Airport provides critical service

The Ephraim Manti Airport provides a vital link to the economic growth of Sanpete County. The airport has been improved over the years by lengthening the runway to accommodate larger aircraft, adding two new hangers and fuel tanks. Pilots fly into the airport for both business and pleasure like this Gulfstream 3 that brought a group of business owners to the area for some hunting last October.

Photo courtesy of Jeremy Hallows

Airport provides critical services to community

Just west of Highway 89 between the cities of Ephraim and Manti is a thin stretch of pavement nearly one mile long. For Sanpete County, that ribbon of asphalt is central to economic development as well as community safety and health care.

“That’s the most important mile of pavement you have in your com munity,” said Jeremy Hallows of the runway at the Manti-Ephraim Airport. Hallows, a pilot who flies for a business as well as teaches flying lessons, serves as chairman of the airport’s board of directors.

The Manti-Ephraim Airport is the only airport in Sanpete County, and its runway — which measures just over 5,000 feet long — serves as the take-off and landing site for private and business flights, fire fighting aircraft, medical aircraft, hobbyists who fly their own planes and students participating in flight training.

The airport has seen a variety of improvements during the last four years including a project that repaved the runway and length ened it by 420 feet, allowing larger aircraft to land at the airport. The airport’s tarmac was redone two years ago, and two new hangars have been built by airplane owners at the airport.

A new instrument approach pro cedure was added about four years ago that directs pilots to land safely when bad weather obscures their view of the runway.

Fuel tanks have been added to the airport so pilots can fill up their aircraft. Before the tanks were obtained, pilots couldn’t obtain fuel at the Manti-Ephraim Airport. Having fuel on hand has attracted pilots to the airport that otherwise would have gone somewhere else, Hallows said.

“I think the whole goal with it is just to enhance our community,” Hallows said of the airport en hancements.

Having an airport in the com munity is a boon to economic development, he said. Business executives are interested in having a convenient way to travel and will make decisions on where to locate their businesses based on that avail ability.

The airport is also crucial when wildfires break out in the region. Last year, while firefighters were battling blazes in the area, a K-MAX helicopter utilized the Manti-Ephraim Airport as its base while it transported giant buckets of water through the air to dump on the fires.

When an accident or other incident requires a quick medical response, the AirMed helicopter based in Nephi uses the Man ti-Ephraim Airport to airlift patients out.

For all of its benefit to the com munity, the airport operates at very little cost to the local population. Hallows said the airport gets 90 percent of its funding from the fed eral government, five percent from the state and five percent from the cities of Manti and Ephraim.

To familiarize the community with the airport and the services it provides, a fly-in and community event is held every September at the Manti-Ephraim Airport where the public is invited to view various types of aircraft and enjoy hot dogs and drinks.