
KEYSTONE HEIGHTS— The Keystone Heights Airport cut the ribbon on its fixed base operations building during a Wednesday, Sept. 6 ceremony.
Airport Board Chair David Kirkland said it had been 890 days since the airport broke ground for the facility, adding that the new structure was a dream when making it onto the Florida Department of Transportation Aviation and Spaceport project list in 2014.
“In March 2020 that dream became a reality as we moved into this new building,” he said, “but due to the pandemic, we were hindered in having the grand opening until today.”
Kirkland said that since its inception in 1942 as Keystone Army Airfield, the airport continues to evolve into an entity that focuses on general, military and corporate aviation.
“We also work with local entities to entice other businesses to locate to the Keystone Heights Airport,” he said.
Kirkland singled out Florida Department of Transportation’s Donna Whitney, Kyle Coffman and Mike McClure, in addition to FDOT Aviation and Spaceport staff for helping the airport obtain funding for the building.
Kirkland said airport Vice Chair Scott Fryar played a large role in designing the structure, providing input to airport Engineer Bill Prange.
Kirkland credited Airport Manager Maria Hitt for balancing the construction of the new facility with continuing operations at the airport, in addition to three other construction projects at the facility.
Keystone Heights Vice Mayor Steve Hart said Mayor Karen Lake could not make it to the event due to illness.
“It’s often said that the Keystone Heights Airport is the crown jewel of Keystone Heights and that’s true,” Hart said.
The vice mayor added that the new building symbolizes the airport’s slogan: honoring the past and embracing the future.
Hitt told the crowd that the airport’s leaders wanted the building, which houses administration offices, a reception area, pilots lounge and other rooms, to be distinctive from other Florida airports.
“We’re not a coastal airport so we didn’t want to make it coastal,” she said of the facility’s design. “We are in the center of the state, in a warm and welcoming community, and that’s how we wanted to make our FBO. We wanted it to be kind of a duplication of an old Florida cracker house with a front porch and rocking chairs.”
She added that another improvement over the previous FBO is that now, pilots have 24-hour access to the pilots’ lounge.
“So, when we have transient pilots who come in and they’re grounded because of weather, they don’t have to be stuck in their airplanes,” she said. “They can actually come in and rest in the lounge and they even have access to our courtesy car.”
Hitt added that the courtesy car, which was donated to the facility by Clay County, is a way the airport can support local restaurants and other businesses by allowing pilots to drive into Keystone Heights for a meal and supplies.
