Pine River Regional Airport plans for future Facility provides pleasing, safe, technologically updated experience
Pine River’s regional airport east of the city is in a constant state of renewal to provide for a pleasing, safe and technologically updated experience for its users. One small renewal in 2019 was the installation of a new compass rose. Under summer blue skies, volunteers of the Ninety-Nines all-female pilot organization descended on the runways in Pine River to apply fresh blue and white paint to replace a compass rose covered by a recent apron paving project. Members of the Ninety-Nines were responsible for installation of the original compass rose,and members Trudy Amundson, of Breezy Point, and Tracy Davenport, of Champlin, were among the volunteers who painted that compass rose at the Pine River Regional Airport approximately 15 years ago. They returned with other members to give the runways a new coat of paint and an important directional beacon. In the long-term, the Pine River Regional Airport has formed a Master Plan Advisory Group to plan for the airport’s next 20 years of development.
Airports in Minnesota develop master plans such as this to address the future infrastructure demands for their airports for a span of 20 years. The master plan process allows airport users, local units of government and the general public to engage in planning. Master planning also provides framework for future developments and is often consulted to determine an airport’s qualification for certain grants and state aid. Though drafted with a 20-year time span
in mind, a master plan can be revisited under certain circumstances during that 20 years. In Pine River, some of the most important topics have been runway extensions, hangar area development and updated instrument approach procedures for better all-weather capabilities. The planning process is expected to wrap up at the end of 2020 with implementation starting in the first half of 2021 if the plan is approved with no issues.
Road trip. We didn’t choose the perfect playlist. Or program the GPS. But we did fuel the car that made you realize there are no wrong turns, only new adventures. When the energy you invest in life meets the energy we fuel it with, amazing journeys happen.
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