Sisters Eagle Airport project underway

A $750,000 upgrade to Sisters Eagle Airport is now underway.

Airport owners Benny and Julie Benson, airport manager Hobbs Magaret, Sisters City Councilor Wendy Holzman and Deschutes County Commissioner Alan Unger gathered at the edge of the runway on Friday, March 15, to break ground on the project, funded 80 percent through the Oregon Department of Transportation's ConnectOregon IV grant and 20 percent through private funding.

The project will expand the runway to an FAA-standard width of 60 feet, smooth out a prominent rise and dip, and provide hangars for local pilots to store their aircraft.

"The first action was this Monday (March 11)," Magaret said. "We'll start grinding up the pavement this week and we expect to be done mid-June."

"We'll have fuel here, too," Benny Benson noted. "We just got approved by Phillips 66 yesterday (March 14)."

Aviation fuel service has never been available in Sisters before.

Unger noted that airport improvements will be a boon to the local economy, making it attractive to business people to fly in and out - and perhaps sink roots here.

"They'll see how nice it is to live here and work wherever they want to," he said.

That describes the Bensons themselves. Their firm, ENERGYneering Solutions, Inc., designs and builds power plants internationally, headquartered out of offices at the Sisters airport.

Sisters voters recently approved annexing the airport property into the city of Sisters; the formal annexation is currently wending its way through the land-use process.

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Jim Cornelius, Editor in Chief

Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.

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