Gonzales airport lands state funding

News came last Friday that Gonzales has been awarded $1.07 million by the Texas Transportation Commission for improvements to the Roger M. Dreyer Memorial Airport. The funds will be used for hangar construction and pavement improvements at the facility. Costs will be funded with the City of Gonzales chipping in $90,000 and the Texas Department of Transportation's (TxDOT) Aviation Facilities Grant Program shelling out the rest. The program looks to preserve and improve the state's general aviation system.

“We currently only have about a half-dozen or so hangars and this project will add either 8, 9, or 10 hangars depending how the bids come out,” City Manager Allen Barnes said. “TxDOT Aviation receives their grant money from the federal government. The city’s matching funds come from the restricted use fund that is funded by airport fuel sales, not tax money. The new hangars will address about half of the waiting list we currently have for hangars.”

Barnes said that historically, TxDOT is not in the hangar building business, but several years ago they established the grant that Gonzales has now received. The city will pay 10 percent of the cost, which will be a benefit to the pilots who use the field. An array of people uses the airport, from business professionals to weekend aviation hobbyists. Trainees from Randolph Air Force Base use the runway on occasion for touch-and-go landings.

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