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By JOYANNA LOVE | Managing Editor

The Chilton County Airport was awarded $540,000 as this year’s grant funding from the Federal Aviation Administration airport improvement program.

This is an increase over what the airport was awarded last year.

“It will help us get up to the point that we will be ready to put asphalt on the ground as the next step (for the runway extension),” Billy Singleton, grant coordinator for the airport, said.

The FAA provides 90% of the funds, while the Alabama Department of Transportation funds 5%, and the final 5% is required to come from local funding.

Singleton called this amount of funding a “huge step” forward.

“The fact that we are receiving this level of funding indicates to me that the Federal Aviation Administration and now the Alabama Department of Transportation are committed to seeing this through,” Singleton said.

These funds will specifically be used to purchase property that is in the path of approaching and departing aircraft.

Extending the runway to 5,000 feet would allow larger private airplanes to land at the airport.

Singleton anticipated funding awarded to the project will continue to increase as the project gets closer. He hopes that construction on the extension can begin in 2024.