A proposal by Gardner Mayor Nicholson to hire a full-time Airport Manager was approved by the City Council and Isabelle Davis was hired. In a September 2023 Press Release stating, “The Sky’s the Limit, ” the scope of the Runway project was outlined. Publisher’s Note: With the enormous gains made in Gardner over the last 3 years, who knows, someday it might be called, “Gardner Spaceport.”
Future Plans of Gardner MA Airport are up to you…
Under the Nicholson Administration, the City of Gardner has received tens of millions of dollars in State and Federal grants to help move the City forward. The Mayor has made transparency a part of his ongoing stated policy of putting people first, and the Gardner Airport Master Plan is no exception as public comment is being solicited. The Gardner Airport Commission met on October 4th and held a 1 hour meeting to go over next steps. Listen to the meeting on any device. CLICK PLAY.
The Airport Master Plan will be divided into Chapters for public comment. When ready, each section will be posted on the City of Gardner website, CLICK HERE. The first few chapters were discussed at the meeting. An Airport Planner with Gale Associates had some questions regarding existing conditions at the airport. He explained, “the purpose of it is to take a look at the forecast of future activity at the airport and what’s expected in the future.” He explained that “we’re doing the data collection phase right now and getting all the background information together. Then we’ll move into forecasting future activity and that finally developing all the graphics that are necessary as part of the master.”
Chapter 2 is “where we inventory all the facilities and conditions on the airfield.” The planner indicated he would need the help of the members of the Airport Commission, “this is where I may need a little bit of help.” He explained that it will be presented with the runway environment being identified as good condition as “by the time it gets published, the runway project will be complete and everything will be up and running….so everything related to the runway, taxiway system, lighting system…”
In the Press Release, the Mayor stated, “We have done a lot in the last three years to invest in our infrastructure in Gardner, and this continues that work.”