The city of Hartsville has applied for state and federal grant money that would fund rehabilitation of runway lighting at Hartsville Regional Airport. (PDB2B photo by Greer Fujiwara)
Upon its completion, the city will apply for another grant for the next phase of this project and so on for other such projects. This process is expected to continue for at least the next six years, though it’s one that some think is long overdue.
In December, Hartsville City Council had passed resolutions 12-25-02 and 12-25-03 to apply for US Department of Transportation Federal Aviation Administration and SC Aeronautics Commission grants, respectively, for upgrades to Hartsville Regional Airport,
On Dec. 11 the city had filed the application for a $200,000 FAA grant for the design, bidding and categorical exclusion phase of rehabilitation of airfield lighting. A categorical exclusion is a provision under the National Environmental Policy Act that allows certain federal actions to be excluded from detailed environmental review and a measure that “can reduce paperwork and save time and resources,” according to the White House Council on Environmental Quality.
Brandon Brown, Hartsville's director of business services and administrative contact for the airport, said in an email that the city has been operating Hartsville Regional Airport since January 1966, adding the current lighting had been installed in the 1980s.
“The only thing that has been changed is the lightbulbs,” Brown said in a phone interview. “We’re looking for a full LED conversion on that.”
Folks are coming in. Not only are they getting fuel for their planes, but they're also driving into Hartsville, eating at our restaurants, staying at our hotels, shopping in our stores. That will directly affect the community economically.
If the FAA approves the grant, the agency will pay 95% of it, or $190,000, while Hartsville and SC Aeronautics will each pay 2.5%, or $5,000. Brown said, “We put our best foot forward with the application we submit and hope for the best ... I would say our chances for approval are pretty good.”
According to Brown, the FAA bases approval on a number of factors: How you’ve done on previous grants and the submission of a five-year capital-improvement plan, as well as competition from other airports for grants. He hopes approval will come “around the summer. That would be best-case scenario.”
That’s just for this first phase. Funding for the actual construction on lighting would come from a separate grant.
For the lighting work, the airport has tapped engineering firm Talbert, Bright and Ellington LLC, which has offices in Charlotte and Columbia. “I work with both,” Brown said, adding the company will handle bidding for construction when it comes time.
According to Brown, “From the design and bidding phase ... to end of construction, you’re really looking at about two to three years.”
Hartsville airport's apron accommodates five to seven general aviation planes, but the city plans to double that capacity.
(PDB2B photo by Greer Fujiwara)
Down the line
Brown said the lighting rehabilitation is one of the city’s many gradual improvements to the airport, the first of which had been construction of a new terminal. This current phase comes after the complete rehabilitation of the airport’s runway, a $5.2 million undertaking that had completed in July. Brown said the runway had been “completely torn up and all new asphalt put down.”
The airport is currently in the design phase of an expansion of its ramp, and coming up will be the complete rehabilitation to lighting, as well as rehabilitation and extension of the taxiway. Brown said the city had already received a grant for the design, bidding and categorical exclusion phase of the rehabilitation of the apron, adding that he expects the grant for actual construction on the apron to come in late this year.
An airport’s apron is an area intended to accommodate aircraft for loading or unloading passengers or cargo, refueling, parking, or maintenance, according to a 2023 FAA Advisory Circular.
Brown hopes that apron construction will complete near the end of 2027.
“We’re hoping to add hangars for corporate and general aviation,” he said. “That’s way down the line. We might be looking at fiscal 2032.”
We’re finally listening
According to Brown, the work on the apron and hangars is essential to addressing the airport’s capacity problems. “It’s about being able to accommodate all the aircraft coming to Hartsville,” he said. “There is clear demand for space. We don’t have any open hangars right now. There's essentially a waitlist to get hangars.”
The city plans to add more hangars, the completion of which is projected out to fiscal 2032, according to Brandon Brown.
(PDB2B photo by Greer Fujiwara)
Right now, the airport’s apron accommodates five to seven small aircraft, according to Brown. He expects that capacity to at least double after apron rehabilitation finishes. “If we get a nice size corporate jet, it takes up the whole apron, and we won’t be able to get any other aircraft on our apron,” Brown said. “We have to find ways to accommodate them, and that means directing them to another airport. It doesn’t happen often, but we do want to be able to assist.”
He pointed out that Hartsville Regional Airport is the closest field to Darlington Raceway. “We’d like to have the space to accommodate that kind of traffic too,” he said. “Folks are coming in. Not only are they getting fuel for their planes, but they're also driving into Hartsville, eating at our restaurants, staying at our hotels, shopping in our stores. That will directly affect the community economically.”
… Sonoco parks their plane at Dovesville’s airport instead of ours. We’ve lost tens of thousands of dollars in development because of that, in my opinion.
City Council’s December meeting marked Dan Askins III’s first as Hartsville’s mayor. Upon Council passing the two grant-seeking resolutions, Askins said, “My dad has been trying to do this since the 1980s. Dad, we’re finally listening to you about getting the airport up and running.”
Askins explained in an interview that his father Dan Askins Jr., who had a pilot’s license, “wanted to get the runways expanded, and he wanted to add hangars, also.”
The mayor said, “This town didn't see a good reason to do that, and because of that, Sonoco parks their plane at Dovesville’s airport instead of ours. We’ve lost tens of thousands of dollars in development because of that, in my opinion.”
Dan Askins Jr. headed up both the Darlington County Republican Party and the Darlington County School Board in the 80s, according to the mayor.
“The history of Hartsville is we get in the way of getting things done sometimes,” the mayor said.