CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Gov. Jim Justice said Monday making $3 million in state money available for Yeager Airport was a “no brainer.”
Justice was on hand for a midday ceremony in which he presented a check that will help leverage as much as $30 million for Yeager from the federal government through the Federal Aviation Administration.
“That $3 million is only seed money to the great big giant amount of money that’s going to come from the federal government. The magnitude of the jobs and the work that’s going to be done is real stuff,” Justice said.
Yeager will use the funding to complete the $23 million project that includes repairing the hillside and emergency plane stopping system that was damaged in the 2015 hillside collapse. Yeager Director Terry Sayre promised also other projects.
“We have other projects that are going to be immediately in the federal hopper,” Sayre said.
Kanawha County Commission President Kent Carper said the allocation was the largest Yeager has ever gotten at one time from state government.
“It allows us to make this airport a better place, a safer place,” Carper said.
Justice said Monday’s announcement would not have been possible without the state’s better budget situation.
“What this state is doing today makes this a reality,” Justice said. “If we were in a situation to where we had to continue to cut and cut and cut and not grow and grow and grow this would never be a reality.”