BY DAN HILDEBRAN
The chair of the Keystone Heights Airport gave a Clay Chamber group an overview of the facility and the outlook for the airport’s growth.
David Kirkland told the Lake Region Prosperity Partners that he has been leading the facility’s governing board since 2009. Airport Manager Craig Coon assisted Kirkland during the presentation.
“We were able to get him out of Iowa,” Kirkland said of the recently hired manager. “He was an airport manager out there and has been a corporate pilot.”
Coon showed a brief video outlining the facility’s history, starting in 1942 as one of two Army airfields in the area, the other in Alachua County.
During World War II, the airfield was the training site for various observation, squadron, and tactical reconnaissance groups.
In 1945, the airfield was placed on inactive status, and the City of Keystone Heights acquired the property two years later.
According to the video, branches of the military continue to utilize the Keystone Heights Airport for training exercises throughout the year, including parachute training, recurrence training, equipment drops, and troop mobilization. The main runway is 100 feet wide and 5,046 feet long and can support aircraft weighing up to 150,000 pounds. The second runway is 75 feet wide and 4,899 feet in length.
The facility is the only fully functional airport in both Bradford and Clay counties and provides aviation services to military, corporate, and general aviation.
Economic impact
Kirkland said that there are 129 public-use airports in the Sunshine State.
“That includes commercial, international airports like Jacksonville, Orlando, and Miami,” he said. “Then you have general aviation airports: Keystone, Palatka, Williston, Alachua; those are the smaller versions. And then the military. Up here, we’re familiar with NAS-Jacksonville and probably Cecil Field, and there’s also Eglin, MacDill, and Homestead. So, there’s a lot of aviation that goes on in the state of Florida.”
The airport chair cited a 2023 Florida Department of Transportation report that stated airports generate $336 billion of economic impact to the state, providing 398,600 jobs with a payroll of $23.6 billion. Additional impacts come from military budgets, capital investments, and revenue from leases and fuel sales.
He added that over the past three years, the Keystone Airport has brought $2.8 million to the Lake Region with projects to rehabilitate taxi lanes, install new runway lighting, construct a new FBO terminal, and purchase equipment.
Upcoming projects exceed $14 million
Kirkland said that 10 projects at the facility are scheduled through 2030, totaling $14.3 million in upgrades.
The two most significant projects are runway improvements totaling $10.2 million. Others include $950,000 to expand the airport’s fuel farm, $700,000 to build 10 T-hangars, and $650,000 to update the facility’s master plan.
He said the projects are funded through the state’s Aviation Grant Program, which levies 4.27 cents on every gallon of aviation fuel sold in Florida, and the Federal Aviation Administration’s Airport Improvement Program.
Kirkland said additional projects his board is looking at over the next several years include working with local governments on updating land use and zoning regulations, installing turning lanes on State Road 100 for the airport’s entrances, getting water and sewer service to the property, developing a marketing plan and constructing additional T-hangars.
